Posts Tagged ‘Than’

I Would Rather Endure the Sound of a Deafening Train Horn Than Listen to These Comedians Pt. 3

February 7th, 2010

A list of some of the worst comedians in America. These people shouldn’t even be classified as comedians because they bring shame to the title. If you hate yourself and hate life than you should definitely check out these comedians. I would rather endure the sound of a deafening train horn in my ear than listen to these comedians. So, without further ado, the worst comedians alive:

Margaret Cho

There is only really one joke in Margaret Cho’s repitoire and that is the one about how crazy her asian mother is. It’s a joke that gets old very fast. Cho’s very often explicit detailing about her sex life and bisexuality have made her a Queen among gay men and the GLBT community as a whole, with a large portion of her fanbase from the GLBT community. There are comedians that are bad and then there are comedians that are just flat out annoying, and Margaret Cho falls into that category. Someone should really stop her from getting on stage anymore or from letting her talk in public, period.

Larry the Cable Guy

I’m not sure if Larry the Cable Guy aka Daniel Lawrence Whitney is a genius or a moron. The fact that he has created his Larry the Cable Guy persona after years of failing in the comedy circuit seems to be evidence that Daniel knows that his Larry character would be popular to idiotic, lowbrow Americans and he is milking it for all its worth. The fact that he seems to be the only one “in” on the joke doesn’t make up the for the fact that his jokes are just flat out stupid and offensive on just about every level of human decency. Even if Dan is subtly making fun of his core audience the fact that he is popular makes me doubt the longevity of the human race.

Alan McGee is a freelance writer from MN.

I Would Rather Endure the Sound of a Deafening Train Horn Than Listen to These Comedians Pt. 1

January 29th, 2010

A list of some of the worst comedians in America. These people shouldn’t even be classified as comedians because they bring shame to the title. If you hate yourself and hate life than you should definitely check out these comedians. I would rather endure the sound of a deafening train horn in my ear than listen to these comedians. So, without further ado, the worst comedians alive:

George Lopez

If you like stale, juvenile jokes about racial relations and the Mexican American experience, check out George Lopez. There is good racial humor and then there is bad racial humor, Lopez is in the latter category. If you’ve seen any of his standup than you should know that Lopez is just one slight notch above Carlos Mencia in terms of overall intelligence. The truth is that a lot of Lopez’ success has come about because he has bullied people in the television industry to get him his own shows because of the lack of Latino voices on TV. While I won’t argue that there aren’t enough Latinos on tv, why does Lopez have to represent them?

Carlos Mencia

While Maxim magazine isn’t necessarily the most credible news agency, even they have listed Carlos Mencia 12th in their worst comedian of all time list. To understand Carlos Mencia’s humor you just have to think of the most broad and vulgar racial stereotype jokes possible and you’re close. Not only is he a terrible comedian but he is also a hack, with numerous comedians coming out and accusing him of stealing jokes from them, which is one of the biggest faux pas you can make as a comedian. In a funny “South Park” bit Mencia is seen admitting to stealing jokes in the end saying “I took credit for [the joke] because I’m not actually funny! I just take jokes and repackage them with a Mexican accent!”

Alan McGee is a freelance writer from MN.

I Would Rather Endure the Sound of a Deafening Train Horn Than Listen to These Comedians Pt. 2

January 26th, 2010

A list of some of the worst comedians in America. These people shouldn’t even be classified as comedians because they bring shame to the title. If you hate yourself and hate life than you should definitely check out these comedians. I would rather endure the sound of a deafening train horn in my ear than listen to these comedians. So, without further ado, the worst comedians alive:

Dane Cook

If you’ve ever been to a frat party and had to endure the drunken jokes that that one kid hanging around the keg has to tell, than you’ve heard just about all the good jokes that Dane Cook has, and there are not many. Most of Dane Cook’s jokes are about him banging broads and how awesome he is. They aren’t really jokes, they are just stories about how often Cook gets laid laced with some observational humor. The sad thing is that in the industry, even fellow comedians hate Dane Cook, as Jim Breuer says about his reputation: “Everyone kills this guy…not one comedian comes on [my show] and says ‘I’m so happy for him,’ which is weird…they can’t stand this poor guy.” With the frequent reports of Cook displaying diva-like behavior at clubs he is suppose to perform, I can’t sympathize with him at all.

