Large Hadron Rap

In her website Kate McAlpine describes herself as “an adventurer in the realm of ideas”, who has “pitched [her] camp at a crossroads: the intersection of science and writing.” Even as a promising scientific writer who has contributed to many prestigious publications, Kate still believes that although reporting is a serious business, science itself should be fun.
Faithful to her mission “to generate interest in and understanding of scientific topics through writing,” Kate made a rap video about the Large Hadron Collider, the groundbreaking particle accelerator that has been built in a 17-mile circular tunnel at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. It is amazing how she managed to explain in few lines things like mass-energy equivalence, the case for dark matter or what antimatter is.
Rap and physics are two worlds culturally light years apart. Through her courage, creativity and intelligence Kate has successfully bridged the gap between the two. I believe that a great part of the half-million visitors who have watched her video will attempt to find out what’s going on there in Switzerland. I agree with Kate that physics rap or rather science rap is the next big thing.

Xavier: Renegade Angel

Xavier: Renegade Angel is a 15 min show on Adult Swim. Its first airing was November 2, 2007. Adult Swim is currently airing the second season.

Xavier: Renegade Angel's loose story line is that Xavier, who is a grotesque creature that is the combination of a man, a snake, a bird, and maybe a monkey, is traveling through the desert in search of the meaning of life. The show is very random in nature with odd characters appearing and crazy flashbacks happening consistently. The show's humor comes mainly from altering reality, which it can do easily through its use of computer animation. This "altering of reality" comes from Xavier travels through space and time. He is goes forward and backward in time, seeing things in his own past while also witnessing things like the destruction of Earth. His time travel is sometimes explained, but most of the time is not. These random jumps in time provide humor because the audience is never really sure where Xavier is going to end up and whether what they are seeing is real or not. Xavier also breaks the audiences normal perception of space; leaving our normal sense of reality in favor of abstract worlds that are far removed from any part of human existence. An example of this removal from human existence can be seen in the following clip.

For context, in this episode Xavier is stuck in a circular room with different colored doors, each one transporting him to an abstract place. That clip leads to my next point about how Xavier provides humor. At its core Xavier is a show about philosophy and religion, and that clip, along with many others throughout the series, touch on the belief in God and the search for some purpose in existence. The clip can be taken on the surface to be making fun of belief in God, but more importantly is the way it conveys religion as a viewpoint that is black and white. When asked the question "do you believe in God?" Xavier goes into his own views on existence and a higher power. The bar-code man is there to represent religion(from what I can tell the Judaic God) with the belief of God being either yes or no. Xavier on the other hand takes the role of philosophy, not only questioning the belief in God but going as far as questioning belief itself. I think the humor comes from showing how narrow minded religion can be while also highlighting how abstract philosophy can become. Bringing up philosophical questions is a common theme in Xavier and contributes greatly to its abstract humor. But Xavier: Renegade Angel's humor is not always so abstract in nature. The show also touches on the cultural issues of race, religion, and sexuality. The following clip touches on all these issues. On a side note, this show is made by the same people who did Wonder Showzen on MTV2; the following clip is very reminiscent of Wonder Showzen in its use of race, religion, and sexuality.

Margaret Cho: Asian-Americans and racial issues

Margaret Cho's first stand-up was at 16 years old (after she dropped out of school) in a small club above the bookstore that her parents owned. Soon after, she won a contest and became the opening act for Jerry Seinfeld, prompting her to move to Los Angeles where she began gaining notoriety amongst college-age audiences. This notoriety boomed when Bob Hope put her on a prime time special, and ever since then Cho became a comedic celebrity. Her show "I'm the One that I Want" was originally an off-Broadway show she put on in 1999, but it was so well-received that it ended up becoming a filmed special as well as a best-selling book, all with great reviews. In this show she chronicles her work and life experiences- how she started doing stand-up and was able to start an ABC show project with the first all-Asian family, how she had to lose 30 lbs. in two weeks for the show and ended up in the hospital, how producers wanted her to have a consultant to ensure she seemed "more Asian," how she dealt with the show getting canceled and fell into a haze of "booze, pills, and self-loathing", and how all these things led her to gradually lose her own identity (Cho 1999). But most of all, "I'm the One That I Want" is about Cho rising as a person of her own with her own voice, her own jokes, and essentially to become the one that she wants.

