R.I.P. Paul Bearer

Tags

paul bearer, rip paul bearer, the undertaker, william moody, wrestlemania, wrestling, wwe, wwf

William Moody, or as he’s better known in the world of wrestling as the legendary Paul Bearer, has passed away, age 58.

Dear Reader, I have been a big professional wrestling fan ever since I was a little Duke. Granted, I don’t watch too much of it these days, as the talent they have is nothing like what it used to be, the violence has been toned down extremely to create a more family-friendly vibe, and, maybe most importantly, hardly anyone in the WWE can act. Occasionally, a brilliant match will come along that you can show to people and say “see, this is why wrestling is awesome”, like the 10 out of 10, fucking brilliant match between the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXV (seriously, please, go check that shit out), but for the most part, wrestling has gotten pretty lame. But when I was growing up in the 90′s, fuck, wrestling was awesome. I loved watching all the great WWF (and it’s still WWF to me, fuck calling it WWE) superstars battle it out in the ring, and no wrestler was greater to me than the Undertaker. The guy was huge, and could destroy anybody in his path. But a large part of the appeal of the Undertaker was thanks to his manager, Paul Bearer.

Paul Bearer was funny as hell, and even better, he was really fucking weird. I suppose the world of professional wrestling is pretty weird in general (they had characters with names like Mr. Ass, after all), but Paul Bearer took that shit to a whole new level. Actually, looking back on it, I’d say watching him in action shaped a lot of the surreal sense of humour that I have today. There has never been a better manager in the history of professional wrestling, and I doubt there ever will be again.

I love you, Paul Bearer. Rest In Peace.

Where are the “Community” reviews?

Tags

community, full house, television reviews

Dear Reader, it is with a heavy heart that I must retire my weekly reviews of Community, at least for now. The reason? I just can’t work up enough energy and passion to talk about it. Despite the firing of showrunner Dan Harmon at the end of last season, I was still super excited for Community to come back. The writing staff, and of course the cast, remained largely untouched, so I had faith. But man, it’s just not the same. What was once one of the smartest and funniest comedies on television seems to be resting on its laurels, and has lost its spark.

I tried to struggle through. I reviewed the first two episodes, which were good, but not great. I intended to write about the third, but just didn’t have the drive, but thought that I would do mini reviews of the third and fourth together. But now the fourth has passed, and I just can’t do it. Community hasn’t become terrible, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a long way from being the great show it once was. It’s gotten a bit too sappy, for my liking, that bitterness is gone. The show is equal parts old Community, and Full House. Not a good combination.

So the reviews will be retired for now. Perhaps if the quality picks up, and my love for the show returns to full strength, I will begin again. Until then, my fellow Community fans, let’s just hope things improve.

The Dukes Playground 2013 Academy Award predictions

Tags

2013 academy awards, academy awards, amour, argo, beasts of the southern wild, best picture, django unchained, les miserables, life of pi, lincoln, movies, oscar prediction, oscars, silver linings playbook, zero dark thirty

Hello, Dear Reader, it is I, The Duke here, to discuss with you the 85th Academy Awards, set to air on the 24th of February, so it’s just a short wait now. Of course, I haven’t seen every movie, so my predictions are pretty baseless, but if I’m right on most of these, I am going to celebrate my own genius with a six-pack of Tooheys Extra Dry, and a bunch of drunken “I told you so” moments to anyone who is unfortunate to listen. I’m not going to talk about every single category, because honestly, what the fuck do I know about things like Film Editing, or Makeup and Hairstyling? You can spot bad work in these categories from a mile off, but when you’re talking about the cream of the crop, it’s really anybody’s game, right? I’ll definitely talk about the big 5 (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Screenplay, and Directing) and a few others that spark my interest.

So I present to you hear, Dear Reader, the completely baseless 2013 Academy Award predictions, brought to you by The Dukes Playground.

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life Of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

I’m gonna have to go for Argo on this one. Argo was a fucking awesome movie, and is picking up a whole bunch of awards from other shows. And how can you not dig Affleck’s Ellis from Die Hard look? Yep, this one should go to Argo.

