Prop 8- The Musical

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black


The website Funny or Die, founded by comedians Will Ferrel and Adam McKay, is a viral video website that broadcasts comedic content. The name comes from the fact that as soon as a video is uploaded, users get to vote on whether it is funny or it should go to the 'crypt.' It is also very common for comedic celebrities to make guest appearances and to upload their own videos as exclusives to the site. This particular video got 1.2 hits on its very first day after it was uploaded on December right after California's Proposition 8 was passed, and is one of these exclusives.

Marc Shaiman, famous film, tv, and Broadway composer and lyricist, got together with director Adam Shankman to make the video in only a few days right after he learned that the musical director of the California Musical Theater had donated to a Yes-on-Prop 8 campaign (Itzkoff). The video begins with a group of people reveling on the "brand new, bright Obama day" only to be interrupted by 'Proposition 8'ers' who think it's time to "...spread some hate and put it in the Constitution." The video continues as a musical fight between the 'Proposition 8ers' and their opposers as a way to satirize California's Proposition 8 and those in favor of it, Christians that pick and choose which parts of the Bible to uphold, and people that use religion-based arguments to pass a state law. The video also pokes fun at the stereotyping of homosexuals (the Proposition 8ers sing: "...now make our clothes and fix our hair") and the importance placed on money, exemplified by Neil Patrick Harris singing that "every time a gay or lesbian finds love at the parade, there's money to be made" leading everyone to end the song with "gay marriage will save the economy!"*


*This point was included by Marc Shaiman after he learned of a study by UCLA stating that legalization of gay marriage would really stimulate the California economy (California Proposition 8). The article about the study can be found here: http://articles.latimes.com/p/2008/jun/02/business/fi-wedding2



Just for reference, some of the comedians in the video include:

• Margaret Cho, stand-up comedian (for more information go to http://humor-database.blogspot.com/2009/03/margaret-cho-christians-have-lost-their.html and http://humor-database.blogspot.com/2009/03/margaret-cho-asian-americans-and-racial.html)
• Maya Rudolph from SNL (http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/bios/Maya_Rudolph.shtml)
• John C. Reilly (Step Brothers, Walk Hard, Chicago, The Aviator, etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_c_reilly])
  
• Neil Patrick Harris, from Doogie Howser, Harold & Kumar (http://humor-database.blogspot.com/2009/02/harold-kumar-go-to-white-castle.html), and How I Met Your Mother
• Jack Black as Jesus (Tenacious D, High Fidelity, School of Rock, Nacho Libre, etc.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_black])
  
• Rashida Jones from The Office (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashida_Jones)
  
• Sarah Chalke from Scrubs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Chalke)

WORKS CITED


"California Proposition 8," Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, accessed March 31, 2009, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_(2008)#Proposition_8:_The_Musical>

Itzkof, Dave "Marc Shaiman on ‘Prop 8 — The Musical,’" The New York Times, Dec. 4, 2008, <http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/marc-shaiman-on-prop-8-the-musical/?hp>

"Prop 8- The Musical," Funny or Die, online video clip, December 3, 2008, accessed March 30, 2009, <http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8/prop-8-the-musical-starring-jack-black-john-c-reilly-and-many-more-from-fod-team-jack-black-craig-robinson-john-c-reilly-and-rashida-jones>

American (The Book)

Stewart, Jon, Ben Karlin, and David Javerbaum. American (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. New York City: Warner Books, 2004.

Jon Stewart and the rest of The Daily Show writers have always been quick to point out the absurdities of American government on their late night show. Often the show seen as liberal, due to their ruthless attacks on the Republican party, but they do occasionally take a swipe at Democrats, or semi-Democrats (Joe Lieberman). This book is written as a mock text book, complete with end of chapeter activities and everything. The book is a satirical look at the inner workings of government, and the authors adopt an authorative voice while writing. Chapter 3 is devoted to the office of the Presidency, and makes fun of the anything from the duties of the President, which apparently includes "Feigning enthusiam for the visiting NCAA Women's Basketball champions", to the lack of diversity of the people elected to the office (this was written in 2004, before Barack Obama was elected). The textbook's authorative voice is supported by massive amounts of research, albeit some is quite comically fake. Through this viewpoint, they highlight everything that doesn't make sense in our government. For example, it points out how every incoming President blames his predecessor, only to later take credit for the delayed effects of his policy. The purpose of this examination of American government is to change the American voters point of view of things, hopefully shifting away from trusting the government is working for the people and starting to be more skeptical of the real motivations behind government actions. The audience, who consists of liberal readers, are the people who are already skeptical of government, but this book will reinforce their notion that government is as an institution needs to be closely watched.

