I don't talk about Daily Show and Colbert much on here because they are good at what they do and I try to only post things that I have more to say about than just "This is fucking rad" but this was too good not to post:
This is so fucking rad.
Check out this article for more on the awesome satire* of our election season from the Colbert Super PAC including the video of Mario Batalli being paid by with Super PAC money to feed John Stewart eggs.
Footnote(s):
*I can't see that word now without think of Andy Zaltzman's pun "I'm sa tired after that joke."
A friend of mine mentioned a year or so ago that he had watched a very small sci-fi rom-com called "TiMER" from 2009 about a device that allows people to know the exact moment they will meet their "one true love"*. Though the description of the movie sounded cute, I didn't really give it much thought until now, when I stumbled upon the fact that the star of the film is the actress who played my favorite character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Emma Caulfield, who played Anya on the show. Most of what you need to know about that character can be found in this clip:
I showed that clip once to Baldr (the co-host with me on the Thor's Hour of Thunder podcast) and he said, "That clip somehow, in less than 30 seconds, highlights everything I find annoying about Joss Whedon as a writer and director ". But I think that character is awesome and hilarious and her never explained fear and loathing of rabbits just ads to her charm.
I'm getting off topic, the point is Emma Caulfield is apparently in this movie, and it has a trailer that does a good job of selling the film. Too many trailers either don't give the audience enough of an idea of what a film is about and why they would like it, or go the completely opposite route and reveal every damn aspect of a film, to the point where you give the audience not reason to need to see more.
This trailer isn't amazing, none of the jokes are hugely memorable, but it does a great job of making the film seem to be very endearing. In two minutes it paints the characters to be better drawn and less sit-com-y than our average romantic comedy character. It gives you the plot in a very clear and concise manner but leaves you with a desire to see more and gives the audience questions which they will have to see the film to learn about.
This may seem like the very basic idea of what a trailer should be. But so often trailers fall short of thisI have talked before about the Stephen Colbert clip where he talks about how much he loves watching trailers and how he doesn't need to watch movies anymore because trailers are so much more fun and have better pacing and editing, and even though it is obviously a joke, that does often end up being the case.
This trailer on the other hand, actually has me thinking about watching a film I had little interest in before i saw the trailer. Which, unless I am forgetting a movie, is more than I can say for any trailer for a 2011 movie. Most trailers I see these days are for movies I already know are my cup of tea like The Muppets or I already know I will hate, like anything involving Katherine Heigl.
Footnote(s):
*Not to be a huge downer, but personally, I think the idea of soulmates and people who are "meant for each other" is a silly fantasy, but I can except it as the reality of a movie that is also science fiction. Sorry this footnote wasn't funny.
To make up for it, here is a second great clip of Colbert talking with Jon Stewart in the early 2000's back when Colbert was on the Daily Show. The clip from comedy central's website (which unlike every other clip I found is both able to be embedded on my site and is not grainy as hell) for some reason cuts in after Jon Stewart explains what is going on so before you watch you should know that:
The clip is making fun of how libel laws in England caused the British media to heavily imply that sources and rumor said Prince Charles had a gay experience with an employee, but the British media was unable to actually state this outright.
So I was reading Regina Spektor's facebook posts, (which are super awesome and informed if you are looking for information on many things as described by an adorable Russian Musician), and she put up that fantastic Apple "Think Different" ad as a tribute to steve jobs back when he died two weeks ago.
I had kinda forgotten how fantastic those ads were and it reminded me of how excited I was as a kid when apple convinced Jobs to come back to Apple from pixar and save the company. I remember doing a report on him leaving the company in 4th grade. And also remember how amazing and cool I thought the tiny fast Power Mac G4 Cube was when it was first publicized in 1999, and that I had the fold out advertisement for it from Newsweek up on my wall for all of high school. The ad just had a photo of the computer with its flat monitor and sexy round speakers with the only text reading, "The Power Mac G4 Cube. Actual Size" followed by the Apple logo. And how I thought apple's minimalist advertising was the slickest shit ever. I am now also remembering that I have always been a huge dork.
And I only didn't have this picture as a poster on my bedroom while in grade
school because I didn't know it existed until nine seconds ago.
Jobs had been sick for so long his death didn't really impact me when I first heard about it. I mean, I obviously felt bad for the guy, but this had been eminent for almost three years now, so I guess my brain was somehow more prepared for the initial news that say, Hunter S. Thompson's suicide or Mitch Hedberg's "heart attack."*
I didn't really fully remember by childhood fondness for jobs and his genius and his awesome hair until I was catching up on Colbert episodes last week and saw the eulogy that Stephen Colbert did for Jobs. It starts out respectful but comic, and then the last 50 seconds slowly turn into something that would have made me cry if I was the kind of man who admitted that things make him cry.
(Pictured from left to right: Thomas Lennon, Awesome short-shorts, Nick Swardson, Awesome green belly shirt, Banana, Sexy green stripey socks.)
I remember loving Nick Swardson's Comedy Central special back in High School. He has done some supporting roles and writing for Adam Sandler productions over the years, but I was excited to find out via subway ads that he has a show this season on Comedy Central. I have no idea how good the show will be, but the trailer for it is pretty awesome:
Maybe its just because I like the orginal Dos Equis commercials so much, but this parody, and the Steve Nash parody I had on here a few months back are both equally awesome. I'm also glad to see that Mr. Swardson finally got to build his own gay robot*. I remember a short skit he did on an album years ago** about a Gay Robot, and I'm sure when you write a two minute skit about a robot who is gay, you never expect that 7 years later Comedy Central will let you actually build your own damn gay robot.
I think going from being an unknown comedian writing jokes about gay robots to actually being able to build a finely crafted Gay Robot on Viacom's dime is the best possible realization of the american dream.