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln
Hugh Jackman for Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix for The Master
Denzel Washington for Flight

The safe money is probably on Daniel Day-Lewis for this one, but Lincoln was a boring movie, even though Daniel Day-Lewis killed it. So I have to go for Joaquin Phoenix in The Master. His performance is funny, sad, genuine, just perfect. Hell, he deserves to win just for this scene alone:

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva for Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Naomi Watts for The Impossible

Ok, Dear Reader, I’ll be honest. I haven’t seen a single one of these movies, so I have no fucking clue. Everyone seems to be saying Jennifer Lawrence will take this one, but I’m going to go with Naomi Watts in The Impossible for this category. Why? Because I loved Mulholland Drive, and I hated The Hunger Games. It’s not a great reason, but hey, it’s probably a better tactic for selection than what the people who actually vote for the winners must use, considering some of the horrible winners we’ve had in the past. I’m looking at you, Shakespeare In Love.

Best Directing
Michael Haneke for Amour
Benh Zeitlin for Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Ang Lee for Life Of Pi
Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

The fact that Affleck wasn’t nominated for Argo is simply digusting, so I honestly don’t give a fuck about this category. I’m just going with David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook because the guy has a famously short temper, and I’d hate for him to get up on the stage and beat the shit out of whoever beats him. Actually scratch that, that might make the show fun to watch for once…

Steven Spielberg for Best Director!

Best Original Screenplay
Michael Haneke for Amour
Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
John Gatins for Flight
Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty

This one is a no-brainer. It has to be Quentin Tarantino. Say what you want about his movies, the mother fucker know how to write, and how to entertain. Besides, you don’t want to make the Coke Wizard that tells Quentin what to do angry…

And the rest…

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained. Christoph Waltz could film himself eating a sandwich, and he would deserve an Oscar. The guy is incredible.
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams for The Master. An understated performance. Deserves a nod.
Best Animated Feature Film: ParaNorman. Aside from Brave, which is one of the few movies Pixar missed the mark on, this is a tough category. I think Frankenweenie might just get the win, but I would have to go with ParaNorman. It was funny, it was scary, it had heart, but most importantly, it had fucking balls. Considering it’s the first mainstream children’s animated film to have an openly gay character, it deserves the Oscar just for showing some fucking guts.
Best Original Song: “Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, by Walter Murphy & Seth MacFarlane, performed by Norah Jones. Yep, the guy who created Family Guy of all things, is nominated for an Oscar. And you know what? I think he should win. Ted was actually a really fucking good movie. Funny as hell, and it had a beautiful story. And this song, as sung by Norah Jones, is just gorgeous.
Best Animated Short Film: Paperman. This was shown in theatres in front of Wreck-It Ralph, and I absolutely loved it. It has no dialogue, is only about 5 minutes long, and still manages to tell a very sweet love story.
Best Adapted Screenplay: David Magee for Life Of Pi. The movie had its flaws to be sure, and the ambiguity didn’t translate to screen as well as one would hope, but David Magee still managed to take a book that most people would have said was unfilmable, and managed to turn it into a pretty compelling screenplay.

Well that’s it from me, Dear Reader. Who do you think will be winning all the big awards on the night? Or, more importantly, do you even give a fuck? Hit me up in the comments, and let’s discuss this shit.

The Curious Case of Oscar Pistorius

Tags

amputee, current events, oscar pistorius, paralympian, reeva steenkamp, sexy model, south africa

Oscar Pistorius is a Paralympics legend (as you may have guessed from the above picture, he’s missing a couple of things). The man has taken home gold in several different running events over the years, and all whilst running in the T44 races. T44 races are normally reserved for single below knee amputees, but Oscar is a double below knee amputee, which means he should be in the T43 races. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t really know if he has an advantage or not, because of that. Maybe it would be easier to be running of two of those sticks, instead of just one? Personally, I need to know where to sign up for the three-legged races, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, Dear Reader, this is all beside the point. I just wanted you to have a bit of background information on this man, who has made, let’s just say, a slight error. Well, if you can classify shooting and killing your girlfriend a slight error. Maybe gigantic fucking disaster would be more accurate.

Oscar’s case is in court now, and he has already admitted his guilt… kind of. He’s admitted to shooting and killing his girlfriend, smoking hot South African model Reeva Steenkamp, but his version of events is a little unusual. Oscar says he heard something go bump in the night, and he believed there was an intruder in the house. He says he was too scared to yell out, or turn on the lights, or any of that conventional bullshit. Instead, he leaped to the obvious conclusion that what he should do, is grab the gun that he keeps under his bed, go into the bathroom where the noise was coming from, and begin firing shots into the closed toilet door. A sample of Pistorius’ affidavit can be found here.

