Laugh and the World Laughs With You

In celebration of comedian Eddie Izzard's recent birthday (February 7), we're here to offer you a highly subjective list of a few of our favorite comedians. Let them tell you a little bit about themselves -- in their own words:


-- Mike Birbiglia

"Growing up, I was discouraged from telling personal stories about insignificant things. Like, I wouldn't make the soccer team, and my father would say, 'Don't tell anyone.' And I would say, 'They're gonna know when they show up to the games and I'm not on the team and I'm crying."

Mike Birbiglia's comedy has appeared several times on NPR, and his Sleepwalk With Me story -- in which he recounts the time he sleepwalked his way out of a two-story hotel window -- went on to become a best-selling book, as well as a film. He also runs an online blog, My Secret Public Journal, where you can read his humor essays and stay up-to-date on upcoming shows.

You can hear his sleepwalking story on NPR's website.

"I wake up at 4:30 am to jump on a plane, which is that part of the morning before the earth even exists. Before they've even programmed the Matrix. You walk out of your apartment and the road isn't even there. You walk out of your house, and there's just a guy with a laptop who yells, 'We need a road, stat!' 'How 'bout a building, Tank!'"

Request What I Should Have Said Was Nothing from the Catalog



-- Ellen DeGeneres

"All we have is the here and now. That's why procrastination feels so right. Procrastinate now; don't put it off!"

Before her long-running daytime talk show and acting career, Ellen Degeneres started out as a stand-up comedian. She gained acclaim for her observational humor in the early 80s, appearing on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson in 1986 (Carson reportedly likened her to Bob Newhart). She's hosted the Oscars, the Emmys, the Grammys, won 13 Emmys and 14 People's Choice Awards -- and voiced the forgetful fish Dory in Pixar's classic animated film Finding Nemo.

"Have you ever heard somebody sing some lyrics that you've never sung before, and you realize you've never sung the right words in that song? You hear them, and all of a sudden you say to yourself, 'Life in the Fast Lane?' That's what they're saying right there? You think, Why have I been singing 'wipe in the vaseline?'  How many people have heard me sing 'wipe in the vaseline?' I am an idiot."

Request Ellen DeGeneres: Here and Now from the Catalog



-- Eddie Izzard

"It's the cutting edge of politics in a very extraordinarily boring way."

Born in England, Eddie Izzard's comedy incorporates world history, politics, religion, languages, and film study into his comedy (I was first introduced to his stand-up when a college linguistics professor showed us a few clips from Izzard's shows). But when your Henry VIII sounds like Sean Connery and you've got Death Star Stormtroopers sipping tea and waving flags, the resultant show is anything but dry. Izzard's humor effortlessly juxtaposes the everyday with the truly quirky, and the result is wholly unique.

"We stole countries! That's how you build an empire. We stole countries, with the cunning use of flags. Just sail halfway around the world, stick a flag in. 'I claim India for Britain.' And they're going, 'You can't claim us; we live here! There's five hundred million of us!' - 'Do you have a flag?' - 'We don't need a bloody flag, this is our country!' - 'No flag, no country! You can't have one. That's the rules that I've just made up!'"

Request Dress to Kill from the Catalog



-- Louis C.K.

"People on planes are the worst. They get off the plane, they come to your house, and they tell you about their whole flight experience. 'That was the worst day of my life!  I had to sit on the runway for forty minutes!'  For forty minutes?  Oh, my God, really?  What happened then??  Did you fly through the air, like a bird, incredibly?  Did you soar into the clouds, impossibly?  Did you partake in the miracle of human flight, and then land softly on giant tires that you couldn't even conceive how they put air in them??  How dare you! Complaining about flying! 'I had to pay for my sandwich --' YOU'RE FLYING!  You're sitting in a chair in the sky!  You're like a Greek myth right now!!  [You think] air travel is too slow?  [It's] New York to California in six hours!  That used to take thirty years!"

Combining his self-deprecating humor with his observations on modern society, Louis C.K. manages to make us laugh at our own shortcomings, as well. Releasing his annual stand-up shows on his website, LouisCK.net, he is also the creator, head writer, and star of the hit FX series Louis. 

