Blimey Cow

Jordan Taylor and his friends and relatives have a popular YouTube comedy channel called “Blimey Cow.” Over time, they’ve built up quite a following with their short, funny bits opining on modern day life.

Taylor’s hyper/silly delivery makes you wonder if he was homeschooled and has a compelling need to communicate with somebody-- anybody. His comedic rants often have a faith-informed slant to them, and his recent video, “How to talk like a Christian,” manages to cut to the truth of how modern day American evangelical Christians talk, think and act.

Taylor is a college-aged Christian who very cleverly mocks the weirdness of today’s Christians, while still appealing to Christians. That is not an easy thing to do.

Listen, whether or not you have faith in Christ or don’t, the Blimey Cow YouTube channel has a lot of comedic clips to make you laugh. Some of their video titles include “College might be a waste of your time,” “Seven things that won’t be cool in twenty years,” and “My smart phone made me stupid.”

Visit www.blimeycow.com, where new videos are posted each Monday.

Arrested Development

Arrested Development is truly one of the best comedy shows ever made. It is unique in the way it presents and disguises its jokes but also in the way it references itself throughout episodes and seasons and thereby gives the viewer the feeling of being in a clique.

Those are some reasons why Arrested Development was always a fan favorite. It was so loved by fans that it made a comeback for a new season this year, which some people regard as the comeback of the decade since the show managed to preserve its entire cast and promised to resume where it left off.

It is debatable whether or not the show manages to have the same effect on its audience but nonetheless the fans seemed mostly happy with the comeback. Let’s leave that all out and point to the core of the show, the sarcastic humor and the fact that is packed with jokes and references in such a way even if you watch the same episode a 3^rd or 4^th time you can still discover new stuff.

Speaking of the characters, they are by far the best thing about the show. The whole cast is great, and they all work together flawlessly. If I had to choose a favorite it would be Jessica Walter as the mom, Lucille Bluth. Every line she says is clipped with the perfect degree of icy rudeness. She's crude and manipulative, but she manages to see herself as classy and victimized. One of my favorite lines in the whole series is when GOB is tackled for bringing bees into the prison and she pointlessly chides him "They don't allow you to bring bees in here." It's a throwaway line that could easily have been cut from the script but it suits her character so perfectly (it's such a heartless and useless thing to say) that it becomes laugh out loud hilarious.

I'll just end by saying if you're going to start watching it be prepared to watch all 3 seasons because you probably won't be able to stop. With so many people touting Arrested Development as "the best show ever" it's tempting to say that it's overrated. But the more I think about it, the more I really don't think it is overrated, because in all honesty nothing else that I've seen is this good.

Read my book on how to write comedy.  Newest edition now also available in paperback!

The Joke's on You!

In Bed with Joan

Joan Rivers is 80-years-old. And she’s arguably busier and more popular at 80 than ever before.

In recent years, Joan was perhaps best known for winning The Celebrity Apprentice TV show, helmed by businessman Donald Trump. Joan showed she doesn’t quit when the times get hard.

One of the most devastating things to happen to Joan was dealing with her husband Edgar’s suicide in 1987.

It has often been said that the best comedians have a lot of tragedy and depression in their lives, so they make others laugh to cheer themselves up. Joan could have easily faded from the public spotlight after her husband’s death, but she realized that making others laugh was something that lifted her out of the dangerous place of wallowing in self pity and sadness.

Joan loves a challenge, so she sells her jewelry lines on TV shopping channels and stands on red carpets to interview Hollywood starlets about “who they’re wearing,” commenting on whether or not she thinks they’re gorgeous or hideous.  Ever opinionated, Joan keeps people laughing with both self-deprecating humor, and observational rants about what bothers her about celebrities and people groups.

It’s pretty amazing to think she’s an octogenarian who is still touring, entertaining huge crowds, with an extremely sharp mind, great timing and superb delivery of hilarious lines.

Joan’s latest venture is a YouTube show called “In Bed with Joan,” where Joan invites a celeb into her bed, and they have a conversation about anything and everything. It’s uncensored and it’s funny!

Here’s Joan talking in bed with Jeff Garlin of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and the new comedy “The Goldbergs.” Enjoy!


http://youtu.be/_GTLpPyOoUA

Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang theory is a very popular TV sitcom that follows the daily lives of four friends -- Sheldon, his best friend Leonard, Raj and Howard. Those are the main characters of the show and are all scientist at a university. Other main characters of the show are the girlfriends of Leonard, Sheldon and Howard, namely, Penny, Amy and Bernadette.

The comedy this TV show offers was planned by the producers to be clever and making jabs at popular culture. The main characters are supposed to be real-life nerds that are living real nerdy lives. The anti-character here is Penny, who is the only main character that is not a scientist. Unfortunately, the comedy in this TV show often falls back on Penny’s stupidity and ignorance by letting main characters like Sheldon constantly make fun and / or harass her lack of knowledge.

Sheldon, which the show puts a lot of emphasis on, is a theoretical physicist and seems to have a very high IQ but is entirely socially inept and has no social skills whatsoever. But he is not the only character in this sitcom with failed social integration. For example Raj cannot talk when there are women nearby listening, unless he is drunk.

The problem with this forced ineptness is that this makes the TV show full of totally unbelievable characters. Everybody knows at least one nerd or geek and I’m sure most of those are quite unlike the ones portrait in this show. Actually, the most believable character in the whole show is Penny, which should be a comedic relief.

The show totally misses that geeks are not geeks because of their super intelligence and because they are socially inept.

All this means not that this show is bad, but it sure isn’t the best what could be made out of such versatile theme. The fact that the show always relies on the same patterns for comedy (which are not very smart by themselves anyway) shows that the writing is lacking what comedy is all about, the comedic factor.

Regardless, the Big Bang Theory is a quite popular show with many fans, but it could’ve been much better with a little bit more twist in comedy and overall a little more believable characters. Unfortunately the show is not going to change what it is and therefore will be quite forgotten in couple of years.  Just like the popcorn you ate the last time you watched a movie, nothing special.