Such a waste of sexy.

Dear Reader, I’m a married man. I understand that it may be a bit hard to act rationally when faced with the panic of someone breaking into your home while you are there, but that being said, if I was in bed and I thought I heard someone in the house, the first fucking thing I would do is check to see if my wife was OK. And also, why the fuck would an intruder be sitting on the toilet with the door locked? I have heard many a tale of people shitting in the toilet of the house they have broken into, due to nerves or whatever. But why would they bother locking the door, or even closing it? And if the intruder was in the toilet, Oscar had them cornered, with a FUCKING GUN! It didn’t cross his mind for one second to just say “I have a gun, identify yourself or I will fire” instead of just blasting away?

I suppose that this could have all been a tragic accident. It absolutely could have happened the way Oscar said it happened. But come on, folks, it seems pretty fucking unlikely. The story just doesn’t add up. I will concede that if Pistorius had some kind of mental deficiency, instead of just a physical ailment, then perhaps he would be stupid enough to fire bullets into a door before checking if his girlfriend was around. But two missing legs do not equal a loss of brain function. With Reeva Steenkamp now tragically deceased, I guess there’s only one person who really knows the truth.

So what do you think, Dear Reader? Do you think Oscar Pistorius has committed cold-blooded murder, or is he just an very unfortunate idiot? Hit me up in the comments below.

Community: “Paranormal Parentage” review

Tags

calvin and hobbes, community, halloween, halloween episode, paranormal parentage, s04e02, scooby doo, six seasons and a movie, valentine s day, valentine's day

Let’s just get this out of the way straight away, Dear Reader. Yes, it felt a little weird to see a Halloween episode of Community air on Valentine’s Day. Of course, this is due to the well-documented delays of Season 4, so I’m not going to get into that much, just enough to say that this is what’s happened, but we still ahve our beloved Community, so let’s just smile, and hope that they don’t delay it again. Good.

So here we have Paranormal Parentage, the second episode of Season 4, and another Halloween episode for the show. Halloween episodes have been there in every single season (after Introduction to Statistics in Season 1, Epidemiology in Season 2, and Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps in Season 3), and they’re a tradition that Community fans love, so in a post Dan Harmon era, it would have been a tall order to throw this together. So how did they do? We’ll get to that, be patient.

The study group plans to go (without Pierce) to a cool Halloween party. They’re dressed up, ready to go, and of course the Dean even has a costume ready, as you can see in the pic above, but he always has a costume ready, so no surprises there. The plans are forgotten, however, when they receive a call from Pierce who has locked himself in his panic room in his mansion, and the group has to go get him out. Hijinks ensue.

As we’ve come to expect from Halloween episodes of Community, the costumes were terrific, and kept in line with tradition. Jeff wore something to make him look hot, Britta wore something silly, Troy and Abed continued their boyish ways (Calvin and Hobbes!), and Shirley as Princess Leia was, well, pretty cool. The standout costume for me was Annie as the girl from The Ring (although, since Jeff was dressed, as a boxer, he intended for Annie to come dressed as his “ring” girl). The costume was very accurate, and someehow still quite sexy.

The episode played as an homage to Scooby-Doo, and for the most part, it worked. The paranormal stuff was handled really well, and the Scooby-Doo style explanations for them were clever. Even the fake-out over who was responsible for everything was very good. What I didn’t like entirely, though, were the ways that the characters reacted to what was going on around them. I understand that this is a Scooby-Doo homage, and the characters were acting the way they would act if they were on that show, but they’re not. They’re on Community. Even in their zombie episode, the brilliant Epidemiology, the characters still remained grounded, despite the insanity surrounding them. I feel Paranormal Parentage missed the mark with that. There was too much over the top screaming, and a scene where Troy had something coming out of a wall behind him, and misinterpreting what Annie and Shirley were telling him, was completely mishandled.

At least we got a little bit of material to satisfy our Valentine’s Day needs. The relationship between Troy and Britta is slowly developing, and there was a lot of talk about that here. They are overplaying Troy’s child-like manner a little bit, I think, but it did give us some funny looks into what sex for Troy and Britta would be like, with Britta’s past exploration and Troy’s innocence. And it looks like we may finally be seeing Jeff’s father on the show! So the future is looking rather bright for the show, I just hope they know what they’re doing.