"So then my doctor's like, 'Well, okay. How far into a meal do you typically realize you're full and stop eating?' And I'm like -- 'I don't stop eating when I'm full. The meal isn't over when I'm full. The meal is over when I hate myself.'"

Request Hilarious from the Catalog




-- Post by Ms. B 

A Friend Like Him

I don't think I ever before realized what a huge fan I am of Robin Williams. It shouldn't surprise me: I grew up on his movies, and he was the first actor I can ever remember being pleased to see onscreen. I knew I liked his comedy; what I didn't realize until this week was how much of an impact his art has really had on me. His comedy was as brilliant as it was full of hope, reminding us (or, at least, reminding me) what a powerful force laughter can be. Despite his own internal struggles, his presence made the world a bit more bright.

Williams's fans didn't know him (though, like all great comedians, he made you feel like you did). We'll miss him all the same. In honor of his humorous, heartwarming, and unforgettable career, we present a (highly subjective) list of five of his most memorable onscreen roles:



-- An Alien

For a lot of fans, he'll always be Mork. First premiering on ABC in 1978, Mork & Mindy was a four-season sitcom following the adventures of the alien Mork (from Ork), and his human pal Mindy.

An unlikely spin-off from Happy Days, the series was Williams's first major acting role and owed much of its success to Williams's improv abilities. (The writers eventually began leaving gaps in the script where Williams could start improvising.) It was wildly popular upon its debut, earning the number-three slot in the ratings only behind Laverne & Shirley and Three's Company.

While subsequent seasons saw a decline (due, most likely, to a change in direction and an altered time slot), the show remains a staple in television pop culture. It also cemented Williams as a major comedic player, launching a Hollywood career that would last over three and a half decades.

- Request Mork & Mindy: The Complete First Season from the Catalog



-- A Doctor

It's often difficult to know exactly what category to put Williams's films into. Is Good Morning, Vietnam a comedy or a drama?  How about the cult classic The Fisher King?  Williams excelled at finding a balance between comedy and pathos in nearly all of his roles, seamlessly blending together humor and heart in the characters he portrayed.

Perhaps this can be best be seen in the 1998 film Patch Adams. Starring Williams in the title role, the movie was loosely based on the real-life story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams. After spending some time in a mental hospital being treated for depression, Adams discovers that humor goes a long way towards helping his fellow patients. Upon release, he starts work towards a new career path, enrolling as the oldest first-year med student at the Medical College of Virginia -- with the goal of becoming a doctor who uses medicine and humor to heal his patients.

While perhaps leaning a bit too severely towards pathos in several scenes, the film nonetheless stays committed to a story about the importance of laughter in our lives.

- Request Patch Adams from the Catalog



-- A Cartoon

Robin Williams had a talent with voices. Despite lending his voice to several animated characters over the years, nowhere are his vocal talents more evident than in Disney's 1992 classic Aladdin.

Williams voiced the Genie, the wise-cracking, wish-granting inhabitant of the magic lamp discovered by the title character. The hilarious, memorable performance that Williams delivered is made all the more impressive by the fact that all but a handful of his lines were ad-libs.

His vocal talents allowed the Genie to be as skilled at improv and impersonations as the actor behind him. (Genie's celebrity impersonations throughout the film include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ed Sullivan, Groucho Marx, Robert De Niro,  Rodney Dangerfield, and Jack Nicholson.) The result was a character that, while animated, is unmistakably and undeniably Williams.

- Request Aladdin from the Catalog

-- A Pirate

Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook had its share of critics. A sequel of sorts to J.M. Barrie's classic tale of Peter Pan, Hook asks the question of what would happen if Peter Pan, the Boy Who Never Grew Up, did just that. Having left Neverland, the Lost Boys, and his childhood memories behind, "Peter Banning" is now a hard-hitting lawyer and married father of two kids -- just about as far from being Peter Pan as someone could ever be. At least until Captain Hook (played by the fantastic Dustin Hoffman) returns and kidnaps Peter's two children, Jack and Maggie. Now Peter has no choice but to return to a life he left behind -- although he's going to need a lot of help, and just a little bit of faith.

