Simpsons Did It!: “Treehouse Of Horror III”

Three Halloween specials later, and Homer has replaced Marge as the character to warn parents that the show might be too scary for kids.  Then he taunts the viewers.

Also, no treehouses appearing this episode, but scary joke versions of the names of all the people who work on the show are another story.

Trailer Time: Beowulf

Before Martin.  Before Tolkien.  Before Shakespeare, fer cryin’ out loud, there was Beowulf.

In January, the Esquire Network…wait, that’s a real thing?  never mind…will air a new mini-series based on the epic poem.  See the official trailer after the cut.

Trailer Time: Macbeth

I love the works of William Shakespeare.

Michael Fassbender is an actor of phenomenal talent.

And soon, we can see one performing in the other’s work…that’s right, Zombie Shakespeare will be in a new play written by Fassbender!

Or, more accurately, Fassbender did a movie version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  Looks really good.  My only concern is French actress Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth.  She’s a great actress, but I personally find French actors sometimes struggle too much with Shakespeare’s work.  I would love to be wrong.

But there’s a trailer after the cut, in all the play’s violent glory.

Bone Read-Along #8: Treasure Hunters

Continuing my read-through of Jeff Smith’s delightful Bone series.  This week I am covering volume 8, Treasure Hunters.

Discworld Read-Along #6: Wyrd Sisters

Continuing my occasional series in which I work my way through Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, one book at a time.

Up next, the sixth book Wyrd Sisters.

Podcast Reaction: The Pitch-A-Revamp Edition

Frank Drebin is on the case!

This week on the podcast, the Gabbing Geeks celebrated Watson’s 40th birthday by having Jenny use a faulty mic, so it sounded like Watson was senile and talking to voices in his head.  That was amusing as technical errors went.

But then they pitched some revamped old projects, like the Munsters and Flash Gordon, despite some attempts to actually revamp both of them as Mockingbird Lane (look it up) and an awful Scy-Fy channel show, also known as any Scy-Fy channel show that wasn’t Farscape or BSG.

I have an idea of my own for this.

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.