Medic Media

I live with my dad

Happy New Year all you rats.  I know we’ve been M.I.A. for the past week or so but I’m back now and with even more useless news and opinions than ever before.

This post is inspired by the commercial for Youth in Revolt that credits Zach Galifianakis as “the guy from the Hangover,” which may be what he has become but I know exactly the type of audience they’re trying to appeal to with that statement.  You know those guys that wear football jersey’s all the time and quote things from movies like Anchorman and Borat more then they actually form their own original sentences?  Those guys that collect beer bottles and think that dressing in drag is the funniest thing of all time?  Yeah, those are the guys that this commercial is trying to rope is by identifying Zach as the funny-guy with the beard that was in that one movie, The Hangover. You can call this a tribute to Zach Galifianakis if you want to but it’s more of statement to those that know nothing of him beyond his time on the silver screen.

Check out his stand-up

Zach has a ridiculous sense of humor, his delivery is awkward which makes it funnier, and how he manages to keep a straight face through most of it is incredible.  Talking about a comedian isn’t funny though, so here’s a video.

YouTube - Link

His material is great, kind of similar to Mitch Hedberg in that the jokes really have no relevance to anything but they’re funny none the less.

He has a web show called “Between Two Ferns”

The show can be seen on FunnyOrDie.com and in it Zach interviews famous celebrities and tries to make them feel as awkward as possible.

He was in shows like Wonder Showzen, Reno 911, and Tim and Eric

His characters in Tim and Eric are probably my favorite.  If you don’t already know, I’m huge fan of this show but I can understand completely why most people absolutely hate it.

He made this…

So there you go, a few more reasons to love Mr. Galifianakis.  If you do not like these videos then it’s safe to say you do not like Zach Galifianakis, so jog off.

This passed Thursday I had the opportunity to go to the Bell House in Brooklyn for a charity event hosted by the guys of Stella.  In case you don’t know that’s Michael Showalter, David Wain, and Michael Ian Black, look, I even got a picture.

It was a fun time, I had never actually watched The State when it was on MTV so it was a nice treat to see some of the skits on the projection screen with some live commentary.  They showed their CBS Halloween special, which apparently like six people watched when it aired.  They also played clips from a record they had produced after the show had failed in nearly every way possible.  Showalter said that Warner Bros. had given them $125,000 to produce the record and they decided that it would be a kick-ass idea to go down to the Bahamas and have the record professionally produced at the same place Bob Marley had produced some of his records.  Apparently the comedy troupe with their average age of about 25 years partied and drank all day and went into the studio at night, plastered.  As you could imagine the tracks are nearly incoherent, sloppy, and obnoxious.  Needless to say, however, they are also absolutely hilarious.  According to Michael Black the record was delivered to Warner Bros. and “then we never heard anything, not a yes or a no, just nothing.”  When asked if there was ever talk about releasing the record to the public David Wain responded, “Yes” which I think means, “Yes, we talked about it, but no, it will never be released.”

I have to admit, the audience was pretty shitty, mostly drunken hipster assholes.  People were constantly shouting out skits that they wanted to see, the only problem was all the ones people were shouting out were present on the DVD.  This event was for State rarities, which is why I was there.  At one point while Michael Showalter was telling a story about their CBS special and how their ABC deal fell though when two girl shouted out “Speed it up!” and “You’re killing us!”  Seriously, don’t be a rude ass hole, I’m pretty sure a good majority of the audience wanted to hear that stuff, I know I did.  Aside from the crowd though it was a great experience, the comedy trio is always funny as far as I’m concerned and apparently we raised over $4000 for New York Cares.  Great job.

The Venture Bros.  Season 4!

Season 4, according to the LiveJournal of one of the writers, is supposed to premiere October 18th at midnight on Adult Swim.  They’re still working on the last handful of episodes and this season looks like its going to take a radical change in direction.  I don’t know about y’all but I’m sure as hell pumped to watch it.

This is a new segment we’re going to try and do every Sunday. Instead of calling it something like Hot Girl of the Week or Babe of the Day we’re just going to call it exactly what it is. A girl that we like this week. First up, Minka Kelly.

Minka Kelly is known for 2 reasons. The first one being the star of a great TV show no one watches, Friday Night Lights. She played the cheerleader girlfriend of the star QB until he became a parapalegic. She cheated on him with his dirtbag best friend while he was in the hospital, they broke up and she’s still dating the dirtbag. Which everyone sees as perfectly acceptable. The other reason she is well known is she’s dating Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. They’ve been dating for a long time now. At least longer than any other girl I remember Jeter dating.

