Humor
We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane. Kilgore Trout -Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, Ch 1.
Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks - no form of government can render us secure. -James Madison, Virginia Ratifying ConventionPocket Review, Title Broadway Danny Rose, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 4.5,
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Director: Woody Allen
Pocket Review
Broadway Danny Rose: A movie that never gets old
The top of my Woody Allen movie list is reserved for Broadway Danny Rose'. The movie opens with a scene at the Carnegie Deli, with a bunch of (actual) Borscht Belt comedians swapping stories on a lazy afternoon, and one of them begins to tell Danny's story. Danny is a very small-time theatrical agent in New York City, kind of the Charlie Brown of agents, who never seems to get a break. He works his butt off for small-time acts: Balloon folders, waterglass musicians,one-legged tap-dancers, stuttering ventriloquists, and the like.
La main gauche est maladroit
I came across this provocative double-entendre comic from the great Bizarro Comics. As a left-hander, I laughed my head off.
World cup philosophy
My brother Peter showed me a comic from the witty Existential Comics that captured the Zeitgeist of the world cup this year, or is it l'esprit du temps? Such questions are to be decided on the pitch.
Punctuated equilibrium
American football combines two of the worst things in American life: It is violence punctuated by committee meetings. – George Will, occasionally lucid, occasionally witty. Re-quoted from Lexington, the Economist.
Pocket Review, Title Get Shorty, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 4.5,
Get Shorty (1995)
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Pocket Review
Get Shorty: A movie that never gets old
The wry premise of this movie: the best training for a Hollywood producer is loan-sharking.
Pocket Review, Title The Incredibles, Studio Disney / Pixar Studios, Rating 5.0,
The Incredibles (2004)
Director: Brad Bird
Pocket Review
The Incredibles: A movie that never gets old
The best cartoons growing up were ones that were aimed at both kids and adults, like the Looney Tunes with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, or the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The Incredibles manages this multi-layered presence with masterful ease at feature length.
Pocket Review, Title Dumb And Dumber, Studio New Line Home Entertainment, Rating 3.5,
Dumb And Dumber (1994)
Director: Bobby Farrelly
Pocket Review
Dumb and Dumber: A movie that never gets old
This movie just makes me laugh. Usually, movies that feature juvenile humor begin to pale at some point, but Jim Carrey holds my attention as a completely oblivious, selfish idiot.
Movie Review, Title One, Two, Three, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 5.0,
One, Two, Three (1961)
Director: Billy Wilder
Movie Review
One Two Three: A movie that never gets old
This is a highly informed madcap comedy set in the heart of the Cold War, geographically and in time: Berlin of 1961, just before the Wall went up. Billy Wilder cranks up the pace from the beginning and leaves you out of breath at the end.
Pocket Review, Title The Jerk, Studio Universal Studios, Rating 4.0,
The Jerk (1979)
Director: Carl Reiner
Pocket Review
The Jerk: A movie that never gets old
The Jerk is a naïf, a not-quite-holy fool, who finds his life one astonishment after another. It is the most maniacal and subversive of Steve Martin and Carl Reiner's movies together. This film provides the perfect vehicle for Martin's comic style, which I have always enjoyed.
Celebrating Frog – street jokester of Eugene
What does a dyslexic, agnostic insomniac do at night? He lies awake contemplating the existence of doG.
Years ago, my brother Craig and I were walking together on the way to somewhere in Eugene, Oregon, when a veritable gnome of a man approached us, towing a child's red wagon filled with what appeared to be hefty pamphlets. He introduced himself cheerfully as Frog, told us the joke above and offered to sell us one of his joke books that he carried in his red wagon.
Movie Review, Title Fargo, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 4.5,
Fargo (1996)
Director: Joel Coen
Movie Review
Fargo: A movie that never gets old
Fargo is an almost blissfully surreal take on what the world would be like if everyone had an IQ of 88, building a structure of nincompoopery around a more typical tale of desperate crime gone wrong. This movie could be the Coen brother's extended take on Woody Allen's joke about a village idiot's convention in Love and Death
Pocket Review, Title Auntie Mame, Studio Warner Bros., Rating 4.0,
Auntie Mame (1958)
Director: Morton DaCosta
Pocket Review
Auntie Mame: A movie that never gets old
Mame is a free-spirited woman who believes that 'Life is a banquet - and most poor suckers are starving to death.' She is given care of her nephew when her brother unexpectedly dies, and raises him in her very unconventional world, against the wishes of his legal guardian, an often perplexed conservative banker played with great comic style by Fred Clark . It is Rosalind Russell's best role.
Pocket Review, Title Moonstruck, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 5.0,
Moonstruck (1987)
Director: Norman Jewison
Pocket Review
Moonstruck: A movie that never gets old
This is the Godfather without the criminals, an affectionately detailed slice of love-deranged Brooklyn Italian family life. It is such a happy, funny movie. The operatic theme of unexpected love is done to perfection here.
Pocket Review, Title Nobody's Fool, Studio Paramount Pictures, Rating 4.5,
Nobody's Fool (1994)
Director: Robert Benton
Pocket Review
Nobody’s Fool: A movie that never gets old
This is a story of an aging small town man with deep flaws, played superbly by Paul Newman, one who abandoned his family and has lived from hand to mouth. Yet he has built a life caring for his friends.
Pocket Review, Title Arthur, Studio Warner Bros., Rating 4.5,
Arthur (1981)
Director: Steve Gordon
Pocket Review
Arthur: A movie that never gets old
When Arthur first came out, Dudley Moore's comic acting had already gotten my attention, but the premise seemed like it was built on a single joke, and I had no interest in seeing it. After some critical acclaim, I reluctantly joined the queue, and was amazed at what was conjured out of rich drunk guy jokes.
Macroeconomics, the rap version
John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek rap out their macroeconomic differences in Fear the Boom and Bust. This parody is funny, but is also a 'simple' primer on the extremes of our current economic choices.
"Superman violates the laws of physics!" (I will never live that down.)
Many years ago, my wife and I viewed the Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, which featured a scene wherein Superman sees Lois Lane being crushed in an earthquake, and so he flies around the earth faster than the speed of light so that he can go back in time and rescue Lois just before she is crushed.
My immediate response to this was "That couldn't happen; nothing can move faster than the speed of light." My wife's response was to start giggling without pause.
Book review, Title Sh*t My Dad Says, Author Justin Halpern, Rating 3.5,
Sh*t My Dad Says
Justin Halpern
Book review
Candid, loving portrait of Dad
Pungent humor is the outward appeal of this loving and candid portrait of Dad; that it is often poignant and contains a surprising amount of insight is the hidden delight.
Cheating on a metaphysics exam
Selected one liners from Woody Allen:
"I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me."
"Those that can't do, teach, and those that can't teach, teach gym."
"I failed to make the chess team because of my height."
The wisdom of Mark Twain
"I want to be in Kentucky when the end of the world comes, because they are always 20 years behind."
-Mark Twain?Substitute for Kentucky a place that you feel is less aware than you think you are.
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