Portal:Comedy/Selected article
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] Instructions
The layout design for these subpages is at Portal:Comedy/Selected article/Layout.
- Add a new Selected article to the next available subpage.
- The list should only contain articles that have been given a quality rating of Wikipedia:Featured articles.
- The "blurb" for all selected articles should be approximately 10 lines, for appropriate formatting in the portal main page.
- Update "max=" to new total for its {{Random portal component}} on the main page.
[edit] Selected articles list
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/1
The Simpsons is an animated American sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a soft-satirical parody of the "Middle American" lifestyle epitomized by its titular family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield, and lampoons many aspects of the human condition, as well as American culture, society as a whole, and television itself. Since its debut on December 17, 1989, the show has aired 408 episodes over 19 seasons. It is presently airing its nineteenth season. The Simpsons has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 23 Emmy Awards, 24 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award. Time magazine's December 31, 1999 issue named it the 20th century's best television series. The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom. Homer's annoyed grunt "D'oh!" has been adopted into the English lexicon, while The Simpsons has been cited as an influence on many adult-oriented animated sitcoms.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/2
Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, following the humorous antics of Calvin, an imaginative six-year old boy, and Hobbes, his energetic and sardonic—albeit stuffed—tiger. The pair are named after John Calvin, a 16th century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th century English political philosopher. The strip was syndicated daily from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. At its height, Calvin and Hobbes was carried by over 2,400 newspapers worldwide. To date, more than 30 million copies of the 18 Calvin and Hobbes books have been printed. The strip is vaguely set in the contemporary Midwestern United States, on the outskirts of suburbia, a location probably inspired by Watterson's home town of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Calvin and Hobbes appear in most of the strips, while a small number focus on other supporting characters. The broad themes of the strip deal with Calvin's flights of fantasy, his friendship with Hobbes, his misadventures, his views on a diverse range of political and cultural issues and his relationships and interactions with his parents, classmates, educators, and other members of society. The dual nature of Hobbes is also a recurring motif. Calvin sees Hobbes one way (alive), while other characters see him as something else (a stuffed animal).
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/3
Cheers was a long-running American situation comedy produced by Charles-Burrows-Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television for NBC. The show was set in the eponymous Cheers bar in Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of locals met to drink and generally have fun. The show's theme song was written and performed by Gary Portnoy with its famous refrain, "where everybody knows your name" that also became the show's tagline. After premiering on September 30, 1982, it was nearly cancelled during its first season when it ranked dead last in ratings. However, Cheers eventually became one of the most popular television shows in the United States, earning a top-ten rating during seven of its eleven seasons and spending the bulk of its run on NBC's Must See Thursday lineup. Its widely watched series finale was broadcast on May 20, 1993, and the show's 273 episodes have now entered into a long and successful syndication run. The show earned 26 Emmy Awards, out of a total of 117 nominations. The character Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) later starred in his own successful spin-off, Frasier, after Cheers ended.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/4
Stephen Colbert's performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner mocked the Bush administration and the White House press corps, and subsequently generated significant controversy. Stephen Colbert was the featured entertainer for the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, delivering a 20-minute speech and video presentation which was broadcast live on C-SPAN and MSNBC. Colbert spoke as the same character as the one he plays on The Colbert Report: an over-the-top send-up of a conservative pundit in the fashion of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. Colbert satirized the Bush administration and the White House press corps. Colbert spoke directly to President Bush several times, satirically praising his foreign policy, lifestyle, and beliefs, and referencing his low approval rating and popular reputation. Various reports give an impression that Bush did not take too kindly to the performance, as several of Bush's aides and supporters walked out during Colbert's speech, and one former aide said that the President had "that look that he's ready to blow." Reaction to the event caused it to become an Internet and media sensation, and ratings for The Colbert Report soared 37% in the week following the speech.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/5
