Humor District

The annual MTV Video Music Awards are a pretty big deal. This event brings in some big names and performances, as movie and television stars present awards, and musicians put on mini concerts and accept awards. To give you an idea of how big this event is, some of the names in attendance included Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Eminem, and Kanye West. With this kind of lineup, MTV wanted to get a big name host for the awards show, somebody who could really get a crowd going. Unfortunately they Got Chelsea Handler. A host is supposed to keep the crowd entertained between performances and awards being handed out, and to keep the show moving on time. Chelsea Handler fell far short of entertaining, the one blemish on an otherwise greatly enjoyable VMA show.

We Had High Hopes

Chelsea Handler is best known for her talk show Chelsea Lately. Chelsea Lately is a consistently entertaining show, and this is because Chelsea Handler has such a candid sense of humor. She basically says whatever is on her mind during her show. This leads to some hilarious interviews, and for the most part her jokes are actually pretty funny. Those of us who had seen her show had high hopes that she would be a good host for the VMAs. We should have known that her style of humor would not make the transition to this big stage.

Racist Humor is Still Racist

The MTV VMAs is a racially diverse event. Good musicians come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. With the kind of ethnic melting pot that is the VMAs, there really is no place for racial humor, especially because this is an event to honor those musicians. Chelsea Handler started off the show by joking that she had brought a gun past security, claiming she wasn’t searched because she is white. It was not a good joke to start off the show, it immediately fell flat. First off, with the big names in attendance and the high security surrounding the event, jokes about guns are not appropriate. Racial humor like that is even worse. It was just the beginning though.

Don’t Rely on Off Color Humor

Chelsea Handler is known for her off color humor. In that sense, a lot of the blame can be placed on the organizers of the event rather than Chelsea for the content of her jokes. Still, she could have done a lot to clean up her act without losing the humor. Unfortunately she decided the best way to be funny was to bash the musical talent around her. That would have been great if she was hosting a roast, but this was an awards ceremony. Simultaneously honoring people for their work while the host relentlessly makes fun of them just doesn’t feel right.

Not Ready for the Bigger Stage

Perhaps the biggest problem that Chelsea Handler had all night was that she never looked comfortable when she was on the stage. She stuttered through many of her jokes, fidgeted, and just overall felt and looked awkward. Stage presence is very important with any performer. If they don’t feel comfortable the audience notices, and it takes the audience out of the moment. Most jokes will fall short with some, you can’t please everybody all the time, and that can be forgiven. It is harder for an audience to forgive somebody who simply appears to not be ready for the bright lights.

Surrounded by Bigger Names

Perhaps one of the biggest factors in Chelsea Handlers flop of a performance was the fact that she was surrounded by huge names. Obviously a host for a show as big as this wants to be memorable, which can be hard to do when you are introducing performances by Eminem and Lady Gaga. Perhaps this is the reason she amped up the off color humor, as a defense mechanism against the bigger names. Maybe she thought controversy would make her hosting performance more memorable. Either way, it is a shame that she felt she had to go the way she did, she could have done much better.

Clint Eastwood and CGI? Well I never… and it’s impressive CGI mind you. Certainly though, at the age of 80 with a countless number of classic movies under his belt and enormous amounts of money he doesn’t need CGI to create a Tsunami effect. He just orders the real thing. “I want the Baltic Sea shipped to the Nevada desert by Tuesday, that and a quart of Valium, my back is killing me.” And I feel for the guy that answered that call, have you ever seen a happy Clint Eastwood? Neither have I. Get Eastwood his fucking Tsunami!

“Eastwood in the more happier of times”

On to the movie, Hereafter. Which has everything setup to be a luke-warm blockbuster, impressive footage, big star – Matt Damon, fairly unknown hot foreign star – Cécile de France and impressive CGI Tsunami or a real life Tsunami – verdict is still out on that one. Can’t see myself bumrushing the theaters to see it.
Synopsis:

“Hereafter” tells the story of three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. Matt Damon stars as George, a blue–collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife. On the other side of the world, Marie (Cécile de France), a French journalist, has a near–death experience that shakes her reality. And when Marcus (Frankie/George McLaren), a London schoolboy, loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers. Each on a path in search of the truth, their lives will intersect, forever changed by what they believe might—or must—exist in the hereafter.