All in all, a decent episode, but one that I feel could have been much better with a bit more careful handling. It looks like the new showrunners are still finding their feet, so let’s hope they get there.

3 out of 5

Awesome religions of the world #4: The Aetherius Society

Tags

aetherius society, awesome religions of the world, crazy religions, george king, james randi, religion, scientology

I had to reach a point in this series where I talked about a UFO cult eventually, and Dear Reader, that time is now. Let me introduce you to the fun of the members of the Aetherius Society.

The Aetherius Society was formed in 1955 (or 1954, the jury is out on that one) by a man named George King. Apparently, George King was practicing yoga when he developed psychic powers. He heard a voice (most likely a voice in his own crazy motherfucking head) that had this to say:

Prepare yourself! You are to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament.

Of course, rather than immediately seek professional help for his obvious mental issues, he believed the voice that he heard was 100% real. A week later, a world famous swami is said to have appeared in King’s apartment. By “appeared”, I’m sure they mean “broke the fuck in”. The swami told King to form a group dedicated to helping the planet, and thus the Aetherius Society was starting to be born.

Now, the voices in King’s head didn’t stop at just saying “Prepare yourself!”, oh no. Through prayer and meditation, King began to receive telepathic messages from Venus, and apparently, started recording the messages that came to him from the Cosmic Masters. One of the Cosmic Masters he called, of course, Aetherius.

George King – founder

So that’s how the cult, sorry, “society” got started, but what about the belief system they follow? Well, they do believe in Jesus. Good start, Christianity is popular, so right on, go Jesus! What’s that? They believe in Buddah too? OK, seems a bit strange, but I guess it’s not so bad. Oh, and Krishna is in there too? Fair enough, there have been many societies in human history that have believed in many gods so… cool. Hold on, you have more? You think they were all aliens, that Krishna is from Saturn, and so on? Jesus Christ, give me a fucking break! I offended you by saying Jesus Christ? Well, shit, if you choose to believe in almost everything, it’s kind of hard not to offend you, so fuck…

Now apparently these beings don’t exist in our dimension. They’re actually on the same planets, but in another version of our dimension. And hey, Saturn is even the home of the Interplanetary Counsel! I couldn’t find photographic evidence of this, unfortunately, because I would be willing to bet my life savings, and hell, my cock and balls while I’m at it, that the Interplanetary Counsel does not exist! But if it did, I’d like to think it looks something like this…

A goal of the Aetherius Society is to spread a message to humanity that we need to find better ways of living, or face the consequences that living our filthy ways will bring. We have already seen some of these consequences in the past, for example, the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl. But have no fear, because alien Jesus and friends can predict these horrific events before they happen! Sure, they predicted Chernobyl only 4 hours before it happened, and didn’t lift a green, freaky finger to do a fucking thing about it, but at least they were aware of it. Brilliant! If the members of the Aetherius Society are being told by aliens they have an important message to spread or else humanity will be doomed, why aren’t they trying harder? Where’s the door knocking? I’ve slammed the door on many a Jehovah’s Witness in the past, but I’ve never had one of these guys at my door.

If the members of the Aetherius Society fail in their duties to protect humanity, they believe that they will be called to sacred mountains, and then be rescued. I’m sorry, Dear Reader, but if they failed their task that they’re meant to be doing, why do they deserve to be saved? They should be punished for fucking up! Otherwise, they might as well sabotage the efforts of humanity to improve so they can be rescued, and taken to the paradise of Saturn of wherever the hell they think they’re going. At least Christians tell each other that suicide is a sin so they can’t off themselves and get an automatic pass into Heaven.

George King is referred to as a “Doctor” as members of the Aetherius Society, although what he’s done to actually be called a “Doctor” is a little hard to figure out. It’s said that he recieved his doctorate from the International Theological Seminary of California, where there’s no accreditation, and if they’re as lazy with the look of their website as they are with the validity of their degrees, then I wouldn’t really feel comfortable putting the word “Doctor” in front of George King’s name. Legendary skeptic, and god among men, James Randi, is more than happy to tell you that referring to George King as anything other than a moron, is bullshit.