Yes Minister is a multi-award winning satirical British sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn that was first transmitted by BBC television and radio between 1980 and 1984, split over three seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988. In total this made 38 episodes, all but one of which last half an hour. Set in the private office in Whitehall of a British government cabinet minister (and, in the sequel, in 10 Downing Street), the series follows the ministerial career of Jim Hacker MP, played by Paul Eddington. His various struggles to formulate and enact legislation or effect departmental changes are opposed by the will of the British Civil Service, in particular his Permanent Secretary (senior civil servant), Sir Humphrey Appleby, played by Nigel Hawthorne. His Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley, played by Derek Fowlds is usually caught between the two, although heavily influenced by Sir Humphrey. Almost every programme ends with the line "Yes, Minister" (or "Yes, Prime Minister"), uttered (usually) by Sir Humphrey as he quietly relishes his victory over his "political master" (or, occasionally, acknowledges defeat). A huge critical and popular success, the series received a number of awards, including several BAFTAs and in 2004 came sixth in the Britain's Best Sitcom poll. It was the favourite television programme of the then British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/6
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is a 2006 Academy Award-nominated mockumentary comedy film directed by Larry Charles. It stars the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in the title role of Borat Sagdiyev, a fictitious Kazakh journalist, traveling through the United States recording real-life interactions with Americans. It is the second film built around one of Cohen's characters from Da Ali G Show, following Ali G Indahouse, which also featured a cameo by Borat. It was a critical and commercial success, despite an initially limited release in the United States. Cohen won the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor: Musical or Comedy as Borat while the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture in the same category. Controversy surrounded the film even before its release. It has been criticised for having a protagonist who is sexist and antisemitic (although Cohen is Jewish himself), and some who have appeared in the film have criticised and even sued its creators. All Arab countries, except for Lebanon, banned it, and the Russian government successfully discouraged cinemas there from showing it.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/7
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, an apparently happily heterosexual high school cheerleader. Her friends and family are convinced she's gay and arrange an intervention, sending her to a reparative therapy camp to cure her lesbianism. At camp, Megan soon realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and, despite the therapy, gradually comes to embrace this fact. The supporting cast features Clea DuVall, Cathy Moriarty, RuPaul, Mink Stole and Bud Cort. But I'm a Cheerleader was Babbit's first feature film. It was inspired by an article about conversion therapy and her childhood familiarity with rehabilitation programs. She used the story of a young woman finding her sexual identity to explore the social construction of gender roles and heteronormativity. The costume and set design of the film highlighted these themes using artificial textures in intense blues and pinks. When it was initially rated as NC-17 by the MPAA, Babbit made cuts to allow it to be re-rated as R. When interviewed in the documentary film This Film Is Not Yet Rated Babbit criticized the MPAA for discriminating against films with homosexual content. The film was not well received by critics who compared it unfavorably to the films of John Waters and criticized the colorful production design.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/8
Red vs Blue is a science fiction comedy series created by Rooster Teeth Productions. The series is produced primarily by using the machinima technique of synchronizing video footage from computer and video games to pre-recorded dialogue and other audio. Footage is taken mostly from the multiplayer modes of the first-person shooter (FPS) video games Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 on the Xbox video game console. Chronicling the story of two opposing teams of soldiers fighting a civil war in the middle of a desolate box canyon, the series is an absurdist parody of FPS games, military life, and other science fiction films. Begun in 2003 and having concluded its fourth season, Red vs Blue has won four awards from the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences. The series is generally praised for its originality, and has been credited with bringing new popularity to machinima, helping it to gain more mainstream exposure, and attracting more people to the art form.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/9
Rob-B-Hood (simplified Chinese: 宝贝计划; traditional Chinese: 寶貝計劃; pinyin: bǎobèi jìhuà) is a 2006 action comedy film written and directed by Benny Chan, starring Jackie Chan, Louis Koo and Michael Hui. The film was produced with a budget of HK$16.8 million and filmed between December 2005 and April 2006. Rob-B-Hood is notable as the first film in over 30 years, in which Jackie Chan, tired of being typecast as "Mr. Nice Guy", plays a negative character—A burglar and compulsive gambler. Rob-B-Hood tells the story of a kidnapping gone wrong in Hong Kong; a gang of burglars consisting of Thongs, Octopus and the Landlord kidnap a baby from a wealthy family on behalf of triads. With the Landlord arrested, Thongs and Octopus take care of the baby for a short time, developing strong bonds with him. Reluctant to hand the baby over, the two are forced to protect him from the triads who hired them in the first place. Rob-B-Hood was released in Hong Kong, China and Southeast Asia on 29 September 2006 to generally positive reviews. The film topped the Chinese box office in October 2006 and despite not being given a release in most European and North American countries, it grossed over US$20 million worldwide.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/10