Brilliantly made Star Wars propaganda posters for both the Rebel Alliance and the the Imperial Forces. Designer Cliff Chiang created the designs for the new Star Wars Galaxy 5 trading cards from Topps.

Cliff Chiang explains:

I recently drew a set of 3 Imperial Propaganda posters for the new Star Wars Galaxy 5 trading card set. I hadn’t intended to do more than one, but the ideas came fast and furious and the editor loved them all. This enlistment poster [above] was actually based on an old war bonds poster. While using Nazi propaganda would’ve been appropriate, it was actually more engaging for me to try and create posters that cast the Empire as saviors of the galaxy, especially on the heels of the Death Star 9/11 short.

View more design below:
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When people think of Medieval times, the first thing that pops into most people’s minds are knights. There is something compelling about a warrior completely encased in armor that is all about honor. As long as you don’t think about how knights pooped in their armor regularly, they are pretty awesome. Medieval movies offer more than just knights as well. The feudal system provides many social extremes, and movies can choose to focus on the nobility of the upper class or the harsh life faced by the peasants. Sometimes the nobility is even portrayed as corrupt! Things don’t get much more dramatic than that. Perhaps best of all, most Medieval movies feature a damsel in distress. A hot damsel in sexy distress. Good times.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Robin Hood is one of the most iconic characters in Medieval lore. Everybody knows about Robin Hood, he stole from the rich to give to the poor! There was a great Disney movie made about him, Mel Brooks made one of the funniest movies ever in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, but Kevin Costner took the cake as Robin Hood in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He also took money from the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham, was fairly decent at archery, and he totally hooked up with Maid Marian. She was a Medieval fox. Oh and Morgan Freeman was in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, so it is automatically a great movie.

A Knight’s Tale

Remember when I mentioned the peasants earlier? They were basically around to grow food to give to the king or baron or whoever else outranked them. They couldn’t even be knights, as knights had to have noble blood. A Knight’s Tale is the story of a peasant who masquerades as a knight, entering a jousting tournament and picking up princesses. This is one of Heath Ledger’s best roles. In the end it is proved that his character actually does have noble blood, and that peasants will never amount to anything.

Camelot

Perhaps the most well known group of characters from Medieval times are King Arthur and the knights of Camelot. Everybody knows about King Arthur, the great knight Lancelot, and the magician Merlin. After King Arthur pulled the sword Excalibur from a stone and united all of England. Things were going well, King Arthur had his round table of knights, and Lancelot was his BFF. Then Lancelot got the hots for King Arthur’s woman, there was a falling out, and much action occurred. The rest, my friends, is history.

The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal has one of the most bad ass movie descriptions of all time. It is about a knight who returns from the Crusades only to find that his homeland has been wiped out by the plague. Worst of all, Death has showed up to take the knight’s life as well. Thinking fast, the knight challenges Death to a chess game. The knight spends most of his time being melancholy about all the death he has seen and dealt, but finds meaning when he befriends a group of actors. Yes, this still all as to do with the chess game, and it is one of the greatest movies of all time.

Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe is one of the greatest books of all time, and surprisingly enough it translated into a great move. Ivanhoe is a knight who discovers that King Richard the Lionheart of England has been captured and is being held for ransom. Ivanhoe tries his best to raise the 150,00 silver marks it will take to secure the release of the king, but that is a large amount of silver. Ivanhoe gets some help, raises the money, enters a jousting tournament, seduces a hottie, hangs out with Robin Hood, and just generally does more than any of us could ever hope to do ever.

A select number of people managed to catch 8 Minutes of footage from Jackass 3D shown at Comic Con. There were nothing but rave reviews, sure 8 minutes is not much but those claims were backed up by an even more select few that managed to catch the entire film. To be honest if there was one movie I’d this year it would be Jackass 3D.

MTV premiered Weezer’s latest single “Memories” which features a few stunts from the movie and the band hanging out with idiotic cast. Damn awesome tune as well.

A few tweets from from the lucky few who have seen it.

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Yes yet another Saw movie hits our screens, the 7th in the saga & from what it sounds like it’s the finale, awesome. Linkin Park fans will be happy to know that frontman Chester Bennington is indeed in the latest entry into the Saw franchise. People who hate Linkin Park will be happy to know that they will have the chance to see him tortured. Saw 3D releases October 29th.