Footnote(s)
*Quick disclaimer for the sake of Political Correctness: I understand why making jokes about someone's sexuality is still a taboo topic (see the recent controversy over Vince Vaughn's character using the word gay in a movie trailer as an example.) So I figured I should take a second to point out that the humor of Nick's Gay Robot, at least in the original sketch, was not that it was bad that the robot was gay, but that it was funny because the Robot was really horny because he was the only Gay Robot ever built.
**According to Wikipedia*** this originated on a sketch Nick wrote and preformed on an Adam Sandler CD. Also apparently because of this there is somehow a wiki article simply titled "Gay Robot." I'm glad we live in a world that has an online encyclopedia with an entry title "Gay Robot"
***Which has never been wrong ever as this video evidence shows:
I have been finding I enjoy a lot of big summer tent-pole movies more in trailer form than I enjoy them in actual movie form. Partly I'm sure this is because big action movies are on average getting lazier and worse. But this will happen to me even with movies I like. Where I see it and like it but liked it better as a two minute short film of explosions and catch chases. I guess the problem is that for big budget action movies, you often times are only seeing them for the cool set pieces, and maybe a few snappy lines of dialogue. Since a really well cut trailer can provide you with a perfect distillation of little bits of every action sequence, the rest of the movie kind of seems extraneous by comparison.
I realize this kinda goes against everything cinema as an art from stands for, but since most summer movie explode-athons contain very little artistic or cinematic in them anyway, I stand by my opinion.
Though its always a bad sign of I have the same opinion as a satirical segment from Stephen Colbert from the Daily Show in 2002.
Actually, after watching that again. I agree with most of those jokes as valid opinions.
Footnote(s)
I just wanted to use this space to thank comedy central for having every single second of the John Stewart and Colbert accessible online. I was trying to find a great clip of Ian McShane on Conan to use in my previous post, only to have what was supposed to be the video, instead be an error message from NBC's portion of Hulu stating, "This video is not longer available we suggest you enjoy these related clips instead." All four of the related clips, where, I kid you not clips from Leno's 2010 version of The Tonight Show. This selection was probably determined by a computer program, but I kinda think NBC is just trying to convince people that Conan never had a TV show. I assume if they could, NBC would send the T-1000 back in time to 1962 to kill Ruth Reardon before Conan is born.
So everyone on earth saw that double rainbow viral video back in July, except for me. I only became aware of the awesomeness that is a stoned (sounding) guy describing for the camera a rainbow with another rainbow on top if it a few weeks back when my co-worker Zena showed me both flavors of it. The original recipe, and the extra krispy the GregoryBrother'sautotuned song version of it of it. I've been unable to get either out of my head since then.
They guy is awesome. He is so excited about that rainbow, and I'm so happy for him.
Apparently I wasn't the only one who didn't see this video until August, because someone at Microsoft apparently saw it a few weeks ago too, and then that person immediate filmed two commercials starring the famed Double Rainbow photographer and narrator, who is apparently name "Bear."
These commercials are okay, but not amazing, the first is him pretty much Bear reenacting himself getting excited:
Its just what you would expect, but still cute.
The second is a pretty boring 1 minute and sixteen second long interview were bear talks about trees and Windows software. It really needs a lot more B-roll, one can only look at a guy talking about trees for so long, and this video is 1 minute and fifteen seconds longer than that amount of time. I wouldn't really recommend watching this unless you forgot what a guy walking looks like.
These may not be the best commercials ever, but I'm writing about them because I'm genuinely happy for Bear. I bet doing these commercials is a lot more lucrative for than his previous careers of: guy who does drugs in the woods,** andlooking like the "If they mated" answer for Willie Nelson and Horatio Sans.
BONUS ROUND!
This video is only tangentially related but I thought that the opportunity to post one of those classic Conan "If they mated" videos should not be passed by.
(I'm with Coco. and so is slash***)
footnote(s)
*I shouldn't be too hard on the guy. He made me so happy by being so excited for that rainbow, and he appears to be a nice person, even if the second video proves he is a terribly boring interview subject. (at least when not high)
**For legal reasons I should point out that I have no evidence that bear does drugs I just assume it. Look at or listening any single second of Bear in any of the posted videos to discover why I hypothesized this theory.
*** If you haven't seen this about slash preforming on Jay Leno wearing an I'm with Coco Pin and the show's director almost never showing slash on camera in an effort to keep the TV viewers from seeing the pin you should check it out at Gawker.
Double Rainbow Microsoft ads discovered via URLesque, which is a site that, based on their name, likes to write "esque" at the end of things as much as I do (See: Michael Cera-esque earlier this week)
P.S. I'm obviously super pissed Conan got fired from Tonight Show but I really think TBS will let him relax and be his awesome funny self, which is something NBC never let him to do on in the 11:35 time slot.
I for some reason haven't done an entry yet on any Times Square billboards despite them being billboard advertising at their most expensive. Some new ads in Times Square this summer include this ad for Miracle Whip.
I assumed these vaguely ironic or at least over enthusiastic Miracle Whip ads had played themselves out once Colbert mocked them back in December. And Miracle Whip used his comments to get publicity for their ad campaign.
When Miracle Whip bought ads during every commercial break of a December episode of the Colbert Report, and Colbert during the show said the joke was in them because he was going to use their money to buy real Mayonnaise, Miracle Whip seemed to have taken this ad campaign as far as it could have possibly gone. But nope, here we are six months later and the are still trying the make processed sandwich topping hip. At least this ad spares us the hipsters eating sandwiches in a baby pool in this campaign's TV ads.
I guess the folks at Kraft, rightly, figured Colbert making fun of their ads was as hip as it was gonna ever gonna get for them so they are gonna stick with these ads unless they can convince the Kings of Leon to record a song about Miricle Whip.
