Category Archives: Humor

Urban Dead

Humor, ,

Movies and games about zombie invasions are often vehicles of excess, competing to outdo each other in gore. Helpless victims are torn limb-from-limb by brain-hungry opponents; heroes mow through shambling foes, using whatever implements are handy (cricket bats, lawnmowers) to extract a bloody vengeance.

Urban Dead, a browser-based, massive multiplayer online game, plays against these conventions. There are no fountains of bodily fluids—the game is almost entirely text based. Beyond that, the game isn’t centered on combat, although battles between the undead and still-living are frequent. Instead, the game focuses more on building barricades and hiding out, with survivors struggling to secure a safe place from the zombie hordes.

Continue reading Urban Dead →

The Past Remains Present

Humor, Politics, , , , ,

Sports Illustrated has a timely article in the April 7 issue about Lee Elder, the first African-American man to play in the Master’s golf tournament. When did this groundbreaking event occur? It took place in 1975, fourteen years before the PGA’s “Caucasian clause” came off the books and fifteen years before Augusta National, the course that hosts the tournament, accepted its first black member.

Continue reading The Past Remains Present →

Al Jaffee Profile in the New York Times

Humor, ,

Old fans of Mad magazine will be happy to see a profile of long-time artist Al Jaffee in the New York Times. Jaffee is best known for the fold-ins that have graced the inner back page of every issue of Mad since 1964; his long-running “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” feature is also a Mad staple.

At 87, Jaffee still draws each of the fold-ins by hand, using careful planning to account for the transformation in the eventual crease. As the article states,

Mr. Jaffee does have a computer, but its main benefit, he said, has been to make the typographic tricks in the fold-in easier to create. He doesn’t draw with it, which leads to another surprise: the master of the fold-in never actually folds.

“I’m working on a hard, flat board,” he said. “I cannot fold it. That’s why my planning has to be so correct.”

“The computer would make it so much simpler,” he added. “But I think I’m going to remain a dinosaur.”

His fans are numerous, and they include Steven Colbert, who is quoted. “‘I have a vast Mad collection, but they’re not collector-worthy,’ Mr. Colbert said in a telephone interview — too heavily folded. ‘Perhaps I should have bought two.'”

I still have a later-vintage collection sitting at my mom’s house, but they should be in better shape than Colbert’s. I could never bring myself to fold them.

Stream South Park…All of It

Humor, ,

For the South Park fans out there—every episode of the show can now be streamed free at the show’s web site, South Park Studios. South Park co-creator Matt Stone gave media web site Boing Boing  a simple rationale for the decision: “Basically, we just got really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time. So we gave ourselves a legal alternative.”

I haven’t watched the show regularly for years, but I’ll probably stream a few of the old high points (“Red Sleigh Down,” anyone?) for some nostaglic chuckles. Still, I often find the show to be more frustrating than enjoyable—a lot of people seem to take it as the height of social commentary, but there’s generally not much more than gratuitous violence and swearing, ethnic stereotypes dressed as satire and Idiocracy-esque “you talk like a fag” jokes about anyone trying to engage a complex issue.

Never Break The Chain

Humor

Even as video games have evolved in complexity, adopting photorealistic graphics and interactive worlds, games that are easily grasped and instantly addictive retain the greatest potential for being breakout hits. Think Tetris, Snood or Bust-a-Move—all games that easily make the transition from dorm room to your grandma’s den (depending on how computer savvy your grandma is).

A new contender for the simple-but-engrossing crown is Chain Factor. The game features a series of numbered discs that are dropped down by the player into a seven-by-seven playing field. If the number on the disc dropped matches the total number of discs in the row or column, that disc disappears. Numberless “stone” discs exist to obscure the action, and a successful drop can set off a chain reaction of cleared lines, boosting the player’s score. The design is crisp and simple, with smooth background music that makes it easy to play game after game.

Adding to the game’s appeal is the commentary provided by its anonymous creators, who seem frustrated by the status quo of the gaming industry. As their FAQ page states:

“Chain Factor is a free web game designed as a labor of love by people who are tired of slaving in the salt mines of big-budget, mainstream game development…For years, the mainstream games industry has fed us a steady stream of lowest-common-denominator drivel: brightly colored mascots scampering around childish fantasy lands; hyper-violent, testosterone-soaked war simulators; vacuous, marketing-driven movie spin-offs; and the endless grind of mindless, massively-multiplayer treadmills.”

Ouch!