Non-Geek TV From The Geek Perspective: Documentary Now

There’s a lot of TV out there, and some of it is parody of things many would not think to parody.

I speak of the IFC series Documentary Now.

Non-Geek TV From The Geek Perspective: True Detective (Season One)

There’s a lot of TV out there, and sometimes a really promising series has a fantastic first year only to drive folks away afterwards with a less interesting follow-up.

Jimmy Impossible already covered season two while I was away on vacation, so here’s a special Non-Geek TV review of the first season–and only the first season–of True Detective.

And Now…A Shakespeare Lesson

Verily, I can pulleth off this collar.

I’m teaching William Shakespeare’s Othello this week.  That means I can use a free space to lecture the loyal Gabbing Geek readers (both of them) with some hard Billy the Shakes knowledge.  Some Geeks are, after all, Drama Geeks.

For that, we will look at Iago and his motivation.

Punching Up Instead Of Down: The Art Of Finding The Proper Victim In Comedy

At some point in this movie, Seth Rogen maybe wishes he didn’t anger the American Sniper crowd.

My wife and I watched The Interview off Netflix recently.  It was funny in some places, not so much in others, but it got me to thinking about why it is considered acceptable to mock some figures in comedy and not others.  The basic idea is, it is OK to “punch up” and not to “punch down”.

To be clear, this has nothing to do with free speech rights or anything along those lines.  It simply has to do with what is and is not funny.  That’s highly subjective at the best of times for any number of people.  So, to make things as clear as possible, these are my thoughts on what is and isn’t funny, and that is not to stop anyone from making jokes at the expense of anyone anywhere.

Also, there’s going to be some MASSIVE SPOILERS below the cut for The Interview, so you’ve been warned.