Oh, James Randi, how I love thee…

It sounds like I’ve been shitting on the Aetherius Society, and I have, it can’t be denied. So you might be asking yourself why this would be listed as one of the awesome religions of the world. Well, any religion that believes that there are alien beings in another dimension helping to control humanity sound pretty awesome in my book. Oh wait, I forgot, Scientologists exist. Fuck the Scientologists, but these guys aren’t so bad. And they’ve got one thing right. Their motto really is quite beautiful:

Blessed is the Great Being known as the Galaxy

For further reading, please be sure to check out the Aetherius Society website, which has a fascinating FAQ, or you could always track down one of the many books that George King himself wrote, with names like Contacts with the God’s from Space, You Are Responsible!, and the brilliantly titled Jesus Comes Again, which is a brilliant title for a potentially very offensive porno.

The greatest Rage guest programmers ever!

Tags

at the movies, australian culture, australian tv, david stratton, margaret and david, margaret pomeranz, rage, real wild child, the movie show

Perhaps one of the greatest (no fuck it, let’s just say the greatest) things in Australian pop culture is Rage. Every single person in Australia should know what Rage is, and if they don’t, then there is something seriously wrong with them, and we cannot be friends. For all my Dear Readers from abroad, let me give you the lowdown.

Rage is a music television program that has been running in Australia since 1987, and unlike MTV, still actually fucking airs music videos instead of Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, and whatever other pieces of shit that MTV has on. The opening credits of the show are now iconic, and I’m sure for a lot of Australians, when they here the song Real Wild Child by Iggy Pop, they automatically just think of it as “the Rage song”.

For anyone not from our sunburnt country, you really can’t understand the impact that Rage has had on us. It’s a show that primarily airs really, really late on Friday and Saturday nights, and for most of us, especially when we’re teenagers, it’s a rite of passage to put Rage on, and stay awake as late as humanly possible, just drinking it all in. It’s ritualistic, it’s beautiful, it’s EVERYTHING. Rage can also lead a lot of us to experience something I like to call “Rage Syndrome”, a condition where you cannot turn the show off, no matter how much you know you should. A music video you like comes on, you say to yourself, “I love this, I hope the next one’s good too”. Or worse, a video you either hate or are completely disinterested in comes on, and you say “the next one might be good, it’s OK”. Before you know it, you’re sitting there, covered in your own drool with bloodshot eyes, saying those same four words over and over again… “Just one more song. Just one more song. Just one more song…”

Now, the way the show breaks down is like this. Friday nights are when they show the new release music videos. Saturday night, is the real fun night, though. Saturday night is when Rage has a quest programmer, who chooses their favourite music videos, and talk about their choices. Every single week, a litany of amazing artists from all around the world park their arses on the infamous Rage couch to guest program. We’re talking about artists and bands like Marilyn Manson, Placebo, Moby, Bob Geldof, Elvis Costello, Chris Isaak, Foo Fighters, Fatboy Slim, Kiss, Metallica, The Polyphonic Spree, Scissor Sisters, Jarvis Cocker, Ween. The list goes on. But now, we may have the greatest pair of guest programmers the show has ever seen.

If Rage is the most important piece of Australian pop culture, then Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton have to be the second most important. Margaret and David have been reviewing movies as a team since 1986, beginning with The Movie Show on SBS until they moved to ABC in 2004 to host At The Movies. They are icons, and are loved by any and all Australians who aren’t total fucking morons. And now, these two legends are going to be guest programming Rage.

You might ask, “Duke, these guys are movie reviewers, they’re not musicians. What could they possibly be doing on the show?” Well, Dear Reader, according to the Rage website:

It’s amazing how many music videos have been directed by well-known filmmakers from all around the world. This weekend Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from At The Movies will be joining us for a very special Auteur edition of rage.

Over the course of the night you’ll see music videos from some of the most highly acclaimed Directors in the world including David Fincher, Kriv Stenders, Martin Scorsese, Michel Gondry, Anton Corbjin, James Cameron, Lasse Hallström, Lars Von Trier, Sofia Coppola, Kathryn Bigelow, Brian De Palma, Guy Ritchie, Phillip Noyce, David Lynch, Darren Aronofsky, John Badham, Richard Lowenstein, Tim Burton, The Coen Brothers, Spike Lee, David LaChapelle, Derek Jarman, Kimble Rendall, Spike Jonze, Mark Romanek, Tony Scott and Alex Proyas.

This may be one of the most exciting events to ever happen on Australian television.

So to my Australian friends, I strongly suggest you tune in this Saturday, the 16th of February, and watch the fuck out of this, because it is going to be unbelievable. For the rest of the world, find a way to watch it, you will not regret it.