The movie received heavy criticism for being saccharine and too plot-heavy. Those who grew up with the film, however, remember it as a fun and fantastical adventure romp, with a Peter Pan who had a sense of humor even before he found his way back to Neverland. (His battle of wits with Lost Boy Rufio, which Williams ad-libbed much of, brings a smile to my face to this day.)

- Request Hook from the Catalog

-- A Dad

Last September, CBS debuted The Crazy Ones, a single-camera comedy created by David E. Kelley (of The Practice and Ally McBeal fame). The show starred Williams as Simon Roberts, an advertising executive who oversaw his own ad agency. His business partner?  Sydney Williams, his daughter (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar).

Divorced and estranged from Sydney's mom, Simon did his best to be a part of Sydney's childhood but missed out on more than a few important moments. The show focused on Simon's efforts to strengthen his relationship with Sydney -- and Sydney's willingness to connect back. The show had a delightfully comedic supporting cast, but the story never lost its focus on Simon and his daughter, and their sometimes-crazy, sometimes-hilarious, but always-poignant relationship.

- Click here for more about The Crazy Ones

Other Robin Williams performances from the Catalog (click to request)

-- Good Morning, Vietnam

-- Dead Poets Society

-- The Fisher King

-- Moscow on the Hudson

-- Mrs. Doubtfire

-- Awakenings

-- What Dreams May Come

-- Jumanji

-- Good Will Hunting

-- Robin Williams: Live on Broadway [stand-up]

-- Robin Williams: Weapons of Self Destruction [stand-up CD/DVD]

From actor Christopher Reeve's memoir, Still Me:

"As the day of the operation drew closer, it became more and more painful and frightening to contemplate. ... At an especially bleak moment, the door flew open and in hurried a squat fellow with a blue scrub hat and a yellow surgical gown and glasses, speaking in a Russian accent. He announced that he was my proctologist, and that he had to examine me immediately. ... it was Robin Williams. For the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay."

"Comedy is acting out optimism."
-- Robin Williams

-- Post by Ms. B

Staff Recommendation #24: Ya Gotta Love Raymond

The holiday season is all about family: spending time with the people who mean the most to us, sharing good times and memorable moments. Even when those special people drive us absolutely insane.

With the holiday season drawn to a close, now might be a good time for a little storytelling catharsis. I can't think of a show that would better fit that bill than the hit sit-com Everybody Loves Raymond.

Everybody Loves Raymond is the story of Ray Barone, a sports writer who lives in Long Island with his wife and three kids. His parents (and his older brother) also happen to live nearby. Right across the street, in fact. "Tha-a-a-at's right."

Throughout its nine-season run, the show offered an in-depth look into what family is really all about -- the highs, the lows, and the downright crazy. So if your holiday season was filled with family and you need a bit of a recharge, check out our list of recommended Raymond episodes: one from each season. And remember: It's never just about the can opener. (See Season 4's episode "The Can Opener" for more about that.)

Click on the Seasons' DVD links to request that season from our Catalog!



The Game - Season One [DVD]

"We haven't talked for thirty-five years!"

"I didn't want to interrupt."

What to do when the cable's out?  The family decides to break out "Scruples," a board game designed to bring out the truth. Of course, as anyone in a family could tell you, a little truth goes a long way.



Marie’s Meatballs - Season Two [DVD]

"Given everything that I do around here, why do I care so much that I can't make spaghetti and meatballs for my husband as good as his mother?"

"Because you're a good wife."

"… Don't you ever, ever call me that again."

Debra's determined to learn to cook. Of course, that's hard enough to do without outright sabatoge.



No Fat - Season Three [DVD]

"A recipe for tofu turkey?"

"It looks good, huh?"

"... I would rather eat that page."

Marie's making an effort to serve healthier meals to herself and her family -- even if it means a low-fat (and, to the guys' way of thinking, utterly tasteless) Thanksgiving. This episode gives new meaning to showing support through "thick and thin."



The Christmas Picture - Season Four [DVD]

"I think you've made a wonderful gift choice. You have a lovely family."

"You haven't met everybody yet."

Ray's finally figured out the perfect gift for his mother: a family portrait photo. Too bad it involves the family.



