Funny Things of All Types

-South Park’s season premiere features by far the best anime parody I have ever seen. They made anime versions of the South Park characters that really did look like anime characters (Chef was cool as hell, by the way), got the style of many anime action shows down, and even did a well-deserved parody of anime opening themes. Very funny. And even if you don’t know anything about anime, you could appreciate such things as Butters roaming around South Park and everyone thinking he’s a dog (because he had dog fur on him) and the jab at the Super Bowl incident towards the end of the episode.

-Chappelle’s Show was also very funny. When Arsenio Hall popped up in a skit where Dave is thinking of anything else but what a person is saying, it was great. Arsenio saying “This is some good ass cheese” had me rolling. He hasn’t been that funny in a looong time.

-Arrested Development is probably one of the funniest comedies on TV. The new episode they showed following American Idol was hilarious. Most of the characters are wacky (the father in prison who sells spiritual videotapes, the downright vicious mother, the brother who used to be a magician and competes constantly with his older brother), but they’re not over the top. The little things are what make this show so funny. I laughed at the family lawyer looking for prostitutes and driving off mad when not finding one that’s actually a man. I also laughed at the hilariously politically incorrect scenes with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a blind lawyer. Then there’s this exchange:

Maeby: “Enjoy your $200.”
George-Michael: “This is six twenties.”
Maeby: “I know.”

With Boston Public joining the rapidly growing amount of good FOX shows that don’t stay on for as long as they should, I hope Arrested Development doesn’t join them.

-I recently downloaded Daft Punk’s remix CD entitled “Daft Club.” It features some good remixes (Both remixes of “Harder Better Faster Stronger” are very good). What got me, though, was the Gonzales version of “Too Long.” It basically took the song and remade it as an old-school pop song (old-school as in Frank Sinatra old-school). It’s good but it’s almost campy.

-Time to spotlight some more manga. I mentioned in an earlier post that I download scanlations. Well, I’ve read a couple more series worth mentioning.

The first is Cromartie High School. It’s about a normal guy who goes to a weird high school known for having mostly juvenile delinquents. How weird is this school? Well, a guy that most of the school thinks is the toughest has no name but is called Freddie...partly because he looks kind of like Freddie Mercury of Queen. Yes, this manga is that random.

Another weird but funny little manga is Cafe Kichijoji. It’s basically about a group of guys who work at a cafe. Among the characters is a guy who dabbles in the occult, a guy who looks really young but is super-strong, and a dumb pretty boy who is constantly assaulted by the group’s lead worker. Anytime you read a manga where a cake batter screams if it’s stirred too forcefully, you know it’s off.

Cromartie High School is available from Ushi. Cafe Kichijoji is a joint project between three scanlation groups: Cabbit, Mangascreener, and Hemuloki Scanlations.