Gremlins is an American horror-comedy film directed by Joe Dante and released in 1984. The action follows a young man who receives a strange creature named Gizmo as a pet. The creature then spawns other creatures that transform into small, destructive monsters. This story was continued with a sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, which was released in 1990. Unlike the lighter sequel, the original Gremlins opts for more black comedy, which is balanced against a Christmastime setting. Experienced filmmaker Steven Spielberg was the film's executive producer. The screenplay was written by Chris Columbus. Gremlins stars Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, with Howie Mandel providing the voice of Gizmo. Gremlins was a commercial success and received some positive feedback from critics. It was also at the center of a large merchandising campaign. However, the film has also been heavily criticized for some of its more violent sequences; critics alleged these scenes made the film inappropriate for younger audiences who could be admitted into theatres under its PG rating. In response, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) reformed its rating system.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/11
Gremlins 2 is a film released in 1990 and a sequel to the original Gremlins (1984). Gremlins 2 is directed by Joe Dante and written by Charles S. Haas, with creature designs by Rick Baker. It stars Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Prosky, Haviland Morris, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Robert Picardo, and Christopher Lee. The story continues the adventures of the creature Gizmo, who spawns numerous small monsters when wet. In the first film Gizmo's offspring had rampaged through a fictional small town. In Gremlins 2, Gizmo multiplies within a building in New York City. The new creatures thus pose a serious threat to the city should they be able to leave the building, and much of the story involves the human characters' efforts to prevent this disaster. Like the first film, Gremlins 2 is a live action comedy-horror film. However, Dante put effort into taking the sequel in new anarchic directions. Unlike its highly successful predecessor, Gremlins 2 had a mediocre performance at the box office.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/12
Arrested Development was a character-driven American television comedy series about a formerly wealthy, habitually dysfunctional family. The show is presented in a mockumentary format, complete with narration, archival photos, and historical footage. Although set in Newport Beach and Balboa Island, California, it was primarily filmed on location around Culver City and Marina Del Rey. The show was created by Mitchell Hurwitz (The Ellen Show, The John Larroquette Show, and The Golden Girls). Television veteran Ron Howard is an executive producer and the uncredited narrator. It has aired on broadcast networks around the world, including Fox in the United States, CBC in Canada and BBC Two in the United Kingdom. Since debuting on November 2, 2003, the series received six Emmy awards, one Golden Globe, copious critical acclaim, a cult fan base, several fan-based websites, and a spot on Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Shows of All Time. Despite the thorough approval from critics, Arrested Development never climbed in the ratings. Fox aired the final four episodes of the third season in a block as a two-hour series finale on February 10, 2006, opposite the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/13
Cold Feet is a British comedy drama television series produced by Granada Television for ITV. It was created by Mike Bullen, who also wrote most of the episodes, and produced by Andy Harries, Christine Langan and Spencer Campbell. The series began on 15 November 1998, following the successful one-off television film broadcast in 1997 and ran for 32 episodes before concluding on 16 March 2003. The series is set in Manchester and follows three couples, played by an ensemble cast, who have trouble with committing to each other however hard they try. The cast were not widely known before their appearances in the programme but their careers received significant boosts; most of the actors received British Comedy Award nominations and James Nesbitt won Best TV Comedy Actor three times. The series was and remains critically acclaimed, winning multiple British Comedy Awards, TRIC Awards, and the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series. It maintained consistently high viewing figures, regularly beating other channels in head-to-head ratings battles.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/14
Excel Saga is a manga series by Koushi Rikudou, and a TV anime series based on it and directed by Shinichi Watanabe (pictured). Both the anime and the manga are absurdist comedies following the attempts of the "secret ideological organization," Across, to conquer the city of Fukuoka as a first step towards world domination. Excel, the title character, is a key member of Across and ranks below only the organization's enigmatic leader, Ilpalazzo. In both the manga and anime, the city is defended by a shadowy government agency led by Dr. Kabapu, whose subordinates engage Excel and her junior officer, Hyatt on several occasions. The manga focuses on the development of its principal characters by means of satirizing life and culture in Japan. The English-language reception of the Excel Saga anime was generally positive, likening the humor in nature and quality to the works of Tex Avery and Monty Python. The Excel Saga manga began publication in Japan in the mid-1990s, serialized in Shonen Gahosha's Young King OURs, and as of August 2006 sixteen collected volumes have been published.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/15
