Tag Archives: parody

Please don’t cry

I like movies.

I like actress Kristen Bell.

She loves sloths.

This is for you, Kristen.

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Sheep schtick

It has been 22 years since The Silence of the Lambs won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Feeling old?

silenceThen come to New York City and see Silence: The Musical, the way funny parody of that award-winning horror story now playing on Broadway.

Clarisse is there…Dr. Lector, too.  And the wannabe transgender, his little dog and the senator’s daughter, ‘putting the lotion in the basket.’

But the lambs?

Well, they aren’t so silent in this version. They sing.  They dance.  They move set pieces.

Cast-of-Silence-The-Musical-650x433They even ‘clomp’ out a musical number using their little lamb hooves.  I had a major flashback to doing something similar during  a show at Martin City Melodrama & Vaudeville Company in Kansas City…

Just off-Broadway.

Simpler times

I never watched Sesame Street as a kid.  I was all about Captain Kangaroo.  I loved the Captain, Mr. Moose, Mr. Green Jeans, Dennis the Painter, Magic Drawing Board.

Plus, we didn’t have cable till I was in my teens.

But I have to admit — Sesame Street’s lineup of stars for its 43rd season is pretty impressive: biggies from movies, TV and sports — Jon Hamm and Melissa McCarthy, for example — and a Supreme Court judge.

They’re even doing a parody of Downton Abbey.  I hope those bloody kids appreciate it.

I don’t remember Captain Kangaroo playing the celebrity card.  When I Google the show, it lists the stars he had on the program from time from time.  But that’s not what I remember.

I remember the cartoon “Tom Terrific.”  Ping pong balls dropping from the sky.  The Captain reading stories.  Conversations with Grandfather Clock.  Dancing Bear.

Man, I wasn’t nearly as shallow when I was young.

Broadway Harry

Potted Potter, the parody of the seven Harry Potter books now on Broadway, was tailor-made for kids.

It’s only 70-minutes long, is super high energy, and even features a quidditch match with audience participation.

 

No wonder I liked it so much.

Brits Dan Clarkson and Jeff Turner, who also wrote the show, bring all the characters to life with minimal props, costumes and staging.  The humor is decidedly British as well, but Potter lovers — and the family and friends who they drag along — will find it easy to translate.

Obviously some plot points are skipped in such a short synopsis, but the ones that made the cut are treated with high hilarity.  Favorites include Lord Voldemort, the dragons from book four, and the bigger-than-life quidditch snitch.

Dan and Jeff cracked up a few times during the show, but the reason was pretty obvious –

They are as wild about Harry as the audience.

Bloody smart

Hating Twilight?  It’s practically a national pastime.

So you might expect movies that release this time of year — the same time as Twilight Breaking Dawn: Part 1, which opens this Friday — to hate the franchise as well.  Heck, some of them probably do.

But not The Muppet Movie.

Proving that puppets are smart and pretty, too, The Muppet Movie has chosen to use the frenzy that inevitably surrounds each Twilight installment to their advantage…by creating character posters that parody the sparkly franchise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I vant to shake their marketing director’s little puppet hand.

Way to work it!

Butt there’s more!

During the Christmas holidays last year, The Sticky Egg discovered The South Butt parody line of outerwear, the brainchild of Mizzou student Jimmy Winklemann.

I bought a hoodie with my Christmas cash, and two as birthday gifts for my sister and her husband in the spring.

The clothing was good quality.  Plus, it says ‘butt.’ (You gotta love that.)

Sadly The South Butt store is no more, but that doesn’t mean Winkelmann has quit. He’s just turned attention to other brands.

OLOP

Winklemann is once again dressing down a famous label, this one the preferred casual wear of preppies worldwide.  I don’t know if POLO has seen Jimmy’s reinterpretation of their logo or his online store, but there is nothing subtle about it.

As someone who attended college during the height of the preppy nightmare, I applaud POLO as Jimmy’s next target.  As an animal lover, I’m psyched for the pony — it’s about time he came out on top for a change.

And if you are sad that The South Butt apparel is no more, check out the OLOP Shop.  There’s a new iteration that the North Face can’t touch.

Keep on keeping on, Jimmy.

Local color

I spent the day in Queens on a video shoot for CollegeHumor.com.

The script was funny — a parody that should be online sometime next week. The cast and crew were great to work with, the weather smiled on us, and we were released on time.

And did I mention the food was great?

What made this shoot especially memorable were the locals who stopped by during the day to see ‘what the heck we were doing.’ I realized very quickly that TV crews were an event in Astoria, whereas in Manhattan they are an everyday, ho hum occurrence.

It began with cars slowing down, their drivers inquiring about the tent that contained our holding area.  Then an older woman pushing her shopping cart down the street asked the production assistant why our ‘cult’ was demonstrating.

A cult?  In business suits?

But my favorite moment by far happened between takes.  A couple of guys and I from the cast were standing next to a front yard gate when a little white dog came over to check us out.  As Justin leaned over to say hello, the dog sweetly kissed his hand…and then peed on him.

Welcome to Queens.

Take the heat

Sometimes, you just need someone to blame.

And this week…that someone is LeBron James.

A guy in Michigan told the policeman who pulled him over for DUI that LeBron’s decision to go to the Miami Heat was the reason he was drunk.  No lie.

Of course, since he was drunk, he kinda got the facts wrong.  He thought LeBron was with the Boston Celtics — instead of the Cleveland Cavaliers — but it was still upsetting, so that was why he drank too much.

It was clearly LeBron’s fault.

Which got me to thinking — we can all milk this situation for a couple of more weeks.

I mean, LeBron milked his announcement — which should have taken all of 30 seconds — into an hour television special.  And the ESPY Awards were able to milk it yet again into a hilarious sketch on Wednesday night’s show.

Why shouldn’t we all blame LeBron for something this week?

Can’t pay your rent?  It’s LeBron’s fault.  Miss a work deadline?  LeBron made me do it.  Cheat on your wife?  Did you see what LeBron did?  I had to, man.

Use your brain.  Throw the blame.

It’s LeBron’s fault.