Podcast - Episode 70: Funnies!

Time to laugh again! This week Dave and I share some of our favourite humour comics, past and present.

Guys, why isn't there an online database of Far Side cartoons? I feel like this is a major flaw in the internet. Like, what is the internet even for?!

Here are a few favourite Far Side cartoons. I could have looked at Gary Larson's entire catalogue for days and days, honestly.

Here are those Far Side cartoons that had the captions swapped with Dennis the Menace. Dave and I almost remembered these correctly:

And here is the very excellent page from Drew Friedman's Any Similarity to Persons Alive or Dead is Purely Coincidental:

We talk quite a bit about Nicholas Guerwitch's Perry Bible Fellowship. I don't think there have been new strips in awhile, but the site has all of the strips archived and you should go read all of them. Here are some faves, including some of the ones mentioned on the podcast:

Michael Kupperman is a master, and I had a hard time choosing just a couple of things to post here as examples, but here's what I decided on:

Seriously so great. I can't recommend buying the collected volumes of Tales Designed to Thrizzle enough. And as a bonus, here are a couple of panels from the Namor comic he did for Marvel's Strange Tales #1 back in 2009:

Kate Beaton is, obviously, awesome. Here is a festive Christmas strip from, like, 2007 or so. You can buy things through her website and you SHOULD.

Here are a couple of panels from the Kraven the Hunter comic she did for Marvel's Strange Tales II in 2010, in which he needs a prom date:

Alright! Go read some funny things and try to deal with everything!

Podcast - Episode 9: What Kind of Nerd Are You?

We did it! We got Sean Jordan on the show! Our first guest!

On this episode we look beyond our love of super heroes to see what other things we are, and aren't, nerds about. Finally you'll know where we stand on things like Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stephen King and more! We also share some stories, good and bad, from working in comic shops.

I promised to show you the amazing thing that Jeremy Renner posted on Instagram, and then on Twitter twice. But, to be fair, it did have a really important and not-at-all confusing message about equality or something. So...here it is!

And here is that super sexy Hawkeye pin-up we were talking about from the MCU poster book, complete with Dave's text and my horrified reply:

It was really exciting to have another installment of the Renner Report.

In This Week in Winter Soldier we mentioned the image that was released from the set of Captain America: Civil War of Winter Soldier and Falcon running through an airport, and the inevitable meme it inspired. I did this to it:

And my friend Melissa Buote did all of this to it:

The 10 one is my favourite.

Dave and Sean and I told some of our favourite stories from working in comic shops, including some celebrity sightings! Here is a photo of Dave and the Rocketeer himself, Billy Campbell, at Strange Adventures in Halifax!

Adorable!

That's all for this week! Release the Civil War trailer, Marvel!!!!!!!!! This is me checking the internet every day to see if it's been released:

The Simpsons Season 12: Worth Owning

I know a lot of people think The Simpsons jumped the shark well before season 12, but I disagree. I still think the show is funny now, and consider that, as high a number as it sounds, the twelfth season was barely past the half-way point for this pop culture juggernaut.

Admittedly, Season 12 doesn't contain any "classic episodes," but it does have a lot of good ones with a lot of very funny moments. I think that Season 12 is a turning point for the show, too. I wouldn't say the show gets dramatically worse, it just changes its feel quite a bit, and it has kept this new feel until the current episodes. The plots are more elaborate and absurd, the guest star cameos feel a lot more gimmicky, and the pop culture references become very current. The humour also gets a little edgier, perhaps due to increased competition from South Park and Family Guy (aka - the worst show ever).

I also want to point out that the packaging for this season is pretty nice, and is completely comic book-themed, from the exterior art to the booklet to the animated menus.

Season 12 starts with a solid Halloween episode, which includes the hilarious Night of the Dolphin short (in which Mayor Quimby delivers one of my favourite all-time Quimby lines: "People, please. We're all frightened and horny").

In fact, Season 12 has a lot of great lines. In the awesome Skinner's Sense of Snow episode, Homer and Ned have this exchange in Ned's car while Homer is driving recklessly:

Homer (singing loudly): I FEEL LIKE MAKING LOVE! FEEL LIKE MAKING LOVE TO YOU!
Ned (nervously): It's a catchy song alright...you really wrote it?
Homer: Yeah. For Princess Di.

I mean, that is comedy gold. It's funny THREE TIMES! It's funny because Feel Like Making Love is a hilarious song for Homer to be singing at the top of his lungs while driving Ned Flanders through a blizzard at top speed. It's funny because Homer told Ned that he wrote it. And it's REALLY funny that Homer says that he wrote it for Princess Di.

The episode Pokey Mom is one of my favourites to catch in reruns. The episode guest stars Michael Keaton as an artistically talented convict that Marge takes a liking to. Other episodes of note this season: Day of the Jackanapes (the Manchurian Candidate-inspired Sideshow Bob epsiode), Worst Episode Ever (Bart and Milhouse take over the comic shop while Comic Shop Guy works on making friends), A Tale of Two Springfields (The town divides in half after a new area code is established, and The Who guest star), HOMR (Homer becomes a genius after a crayon is removed from his brain), Children of a Lesser Clod (Homer starts a daycare and gains a reputation as a perfect father), and Homer Vs. Dignity (Mr Burns starts paying Homer to do increasingly humiliating public stunts).

This season is definitely the dawn of the era where most Simpsons episodes feel more like two or three half-developed episode ideas smashed together into each episode, but that definitely gets worse in later seasons. You can still say "it's the episode where Krusty finds out he has a daughter" instead of "it's the one where a new comic shop opens up in Springfield, and also I think Marge opens a gym or something? And Homer gets plastic surgery?"

It's a good season. It's not season five good, but it's good. Still much funnier than most television comedies. I have really been enjoying watching these episodes again.