The following is in response to the viral article “Dear Mom On The iPhone”. You have probably seen it pop up in your Facebook news feed–perhaps while browsing on your iPhone or, gasp, Android (don’t even get me started about those Windows Phone 8 jerks). Anyway, it’s one of those uniquely asinine posts that deserve a response. Yes, the heart may be in the right place, but certainly the content doesn’t follow it. You can read the original article here, and the response below. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The Golden Globes are airing while I type this (though on no TV of mine), and the Academy Awards are coming up in a few short weeks. Given that, I thought I would take some time to highlight a few films you may have overlooked in 2012. These are, for the most part, not big Hollywood films.
However, many are just as enjoyable and worthy of your attention as those big Hollywood award nomination magnets. So while I loved The Avengers and was blown away by Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln like everyone else, hopefully you’ll give these films a shot as well. One of my great personal joys over the last few years has been running a film series of overlooked films at the university where I teach. Turning people onto great films is a real pleasure, so I hope you enjoy these picks.
Arbitrage
Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Roth star in what is to me the best thriller of the past year. Gere plays a finance bigwig who is carrying on fraud both with his company and his wife. When these issues begin to untangle, we also discover they intertwine.
A couple of years ago Gere shined in a similarly underrated film, Hachi: A Dog’s Tale. In that film he plays such a relentlessly good man that it was hard to understand how his wife could ever be cross with him. In this film he plays such an unbelievable jerk that you may similarly wonder why his wife ever married him. The fact that he is compellingly watchable in both roles is a tribute to his abilities as an actor. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Producing a comic three times a week is a lot of work. Each year we crank out 156 Professor Hobo comics. Some become big hits online, while others fizzle. We have no magic formula for guessing which will go viral and which will not, but it’s always fun to look back and see. Below are the ten most popular strips from 2012. And if you’re interested, here are the top ten from 2011. Enjoy.
10. The Politics of The Hunger Games
↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Two years ago we started a series of strips chronicling the entire Ten Commandments from the Bible. It’s actually much harder to make jokes about the Ten Commandments than you might think. We valued being respectful (we’re both Christian), but we knew there were humorous tweaks to be made. So if you enjoy them, please share with your friends and let us know if you’d like to see similar series.
First Commandment – Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So, your silly English teacher wants you to learn poetry, huh? Let’s be honest, you might be more interested in sonnets and sestinas if these poets were more liberal with their Xs and Os. Considering they’re not, and many of the ones you’re assigned are long dead and unable to adapt their work for you, perhaps there is another way to appreciate the wordsmiths?
Let’s take William Blake’s “The Lamb” as an example. It’s a poem commonly taught in high school and the introductory level in college. It hails from Blake’s Songs of Innocence, a book of poetry that is the companion piece to his Songs of Experience. The commonly accepted interpretation is that the poem is about God, as explained to a lamb by a little boy. Here’s the poem. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Facebook
Funny or Die
Google Plus
Twitter
Viddler
Vimeo
YouTube