Humor District

Seth MacFarlane is essentially a household name these days. He has been wildly successful in the television industry and has an hour and a half of his shows on Fox alone. He has taken cartoons and made them enjoyable for an older audience, while never losing sight of the hilarity of a good fart joke. Let’s take a look back and see how Seth MacFarlane got to where he is today.

The Early Days

Do you remember the old Cartoon Network shows like Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, and Cow and Chicken? Seth MacFarlane worked on all of them. Before he was a big time executive, he was a simple writer and animator. Yeah, Seth MacFarlane can draw too. It is almost like some sort of conspiracy where Seth MacFarlane got into our heads when we were younger by working on the cartoons we enjoyed, and then used that to create cartoons we’d enjoy after we grew up. He is a devious one.

Family Guy

Seth MacFarlane also worked on creating a series entitled The Life of Larry and Steve. Larry and Steve was about a man and his intellectual dog. If this sounds familiar it is because it is the idea that would be turned into Family Guy. Seth MacFarlane proposed the idea to Fox and received a $50,000 budget to create the pilot episode. It took half a year to make, but it was worth it. The unique blend of irreverent and often juvenile humor has proved to be extremely entertaining. Family Guy can definitely be crude at times, but it is always enjoyable. It’s immense popularity opened up many doors for MacFarlane, allowing him to create other spin-off series and Family Guy related project. He has also stated plans on making a Family Guy feature film, saying he would like it to be a musical. Seth MacFarlane is all about those musicals.

American Dad

American Dad is another show about an animated family. Seth MacFarlane created American Dad in 2005, and much like Family Guy, it caught on fast. The combination of a morally ambiguous alien and overzealous but unintelligent CIA agent living together has brought forth many laughs. While American Dad has not had the same success as Family Guy, it has done well and brought Seth MacFarlane brand new buckets of of crisp hundred dollar bills for when his Family Guy money gets wrinkled.

The Winner and Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy

Seth MacFarlan steered away from animation and it didn’t go well. He tried to create a live action series called The Winner starring Rob Corddry, about some guy trying to get with some girl. It got canceled pretty fast and, unlike Family Guy, fans did not demand to see it picked up again. This was just a minor setback for MacFarlane, as in 2008 he got right back on track. First, he signed a $100 million contract with Fox and became the highest paid television writer in the world. He also created the web series Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy that was wildly popular and later released on DVD.

The Cleveland Show

The Cleveland Show is a direct spin-off from Family Guy which sent the only African American resident of Spooner Street back to his hometown of Stoolbend. This diverse cast features African Americans, Appalachian Americans, Frat Bros, and Bears. It turned out to be another winning combination for Seth MacFarlane as The Cleveland Show was received well and is going strong. Appalachian Americans is the polite term for hillbillies by the way.

The Future

Seth MacFarlane is currently working on a movie called Ted, about a man and his Teddy Bear. Expect lots of dirty jokes and a hard “R” rating from this one. As previously mentioned, he is also interested in making a Family Guy movie for theatrical release. It can’t be said with any certainty what the future holds for Seth MacFarlane, but chances are he will remain ridiculously successful and spend his days swimming in money.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The first time we were introduced to the G.I. Joes on television was way back in 1985. Back then they were constantly facing off against Cobra, a theme that follows into modern times. With the popularity of G.I. Joes as action figures, it is no surprise to see how man reincarnations of G.I. Joe cartoons and movie there have been. Let’s take a look back on the evolution of G.I. Joe in movies and television.

G.I. Joe in 1985

The first G.I. Joe cartoon was released in 1985 by Marvel and Sunbow Productions. Marvel’s G.I. Joe comic book had been doing pretty well, so the cartoon was the next logical step. This first reincarnation was definitely aimed towards younger kids to try and convince them to buy more G.I. Joe action figures. This could also be said for pretty much every Saturday morning cartoon, I’m not judging. What this first G.I. Joe series really brought us were those oh so informative PSAs at the end of each episode. One of the Joes would teach a group of kids something about life and finish things off by saying, “And knowing is half the battle”. This first cartoon ran until 1987 when Sunbow pulled the plug.

The First G.I. Joe Movie

The first animated G.I. Joe movie came out in 1987, right around the time that the cartoon was canceled. G.I. Joe: The Movie was originally intended to be released in theaters, along with a Transformers movie and a My Little Pony movie. The Transformers movie and My Little Pony movie were released first and flopped big time, so the G.I. Joe movie was switched from a theatrical release to a straight to video release. The interesting part of the movie was that they originally killed Duke off. It was later decided to edit that part out and simply say Duke was in a coma to protect the fragile little minds of children everywhere.