Kathy Griffin

Horrible, just horrible. There is absolutely nothing funny about Kathy Griffin’s act at all. I do applaud her for taking her horribleness and poking fun of it on her television show “My Life on the D-List” where she seemed to embrace her embarrassing excuse for a comedy career. While she got a lot of heat for her acceptance speech where she made remarks that some saw as making fun of Jesus, I thought it was pretty obvious that her award speech remarks were making fun of hypocritical celebrities who thank Jesus for their awards. I can respect the balls Griffin has to say controversial things in high media moments such as the red carpet and award shows, but the fact is that 90% of her comedy is just boring and dull.

Alan McGee is a freelance writer from MN.

Box Office Flops – More Than Meets the Eye?

December 4th, 2009

There’s something oddly satisfying about seeing a big-budget movie flop. Whenever we hear about these ambitious, special effects-laden extravaganzas going down in flames we get an odd feeling of schadenfreude.

But why is this? Does it stem from the fact that we feel manipulated, almost exploited, by the movie industry? Perhaps. After all, movie studios make a lot of coin from tweaking our emotions, be it through adrenaline-filled action films or mawkishly tear-jerking weepies.

Perhaps the best reason for our guilty pleasure at seeing a big-budget movie flop is the fact that we feel like we won a battle. We caught Hollywood trying to pull a fast one by releasing a bad movie and trying to hype it anyway—and we weren’t fooled. Gotcha. Better luck next time.

That’s all well and good, but there have been many excellent movies throughout the years that, for whatever reason, failed to make it big at the box office. Hey, just because a movie didn’t make a lot of money on its release doesn’t make it bad—after all, Citizen Kane barely made enough to cover the cost of a wooden sled on its original release. It wasn’t until its re-release and television syndication that it became perhaps the most critically acclaimed movie of all time.

So, here’s a look at two movies that didn’t live up to expectations on their release, but later went on to disprove the critics:

Fight Club

Despite eventually becoming an enormous cult hit, Fight Club performed poorly on its release. With a budget of $63 million it took just $37 million at the US box office. On its release the movie drew mixed critical reactions, partly due to its violent nature. One high profile critic described it as “a film without a single redeeming quality, which may have to find its audience in Hell”, and the flop cost the Entertainment Chief of 20th Century Fox his job.

Despite a tepid reception, Fight Club went on to turn a small profit at the global box office before exploding in popularity in the DVD market, becoming one of the best-loved films of the 90s. Today you’d be hard pressed to find a young man’s DVD collection that didn’t boast a Fight Club DVD.

Shawshank Redemption

One of the most well known box office flops of recent years, The Shawshank Redemption, based on a Steven King novella, came up against the might of Forrest Gump at the box office. Audiences preferred Hanks’ feel good vehicle over this depressing prison drama and, although Shawshank garnered 7 Oscar nominations, the box office take was pathetic.

This all changed once the movie was released on video. Bolstered by the Oscar endorsements Shawshank became the most rented video of 1995, going on to become our 2nd favorite movie of all time according to an Internet Movie Database poll.

The moral of the story, it seems, is that you should probably think twice before dismissing a movie based on its box office success. Movies are always at their most enjoyable when seen on the big screen, so you shouldn’t miss out on the chance to see them as they were meant to be seen simply because the audiences can’t tell a Hollywood gem from fools gold. After all, these are the same people who made Ernest Goes to Jail the number one movie in its opening week. Would you trust them?