I am forty years old and I still don’t remember a time I haven’t seen Short Circuit, my favorite movie. The big emotional climax is where Number 5 and his programmer are trying to prove that he’s “alive”. And after several psychological tests, Newton Crosby (Ph.D.) gets the idea to see if he laughs spontaneously at a joke. It’s a beautiful moment with swelling music and epic victory. Except I don’t understand the joke. I never have. It seems to be something to do with Jewish humor. It’s either anti-semitic or poking gentle fun at Judaism. Does it have something to do with the fact Jews believe God is more…
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And Now My Confession
At first, I was like… But then I saw My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and I was like… Call me a brony, call me a nutjob, call me mentally deficient. All I know is I have two little girls. Either I can let them choose whatever trashy, shallow 20-minute commercial happens to be on when Daddy needs to pay bills, or I can choose for them. I choose MLP, and they approve. When I pop in the DVD, they fly around with their Rainbow Dash toys which we got from McDonald’s months ago, and had no context for until now. This is not a show I just set on,…
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72 Virgins Would Be Horrible
I know, I know, it’s a myth that the Koran says if you die promoting Islam, 72 virgins await you in Heaven, and that’s where all the extremists come from. Total lie. That doesn’t mean media doesn’t perpetuate it. Mostly for purposes of comedy these days. Along with the more common tropes of “virgin sacrifice”, “virgin stupid” and others. But I was thinking the other day, wouldn’t this be horrible? You die, and you go to a place with 72 women (I’m making assumptions about orientation here. Substitute your favorite gender where appropriate). I’m not going to make the cliche joke of 72 shrews complaining and nagging. Let’s assume they’re…
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My Fantasy Football Team This Year
So I had my Fantasy Football draft last night. Here’s the 2011-2012 edition of Juneau’s Juggernauts. Philip Rivers (QB) – San Diego Chargers -A modest leader. He is taking the role of the quarterback after the former was shot during a failed revolution. Although unfamiliar with the position, Rivers must attempt to be a strong presence in a chaotic land. But will he be able to succeed when he finds out that one of his futrue opponents is his own father? Miles Austin (WR) – Dallas Cowboys -Miles Austin is the pseudonym of a yorbagatrax — an alien trying to learn human ways. He learned that the biggest difference between…
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Comedy You May Have Missed (Part 1)
I have no idea if I’m funny. My wife thinks I’m funny. I have written comedy before. Some absurdist (CS Wars), some functional (Playable Character, Influx Capacitor) Most of my comedy comes from a MST3K/Monty Python root of silliness and sarcasm. But comedy is very difficult to translate to the narrative written word. … Timing! See? But I inject as much humor as I can into my writing. Much of my humor comes from sources that kids today wouldn’t know if it bit them on the bum, dadgummit. So here’s some of my influences. You probably don’t care, but I do, dadgummit! And if That Guy With The Glasses did…
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Stand Up Comedy About Video Games
“There’s so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?” – Dick Cavett
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Video Game Memories #3: Leisure Suit Larry
Leisure Suit Larry (1987) / 2 (1988) / 3 (1989) Like Spider-Man, this is a text adventure game, but loads better. Anyone who was into computing in the 80’s should be able to tell you about the successful Sierra adventure games. As opposed to crap like Wumpus Hunter, these were able to combine text and graphics to make a successful adventure. Basically all you did was move your guy closer to the object you were supposed to interact with, but it made a surprising difference, just like the guitar peripheral for Guitar Hero, you need that help to make the jump from interactive to immersing. Anyone who has played LSL…
