satire
Geek satire, comedy, and all things satirical in the geek universe.
What Is The Funny?
Here I am on another Saturday night, staring at a screen and wondering what to do with myself. I spent most of the day at a book sale for a community organization and have just finished two separate earlier reads that I had put aside for far too long. I have also willfully sacrificed some other books for Montreal’s Livre-Service book boxes (a perfect way to contribute to public reading and a method of discovering what else is out there to cudgel the brains). As I cleaned up, I discovered some writings I had left on a shelf and wondered about for quite some time: S.J. Perlman’s New Yorker writings were there, a torn back cover and an intact front cover with the title The Rising Gorge. I had only read two or three pieces in it before abandoning it as a well-intentioned work of comedy that did not make me laugh. And now, as I attempted to read something light – Angela Carter and Mohsin Hamid were the writers I had imbibed earlier – I found the same difficulties facing me. I simply did not find it funny.
Kendall DefoePublished about a year ago in GeeksThe Menu - A Movie Review
Don’t just eat. Taste. Savor. Run. Released from the oven into theaters in 2022, The Menu surfaces around a group of people invited to Hawthorne, an exclusive restaurant on an island. The chef prepares lavish meals. While enjoying their meals, they discover why they are there.
Marielle SabbagPublished about a year ago in GeeksWhat’s in the Box?
What is in the box, exactly? In no particular order, it could very well be the following: Is it Gwyneth Paltrow’s head? A fair soon to be mother, whose life was cut short from an overzealous and envious man whose sole purpose was to expose the seven deadly sins.
Rand EinfeldtPublished about a year ago in GeeksHarry Porter Trains Ukrainian Soldiers
You can't make this up. No one can, even those of us who write satire and dystopian fiction. This exchange reportedly happened on one of the Russian media channels where they allow viewers to call in with their opinions. I am going to translate it from Russian, verbatim.
Lana V LynxPublished about a year ago in GeeksFINALLY a Gift Guide for GUYS!
Every holiday season comes and goes and I'm left wondering, why doesn't someone make a gift guide for guys? Don't shoppers need to be clued in where to find cool masculine tchotchkes? Well I'm done waiting, I took the initiative and made the first ever gift guide just for GUYS!
Buck HardcastlePublished about a year ago in GeeksStranger Things Fans Really Want Eddie Munson To Return For Season 5
*Warning: There are mahoossive spoilers in this post, so if you haven't seen the season four finale yet and don't want it spoiled, best not continue reading. Instead: Bookmark this page, go watch the episode, no seriously go now! And then come back to the article for the laughs.*
Pop Culture's Reckoning with "Wage Slavery"
A lot of people hate work. "Work is not my highest priority and never will be," rants a user on r/Jobs. "I don't hate my job; I actually enjoy it. However, I'm just sick of this western(?) idea that your work is your identifier and needs to be your 'highest priority.'" This is a common perspective (see also my article You Are Not Crazy for Hating the Idea of Work).
Alex Mell-TaylorPublished about a year ago in GeeksThe Origin and Evolution of Mary Sue
The joy of internet discourse is people throwing terms around that they do not actually know the definitions of. One of the most used terms on the internet, used in attempts to discredit and criticize women lead projects is Mary Sue. Now I have never once seen this term actually used correctly and have only seen it in reference to Rey from the latest Star Wars movies, Captain Marvel and Galadriel in Rings of Power. None of these women are Mary Sue’s and the term has evolved into an easy identifier for misogynistic asses who are incapable of valid criticisms but this was not always what the term was. So here we go, the origin of the term Mary Sue.
Alexandrea CallaghanPublished about a year ago in GeeksJames Reviews: 'Clerks III'
Picking up fifteen years after the events of the previous movie, best friends Dante Hicks (O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Anderson) now own and run the Quick Stop convenience store. After Randal suffers a heart attack, he decides to make a movie about his life working as a clerk, featuring Dante, fellow co-worker Elias Grover (Trevor Fehrman), his friend Blockchain Coltrane (Austin Zajur), and local drug dealers-turned-dispensary owners Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith).
James F. EwartPublished 2 years ago in GeeksThe Boys - Commentary and Analysis
The season opens with some really weird gratuitous nudity, sex and violence. The show is getting bolder as it keeps getting renewed, each season gets a little more gore and sex oriented which I hear is super close to the comics.
Alexandrea CallaghanPublished 2 years ago in GeeksTravelers on the Orphan Train
The words abandoned, abused, and orphaned do not sound sweet upon the ear. They are heartbreaking when the word children follows them. New York City was a magnate for European immigrants to America. Many never got beyond that city, which grew to accommodate them. As their resources dwindled, the impoverished immigrants inhabited the baser parts of the city, known as the slums. So many people from so many places massed together, creating a breeding ground for pestilence, which laid waste to many families. By the 1850s, the slums became the unhappy home of legions of orphans, whose parents had died or abandoned them. As the great War Between the States fired up in the early 1860s, this matter was made worse when so many men of immigrant families were compelled to enlist to fight a war in order to get money to feed their families. Many of those men were killed or maimed them beyond repair, spawning more orphans to roam the slums in search of scraps of food. Survival was the daily trial of an orphan.
Sex with Superheroes
I was put on the spot with this one. Imagine it for a moment: you are a student, attempting to impress an editor with an idea for an article you think will truly knock it out of the park, and you come up with the idea of playing out a fantasy involving fictional characters with plenty of 'what-ifs'. And yes, I did come up with a list that I felt was the best representation of what we all suspect and choose not to explore. And that editor was not impressed...but I was. And I still am. And I hope you can be once I state my case for each figure and try to judge them by some pretty fair criteria.
Kendall DefoePublished 2 years ago in Geeks