The Second Cartoon

Despite selling a crapload of G.I. Joe action figures, nobody picked up the G.I. Joe cartoon series for a while after Sunbow dropped theirs. In 1989 DiC Entertainment contacted Hasbro for permission to continue the G.I. Joe series started by Marvel and Hasbro. Permission was granted and we got to see another 2 seasons of the Joes facing off against Cobra. DiC kept the same approach as Marvel and Sunbow had, but began to focus episodes on specific new characters. DiC’s series went on until 1991.

The Other Cartoons

After Dic’s series, the Joes ran into some hard times as far as their cartoons were concerned. G.I. Joe Extreme ran for 2 seasons from 1995 to 1997 and was based off a new line of G.I. Joe action figures. Extreme never really built up much of a following. In 2003 and 2004 we saw the direct to DVD movies G.I. Joe: Spy Troops and G.I. Joe: Valor Vs. Venom. Once again these latest G.I. Joe projects were widely ignored. Things got the lowest in 2005 with G.I. Joe: Sigma 6. It was canceled before all 26 episodes were aired in the US. Then came a shining beacon of hope. G.I. Joe: Resolute came and showed us that the Joes could grow and change with the original viewers. Written by Warren Ellis, the G.I. Joe: Resolute series no longer had the Cobra Commandos as inept troops with terrible aim. Both Cobra Commandos and Joes got shot, stabbed, and otherwise killed throughout this series that was by far the darkest incarnation of G.I. Joe that we have seen. It was also the most entertaining series we have seen for a long time.

The Movie

And then things went downhill again. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was supposed to capitalize on the success of the Transformers movie, but then they cast Channing Tatum as Duke and produced an extremely sub-par movie. Not even Dennis Quaid could save the movie. On the plus side, Sienna Miller was super hot as the Baroness. She almost made the movie worth the ticket price. Almost. There hasn’t been much talk about doing another G.I. Joe movie like this one, but if there is a new one we can only hope it follows G.I. Joe: Resolute and decides to kick an enormous amount of ass. We’ve grown up and we like it when our cartoons do too.

Popularity: 1% [?]

From ScreenRant.com comes a trailer mashup of the hottest movies coming out this summer! I might even go watch a few.

Popularity: 1% [?]

With the outpouring of comic book movies recently, one has almost been forgotten. Jonah Hex has not had much news, at least news that many noticed with the upcoming release of Iron Man 2 and the announcement that Chris Evans will be playing Captain America. Now Jonah Hex is trying to steal back some of that limelight when they premier the first trailer this Thursday on the SyFy Channel.

It is fairly surprising that a movie starring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox has been discussed so little, but talk should begin to stir up again with the premier of the trailer. Jonah Hex is also one of the more violent comic books around, so this movie promises to have plenty of action. All in all, it seems like Jonah Hex has potential to be a quality movie, but has simply been lost with the emergence of other big name comic book movies. It will definitely have a different feel than Iron Man and Captain America, mainly because the plot focuses on a scarred bounty hunter in the wild west with a hint of the supernatural thrown in. Chances are Jonah Hex will remain overlooked, but I for one am eagerly awaiting the release of the trailer and the movie. Jonah Hex opens June 18th in theaters everywhere.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Do you remember running into the living room on Saturday mornings when you were little, a bowl of cereal in one hand, a remote in the other? Those were the days. We would sit down and watch our favorite cartoons while acting out episodes with the toys from whatever cartoon was popular at the time. If anybody asked, you would say whatever cartoon you were watching at the time was the greatest one ever made. Then after a year or two you would completely forget about that show. This is a tribute to those forgotten cartoons.

Street Sharks

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had their start in the 80′s and became wildly popular. Thus the Street Sharks were born. There were some subtle changes made, in Street Sharks four human brothers were turned into shark-like human mutants rather than four turtle brothers being change into human-like turtle mutants. Also, the Street Sharks totally did not like pizza or know ninja stuff. That was different enough for me as a kid and I immediately went out and got all the Street Sharks toys I could. The Street Sharks would beat the Ninja Turtle toys by virtue of the Ninja Turtles fitting perfectly into the mouths of the Street Sharks. Good planning on that front, Mattel. All in all, the two cartoons were very similar. The Street Sharks spent pretty much every episode stopping an evil scientist from turning everyone into mutants and yelling their catchphrase: “Jawsome!”. Those were the good old days.