God Hates Australia

Tags

60 minutes, black saturday, god hates australia, god hates fags, heath ledger, louis theroux, the chaser, westboro baptist church

Well, according to the crazy mother fuckers from the Westboro Baptist Church anyway.

I’m sure you all know who these guys are by now. These are the mean pieces of shit that picket the funerals of soldiers with their “God Hates Fags” signs. They think that every natural disaster is caused by God to cleanse us human beings of our sins. But their hate isn’t just targeted towards their American brethren. They’ve got their eye on the rest of the world, too. They’ve got their eye on me, and the rest of my fellow Australians.

We’ve been a target of their hate for quite some time now. When a series of devastating bushfires spread through the state of Victoria in 2009, an event now known as the Black Saturday bushfires, over 150 people were killed, and many more peoples lives and homes were destroyed as a result. It was a horrible, disgusting event that deeply hurt our great nation. But according to Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, it was our fault (apparently gay people had something to do with it, I don’t know how the minds of these fucking idiots work). Check this out:

Absolutely insane. But it doesn’t end there. Remember this incredibly talented and sadly missed actor?

Of course you do. Heath Ledger, the Australian born mega-star tragically passed away in 2008 when he was just starting to produce his best work (I mean, come on, how incredible was his performance as The Joker?). I’m assuming due to his leading role in Brokeback Mountain, when his funeral was held in Perth, Western Australia, some members of the Westboro Baptist Church dragged their filthy arses here to picket his funeral. It can’t get much more disgusting than that!

It was a big enough topic for the Australian version of 60 Minutes to tackle. Here’s the full piece, for some extra Westboro craziness:

Thankfully, we’re a country built on a larrikin attitude, and we’re smart enough to not let the Westboro Baptist Church have the power here that they would like. For the most part, they’re ignored, but sometimes, we can make fun of them as well.

The Chaser’s War on Everything was a satirical comedy show produced by the brilliant Chaser team that ran here between 2006 and 2009. The show tackled virtually everything, from low-brow dick and fart jokes, to intelligent pieces that tackled Australian politicians, a visit from then American president George W. Bush (performing a stunt that very nearly got them thrown in jail), and so on. They even had time to tackle our friends, the Westboro Baptist Church.

Amazing. And we need more stuff like this. The more we make fun of, or even better, ignore, these dirty cunts, then the less we’ll have to deal with them. They only have the power they do because of the attention we give them, right, Dear Reader?

But here’s where things get a little tricky. And please, hear me out before you think I’m too crazy. There is a small part of me that almost admires these guys. The bible is full of some crazy fucking shit, it’s true, and most people who believe in the bible pick and choose what parts they want to apply to their lives because of this. That’s fine. But the Westboro Baptist Church? They have the intestinal fortitude to stand by the horrible things written in the bible 100 percent. They feel that sinners should burn in hell. They believe that the plagues and pestilence brought upon people in the Old Testament are a good thing, and should be applied today. And they’re waiting for the Rapture! Oh, man, are they waiting for that Rapture! They couldn’t be more excited. They have the balls to stand by their beliefs, despite the fact everyone else in the world tells them they’re nuts. You have to respect that, just a little, right? I completely disagree with their beliefs, but I do understand them. And as long as America has free speech protected in the Constitution, they should be able to continue their ranting. And we should all be allowed to continue to tell them to go fuck themselves.

For more on the Westboro Baptist Church, please check the excellent documentary from British film-maker Louis Theroux (pictured above) The Most Hated Family in America, and its follow-up, America’s Most Hated Family in Crisis. And of course, check out the Wesboro Baptist Church’s website, godhatestheworld.com (that link will take you straight to the Australian section of their site). Happy reading!

Community: “History 101″ review

Tags

changnesia, community, greendale, greendale babies, history 101, joel mchale, the big bang theory

Community is back, baby! After a very long and frustrating hiatus, we are finally getting another season of one of the greatest comedies in existence, and it is great to finally have the show back.

The first episode of the season, History 101, was not as strong a return as I would have hoped considering how long we waited, but it was a good episode overall. There was a lot of concern, of course, for those who have been following the behind-the-scenes troubles of the show.

