Author: matt

Grave

Speed Bump on the Campaign Trail

Post author By matt
Post date October 19, 2004

Thrown Under the Bus: Karl Rove, in an un-doctored photo, below Air Force One
For many of us, it’s a dream come true: Bush Adviser Lays Under Air Force One.
Sadly, the plane was motionless: Rove lives to scheme another day. I guess it’s just another example of what a wacky card that Rove can be! (No, not that Card, wiseguy.) Wanna know Rove’s next hee-larious joke? Wait ’till November 2nd: It’s on you… and you… and you… and you…
Related: Anyone else notice that this photo has an uncanny visual symmetry with this famous shot?

Grave

The Real Team America: World Police

Post author By matt
Post date October 19, 2004
2 Comments on The Real Team America: World Police

America—Fuck Yeah!
The New York Review of Books‘ excellent caricaturist David Levine one-ups Trey Parker and Matt Stone in this week’s issue.
Also, for political views a bit more cogent than those dudes’ “dicks-pussies-assholes” analysis, check out this special section featuring Kwame Anthony Appiah, Norman Mailer, Michael Ignatieff, and others on the election.
(Thus concludes our extensive Team America coverage for the day.)

Shallow

An All-Star Cast

“Gary goes through the usual three-act gamut of rivalry (with a puppet whose resemblance to Seann William Scott is surely intentional), romance (with a puppet whose resemblance to Elisabeth Shue is probably not), self-doubt and redemption, much of it set to music.”
—A.O. Scott, The New York Times.
“[H]is performance as John, the actor-phobic Team member is the best of Aaron Eckhart‘s career.”
—Greg Allen, Greg.org.
“The team’s control-room chief, Spottswoode, a white-haired bureaucrat in the James Mason mold, never loses his stentorian cool, even when he’s commanding Gary to, uh, go down for his country.”
—Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly.
“What’s different is that, yes, the hero is a puppet, and you can see his strings. And he’s not a fighter pilot, he’s a Broadway actor, recruited by a Charlton Heston-like figure with an omnipresent highball to save the world with his ACTING by infiltrating an Islamic terrorist group.”
—David Edelstein, Slate.

Shallow

When Life Sort of (But Not Quite) Imitates Satire

Post author By matt
Post date October 19, 2004

low culture, January 22, 2004:

The Believer, October 2004:

For our younger readers, the man on the right is Howard Dean.

Shallow

Why Are These Men Smiling?

Post author By matt
Post date October 18, 2004

Rakes’ Progress: Jude Law and Mick Jagger (and Jude Law, background)
You’d be smiling too if you slept with half the women in the world and your buddy slept with the other half.

Shallow

Hack Writers, Start Your Puns

Post author By matt
Post date October 18, 2004

Tomorrow, NBC premieres the latest entry in the ~~decline of Western Civilization~~ Reality TV genre, The Biggest Loser in which some people do something to win some money or maybe something else. It’s gonna be awesome—or something.
Since most TV critics are filing their reviews with their editors right about now, I thought I’d offer them some help with their inevitable shitty puns and fat jokes. Feel free to use any of the following phrases in your articles or headlines, or um, become a better writer:
·Fat Tuesday
·Weighty Matter
·Light-Weight Entertainment
·Thick as Thieves
·Chubby-Hubby
·The Weight Is Over
·Big Men and Women on Campus
·Fat of the Land
·Big, Fat Obnoxious [Anything]
·Big, Fat Hit
·Weighed Down
·Heavy/Meta
·Well-Rounded Cast
·Fatty Ass-heads
·Must Eat TV
·Hungry for Ratings
·Fat Chance
·Battle of the Bulge
·Thin Premise
·Fat Sells
·Big Competition
·Chubby Reign
·Waist of Airtime
·Devouring the Competition
·Chewing the Scenery
·Broad Humor
·The Thickest Link
·Livin’ Large
·Large and in Charge
·Wide Margin
·Fat of the Land
·Meaty
·Morbidly [Anything]
·Gut-Busting
·Phat

Grave

Well, That’s One Way Around the McCain-Feingold Regulations

Post author By matt
Post date October 18, 2004

“George W. Bush” robs a bank in Pennsylvania and The Smoking Gun has the security camera stills. Not pictured: Rumsfeld behind the wheel of the getaway car.
Earlier: Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon rob several California banks.

Satirical Shallow

When Oscar Met Jesus

“Hollywood, with its Jewish roots, did not experience The Passion as a transcendent religious and emotional event, as so many other viewers did. Some haven’t forgiven Gibson for even making the film, let alone forgotten his father, Hutton, and his inflammatory statements about the history of the Jews. ‘I’ll tell you why The Passion won’t be nominated,’ snaps one industry executive. ‘Happily, there are too many people in the Academy who believe the Holocaust actually happened.'”
Will Oscar Listen?, Sean Smith, Newsweek, Oct. 25, 2004.