Category Archives: The Funny

The Funny

The Space Between the Cushions Collective Tour: Philadelphia

As announced last week, The Space Between the Cushions Collective met their Kickstarter goal and have embarked on their mission to build couch forts across America (as long as they never mention “Kickstarter” ever again). Here is a dispatch from their first stop.

I’d like to say our trip to Philadelphia was a success. So I will! The Space Between the Cushions Collective refuses to be bound to conventional notions of what constitutes “success” and what constitutes “miserable failure.”

We could literally feel paradigms shifting as we drove over the Ben Franklin Bridge. That may have also been our transmission slipping, which is why we stopped at the first gas station we could find to get it checked out. Unfortunately, the guys in the garage did said they couldn’t open the hood of the van unless we removed our custom stitched jean-jacket cover. Yolando Mattress, the artist who made it for us, told us we could not remove or adjust it in any way without destroying his vision, so we had to cross our fingers and hope for the best. But can you believe the gas station had all these old cutout cassettes? We bought 17 copies of The Jets’ greatest hits for like a buck!

We continued on to Pat’s Steaks, figuring we could drum up some interest and followers to come with us to our next stop, but the crowd there wasn’t ready to liberate their vision of urban landscapes just yet. Plus, when Tyler asked the guys at Pat’s if they had any vegan platters, this huge fry cook threw a huge unpeeled onion in his face. Tyler said it stung worse than a thimbleful of Dr. Bronner’s soap.

Our groundbreaking Abandoned Couch Location app did not work with the efficacy that we hoped, as we did not get a single blip on our radar anywhere within the city limits, thus forcing us to rely on our sharply honed couch-locating skills. We thought we spotted an abandoned sofa in the parking lot of Citizen’s Bank Park. Unfortunately, the second we started to tip it, some angry dude in a Shane Victorino jersey said it was his “tailgatin’ couch” and threw a portable grill propane tank at us. I guess our first clue that the couch wasn’t abandoned should have been all the guys sitting on it drinking beer.

When we got back to the van, it had five flat tires (all the ones on the rims plus the spare). It took quite a while to get new wheels, even though there was a stadium parking lot full of people who could’ve helped, but chose instead to whizz bottlecaps in our direction. Eventually, a team official came out and told us he called up AAA to replace our tires “just to get get that hideous thing off our property” because “sooner or later, someone will set it on fire.”

Though we didn’t actually create any couch forts within Philadelphia, I feel that we really changed some notions of what is possible in a blighted urban landscape (even though every time we referred to Philadelphia as a blighted urban landscape, someone inevitably responded “go fuck yourself”). Also, we got to stop at the Mutter Museum and see that really huge colon. It was so gross, it was awesome.

I look forward to even more perspective shifting once we get to Pittsburgh, a town whose downtrodden working class residents could use couch forts more than anyone. Look, I know all about it, I’ve seen Deer Hunter.

NYC, The Funny

Update from The Space Between the Cushions Collective

Thanks to your generous donations, The Space Between the Cushions Collective will be hitting to road soon! We fell a bit short of our goal, which was admittedly a bit optimistic. It’s hard for anyone to raise $95,000 in just two weeks, especially when you’re getting the word out primarily through flour-pasting fliers onto bus shelters and wind-powered text message blasts. But Kickstarter agreed to partially fund our quest if we promised to never use them or mention them again after this sentence. Thanks, [redacted]!

In case you haven’t heard of us before, first, crawl out from the rock you’ve been living under. Then, listen to this: The Space Between the Cushions Collective creates sustainable, locally grown couch forts that help the poor, unenlightened citizens of East Williamsburg discover their urban spaces in bold new ways. Those we’ve helped include the kids of P.S. 209 (except for the one who poked his eye on a protruding couch spring) and that derelict who begs for change outside the deli on Irving that still sells 4Loko.

Now, we’ll be taking our organic couch fort-construction techniques to big cities and slightly smaller cities across America! Our fixed-gear van is fully repaired, and even though we couldn’t afford the mural we really wanted, we did get one of our favorite artists to cover it in a large canopy made of stitched together airbrushed jean jackets. We also found a lobby poster for Space Jam to hang inside the van. It looks so stupid, it’s awesome.

