“The Last Man On Earth” betrayed its title in the very first episode.
If you haven’t watched the hilarious Fox show, now in its second season, that’s not really a spoiler. You can tell from any commercial that Will Forte’s character finds out fairly quickly into the series that he is not actually the last living human who survived some sort of massive viral outbreak.
I think “The Last Man On Earth” is the funniest and most creative show on television today. Every week the show surprises me as it adds depth to a seemingly simple premise and creatively increases the stakes for its oddball cast of survivors.
I also appreciate how the show has made the lead character Phil an unapologetic, unlikable jerk.Continue reading →
Watching Jon Stewart’s final episode of “The Daily Show”, I was struck by something truly wonderful.
It wasn’t the comedy of the episode, though it was as hilarious and irreverent as ever. It wasn’t the inspirational message from Stewart on seeing through the, ahem, bull”crap” of the world. It wasn’t even the powerful final “Moment of Zen” from Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.
What got to me the most about Jon Stewart’s farewell was seeing the community Stewart built return to say thanks.
The extended opening segment of the show saw nearly every “Daily Show” correspondent over the past 16 years return in a touching tribute. While “Saturday Night Live” is often hailed as the greatest breeding ground for comedians on televsion, the seemingly never-ending cavalcade of stars “The Daily Show” has certainly given it a run for its money over the past decade. Continue reading →
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Welcome to “What Would Jesus Watch?”, our summer exploration into the overlooked and underexplored genre of Christian Cinema.
Have you wanted to watch a 90 minute infomercial for a Christian Dating website? Then have we got the movie for you!
On this week’s episode Alex and Kate break down “Christian Mingle – The Movie” and the “click, marry, die, done” dating culture it revolves around. We talk about the film’s bizarre view of Christianity, say a prayer for poor Lacey Chabert, discuss the movie’s hilarious prayer habits and dream about visiting the greatest fictional restaurant of all time.
Plus we share our theories about the purpose of the movie and if the leading man is actually an 8-year-old. And to truly understand the movie Kate goes undercover to create her own Christian Mingle account! All that and more on this episode of Christianity for Dummies…er we mean What Would Jesus Watch!
If you haven’t seen “Christian Mingle – The Movie” before you’ll definitely still be able to enjoy the podcast. But if you’d like to prepare before watching you can check out the trailer below and find the movie on iTunes:
Share and leave a comment and let us know what you think. Tell us what movies you’d like to see us discuss on future episodes of What Would Jesus Watch!
Did you hear the one about the actors who ignited an international incident with their movie trailer?
No kidding – the teaser for the new Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy “The Interview” sparked a firestorm of controversy after it premiered last week. The movie is about a pair of talk show hosts hired by the CIA to go undercover and kill North Korean leader kill Kim Jong-un.
Needless to see, the Korean leader didn’t see the movie as a laughing matter, labeling it an “act of terror and an act of war”.
It’s hard to say how serious Kim Jong-un’s threats are. But there’s no question “The Interview” trailer got people talking.
I wonder why Rogen and Franco decided to make such a controversial movie. Certainly a comedy doesn’t need to invoke terroristic actions to be funny. Why bother? Continue reading →
From a young age we’re trained to pass the blame onto others – no matter how big the mistakes.
The natural instinct is to find someone else who can take the fault for our fumbles. From pointing fingers in grade school to passing the buck onto a coworker, the blame game is ingrained in us.
How many times have we looked like Tommy Boy, trying to fix things up and then asking others, “What’d you do?!”
I have this vivid memory of playing at a park with a friend in elementary school. His father sat on a bench reading and keeping an eye on us as we pretended to be Power Rangers.
At one point I looked over and saw him laughing. As I walked by him later I asked him what he had read that had been so funny.
He told me it was The Bible. The Bible had made him laugh.
This startled me. How could someone laugh at The Bible? Continue reading →
Those names will be familiar to any comedy fan who grew up in the 90s.