Biker Mice from Mars

Biker Mice from Mars was a well thought out show about the danger of corporations spoiling the environment, much like Captain Planet. If you believed that sentence you must not have read the title of the show. Biker Mice from Mars actually did have a touch of environmentalism though, as the mice were trying to stop an evil race of fish people from stealing all of the Earth’s natural resources. Those same fish people had ruined Mars for the mice already, and they weren’t about to let that happen again. Of course I never really noticed that part of the show when I was little. I was far too busy watching aliens who also had robot parts ride awesome motorcycles that could shoot missiles. Now that I think back on it, those bikes couldn’t have been good for the environment. I still want one.

SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron

Swat Kats took the whole “cool vehicles” theme and ran with it. By day, Chance “T-Bone” Furlong and Jake “Razor” Clawson guarded a dump. By night, they used various items found in the dump to build stealth fighter jets, motorcycles, hovercrafts, and pretty much any other awesome vehicle you could think of. They would then dress up and use these vehicles to stop crime all over  Megakat City. What made this show so enjoyable is also what got it canceled. Swat Kats was not afraid to show some cartoon violence as Jake and Chance showed the criminal element the error of their ways. In the end, programmers deemed the violence would make kids like me punch a neighbor in the face or something. Ironically enough that didn’t happen until after Swat Kats was canceled.

Gargoyles

Gargoyles was a hell of a show. It was about gargoyles who were cursed to remain and remained as statues until their castle was rebuilt on the top of a skyscraper. Moving a castle from Scotland to the top of a skyscraper in New York is obviously the best use of somebody’s money. When the gargoyles awoke they got into fights with Xanadu, the obviously evil guy who moved the castle in the first place, and tried to adjust to living in modern day New York. Strangely enough, the Scottish gargoyles didn’t have Scottish accents, which was odd considering where they came. Goliath did have Keith David providing his voice. That beats a Scottish accent any day.

Aaahh! Real Monsters

Aaahh! Real Monsters was an interesting show. It followed a group of young monsters living in the sewer and learning how to scare people in a sort of monster school. It was kind of an earlier Monsters, Inc. in that way. It was actually pretty dark for a Nickelodeon kid’s show. One of the monsters would actually pull out her guts to scare children. The headmaster of the monster school would even eat monsters when they failed to scare children, but he’d always spit them out before they got digested. Stern but fair. Aaahh! Real Monsters was on the air for around 3 seasons before Nickelodeon pulled the plug, but it was good while it lasted.

Popularity: 16% [?]

For all the harcore Hangover fanboys this shirt is perfect. For just under $20 it’s a steal, buy it here.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

For those of you who have not seen Wanted, watch out for spoilers ahead, actually this very next sentence. Angelina Jolie’s character, Fox, killed off a bunch of other assassins by curving a bullet around a circular room until it went through every assassin and ended up in her brain. Yeah, I thought it was pretty dumb that an assassin who can curve bullets around rooms can’t also move her head slightly to one direction, but that is beside the point. The point is that apparently there is still a possibility that Jolie will be back for the sequel, Wanted 2. Apparently director Timur Bekmambetov is planning a zombie assassins type of sequel.

The rumors about Angelina Jolie’s involvement have been all over the place, but now there is a new possibility. According to E!, Timur Bekmambetov is interested in casting Kristen Stewart to step into the role of smoking hot assassin. I would be all for this change, Kristen Stewart would look super hot biting her lip while holding a gun. Seriously though, she bites her lip all the time.

Yeah, you thought I was joking. Kristen Stewart’s lip biting is a very real occurrence, and I like it. Getting back on topic, I definitely think Kristen Stewart would be a good choice to replace Angelina Jolie in Wanted 2, but I still don’t expect many people to rush out and see it. The first one was fairly lackluster, which is sad considering it had both Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Chris Evans has been discussed a lot recently, mostly for his part as Jensen in the upcoming The Losers movie and his casting as Captain America in The First Avenger: Captain America. As you might have noticed, both of those movies are based off of comic books, which seem to be a recurring theme throughout Chris Evans’ career. Let’s take a look at some other comic book related roles Chris Evans has had over his career.

Johnny Storm/The Human Torch – Fantastic Four

Chris Evans broke into comic book movies with his role as Johnny Storm AKA The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies. Nobody will mistake the Fantastic Four franchise for good movies, but Evans was actually a perfect fit for Johnny Storm. He was a perfect mix of headstrong, playful, and loyal to pull the character off. Also, the ladies loved him. In his first comic book movie, Chris Evans was a bright spot in an otherwise mediocre film. He played Johnny Storm once again in the sequel, 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and while that movie was an improvement on the first, it still wasn’t good. Now that Chris Evans is going to be playing Captain America, don’t expect to see him around for any reboots of the Fantastic Four franchise.

