Red Dwarf: Return to Earth

Red Dwarf has been resurrected by digital channel Dave for a two-part Easter weekend special, which sees the Crew finally return to Earth. Written by Red Dwarf creator Doug Nylor, Red Dwarf:Return to Earth reunited the four main characters. Red Dwarf is a BBC2 sci fi comedy show, widely broadcast in America on PBS. In it’s eight searies from 1988 to 1999 there were a lot of changes in the always bizarre plot and characters of Red Dwarf. Holly the computer was a man’s floating head, then a woman’s floating head, them missing completely for long periods. The four mainstays…

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My Custom Van by Michael Ian Black

I’m a blogger and I read a lot of blogs. Therefore I have a pretty short attention span. In fact, most bloggers just skipped to the next blog before they finished those two pretty boring sentences. I was a bit surprised by how mind numbingly bad My Custom Van is. This is a collection of essays that is kind of like a collection of blog posts-except that most blog posts tend to make some kind of sense-and My Custom Van makes little to no sense at all. I understand that some comedy takes a bit of getting used to. I…

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Ricky Gervais: Out of England

I’m a big fan of most things British-with the notable exception of Little Britain which I have never found all that funny-but then, it was a long time after Monty Python came out that I fully appreciated it’s odd sense of humor. Ricky Gervais is the star of Britain’s The Office and HBO’s Extras, both of which are fun shows which have a fairly clueless hero trying to make the best of it. Ricky Gervais has a great deadpan face and does a wonderful job of looking incredulous when presented with just about anything. Ricky Gervais:Out of England The Stand-Up…

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Spring is Here, Spring is Here

The first day of spring always brings one thing to mind for me, Tom Lehrer’s classic Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. Now it is possible that the kiddies in audience don’t know who Tom Lehrer is, just one of the best satrical songwriters of all time. Such fun filled songs as The Masachism Tango and I hold your hand in my, Dear-about murder and mayhem. He stopped recording songs when he found that the real world was worse than anything he could make up. But Doctor Demento has done his best to keep Tom Lehrer alive and well in the…

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Steve Martin Born Standing Up

Boy, those French, they have a different word for everything.-Steve Martin I listened to the Audio Book version of Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up-read by the author. The pieces of Steve Martin’s life are told in a simple, clear manner, with the occasion bit of silliness toss in for good measure. Steve Martin is no longer a stand up comic. We knows this because every time he is interviewed for anything, he asked-So when are you going back to Stand Up? This question is always greeted with a pained/shocked expression and a simple answer-Never, I will never do Stand Up…

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I miss the old days when comics were funny

Once upon a time there were jokes. These were little stories with a beginning and a shock ending, with an optional middle.There is a setup:A hamburger walks into a bar.A bit of story:The bartender looks at the hamburger.Then a punchline:“Hey, we don’t serve food here.”Ha Ha.Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby changed all that a few million years ago in the fifties and sixties by making the optional part two of story telling so good that they didn’t need a punchline to get a laugh. Sienfield took it to the point of there being nothing but the setup and there never…

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