‘Promise Her Anything’ Leaves Us Holding the Baby
In Hollywood’s eternal battle between the puritan and the prurient, Promise Her Anything shows the puritan still holds the whip. Oh, baby.
comedy
‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ Traverses Those Awkward Familial Gaps
Jim Jarmusch’s low-key comedy of awkwardness, Father Mother Sister Brother explores the things we can never know about our families.
Adrian Mole’s Very English Portrait of Male Anguish
In Sue Townsend’s hands, comedy doesn’t soften despair; it sharpens it. Her creation, Adrian Mole, is a most perfectly flawed portrait of loneliness and failure.
‘Legend of the Happy Worker’ Appears Deceptively Simple
Western comedy Legend of the Happy Worker is unabashedly a message-oriented film, and its focus, like other fables and parables, is to deliver it in the least complicated way.
‘Mosquitoes’ Punkishly Reckons with Motherhood
The vivid depiction of motherhood in Mosquitoes echoes Marguerite Duras’ sentiment; mothers are “the strangest, craziest people we’ve ever met.”
Sitcoms: Episode 1 – The Blueprint for Laughter
The sitcom is a creation of spare parts salvaged from dying vaudeville and thriving radio welded together by performers who understood the power of physical shtick and the intimacy of invisible theatre.
Louie Anderson Was Crying Out Loud Funny
For Crying Out Loud: How Louie Anderson’s televised therapy sessions created the saddest, funniest cartoon of the 1990s.
Pokes & Jabbs’ Surreal Silent Comedies
Silent film comedy duo Pokes & Jabbs were no Laurel & Hardy, no Fatty Arbuckle & Buster Keaton, and no Three Stooges – they were something else.
‘Corner Gas’ vs. ‘Trailer Park Boys’: Politeness as Mask, Profanity as Mirror
Sitcoms Corner Gas and Trailer Park Boys form a double helix of Canadian self-image: the mask and the mirror.
The Righteous Gemstones’ Unholy Satire
While there is a lot to laugh about in The Righteous Gemstones, its serious critique of televangelism is hard to ignore.
John Mulaney’s Comedy by Design
As streaming platforms flood the landscape with stand-up specials, John Mulaney’s specials demonstrate that comedy at its best only appears to be spontaneous.
The Safety Trap: Society’s Destructive Fear of Risk-Taking
In episodes from SpongeBob SquarePants and South Park, risk-taking is rejected, leading to psychosis and isolation, or it becomes an an ideology, leading to destruction and absurdity. A degree of risk-taking, however, is essential for a healthy society.