Lucas Lee – Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World has not come out yet, but Chris Evans has jumped into this comic book movie as the character Lucas Lee, an evil skateboarder. This should be an interesting comic book role for Evans as we have not seen him play a villain yet, he’s always been one of the good guys. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World is fairly lighthearted, so we should still be able to see Chris Evans’ playful side, especially considering the fact Lucas Lee is based off of skateboarder/actor Jason Lee. You might remember him from every Kevin Smith movie and My Name is Earl.

Nick Gant -Push

Push was not based off of a comic book, but it has super powered individuals and that is close enough for me. Push dealt with people who had powers like being able to see the future, yell loud enough to kill somebody, and move things with their minds. We actually got to see a more serious side of Evans in this movie as he played a more reluctant hero who didn’t have much of a sense of humor. Ladies still loved him. Push was enjoyable, not great, but it had plenty of scenes with Chris Evans either kicking ass or getting his ass kicked. It also featured Dakota Fanning being a creepy little girl.

Casey – TMNT

For those of you who don’t know, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn’t start out as a Saturday morning cartoon, but rather as a comic book created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The comic book is quite a bit darker than the cartoons and movies, and as expected TMNT did not get very dark. One of the darker characters in that movie, however, was  Casey. If you don’t remember he was the guy with the hockey stick and old school hockey mask who helped the turtles beat up other ninjas. If that didn’t clear things up for you, he was the turtles’ human friend who didn’t have breasts. Alright, now that we are all on the same page we can all agree that he did a good job in the movie as the angry guy who wasn’t Rafael. TMNT was definitely geared toward a younger audience, but Chris Evans and everyone else made it enjoyable for all audiences.

Captain America – The Avengers

All of Chris Evans’ comic roles have been leading up to this moment. After The First Avenger: Captain America, Chris Evans will be playing Captain America in the biggest comic book movie event ever. The Avengers will take all of the characters from the various Marvel movies we have seen and put them together as a team of superheroes. Chris Evans has arguably the most important role as Captain America, the leader of the team. We will have to wait and see if his experience in various roles in many comic book movies has prepared him for this moment.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Roger Ebert is still yet to review The Expendables. Grab our RSS Feed to be notified when he does, and we’ve published a few Expendable trailers which you can view here.

Now I don’t mean to use any harsh language, but Roger Ebert has proven himself to be a fuddy duddy. A 1/5 rating for Kick-Ass? Really? Now I hate to be the writer to make all the “Kick-Ass lived up to the name” references, but it can’t be helped, Kick-Ass truly did kick ass. It is just baffling that a comic book movie that can be legitimately compared to The Dark Knight and Iron Man in terms of quality would receive the lowest rating possible.

Let’s go over Mr. Ebert’s review. He seems to be thrown off by the high levels of violence in Kick-Ass, especially the violence by 11 year old Chloe Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl. Ebert seemed particularly offended that Hit-Girl got the crap beat out of her by a grown man. It was, admittedly, a little uncomfortable to watch a grown man pummel a little girl, but it fit in with the semi-realistic nature of the movie. Small children do not have the mass to fight fully grown gangsters in hand to hand combat. Look at this image from the Kick-Ass graphic novel and tell me the violence was not to be expected.

Yet, Mr. Ebert had no problem whatsoever with the over the top violence and gore in Kill Bill, even though that featured a young girl in a schoolgirl outfit named Gogo Gabari fighting with a spiked ball on a chain who was violently killed. In fact, Ebert gave Kill Bill a rating of 4/5.

Now I’m not trying to bring down Kill Bill, I thoroughly enjoyed both movies, I am just pointing out that Roger Ebert’s stance on violence against the youth seems to be a little uneven. It seems that Mr. Ebert is more likely to give somebody like Quentin Tarantino some leeway in reviews, while coming down hard on lesser known comic properties. This is truly a shame, as Kick-Ass could be starting a trend of great movies based off of less mainstream comics with movies like The Losers and Scott Pilgrim coming out.

