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Punditocracy

By Gavon Laessig

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A Farr Is Born

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

A 250-pound dwarf named Bleachy and ’70s soft rock pioneer Christopher “F*cking” Cross are on the line for you. Well, not really—your life isn’t that exciting—but you can simulate the experience with “Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1 & 2: The Greatest Prank Phone Calls Ever!” The collection is a reissue of long out-of-print punkings by Andrew Earles and Jeff Jensen—Jensen being a former Kansas City resident and current KU “star f*cker.” “Just Farr A Laugh” is less about humiliating the poor recipients of the calls and more about creating a sadly believable alternate reality where Morris Day really wants to party at Coyote Ugly and a man who goes by “Ditchweed” is positive that a PT Cruiser will solve his mid-life crisis. Jeff Jensen joined us by theme-appropriate phone in Brooklyn while making his friend some nachos.

Great Job!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

If you’ve seen “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, then you’re well acquainted with how virtually impossible it is to describe. Imagine sketch comedy in the vein of “Mr. Show,” Andy Kaufman’s confrontational brand of anti-humor, and video effects that look ripped from a Soviet-era infomercial produced by an autistic David Lynch—and you’ve still failed.

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim met as film students at Temple University in Philadelphia, where they discovered that they really didn’t care all that much for being film students and started making videos just to amuse themselves. A typical example of this early work features the duo dressed up as Batman & Robin, taking massive bong hits, and flying over the ocean with John McCain at their side.

“Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” jumps mercilessly from commercial parodies for products such as “The Poop Tube” to synth-laden musical numbers performed by a hideously deformed and vomiting little boy, with a whole host of slightly creepy social satire and spasm-inducing montages in between.

They’re somehow going to be performing all of this live in Lawrence. Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim took some time out from filming their third season to uncomfortably disseminate misinformation with us about the “Awesome Tour 2008!”

WHOOOOOO!!!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Somehow, in the midst of Lawrence's Final Four bender, Matt Armstrong and Gavon find a few fleeting moments of quasi-sobriety to snipe about Hillary Clinton's sniper moment. Also, '80s comics who are more trustworthy than Clinton, the media discovering Obama's dirty little secret (he's black), and the great Jayhawk riots of '08. Speaking of which...WHOOOOOOOO!!!

Just Toshing

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Daniel Tosh, and his particular brand of bug-eyed deadpan, has carved out a niche for himself in the comedy world as being a pure stand-up comic. He doesn’t have a TV show, he’s not trying to be taken seriously in some crappy indie film, and he’s not Dane Cook—he just tells jokes. Burnishing his comedy cred, Tosh has appeared on all of the late night biggies multiple times, getting his bona fides stamped by Letterman and Leno. This California-via-Florida resident spends most of his down time surfing, and that slacker Zen informs his musings on everything from midget parades to buying girlfriends on eBay. He’s got a DVD of his Comedy Central special, “Completely Serious,” and an album, “True Stories That I Made Up,” chronicling his college-friendly smart-assery. To promote his upcoming appearance in Lawrence, Daniel Tosh joined us for a quick conversation from his California home to discuss Nazis, bongs and those damn hillbillies from Memphis.

The Lost Art Of Rick Rolling

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Clinton, Obama, McCain and a healthy amount of beer make for the most inebriated episode of Punditocracy yet! Join Gavon, Matt Armstrong (Hate the Player) and Jill Ensley (Godjilla) as they offer up political and cultural analysis under the influence. Taffeta, Iron Man and Rick Astley might make guest appearances...although I really don't remember for sure. Damn but that new Boulevard Smokestack is plenty powerful.

Oscar Baiters 2008

Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008

This latest installment of Punditocracy completely abdicates its duty as a political watchdog podcast to shamelessly wallow in fame and collagen! That's right, it's our annual Oscars podcast! Maggie Allen (of Corn on the Macabre blogging fame) and Matt Armstrong (he of the mighty Hate the Player blog), join Gavon (of your neighborhood's sex offender registry) to predict the winners of this year's Academy Awards and dish...dish...DISH! As we try to decide what sucks worse, "Juno" or "Atonement," things get cattier than a slap fight between Perez Hilton and Kathy Griffin! We probably won't help you win your office Oscars pool, but we can at least help you kill an hour while you're at your office.