Who knew “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” would still be inciting laugh riots 25 years after its inception in 1988, returning to the CW this week with a brand new season of improv comedy.
You may think “Whose Line” is just asgoofy comedy show. But I think the two golden rules of improv can radically improve your everyday life.
The first key to improv is simple: Just say yes.
When you take an improve class the most important lesson you learn is when starting a scene, you must say yes to whatever happens. No matter what your partner in the scene says, you must go along with it.
Saying no kills the momentum of comedy. It stops a scene dead in its tracks.
Think about the tried and true “Whose Line” Superheroes sketch. Heres’ a refresher for you:
Each actor comes in one at a time and gives a superhero name to the next actor to enter the scene.
Can you imagine if one of the new superheroes in the scene just said no to the suggestion of his fellow actors? Comedy would die.
Instead the actors just go with it, no matter how crazy their suggested superhero name may be.
You can’t twist what kind of twist the world will throw at you today. The world spits in the face of the script you’ve written.
When your script falls apart, there are two options. You can stay stuck in your ways, arms crossed out of frustration. refusing to adapt to the unexpected
You can live palms up and out, saying yes to whatever God puts before you. You can embrace the chaos. You can improvise.
So after you’ve decided to improvise, playing along with what life brings you, what comes next?
Improv comedy grows from the art of escalation. An improv actor doesn’t stop at just saying yes.
The second rule of improve is you must always say “Yes, and…”.
Not only do you accept what the other actor has to offer. You add to it.
If someone bursts onto the scene and asks, “Have you seen what The Midtown Burglar did?” You answer “Yes, and did you see those snakeskin boots he was wearing? Impeccable fashion taste, don’t you think?”
Once you begin to accept whatever the scenes in life bring you, you can begin adding something to them. You don’t just say “yes” to your circumstances. You try to build upon them.
Even if the scene is dying, you follow through. You keep trying until you get to the conclusion. You trust even the failures are teaching you something.
Life is unscripted. You can try to plan it, but eventually the world will try to wreck your scene.
Instead of refusing to play along, try adding the two rules of improv to your life. Make everyday an improv exercise.
After all, the strangest twists and turns in life can become the most memorable and rewarding scenes.
What do you think would happen if you said, “Yes, and…” to the scenes you’re placed in today?
The greatest compromise a man and woman will ever face is on Movie Night.
Men and women are genetically predisposed to enjoy different movies. It’s a scientific fact. Or something like that.
Women wonder why “How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days” didn’t win an Oscar. Men question why every movie isn’t produced by Marvel.
My fiance and I have worked out a pretty common compromise to avoid Movie Night fights. We usually take turns picking out the movies we watch together.
Of course this means she often has to slug through quirky indie movies the critics love but are really just plain weird. And I fall asleep through cheap horror movies that belong on SyFy. But, you know, love and all that.
I believe a movie should be more than cheap thrills and entertainment. I want movies to transcend entertainment and move me emotionally and other nonsense.
Sometimes our movie choices flop. When she picks a bad movie I get a little angry that I wasted a couple hours of my life to watch a crappy film. I feel like I compromised my beliefs. Continue reading →
You spent too much time trick or treating and procrastinating.
Your week may feel like it’s falling apart.
Hey – at least your parents didn’t steal all your candy.
It’s easy to scream and blame the world around you when something you didn’t plan for steals all your joy away.
But try not to have a kneejerk reaction like a kid thinking their parent ate all their peanut butter cups.
After all, the kids didn’t know the whole story. Their parents were just playing a joke.
The problem you’re getting upset about is probably not that bad. By the time twelve o’clock rolls around you’ll have already forgotten about it.
If you’re angry about some stolen Snickers bars today, hold strong. God has a great punchline coming your way to put a smile back on your face. And just when you think your candy bag is empty, you’ll find in it more Milky Ways than you could have dreamed of.
POP GOD 