Comedy
Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, Reviewed by Ethan Coen
Jeff Maurer has a fun Substack called I Might Be Wrong, writing humorous essays. He was a former Senior Writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, so the guy has some chops.
It was recently brought to my attention that I needed to read one from way back in January, where he wrote a review of Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth as if his brother Ethan wrote it, and it is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. It starts off this way and never lets up:
In The Tragedy of Macbeth, long-time Hollywood presence Joel Coen — who has 18 prior films to his credit — takes sole creative control of a project for the first time. The result, not unlike the tale of Macbeth itself, is a tragedy of epic proportions.
In the interest of full disclosure, my editor has requested that I mention that I was Mr. Coen’s writing partner, producer, and creative collaborator on the aforementioned 18 films. I am also his brother. We parted ways prior to Macbeth in a split that the press described as completely amicable. Despite my prior association with Mr. Coen, I feel that I am entirely capable of reviewing his work in a fair and objective way.
Macbeth is Joel Coen’s shittiest movie by several billion light years. If all the elephants in all the world crapped into the same canyon for 100 years, you would still not have a pile of shit half a large as Joel Coen’s dumb-as-a-dog-dick rendering of this classic tale. One can’t watch Macbeth without getting the sense that something is missing; some inspired element that gave Mr. Coen’s earlier work an aura of ebullient genius is absent this time. The wit, verve, and undeniable rugged machismo that characterized the other 18 films in which he happened to be involved are nowhere to be found here. Ultimately, one must conclude that what’s lacking is talent itself.
The ending of the second paragraph and the start of the third made me laugh so hard it was embarrassing. Just read the whole thing.
Norm Macdonald would hate this obituary for Norm Macdonald
Drew Magary, writing for SFGATE, has a brilliant obit for the eternally funny Norm Macdonald. The whole thing is quite good, but I really like this take:
It didn’t even matter to him if other people got his jokes, especially if he didn’t know them. He was an alien: watching humanity comfortably from a hovering spaceship, clinically evaluating us like some kind of hilariously ignorant deity. Most people aren’t willing to live and think this way. Most people can’t. Most people are part of society, and cast a side-eye at those who are not. That’s why they can attempt to replicate Norm’s cool detachment — and Lord knows they have — but lack the actual detachment to pull it off.
All true.
It’s hard to pick one favorite Macdonald bit, but his portrayal of Turd Ferguson on Celebrity Jeopardy makes me laugh every damn time I watch it.
Don’t Prosecute Gotham’s Supervillains for Their Latest Scheme
This is some pretty good satire from Slate. Here’s the brilliant opening written by, ahem, the Joker:
It’s been a traumatizing couple of weeks in Gotham City, full of unthinkable violence and chaos. We’ve all seen the appalling footage: the exploding shark, the pier bombing, and the United World Organization building-until last week, a powerful symbol of the democratic hopes of the entire world- being invaded, vandalized, and defiled by the “United Underworld,” an alliance between the city’s most dastardly criminals: Catwoman, the Penguin, the Riddler, and even the Joker, the coolest supervillain of them all (although his role in the plot was very minor or maybe even nonexistent, from what I’m hearing). People across Gotham are frustrated and angered, and the vicious, unwarranted vigilante attack launched by so-called “crimefighters” Batman and Robin against the crew of a whimsically-decorated Navy surplus submarine in Gotham Harbor did nothing to lower the emotional temperature.
Now it appears that Commissioner Gordan and Chief O’Hara are planning to bring criminal charges against the ringleaders of the United Underworld. This is a grave mistake. Our great city should be looking forward right now, not dwelling on the past. A trial would only dredge up traumatic memories and evidence of the terror unleashed by the Penguin, the Riddler, Catwoman, and possibly others. Criminal trials should not occur in the heat of the moment, if ever, and I fear that investigating this shameful incident any further would only be inflammatory and incriminating. We could waste months looking into exactly which supervillain used a stolen piece of distillery equipment to dehydrate all nine members of the Security Council as part of a deranged kidnapping plan, but would that do anything to improve the life of the average Gothamite? In the spirit of healing and unity, I believe that the members of the United Underworld, especially the Joker, should be released immediately and face no further consequences for their alleged involvement in this plot. Anything less risks angering Gotham’s supervillains and their henchmen further while doing nothing to stop the cycle of super-crimes.