And don't forget the drinking game!

Focus the Nation

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008

With meteorological conditions comparable to Biblical wrath pounding the globe (if tornadoes in January and snow in Baghdad doesn't put some Old Testament fear in you, nothing will), now seems like a pretty good time to actually do something about climate change. It's that sense of urgency which compels Focus the Nation, a national "teach-in" taking place in over a thousand locations ranging from schools to places of worship. The Lawrence event will be a roundtable discussion held at the Dole Institute of Politics and moderated by local eco-luminary Simran Sethi. Participants will include Lt. Governor Mark Parkinson, Congressman Dennis Moore, Mayor Sue Hack, plus many more Lawrence and statewide politicos. Simran Sethi joined us to talk about this unique event, its efforts to tackle global "weirding," and the possible solutions at all levels of the Kansas community.

Click here for more details on the event!

Primary Erections

Friday, Jan. 18, 2008

Roundtablery of the bitchiest order returns! Aaron and Gavon go on at length (and it is a long, throbbing episode) about presidential primaries past and future, Glenn Beck's seeping rectum, and Sylvester Stallone's pivotal role in shaping human history.

Here's a bonus for those that patiently kept the Punditocracy torch burning:

Top 20 Iranian Provocations The U.S. Will Use As An Excuse To Bomb The Crap Out Of Them

1. Didn't answer Cheney’s Myspace survey.
2. Thought “Juno” was overrated.
3. That whole removing-Mossadegh-and-installing-the-Shah thing? Never even sent a “Thank You” note.
4. Ate the last taquito.
5. Always picking Muqtada al-Sadr over Condi for kickball games.
6. Re-gifted weapons to North Korea by just scratching out “From, Reagan” on the card.
7. Never waterboarded any U.S. hostages, making us look like total dicks.
8. Aren’t big on spooning.
9. Constantly smell like tahini.
10. Hate our freedom, especially when we try to spread it all over their face.
11. Are aggressively bearded.
12. Selfishly think their oil belongs to them.
13. Didn’t even have the common decency to suicide bomb our warships.
14. Ahmadenijad drunkenly made a pass at Jenna Bush, then George H.W. Bush.
15. Suspended their nuclear enrichment program like a bunch of d-bags.
16. Never accepted our apology for all of those “Ayatollah Ass-a-hole-ah” t-shirts. That’s just petty.
17. Insist on being brown.
18. Hello?!?! Executing the mentally retarded? That’s our turf. Kindly stop frontin’.
19. Supplied IED technology to Iraqi insurgents—even though they didn’t. Jerks.
20. Double dipping. Eww.

2007: The Year that Shouldn’t Have

Sunday, Dec. 30, 2007

Hey, remember 2007? You know, back in the day, when silly fads like “iPhones” and “suspending the writ of habeas corpus” were all the rage? Ah, yesterday...

This New Year’s Eve, As we mainline fried Coke directly into our veins, it would behoove us to pause and remember what made 2007 so great. That’s right—celebrities and other newsmakers. We’ve compiled a list of suggested New Year’s resolutions for those cultural and political leaders who made 2007 so memorable. Consider it a “Thank You” to those brave soldiers serving on the frontlines of porno-style journalism. Let’s help these pillars of oligarchy make 2008 next year’s 2007!

Grab a warm can of tainted Chinese dog food, fire up the white noise generator so the NSA wiretap can’t hear, and enjoy our New Year’s resolutions for the wretched and famous!

Actual News 12-10-2007

Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007

It's the Actual News holiday hootenanny! Put it in Santa's opium pipe and smoke it! Well, to be honest, there's nothing particularly festive about this episode...spree killing, torture, and homophobia top the news. Unless you consider Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Oprah demented elves, it's not very Christmas-y at all, really. Is there a Pacific Rim holiday celebrating explosive diarrhea? Well, if so, this Punditocracy is gonna be the most magical festival of human liquid expellant EVER!

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Film: "Hip Hop, Beyond Beats and Rhymes" :: A riveting examination of manhood, sexism, and homophobia in hip-hop culture. Director Byron Hurt conceived the documentary as a "loving critique" of a number of disturbing trends in the world of rap ... More info

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