Now that television is making a strike-induced turn toward the shitty, we as TV watchers have only a few choices. Since hobbies are for the geriatric or active, I suggested last week to catch up on some great shows via DVD, or to go online. While DVDs cost money, the Internet only costs us time (which is worth almost nothing).
Since the price is right, this article will focus on Internet entertainment. I know to some people the Internet seems only to be a master collection of scat smearin’, potato hidin’, hope killin’, Hollywood hole findin’, river dick dippin’, hobo emasculatin’, horse crouchin’, Bukowski readin’, elbow deepin’ and just good ole fashion video pornography. But I can assure you there is more than porn on the Internet. There is also entertaining, funny video content that features people with their clothes on. Plus, its participants don’t have to be tested for HIV weekly. Very convenient.
So here is your guide to Internet television, or webisodes, or video blogs, or whatever annoying name you want to call it.
Professor Brothers and I Am Baby Cakeswww.superdeluxe.comComic artist Brad Neely (whose web comics at www.creasedcomics.com are equally as funny) writes, draws and voices both these shows. Professor Brothers is a cartoon about–you guessed it–two brothers teaching at a university. We see Frank and Steve using condoms for shoe covers, giving the most preposterous yet true lecture on Sodom and Gomorrah, and going on dates.
I Am Baby Cakes is also a cartoon, and is about a rapping, Dungeons & Dragons-playing man-child named Baby Cakes, who still lives with his dad (who might be a wizard) and battles a creature only he can see named the “Mind-Fuckler.”Required viewing: “Professor Brothers Fliff Night”: Parts one and two
Derek and Simon: The Show www.superdeluxe.comThis show looks as though it could be on HBO, and it almost was, but it ended up on super deluxe instead. Derek and Simon are two 20-something friends, and their show documents their always-turbulent dating experiences. Bob Odenkirk (The Brothers Solomon) directs, which is incentive enough to at least check it out.Required Viewing: Episode 1, “Baby Talk”
Clarke and Michaelwww.clarkandmichael.comIf you are like me, George Michael on Arrested Development was your second favorite character (behind Tobias) on the show, and you thought Superbad was the funniest movie to come out in a long time. And the reason for this is Michael Cera. Now you can have more of him with his online show Clark and Michael. The show, which is about two friends and writing partners trying to get their work on TV, is doing two overdone things: the meta-show and a faux-documentary. But because it’s so funny, and the humor is original, Clark and Michael works. And I can never get enough of Michael Cera. Too bad the 10th episode was the last.Required viewing: All are superb.
The David Wain Channelwww.mydamnchannel.comYou might know David Wain as the writer-director for Wet Hot American Summer and Stella. If so, you already know what to expect: absurd, over the top humor. Watch David’s “Wainy Days.”Required viewing: Episode 4, “Cyrano d’Bluetooth”
Marbles Video Blogwww.youtube.com/user/BenjyFalconeWatch Marbles give advice about various things. You’ll tune in for her magnetic personality, but stay for her amazing sweaters. Too bad there are only three episodes of this right now.Required viewing: “E. coli Virus”