Kung Fu Hustle (Chinese: 功夫; pinyin: Gōngfu) is a 2004 Hong Kong martial arts film co-written, co-produced, directed by and starring Stephen Chow. The film is a humorous parody and a homage to the wuxia genre, and contains most of the characteristics of a typical wuxia movie with exaggerations, serious situations and comic plots. Set in 1930s Shanghai, it is a tale of redemption for the central character, portrayed by Chow, a petty criminal who is trying to join the city's most-powerful gang. The use of visual effects have been widely acclaimed and the cartoon style of the movie accompanied by traditional Chinese music is its most striking feature. Although the film features the return of a number of retired 1970s actors of Hong Kong action cinema, it is in stark contrast to recent martial arts films that have made an impact in the West, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. The film was released on 23 December 2004 after two years of production and received positive reviews from critics. It went on to become the highest grossing film in the history of Hong Kong, and the highest grossing foreign language film in the United States in 2005.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/16
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a long-lived series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, Our Gang was produced at the Roach studio starting in 1922 as a silent short subject series. Roach changed distributors from Pathé to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1927, went to sound in 1929, and continued production until 1938, when he sold the series to MGM. MGM continued producing the comedies until 1944. A total of 220 shorts and one feature film, General Spanky, were eventually produced, featuring over forty-one child actors. In the mid-1950s, the 80 Roach-produced shorts with sound were syndicated for television under the title The Little Rascals, as MGM retained the rights to the Our Gang trademark. The series, one of the best-known and most successful in cinema history, is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way. While child actors are often groomed to imitate adult acting styles, steal scenes, or deliver "cute" performances, Hal Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular kids. Our Gang also notably put boys, girls, whites, and blacks together in a group as equals, something that "broke new ground," according to film historian Leonard Maltin. Such a thing had never been done before in cinema, but was commonplace after the success of Our Gang.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/17
Restoration comedy is the name given to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a rebirth of English drama. Restoration comedy is famous (or notorious) for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. The socially diverse audiences included both aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on, and a substantial middle-class segment. These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses, and by the rise of the first celebrity actors. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/18
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series written by Douglas Adams. It originated in 1978 as a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Since then it has been adapted to other media formats, including stage shows, a series of five books published between 1979 and 1992, (the first of which was entitled The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), a 1981 TV series, a 1984 computer game, as well as comic book adaptations of the first three novels. The many versions, although in some ways contradictory, all follow the same basic plot. Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman, escapes the destruction of Earth by an alien race called the Vogons with his friend Ford Prefect, an alien from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and researcher for the eponymous guide. Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's semi-cousin and Galactic President, unknowingly saves the pair from death. He brings them aboard his stolen spaceship, the Heart of Gold, whose crew rounds out the main cast of characters: Marvin the Paranoid Android, and Trillian, a woman known by Arthur as the only other surviving human being. After this, the characters get involved in a quest to find the legendary planet of Magrathea and the Question to the Ultimate Answer.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/19
The Office is an award-winning American television comedy which deals with the daily lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictitious Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. Although fictional and scripted, the show takes the form of a documentary, with the presence of the camera openly acknowledged. Based on the British series of the same name, it was adapted for U.S. audiences by executive producer Greg Daniels, a veteran writer of Saturday Night Live, King of the Hill and The Simpsons. Original series creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have production credits on the show, and wrote an episode for the show's third season. It is co-produced by Greg Daniels' Deedle-Dee Productions and Reveille Productions, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio. The show debuted on NBC as a midseason replacement on March 24, 2005 and is broadcast on that network in the United States and other television stations around the world. It will be available for syndication in late 2009. In Fall 2007 TBS started broadcasting episodes once a week, and will begin broadcasting the series five days a week in Fall 2009. The Fox Television Stations group have also obtained syndication rights starting in late 2009.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/20
Truthiness is a satirical term created by television comedian Stephen Colbert to describe things that a person claims to know intuitively or "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts. Colbert created this definition of the word during the inaugural episode of his satirical television program The Colbert Report, as the subject of a segment called "The Wørd". It was named Word of the Year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Merriam-Webster. By using the term as part of his satirical routine, Colbert sought to criticize the use of "truthiness" as an appeal to emotion and tool of rhetoric in contemporary socio-political discourse. He particularly applied it to U.S. President George W. Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/21