The Wallpaper - Season Five [DVD]

"What happened?!"

"Grandma and Grandpa stopped by."

Ray and Debra's complaints about their in-laws barging into the house have always been a mere turn of phrase. Until now.



Lucky Suit - Season Six [DVD]

"He's the FBI, Ma!  I wasn't applying for a job at the Gap!"

One of Marie's best qualities is her desire to help her family. Unfortunately, it's one of her worst qualities, too. Like when she decides to help her eldest son with his job interview. By faxing a letter to his interviewers.



Meeting the Parents - Season Seven [DVD]

"'No good can come from family'?"

"HER family."

When in-laws collide!  Robert and Amy are getting married. Their parents are meeting for the first time. It's always a little rocky when two families take their first steps to getting to know one another – but when one of those families are the Barones, "rocky" doesn't quite cover it.



The Bird - Season Eight [DVD]

"We promise to protect your people and treat you with kindness."

"Lies. They're gonna screw us."

Robert and Amy are adjusting to marriage, and their families are adjusting to each other. Their "first Thanksgiving" cumulates in a family holiday pagent that seems to sum up the tension on both sides pretty well. Luckily, food does wonders to bring people together.



The Finale - Season Nine [DVD]

"Hey, Ray, it's a little crowded in here."

"Maybe we should get a bigger table."

It was a scare that only lasted thirty seconds – but that's enough time for the family to realize how much they all mean to each other. With the final episode of the series, the finale shows us what this story's been about all along: the fact that, as crazy as they drive us, we love our family.

Well. Most of the time, anyway.

Also From the Catalog:

-- You're Lucky You're Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom - by Phil Rosenthal. A memoir from the showrunner on the stories behind the scenes of Everybody Loves Raymond.

-- Exporting Raymond [DVD] - Phil Rosenthal oversaw a nine-season run of one of the most successful American television sit-coms of all time. Turns out there's a Russian production company that's interested in doing their own version of Raymond. This documentary follows Rosenthal overseas as he tries to break the culture gap and prove that, when it comes to family, some stories are universal.



-- Post by Ms. B

Movies Made Funny

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K) is one of my all-time favorite television shows, and yet I still struggle when trying to explain it to people. I can, I suppose, start with the premise: a man, trapped by an evil scientist on a space station (the Satellite of Love), is forced to watch an array of terrible movies, in an experiment to see how long it'll take him to crack. In an effort to stay sane, our hero -- with the help of his robot buddies -- makes jokes about the terrible plotting, wretched special effects, and horrible dialogue that fill the B-movie dreck he's forced to sit through.

That's the set-up, anyway. What's really going on is that MST3K came up with an excuse to make a TV show featuring three comedians making fun of (or "riffing") bad movies. The silhouettes of the main actor and two robot-puppets remain visible at the bottom of the screen while the movie they're riffing plays out across your television screen -- and their commentary turns bad movies into hilarious entertainment.

Crow, Gypsy, Mike Nelson, and Tom Servo

Created by Joel Hodgson, the show started life in 1988 on the Minnesota channel  KTMA, being picked up by Comedy Central and, later, the Sci-Fi Channel. It ultimately ran for ten seasons, changing cast members and style but never losing its core principle of making movies funny. After the show went off air, many of the writers/cast members went on to find new ways to continue riffing movies, with the creation of Cinematic Titanic and RiffTrax. (RiffTrax, in particular, has started to make waves with their KickStarter campaign to do a live riffing of the movie Twilight: read more about that here.)

MST3K remains a cult classic to this day, beloved by fans even fifteen years after the final episode aired. (Many, like me, are people who didn't discover the show until after it had already ended.) Read on to discover my top MST3K recommendations:

-- Soultaker

"I want the soul of that stuffed bunny in the window." Despite being the opening episode of the final season, this was actually my very first episode of MST3K -- and, as such, it retains a very special place in my heart. This teen horror "thriller" (your thrills may vary) centers around five teens who find themselves on the Grim Reaper's daily to-do list. Our two ultimately-ghostly heroes, Natalie and Zack, must evade the relentless Soultaker (which shouldn't be hard; he moves at the speed of a sedately deliberate stroll) and find their way back to their bodies before midnight.