We’ll be sending you dispatches as we travel, to update you on where you can find our latest installations. Stay tuned, and keep watching the couches. First stop: Philadelphia! Actually, first stop’s in Mahwah, since Bill’s gotta drop off some laundry at him mom’s house. And then we might check out a house show in New Brunswick; I heard the guy who plays bike in Arcade Fire might do a solo acoustic set. But after that, it’s straight on to Philly!

The Funny

Did You Guys Hear Superego and Also Spidermun 2?

A new season of Superego has arrived, which is as good an excuse as any to proclaim my love of Superego to the world.

Superego is a podcast I have been thoroughly digging for the past year or two. Assembled by Jeremy Carter, Matt Gourley, Mark McConville, and Jeff Crocker (plus a steady stream of fantastic super-guests), it is one of the funniest things I’ve consumed in many a moon, in any medium.

The show is a series of semi-improvised sketches, framed as “case studies” of some type of personality disorder. The sketches themselves are perfect mix of high production values (like Fireside Chats from FDR that sound just like old radio) and the willingness to leave in fantastic “mistakes,” like the actors breaking up mid-joke or struggling to think up a punny rhyme. They don’t attempt to capture a “universe” per se, the way that The Best Show does at times, and yet Superego still manages to have a cohesive voice and feel, and a penchant for wordplay that is almost British in its exactitude (even when spoofing very American targets like televangelists).

Oh, and Superego is also hilarious. This is the part where I tell you how funny the show is when you’d be much better off just listening to it. Just on the off chance you need some convincing as to Superego’s ear-worthiness.

Superego uses recurring characters, which rank high on my list of comedy bete noirs, since I think they’re often used as crutches or shortcuts to laughs (crutch-cuts?). But Superego’s recurring characters are so well done they pierce my flinty prejudices. Like Shunt McGuppin, a perpetually inebriated country singer with a penchant for singing insanely inappropriate lyrics (“I WAS FIVE TIMES NEKKID!”), occasionally with an unlikely collaborator like Andrew Lloyd Weber or David Bowie.

Or an all-request radio show, Heartlines on the Shore, with an endless series of insane dedications. “If you could play the song ‘I’m All Out of Love’ for Jenny, and if you could do me the great favor of altering the song to say that I am not actually all out of love. Is that something you could do? Is that a service you provide?”

Or one of my favorites a troubled young man, Trevor Lundegard, who labors under the delusion that every movie ever made is Spiderman 2 (or Spidermun 2, as he pronounces it), including Citizen Kane. (“Spidermun 2 owns a newspaper and he’s like, ‘Rose-butter,’ cuz he really likes bread.”)

Supergo also specializes in one-off, pitch-dark sketches, such as an ad for a doll called My Baby Dreamer. The haunting jingle contains ominous lines like “she’s got a dark secret…” and is interrupted by terrifying demonic howling. Or a hearing test recording for children in which competing voices tell the listener not to raise their hands as previously instructed if they know what’s good for them, in slowed-down, horrifying voices.

Did I mention guests? Let’s mention them further! Paul F. Tompkins lends his talents to the show frequently, playing parts like Nathan the Silverback Gorilla (a preternaturally articulate and self-aware primate) and a radio announcer detailing the J.C. Penney’s “End Of Days Sale.” Superego has also featured appearances by Jason Sudeikis, Drew Carey (who called it “modern Firesign Theater,” a high and accurate compliment), Tom Scharpling, Rob Delaney, James Urbaniak, and whole slew of funny luminaries.

How much do I believe in this show? This is my guarantee: Listen to that there episode below. If you do not find something that made you guffaw out loud, write me a detailed reason why you found it unfunny and I will send you something. It might be a book, it might be a piece of string. Who knows? Actually, no one will know, because I am positive I won’t have to make good on this vague promise. And if you do dig Superego, do yourself a favor and purchase the old episodes. Each one is worth every penny.