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in the silent-film era. His black body, white eyes, and giant grin, coupled with the surrealism of the situations in which his cartoons place him, combined to make Felix one of the most recognizable cartoon characters in the world. Felix was the first character from animation to attain a level of popularity sufficient to draw movie audiences based solely on his star power. Felix's origins remain disputed. Australian cartoonist and film entrepreneur Pat Sullivan and American animator Otto Messmer said that they created Felix. Some historians argue that Messmer ghosted for Sullivan. What is certain is that Felix emerged from Sullivan's studio, and cartoons featuring the character enjoyed unprecedented success and popularity in the 1920s. From 1922, Felix enjoyed sudden, enormous popularity in international popular culture. Felix's success was fading by the late 1920s with the arrival of sound cartoons. In 1929, Sullivan decided to finally make the transition and began distributing Felix sound cartoons through Copley Pictures. The sound Felix shorts proved to be a failure and the operation ended in 1930 with Sullivan himself passing away in 1933. Felix saw a brief three cartoon resurrection in 1936 by the Van Beuren Studios. Television would prove the cat's savior. Felix cartoons began airing on American TV in 1953. Joe Oriolo introduced a redesigned Felix in a new animated series for TV. The cat has since starred in other television programs and in a feature film.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/22
"Homer's Phobia" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons' eighth season, which originally aired on the Fox network on February 16, 1997. It was the first episode written by Ron Hauge and was directed by Mike B. Anderson. John Waters (pictured) guest starred, providing the voice of the new character John. In the episode, Homer disassociates himself from new family friend John after discovering that John is gay. He worries that John will have a negative influence on his son, Bart. "Homer's Phobia" was the first episode to revolve entirely around homosexual themes, with the title being a pun on the word "homophobia". Originally, due to the controversial subject, the Fox censors found the episode unsuitable for broadcast, but this decision was reversed after a turnover in the Fox staff. It won four awards, including an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less) and a GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding TV - Individual Episode".
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/23
A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant is a satirical musical about Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard, written by Kyle Jarrow from a concept by Alex Timbers, the show's original director. The one-act musical lasts about an hour. Jarrow based the story of the musical on L. Ron Hubbard's writings and Church of Scientology literature. The musical follows the life of L. Ron Hubbard as he develops Dianetics and then Scientology. Though the musical pokes fun at Hubbard's science fiction writing and personal beliefs, it has been called a "deadpan presentation" of his life story. Topics explored in the piece include Dianetics, the E-meter, Thetans, and the story of Xenu. The show was originally presented by Les Freres Corbusier, an experimental theatrical troupe and debuted in November 2003 in New York City, where it had sold-out Off-Off-Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. Later performances have included Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Atlanta and Philadelphia. Productions of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant in 2003, 2004 and 2006 were well received. The musical received an Obie Award for the 2003 New York production, and director Alex Timbers received a Garland Award for the 2004 Los Angeles production. The play also received positive reviews in the press.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/24
Fritz the Cat is a 1972 animated film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi as his feature film debut. Based on the comic books by Robert Crumb, the film was the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States. It focuses on Fritz (voiced by Skip Hinnant), an anthropomorphic feline in the mid-1960s who seduces many female animals in New York City while staying one step ahead of the law. The film is a satire focusing on American college life of the era, race relations, the free love movement, and left- and right-wing politics. Fritz the Cat was the first independent animated film to gross more than $100 million at the box office. Fritz the Cat had a troubled production history and controversial release. Creator Robert Crumb is known to have had disagreements with the filmmakers, claiming in interviews that his first wife signed over the film rights to the characters, and that he did not approve the production. Crumb was also critical of the film's approach to his material. Fritz the Cat was controversial for its rating and content, which viewers at the time found to be offensive. Its success led to a slew of other X-rated animated films, and a sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, was made without Crumb's or Bakshi's involvement. Fritz the Cat was ranked as the 51st greatest animated film of all time by the Online Film Critics Society, and was also featured at number 56 on Channel 4's list of the 100 Greatest Cartoons.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/25