Plot:

“As a deadly battle rages over Jigsaw’s brutal legacy, a group of Jigsaw survivors gathers to seek the support of self-help guru and fellow survivor Bobby Dagen, a man whose own dark secrets unleash a new wave of terror…”

Have to give them props for their awesome 3D posters, check them out below:
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The shuffling undead have been featured in numerous movies. There is something gripping about zombies in all their incarnations. Sometimes they shuffle slowly, sometimes they run. Sometimes they moan, sometimes they mumble about how good your brains will taste. One constant is that they are always entertaining. Even terrible zombie movies can be entertaining. I would say that it is actually difficult to make a movie about zombies that a good amount of people won’t find to be enjoyable. Still, there are definitely some zombie movies that have been better than others and become classics. These are the movies we can watch over and over again until our brains turn into mush. It’s a win/win situation, we decay our brains watching great zombies movies, and the zombies don’t need to chew when they get our brains.

Dawn of the Dead

I couldn’t really decide which Dawn of the Dead I enjoyed more. George A. Romero made the original in 1978 and it became an instant classic in the zombie genre. Then Zack Snyder remade Dawn of the Dead in 2004 and reminded people how awesome zombie movies could be. The original Dawn of the Dead proved that a zombie movie can actually be done well. The remake had Ving Rhames. You can see my dilemma in deciding which of these movies is a better example of the zombie genre, so we will just agree that they were both great.

Army of Darkness

Bruce Campbell is a legendary name known to everybody who likes zombie movies. He is a B-movie god, there is no other way to describe it. His best role was undoubtedly as Ash in the Evil Dead series by Sam Raimi. While all the movies in the Evil Dead series are great, Army of Darkness stands head and shoulders above the others. There are zombies, time travel, skeletons, demon things, and all sorts of medieval goodness. While it wasn’t strictly a zombie movie, it is close enough and good enough to earn a spot on this list.

28 Days Later

28 Days Later showed that zombie movies can have more monsters than just zombies. Here is a hint, the survivors are monsters. This was more of a thinking man’s zombie movie, as the movie showed how the survivors of a zombie outbreak became animalistic and possibly even more evil than the zombies. I mean zombies don’t really know what they’re doing, like a puppy chewing up a pair of shoes for the first time. Unfortunately you can’t discipline a zombie like a puppy, as they are far more terrifying. The final scene in 28 Days Later is one of the most bad ass scenes in any zombie movie ever. 

Resident Evil

The Resident Evil video game series is without a doubt the best zombie themed video game series of all time. Surprisingly enough, that video game series turned into a pretty good zombie movie. The first Resident Evil showed off a kick ass side of Milla Jovovich and a crazy zombie rabbit thing with a killer tongue. This movie was pure zombie outbreak action, and as any guy will tell you, that is one of the best kinds of action. Plus we like to see Milla Jovovich kill zombies by doing high kicks in a dress.

Shaun of the Dead

It was a tough choice between Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, but ultimately Shaun of the Dead provided more laughs. Shaun of the Dead established Simon Pegg as one of the funniest guys in movies, and Nick Frost is a very good fat friend. What made Shaun of the Dead so good was how much humor they managed to extract from a zombie infestation. It remained a fairly lighthearted movie even as multiple people were devoured by zombies, some quite messily. Shaun of the Dead remains as the movie that all other humorous zombie movies will be compared to.

50 Cent on Twitter is pretty entertaining. You never know whether he’s kidding or if he’s serious. Well I’m here to tell you it’s neither. He’s playing you. We all expect 50 to be a badass gangster rapper 24/7 and that’s exactly how he’s selling himself on Twitter. What many people don’t realise though, he is a force to be reckoned with in business beyond music. In 2008 he sold Vitamin Water to Coca-Cola for $150 Million, his biggest money spinner to date and that’s just the tip of the iceberg that is the 50 Cent Empire.