Man, this makes me laugh.
Nothing Like a Wall
Another parody by Randy Rainbow has hit the interwebs. With this one, I’m ashamed to admit, I had no idea what musical song was being parodied. Doing a bit of research I realized it’s “Nothing Like a Dame” from South Pacific.
Peter and His Heckler
This Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon skit is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week.
Super Dave Osborne and “Mean” Gene Okerland
I find it odd that Super Dave Osborne, the alter-ego of Bob Einstein, and “Mean” Gene Okerlund both passed away at the age of 76 within days of each other. It probably doesn’t mean anything, but damn that’s weird.
When I used to watch Late Night with David Letterman religiously, you knew it was going to be a good show when Super Dave Osborne was booked. His sketches were always basically Wile E Coyote-style mishaps and had me laughing hysterically. He was always serious, but everything around him was silly. I watched a lot of Evel Knievel as a kid and Super Dave was the epitome of poking fun at professional stuntmen and providing the “crash” most fans were waiting for with Knievel.
I’m a big fan of one of his earliest bit — Wrecking Ball.
I was never much of a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but he’s probably better known as Marty Funkhouser than Super Dave. For me though, he was always the trained professional with danger as his middle name. His ability to sell the realism of whatever silly daredevil stunt he was about to “perform” was probably one of my earliest exposures to satire.
Speaking of deadpan delivery and realism, “Mean” Gene Okerland was the best. Never breaking character. Never shooting. Never doing anything, but bringing his cool demeanor and smooth voice to whatever chaos was happening with whatever professional wrestler he was interviewing.
“Mean” Gene was at his best with the craziest of wrestlers. I’m a fan of his interview with “Macho Man” Randy Savage (“I am the cream of the crop!”) and the Ultimate Warrior (HUUUUULK HOGHHAN!).
Both Okerland and Einstein brought countless hours of entertainment to the masses. They will be missed.
Glitter Bomb
Mark Rober is a former NASA engineer.
Someone stole a package from me. Police wouldn’t do anything about it so I spent the last 6 months engineering up some vigilante justice. Revenge is a dish best served fabulously.He spent a lot of time figuring out and testing his fake package. It included an accelerometer, GPS, four phone cameras tripped to turn on and stream video to the cloud when the box was opened, a beautiful glitter bomb cloud and the pièce de résistance… fart spray that turned on regularly so the porch thief would then throw the package away.
I venture to say if he could mass produce these packages, they would sell like crazy. Also, fart spray is apparently something you can actually buy and not from Wile E Coyote’s ACME Corporation.
Adam Sandler Tribute to Chris Farley
December 18, 2018, marks the anniversary of the late, great comedian Chris Farley’s death. I know this because Adam Sandler paid tribute to his friend in his Netflix special 100% Fresh. There is so much good entertainment out there; I simply cannot follow or see it all. So, with a modicum of regret I had no idea Adam Sandler even had a new stand-up special.
Smartly, Netflix shared the video clip via YouTube, and now everyone is laughing/crying.
Chris Farley isn’t really gone. He’s living in a van down by the river of souls.
Dangerous Precedent
Andy Borowitz in The New Yorker pretty much nails what I think most Americans feel about this past election and getting it right. It’s too bad it has to be considered satire.
Calling for an “immediate end” to the recount in Florida, Donald J. Trump warned on Monday that it could set a dangerous precedent of the person with the most votes winning.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that those in favor of the recount had a “sick obsession with finding out which candidate got the most votes.”
“Democrats are going on and on about counting every last vote until they find out who got the most,” Trump said. “Since when does getting the most votes mean you win?”
This is well written overall, but I think I’d change Trump’s last quote to be, “The cheating Democrats are counting votes from people who voted. Why would they do that? SAD!”
All of Borwitz’s columns strike a chord with smart people. Of course, dumb people don’t read The New Yorker.
Randy Rainbow
Dana Kennedy, writing for The Daily Beast, has a great story on internet sensation, Randy Rainbow. If you haven’t found his videos yet, please take some time and watch a couple. I like A Very Stable Genius and If You Ever Got Impeached.