"Trapped in the Closet", the twelfth episode of the ninth season of the Comedy Central series South Park, originally aired on November 16, 2005. The plot of the episode centers on the South Park character Stan Marsh, as he joins Scientology in an attempt to find something "fun and free". After the discovery of his surprisingly high "thetan levels", he is recognized as the reincarnation of the founder of the church, L. Ron Hubbard. Tom Cruise, who is featured in the episode, reportedly threatened "to back out of his Mission: Impossible III promotional duties if Viacom didn’t pull a repeat of the episode." Though the episode was originally scheduled for rebroadcast in March 2006, the episode "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls" was shown instead. Comedy Central representatives stated this change was made as a tribute to Isaac Hayes, however South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone thought otherwise. Stone and Parker issued a satirical statement saying they were "servants of the dark lord Xenu". Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef, quit the show shortly before the start of the tenth season. The reason for his departure, as reported by Matt Stone, was due to his faith in Scientology and this episode, which he claimed to feel was very offensive. "Trapped in the Closet" was nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour) category in July 2006. The episode was featured among Comedy Central's list of "10 South Parks That Changed The World", spoofed by Conan O'Brien in the opening segment of the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards, and mentioned in the Scientology critique film, The Bridge.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/26
The Relapse is a Restoration comedy from 1696 by John Vanbrugh, a sequel to Colley Cibber's notorious tear-jerker Love's Last Shift, or, Virtue Rewarded. In Cibber's Love's Last Shift, a free-living Restoration rake is brought to repentance and reform by the ruses of his wife, while in The Relapse, the rake succumbs again to temptation and has a new love affair. His virtuous wife is also subjected to a determined seduction attempt, and resists with difficulty. Vanbrugh planned The Relapse around particular actors at Drury Lane, writing their stage habits, public reputations, and personal relationships into the text. One such actor was Colley Cibber himself, who played the luxuriant fop Lord Foppington in both Love's Last Shift and The Relapse. However, Vanbrugh's artistic plans were threatened by a cut-throat struggle between London's two theatre companies, each of which was "seducing" actors from the other. The Relapse came close to not being produced at all, but the successful performance that was eventually achieved in November 1696 vindicated Vanbrugh's intentions, as well as saving the company from bankruptcy.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/27
Augustan drama most commonly refers to the plays of Great Britain in the early 18th century, a subset of 18th-century Augustan literature. King George I referred to himself as "Augustus," and the poets of the era took this reference as apropos, as the literature of Rome during Caesar Augustus moved from historical and didactic poetry to the poetry of highly finished and sophisticated epics and satire. In poetry, the early 18th century was an age of satire and public verse, and in prose, it was an age of the developing novel. In drama, by contrast, it was an age in transition between the highly witty and sexually playful Restoration comedy, the pathetic she-tragedy of the turn of the century, and any later plots of middle-class anxiety. The Augustan stage retreated from the Restoration's focus on cuckoldry, marriage for fortune, and a life of leisure. Instead, Augustan drama reflected questions the mercantile class had about itself and what it meant to be gentry: what it meant to be a good merchant, how to achieve wealth with morality, and the proper role of those who serve.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/28
Krazy Kat is a comic strip created by George Herriman that appeared in weekday and Sunday U.S. newspapers between 1913 and 1944. It was first published in William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal. Set against a dreamlike portrayal of Herriman's vacation home of Coconino County, Arizona, Krazy Kat's mixture of surrealism, innocent playfulness, and poetic language have made it a favorite of comics aficionados and art critics for more than eighty years. The strip focuses on the relationship triangle between its title character, a carefree and innocent cat of indeterminate gender (but often referred to in prose as female), her antagonist Ignatz Mouse, and the protective police-dog Officer Bull Pupp. Krazy nurses an unrequited love for the mouse, but Ignatz despises her and constantly schemes to throw a brick at her head; for unknown reasons, Krazy takes this as a sign of affection. Officer Pupp, as Coconino County's administrator of law and order, makes it his unwavering mission to interfere with Ignatz's brick-tossing plans and lock the mouse in the county jail.
Portal:Comedy/Selected article/29
The Country Wife is a Restoration comedy from 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. Even its title contains a lewd pun. Based on several plays by Molière, it turns on two indelicate plot devices: a rake's trick of pretending impotence in order to safely have clandestine affairs with married women, and the arrival in London of an inexperienced young "country wife", with her discovery of the joys of town life, especially the fascinating London men. The scandalous trick and the frank language have for much of the play's history kept it off the stage and out of print. Between 1753 and 1924, The Country Wife was considered too outrageous to be performed at all and was replaced on the stage by David Garrick's cleaned-up and bland version The Country Girl. The original play is again a stage favourite today, and is also acclaimed by academic critics, who praise its linguistic energy, sharp social satire, and openness to different interpretations.
[edit] Nominations
- Adding articles
- Feel free to add Featured quality Comedy articles to the above list.
- See also FA-Class Comedy articles
- If you are unsure or do not know how to add an entry, feel free to post a question, suggestion or nomination here below, or at the talk page Portal talk:Comedy.