To summarise, for thos who don’t know, the series was at risk of getting cancelled, but a new season was finally ordered, with less episodes, but ordered, at least. Dan Harmon, the creator of Community, was fired from the show, so that certainly created fear in the minds of the very loyal fan base of the show, that the ship would be steered in the wrong direction without its fearless commander. Certainly the new show-runners, Moses Port and David Guarascio, have very, very big shoes to fill. And of course, there are the off-screen antics of Chevy Chase, who has long expressed his distaste of working on the show, and especially working with Dan Harmon. But despite Harmon’s firing, Chevy was still whining, and has now left the show after a mutual decision between himself and those involved in the show’s production. Unfortunately, he left before the season was actually finished filming, so we’ll have to see how that plays out.

So, with all that in mind, I (like many others, I’m sure), approached the premiere episode excited, but with some amount of trepidation. Straight off the bat, the jokes were incredibly cheesy, and there was a fucking laugh track! Thankfully, this was just a fantasy playing out in Abed’s head, a fantasy that was taking a not so subtle dig at some of Community‘s bitter ratings rivals, like the awful, awful The Big Bang Theory that it airs against on Thursday nights. In Abed’s fantasy, too, the part of Pierce Hawthorne had been recast as Fred Willard. A joke that I’m sure existed before Chevy leaving the show, but one that plays out even better knowing what has happened.

The core of the episode featured a neat The Hunger Games parody, with Dean Pelton hosting “The Hunger Deans”, a series of games to win balls that would grant the winners access to the only History class the college was offering, the History of Ice Cream. Seeing the previews for History 101 before its airing, one could be forgiven for thinking that the show had become what many feared with the departure of Dan Harmon, a series of silly pop-culture references without the heart which the show is really best at capturing. Thankfully, “The Hunger Deans” weren’t as heavily focused on as one might have thought from the previews, with the games being used a backdrop for the story itself.

Jeff had been taking extra classes during the break, and only needs one more History credit to graduate, meaning he would be leaving the college earlier than the rest of the study group. But his intent is to win a ball for each member of the group, so that they could all take the class together. If he can’t win 7 balls, then he won’t take the class. But he gives his all to get those balls, including dancing the tango with the Dean, in a brilliantly crafted scene. Meanwhile, Abed is trapped inside his own head, living in a world of a shitty multi-camera sitcom, where fuck-ups at the college mean they will all be staying there indefinitely, fulfilling what Abed really wants, for the group to stay together forever. This leads to a great joke where the fantasy Abed begins his own fantasy where the study group is realised as a cartoon, Greendale Babies, an excellent Muppet Babies take-off.

In the end, Jeff forfeits going the final ball he needs to be with his study group, and the heart that the show has and its love for its characters lives on.

The cast is still just as strong as ever. Jim Rash as the Dean had a lot to do in this episode, and is as wonderful as ever. As is Joel McHale, a strong leading man who holds the show together well, and will hopefully continue to get great parts once Community is sadly gone. The rest of the cast didn’t have a huge amount to do here. There was a strong scene between Britta and Troy making wishes at a fountain, but the focus was on Jeff, and Abed’s fantasies. The tone of some of the episode was surprisingly dark, which I enjoyed. The Greendale Babies material was well executed. The jokes involving Pierce trying to find the perfect ball joke fell a little flat, but not everything is going to work when you have new guys calling the shots.

All in all, a good start to the season. Not great, but good. Hopefully, it won’t be long before the show find its feet and becomes the great show we know and love again.

Greendale Babies for life! And hopefully Chang (or “Kevin”) overcomes his Changnesia.

3 1/2 out of 5

Aloha, Mister Hand and Last Page on the Left: for all your horror needs

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aloha mister hand, entertainment, horror movies, last page on the left, media, movies

If you’re a fan of horror, which if you’re reading The Dukes Playground you must be, Dear Reader, as the quality of the writing is downright horrific in its own way, then you will love these sites brought to you by a good friend of The Duke, who you should trust, as I have never steered you wrong.

First there is Aloha, Mister Hand, a WordPress site primarily dedicated to the wonderful world of the horror film, with some extra excellence covering other topics as well.

And, just recently added to the roster, is the partnering Facebook page, Last Page on the Left which, although it has only just started, is a great page to check out and interact with the writer and the fans. Here’s hoping we can build it up and create a great community of horror fans to build up some great content in the future!

Be sure to check out my Links page at the top of The Dukes Playground as well if you’re looking for these sites again in the future.

http://alohamisterhand.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LastPageOnTheLeft