Kick-Ass did not try and hide the nature of the movie. It’s name is Kick-Ass, of course there is going to be violence, especially since it is a semi-realistic view of what would happen if somebody dressed up as a superhero and tried to fight crime. They would most likely get their ass kicked. Even the trailer opened up with a man dressed in a falcon-like costume falling to his death. Kick-Ass did a great job mixing in humor into what on the outside seems like a pretty bleak world. Even Mr. Ebert had to admit that the movie started off hilariously. I was lucky enough to attend an advanced screening of Kick-Ass, and the entire audience was reacting to every scene. Almost everything that happened in the movie elicited some sort of reaction from the crowd, whether it was laughter, gasps, or appreciative oohs. The end, which Mr. Ebert claimed was dark and made him sad, still got a great positive reaction from the audience, and nobody could stop talking about Kick-Ass on their way out of the theater. I believe that is a far larger sign of a great movie than a review by Roger Ebert. In the end, a movie that draws that kind of positive reaction from the general audience is sure to be remembered as a good one. If you are interested in seeing a good movie, I highly recommend Kick-Ass, but be warned, it features violence and strong language, hence the “R” rating. Duh. Humor District gives Roger Ebert a rating of Looks Like a Woman and Kick-Ass a rating of 4/5.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Timothy Okyphant is the star of the new FX series, Justified. In Justified, Olyphant plays Raylan Givens, a US Marshall who has a habit of wearing a cowboy hat and straight up shooting every criminal he comes across. At the same time he is very polite and nice to the criminals right up until they are being taken to the coroner’s office. For some reason, that politeness just makes Timothy Olyphant seem even scarier. Well Justified isn’t the only time Olyphant has played a dude who could kick your ass from here to Timbuktu, here are some of his other ass kicking roles.

Agent 47 – Hitman

Timothy Olyphant almost made Hitman into an enjoyable movie, a big move considering it is one of those dreaded video game to movie projects. It was better than Doom at least. In Hitman, Timothy Olyphant plays Agent 47, a hitman who is framed into a job gone bad, or something along those lines. Basically Agent 47 gets a hit put out on him, has to kill other assassins, and reveal an evil Russian plot. As Agent 47, Timothy Olyphant shows that he can kill people equally well with rifles, machine pistols, and swords. It’s nice to see a well rounded assassin these days. Really, the only knock against Olyphant in this movie is that he didn’t get busy with Olga Kurylenko. He was too busy killing people to enjoy that hotness.

Kelly – The Girl Next Door

Now I know what you’re thinking, how can Timothy Olyphant be considered awesome in a movie where he has a girl’s name? By banging Elisha Cuthbert, that’s how. I know you would all change your names to Laverne if it meant you got to get with her. But I digress. In The Girl Next Door, Timothy Olyphant plays porno director Kelly, who gets to spend most of his time hanging out with naked ladies. To really seal up the greatness of the role, Timothy Olyphant also got to slap the crap out of Emile Hirsche.

Nick – A Perfect Getaway

What is made of titanium and survives a bullet to the head. If you answered The Terminator, I wouldn’t blame you. It is in fact Nick, Timothy Olyphant’s character in A Perfect Getaway. He plays an Iraq War Veteran with a titanium plate in his head and he hunts his own food while on vacation in Hawaii. That sounds pretty bad ass on its own, but then he gets shot. In the head. For most movie characters who aren’t Arnold Schwarzenegger, this means your role in the movie is over. Not for Timothy Olyphant. For him it is a mild inconvenience that allows him to rest up before he jumps off of a cliff and stabs somebody. Think about that the next time you stub your toe.

Hollywood Jack – A Man Apart

I’ll be honest with you, I have not seen this movie. I hear it stars Vin Diesel, has Mexican drug lords, and is really not very good. At all. I just couldn’t leave the fact that Timothy Olyphant played a character named Hollywood Jack off of this list.

Sheriff David Dutton – The Crazies

There are few things cooler than a cop who is allowed to go around shooting whoever he wants. That’s why Clint Eastwood will always be remembered as Dirty Harry. Timothy Olyphant is less loose cannon and more survivor as Sheriff David Dutton in The Crazies. He goes from average small town cop to shooting everyone in sight pretty early on in the movie, starting when a rifle wielding farmer interrupts a local ball game. Throughout the movie Olyphant racks up a fairly impressive kill count as he tries to reach safety with his wife and deputy. The only drawback is how often he himself needs saving, but he makes up for it by being Timothy Olyphant.

Raylan Givens – Justified

Keeping to the theme off cops shooting people, we have Raylan Givens as the last entry on this list. Timothy Olyphant does a great job as the super polite Raylan Givens, who also happens to be the quickest draw in the west, east, north, and south. What makes this character stand out as a true bad ass is the fact that he often warns criminals that he will shoot them the next time he sees them and gives them the option to get out of town. Apparently Raylan Givens watched a lot of spaghetti westerns when he was growing up. Invariably, the criminals he warns to get out of town never leave. He then sees them and, as promised, shoots them. The best part of the show is how everybody kind of uncomfortably tries to tell him he really isn’t allowed to just shoot every criminal he comes across. Then Raylan Givens just smiles, tips his cowboy hat, and leaves to go shoot some more bad guys.

Popularity: 2% [?]