Category Archives: The Funny

The Funny

Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy

This week’s edition of The Best Show on WFMU brought another gem (what else is new?). Host Tom Scharpling did a one-man two-guy podcast–Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy!–complete with blown out mikes, widely divergent sound levels, and awful music. For some reason, calling it Podcastin’ cracks me up. It vaguely reminds me of The Hangin’ Out Gang.

Poorly produced podcasts might seem like low-hanging fruit, and they totally are, but I think sometimes the joke isn’t in the target, it’s how you aim at it. Several folks at FriendsofTom.com expressed the desire to hear these bits isolated, without any setup, as if they were actual podcasts, and I have done just that. Please enjoy these three “episodes” of Podcastin’ with Gary St. Cloud and Roy Harburton (or “Jiggle the Handle,” as I believe @eastwes referred to it, a reference to Tom’s denouncing of podcasts as bastions of “toilet talk”).

You may also be happy to know that Gary and Roy are already on Twitter. Follow away.

Podcastin’ pt. 1

[audio:http://66.147.244.95/~scratci7/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/bs110215_podcastin11.mp3|titles=Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy (part 1): Best Show, February 15, 2011]

Podcastin’ pt. 2

[audio:http://66.147.244.95/~scratci7/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/bs110215_podcastin21.mp3|titles=Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy (part 2): Best Show, February 15, 2011]

Podcastin’ pt. 3

[audio:http://66.147.244.95/~scratci7/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/bs110215_podcastin31.mp3|titles=Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy (part 3): Best Show, February 15, 2011]
Boob Tubery, The Funny

Note to Self: Get Excited About Norm McDonald’s New Show

norm.jpgI am on record as digging the new sports/parody show Onion Sportsdome. There’s been wildly divergent opinions on this program on the interwebs. Some folks are extremely disappointed, others hate it. I think it occasionally borders on the genius, as both a pitch-perfect parody of SportsCenter and for being just plain funny, To each his own (even though I’m right).

However, there is plenty of room for more than one sports/comedy program, and there is certainly room for Norm McDonald to return to the television. That is why I was thrilled to find out (via @enosarris) that Mr. McDonald will soon be starring in just such a show on Comedy Central.

Evidently, the format is going to be very Weekend Update-y: live audience, Norm commenting on the sports news of the day. That’s fantastic, since he was easily the best Weekend Update “anchor” in SNL’s long run (though there are other ones I’ve enjoyed, of course). But most importantly, Norm McDonald will be doing stuff that people can see on a box in their homes, which has not been the case for a criminally long amount of time.

I have no doubt this show will be amazing. But my hope is it will be just as uncomfortably funny as Norm hosting the ESPYs back in 1998.

The Funny, Tuneage

Tom Scharpling + New Pornographers = Video Greatness

So Tom Scharpling directed a video for the New Pornographers for their song “Moves,” and it is jam-packed with so much awesomeness, I think the sheer weight of it might affect the earth’s axis. See?

I don’t even know where to begin. Todd Barry as a harried Other Music employee. Ted Leo in drag. Jon Wurster inhabiting the role of “A.C. Newman”. Mike Lisk (aka @APMike) turning in a truly deranged performance (though I’m not sure how much of it was performing and how much was Mike being Mike). “Independent Spirit Award winner” Kevin Corrigan, looking very Kevin Corrigan-y. Horatio Sanz, Julie Klausner, Wyatt Cenac…hold on, let me catch my breath…

Plus cameos from many other comedy and musical giants, and enough Best Show-related easter eggs to delight sharp-eyed completists (like me).

Oh, and it starts with a trailer for a fake movie starring Paul Rudd and Bill Hader (Expectant Dads). If you want more than this video can give you, you must eat diamonds for breakfast, pal.