Anyways, let’s have a look at some of the more entertaining tweets from the man:

I just got off stage in dominican republic only70,000 ppl I performed w/ wisin y yandel. I'm backstage gettin my dick sucked I gotta go lol

August 30, 2010 9:21 am via ÜberSocialOrigReplyRetweetFavorite

@50cent

50cent

After the movie I went to see my bitch shana cause she gives me free food. She work at the drive thru over at mc donalds and shit

August 29, 2010 2:32 am via ÜberSocialOrigReplyRetweetFavorite

@50cent

50cent

Check out my new background. This is for ladies only I don't want you cock sucking niggas looking at this lol

August 31, 2010 12:55 am via ÜberSocialOrigReplyRetweetFavorite

@50cent

50cent

Now let’s sit back and watch 50 Cent being interviewed on CNBC’s Power Lunch talking about the book he co-authored, The 50th Law. Different person. A person I’d totally buy Vitamin Water for $150 Million from.

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Neil Gaiman is a highly acclaimed author of novels, short stories, and comic books. His comic book series The Sandman proved that comics could be a literary art form and not just for kids. The Sandman was the story of Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, beginning from his imprisonment on earth to the rebuilding of his kingdom. Over the years The Sandman has built up a cult following, and a movie based off of the series was discussed back in the 90′s. Things fell through in the movie talks, as nobody could imagine the entire Sandman series being encompassed in a single movie. The focus has now shifted to turning The Sandman into an ongoing television series.

Warner Bros has begun talks to acquire The Sandman television rights from DC Entertainment. As you can see, a Sandman television show is very much in the preliminary stages. There are still many questions about how the series would be done. It would be very expensive to have a live action show that captures the feel of The Sandman comic, but a live action show might garner more interest than an animated show. One positive thing is that Warner Bros is looking at Eric Kripke, creator of Supernatural, to helm The Sandman television project. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, develops this time around.

Television is made to entertain us, and some shows do that better than others. The quality of a show can be measured by how eager you are to see the next episode. Some shows bring you back week after week with intense cliff hangers, some make you feel a connection with the characters, and some are just so entertaining that there is just no possible way you could miss a single week. The worst part about these shows is that they are not on all year long, and for most of them we have to spend the summer months watching reruns. Now is the glorious time when the shows awaken from their sweaty hibernations and rise to entertain us once again!

Californication

Hank Moody is one of the greatest characters on television, mainly because David Duchovny is a superb actor for the role. Californication is one of the best shows on television because Hank Moody is such a great character. He is an immensely talented writer who has a plethora of personal problems such as excessive drinking, a bad temper, and bedding practically every woman he meets. That last one might not seem like much of a problem, but he is still in love with the mother of his daughter. As you can imagine, this makes for some very interesting story lines.

Dexter

Who would have thought that a show could make you root for a serial killer. That is exactly what Dexter does, mostly because the titular character only kills those who deserve. Well, those that he decides deserve it. At least most of the time. Sometimes mistakes are made and then the plot thickens. The season 4 finale was also one of the most powerful and shocking finales that I have ever seen on television. It left us with so many questions that we simply cannot wait for the 5th season of Dexter to start. Unfortunately the studio isn’t giving us a choice.

Entourage

The wait between weekly episodes of Entourage seems like it takes forever. This is because we are looking forward to each episode so much. It is like when you are waiting for an important package in the mail, it always seems like it takes forever to arrive. Entourage has done a superb job over the years creating a number of great characters, such as Ari Gold, Lloyd, and Turtle. Those three supporting characters are often more interesting than the main character Vince, who can be quite annoying at times. It is a shame that that this series will only be around for one more season.

Family Guy

Family Guy is the definition of hilarity. The irreverent humor isn’t for everyone, but those of us with the refined senses of humor that Family Guy requires can’t stop laughing during episodes. Watching a fat guy fight a giant chicken for 5 straight minutes never fails to elicit some giggles. Family Guy is definitely a show that pushes the boundaries of good taste, but that is one of the reasons we tune in every week to watch it. We want to see just how far this animated family will take a joke.

South Park

South Park has been around for a while now, but it is just as entertaining as always. What makes South Park such a great show, besides seeing little cardboard cutout kids curse like sailors, is how in touch the show stays with current events. Whenever there is a big cultural event in the world, you can count on South Park to make fun of it. A great example of this was when South Park had an episode about Somalian pirates. We always tune on South Park just to see what new ways they can make fun of the world we live in next.