In this particular short taken from the show, Cho tackles some of the issues of being an Asian-American through anecdotes about accents and language, her relationship with her mom, interracial marriage (or almost-marriage), racial relations, how it feels to be the only Asian amongst Whites, and what happens when someone is the only White amongst Asians. It is through these explorations that she gains insight not only into the ups and downs of life but also towards growing into oneself and being comfortable as you are. And so, Margaret Cho realizes that despite the fact that she does not embody what outside forces expect of a 31-year-old female Asian-American, it is probably because she doesn't embody those expectations or stereotypes that she learns to be happy with who she is.

"Margaret Cho- Asian-American," October 24, 2007, Youtube video, accessed March 29, 2009, < v="kc6mLwOa2Ig&feature="related">










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30 Rock

This half-hour program, created by and starring SNL alum Tina Fey, pokes fun at the NBC, the network on which it airs Thursday nights. Debuting side-by-side with other patently NBC comedies, such as The Office and My Name is Earl, 30 Rock is aimed at the 16-30 age bracket, who are most familiar with the TV/Movie industries and the celebrities they produce. The sitcom revolves around the staff, crew and stars of "The Tracy Jordan Show," led by off-beat manager Liz Lemon (Fey). But this comedy is not about the making of a television show, it merely uses the fictitious program as a means to tie each character's personal story together. Lemon regularly has to contend with the attitudes and egos of TGS stars Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna Moroney (Jane Krakowski). The show is a critique of the modern celebrity in many ways, as recent episodes have been driven by the the problems these two actos cause, ranging from contract disputes to disastrous TV appearances to on-set rivalries. Jenna especially reminds us of the female startlet/bimbo types who dominate tabloid covers and celebrity gossip. 30 Rock is a counter to this culture, pointing out flaws in the cult of celebrity and self-obsession. Time and time again, Lemon is depicted as a heroine, the only character in the show who bothers to share with and care for others, two virtues that Hollywood has lost in the past.

Eugene Mirman, Sexpert

Eugene Mirman, Sexpert

This Eugene Mirman short is a classic example of the short viral videos that have given Eugene national notoriety as a comedic genius. Eugene Mirman is best known from his stand up comedy, most notably as being one of the, "Comedians of Comedy." He also has a role in the HBO show, "Flight of the Conchords," as the building super. He is also well known for his own independent videos that traditionally consists of rapid fire one liners about a particular subject. Other videos have been about Canada, punk, pot, and scientology. This particular video deals with him giving advice as a certified "sexpert" from Maxim magazine. The purpose of this piece is primarily to make fun of his own title of being a "sexpert" that was given to him by Maxim. He gives ridiculous advice with the result being a hilarious 3 minutes and 46 seconds ensuing. 

Simon Pegg - Do You Speak English?

Title: Do You Speak English?
Theme: Language and Communication
Click to Watch

Simon Pegg is an award-winning English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. This clip is about an English woman who visits France. She needs to go to a garage but she cannot speak any French so she stops a guy and asks him if he speaks English. He responds every question she asks in English, yet saying that he cannot speak English. It is supposed to be funny because he is contradicting himself. Moreover, he is an English man in real life, yet he acts as a French man in the clip, mocking the French people. The purpose of this clip is to hint us the French culture that although they speak a little bit of English, they choose not to help the foreigners just because they are too lazy, as Pegg jokingly says, "I can speak English" at the end of the clip. The target audience is anyone who are planning to visit France. They should know beforehand that although English is an universal language, they should at least try speaking French to show French that they are trying as foreigners.

Dave Coyne [The Language Barrier]

Title: The Language Barrier
Theme: Language and Communication

Click to VIEW VIDEO

Dave Coyne is an independent filmmaker having millions of viewers on YouTube.com. He is very famous for bringing laughs to the viewers with the combination of his imagination, cinematic skills, and acting. The short clip above is Dave Coyne interviewing Professor Goshkevski at the studio of "TLB Host." Prof. Goshkevski's role in the clip is a leading authority and behavioral scientist. He has written a book about balancing the races. However, he is viewed as a hypocrat and a racist because of his accents. Although he talks about juice and nickers, it sounds as if he is talking about the Jews and the N-word. At first, Dave Coyne is lost because Prof. Goshkevski brings up racial comments, which Dave Coyne does not expect to hear from Prof. G. The purpose of this video is to realize that the language barrier is near us; there can be a miscommunication even with a scholar. The audience is everyone: Americans, the newly arrived immigrants, and the settled immigrants. In the end, the audience realizes that the only way to avoid miscommunication is to listen till the person finishes the sentence and ask until one thoroughly understands the other. This is very important because America is full of immigrants whose first language is not English. In order to live with one another, we should try to understand each other.