Vivian Schilling, who stars as Natalie, was also the scriptwriter for the film, with results about what you'd expect them to be. The movie also features two-time MST3K offender Joe Estevez -- the younger brother of Martin Sheen, and Charlie Sheen's uncle -- as the Soultaker himself. (You can also catch Joe Estevez in Werewolf, another MST3K classic.)

-- Prince of Space

"I like it very much!"  This black-and-white Japanese sci-fi offering tells the story of three orphans (well, really two; the girl isn't given much to do) who have been adopted by the genial Wally. They don't think too much of Wally -- at least, not until the invasion of a group of rooster-nosed aliens from the planet Krankor arrive to take over the Earth. When a mysterious masked hero, calling himself Prince of Space, arrives to save the Earth -- and the boys -- from the invaders, it seems that there may be more to the kids' adoptive father than they first realized.

Dubbed over, not terribly well, by English-speaking actors, Prince of Space is a classic in the vein of all not-too-good 50s sci-fi B movies. But of even more delight is the skits between movie segments, which feature the Satellite of Love getting sucked into a wormhole, resulting in some hilarious confusion to the time/space-continuum.

-- Time Chasers

"A crop-dusting genius!" Not since Jeff Goldblum saved the world with the power of his trustworthy MacBook has groundbreaking sci-fi technology appeared so simple. Here we have hero Nick Miller, a psychics teacher who not only invents time travel, but who can fit the computer program for such technological innovation on eight 5¼" floppy disks. 

But no matter. Nick's also a pilot, which comes in handy since his time machine turns out to be a three-seater plane. Hoping to revolutionize the world with his discovery, Nick entices a reporter and a big business executive to accompany him on a trip to the future. The executive's impressed, which leads to the company GenCorp striking a licensing deal with Nick. Unfortunately, when Nick travels again into the future, he discovers that, whatever GenCorp is planning, it leads to a catastrophic, worldwide apocalypse. Hey, it happens.

With reporter (and former flame) Lisa at his side, Nick must restore the future by changing the present -- and the past, because why not?  It goes without saying that a Civil War reenactment obviously gets involved.

-- The Final Sacrifice

"So, 'Rowsdower' -- is that a stupid name?"  If you want to find out quickly if someone's a fan of MST3K, just say the words, "Zap Rowsdower." If they start cracking up, you'll know you've found a MiSTie.

Filmed in Canada, The Final Sacrifice tells of the adventures of Troy MacGregor (and his infamous red sweater), a teen on a quest to discover what happened to his father. Along the way, he encounters a bloodthirsty cult ("bloodthirsty" here having the meaning of "confusing, and kind of lame"), a Yosemite Sam impersonator who has a connection to Troy's father, an evil guy with a goiter bent on revenge -- and a mysterious drifter by the name of ... Zap Rowsdower. 

With bicycle chase scenes, improbable coincidences to mask plot holes, an odd assortment of weatherbeaten pick-up trucks, and ancient artifacts of a powerful civilization masquerading as cheap props, this is not a MST3K to be missed.

-- Space Mutiny

"Put your seat belts on, we'll be reaching speeds of 3!"  No matter how many MST3K episodes I watch, Space Mutiny remains my steadfast favorite. Thousands of passengers and crew are traveling aboard the starship Southern Sun, on their way to a new planet to colonize. But a rebellion is being instigated by the evil Kalgan (not to be confused with Calgon, apparently). Kalgan is determined that he will not spend his remaining years living aboard a starship, and is gathering followers to mutiny against the captain.

Exactly how Kalgan plans on carrying out his ultimate plans are never really discussed. (If the starship is traveling to a new planet to be colonized, and the ship hasn't gotten there yet, where exactly are the mutineers supposed to go if they get off the ship right now?)  But this doesn't slow down the MiSTified action, as we watch our heroes -- a Santa-Claus-esque captain, his aerobics-instructor-styled daughter, and the dubiously heroic David Ryder -- crusade to save the day. We get golf-cart-styled chase sequences, the oldest prisoner-escape-routine in the books, and the biggest continuity error you've ever seen. An absolute classic.

-- Post by Ms. B