Jeter has dated his share of famous women. Mariah Carey, Vanessa Minnillo, Adriana Lima, Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel just to name a few. The list is as extensive as it is impressive. However, Minka may be Jeters finest catch to date. Shes the kinda girl you want to marry and the kind of girl that mom would definitely approve of. But does she have what it takes to tie down New York’s playboy captain?

So what is this I hear about SciFi changing the name of their channel to SyFy?  Entertainment Weekly has an article about it on their website and they quote that the SciFi’s reasoning is to “broad[en] perceptions and embrac[e] a wider and more diverse range of imagination-based entertainment including fantasy, paranormal, reality, mystery, action and adventure, as well as science fiction.”  Alright, whatever, you want to “broaden perceptions,” and be able to offer more than just Science Fiction, that’s completely understandable.  If you’re going to change though just fuckin’ go for it and change the name all together.  Make it something more along the lines of, I don’t know, “The Nancy Drew Network” or some shit.  At least SciFi meant something, SyFy on the other hand means nothing besides “We need more viewers but don’t have the money to spend on a decent marketing crew.”

If they start playing bullshit reality shows like all the other stations do I’m going to drive two forks through my skull.  SciFi’s original movies, while usually cheesy as hell, are always entertaining and their recent game shows, Chase and Estate of Panic, are brilliant.  I’m probably making myself seem a lot more aggravated by this then I actually am which will hopefully drive some of you to become aggravated by this.  Just look at it one last time… SyFy.

I remember flipping through Fall Pre-view Entertainment Weekly sometime in the summer. Rummaging through the pages, figuring which show I would try to DVR. By the time I reached the end of magizine I realized that there was really nothing in there for me. Except for a two things, one being Fringe and the other being the new Molly Shannon, Selma Blair project which is kinda funny but I’ll get to that some other time.

When I came across the Fringe Pre-view of course they were interviewing Joshua Jackson cause he’s the biggest thing in the show and Dawson’s creek ended like 5 years ago.  I remember looking at the page seeing his face and about to flip the page as I was quickly trying to breeze through the Paragraph. But it grabbed me when Jackson describes his past desire to be apart of one of my favorite series, ”Daydreamed’? I lobbied for it!” says the 30-year-old former Dawson’s Creek star and self-proclaimed ”massive X-Files fan.” How massive? ”Remember the episode where those inbred mutants kept their mother under the bed and were using her as a breeding animal? I would have liked to have been one of those guys,” I was like okay that’s kinda funny so I read on. I’m a sucker for sci-fi I always want to know “why?” No matter how ridiculous the explanation is. So I decided to give a shot.

At first, it seemed like nothing special. Yes it was reminiscent of my “X-Files” in only that they solve paranormal cases. But how could you not make that comparison thats all the “X-Files” ever did and I loved it. Besides that I dont really get a Mulder, Scully vibe from the two protagonist Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) . Both are very willing to “believe” first off, something Scully wasnt really ready to accept many times throughout the show. Second, there’s already that flame chemistry. You can see they are developing a deeper relationship than just friends. Something Mulder and Scully never really got into until the later seasons.

Besides all the comparisons to other shows, I continued to watch the episodes. At first I took them for what they were I was genuinely entertained. I got to the fifth episode and skipped the 6th and 7th. Thank God for Hulu.com which got me up to speed. Before I realized what was happening I was hooked. The shows most recent cliff-hanger has been eating away at me.

The plot is ridiculous but intreasting. The characters are heartfelt and feel very real. Lance Riddick and his emotionless, calm demeanor is great as Dunham’s boss. I hope he gets more involved with the show. Peter Boyle is in another world as he plays the funny, kooky, enistien, dr frankenstein, scientist/father to Peter Bishop. His child-like behavior helps lighten up the show when Jackson’s sarcasim is unable to.  Torv plays the “damaged girl” very well. Pulling off very strong and solid on the outside while falling apart on the inside. Jackson character damaged as well, is the train wreck you cant pull away from. He’s got a tragic destiny thing going for him. The dynamics of the characters play off each other well resulting in very entertaining dialouge.

Also the way the show is shot. The camera work is awesome. I like the way they present the names of the location when it switches. J.J. Abrams did a great job fulfilling the strange but yet still interesting plot and keeping it action filled while really trying to tell a story. I will be sure to follow this show and see where its going.

I recommend this series highly, here’s where you can get all caught up. http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=Fringe

Quote from http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20221152_20224357_20223894,00.html