Colbert Roasts President Bush - 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner

Stephen Colbert. Correspondents' Dinner Speech. White House Correspondents' Association. Washington Hilton. C-Span, 2006. "Colbert Roasts President Bush - 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner."YouTube. 26.4.07 3.26.09 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879.

Stephen Colbert, who made his big break as a reporter on The Daily Show, is among the most popular fake news anchors on television today. He puts on a persona that closely resembles Bill O’Reilly, the loud talking, conservative anchor of The O’Reilly Factor. He is never out of character, spouting extreme conservative view points that make Republicans out to be ridiculous. To some people’s shock, he maintained this character when performing at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, which was an event attended by the President, First Lady, high ranking officials and the members of the media. While the President was sitting not ten feet from him, Colbert went on to roast pretty much everything about George W. Bush. He made fun of the President’s intellect, secrecy, vacation time, and stubbornness to admit mistakes. Colbert basically highlighted major news stories that occurred about the President during his time in office. The audience on layer one was the President, who he acted like he was admiring the whole time. The layer two audience is the members of the press, who he has a disrespect for. The conclusion he was trying to stress was it is alright to make fun of the President at any time, even when speaking directly to him. He even at one point chides the press for starting to speak up, but what he is really doing is demonstrating their failure to fulfill the duties of the Fourth Estate. The audience, on both layers, will not like the criticism, but having it wrapped up in a joke makes it softer and there was an increase of scrutiny on the President in his last few years in office.

Comedy Central Presents	Friday 10pm / 9c
Gregg Rogell: Cell Phones
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

This video is of Gregg Rogell during his performance on Comedy Central Presents. This video was filmed at the Hudson Theater in New York City. Rogell has appeared on The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The Nanny. He has had his own half hour special on Comedy Central, and was a featured performer in the movie The Aristocrats. He is also a regular performer at New York City's Comedy Cellar. He was born on February 18, 1967 in Long Island, New York. He has toured, opening for Dolly Parton, Wynonna Judd, and Dave Chappelle, and has appeared with Bob Hope and Bill Cosby on several NBC specials. About a year after his first performance doing standup, Rogell won "The funniest person in Long Island" contest, the WKGR South Florida Laugh Off. Two years later, he had appeared on "Evening at the Improv," "E! Stand Up Sit Down with Robert Klein," "Caroline's Comedy Hour," "The MTV Half Hour Comedy Hour," "VH1 Stand Up Spotlight," "Two Drink Minimum," "Comic Strip Live," and several others. Rogell has not produced any of his own CDs, however he is featured in “The Aristocrats” soundtrack. Barker’s comedy covers topics such as technology, religion, politics, the economy and terrorism. In this video, Rogell talks about cell phones and the irritation caused by cell phone plans such as roaming charges and “anytime minutes”. Then he goes on to talk about anthrax and terrorism. The point of this piece is to make the audience think about how ridiculous it is for some people to be so paranoid about terrorist attacks. In another bit, he mentions hearing a man from North Dakota on the news saying “It could happen here” to which he remembers thinking “No it can’t”. In this video he makes light of the fact that cell phones are believed to have the capability of causing brain tumors while anthrax only killed five people. This is meant to open people’s eyes to the fact that there are several things in the world around us that can cause us harm and that to be paranoid about possible terrorist attacks doesn’t do us any good. The audience would most likely be slightly offended by this comparison of something as seemingly benign as their beloved cell phones to something as deadly and frightening as anthrax and terrorist attacks. But later, they will likely come to the realization that they may be just as likely to develop a brain tumor from using their cell phones as they are to experience a terrorist attack, both being quite low.

Arj Barker

Comedy Central Presents	Friday 10pm / 9c
Arj Barker - The Internet
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

This video is of Arj Barker during his performance on Comedy Central Presents. This video was filmed at the Hudson Theater in New York City. Barker has appeared on Premium Blend, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The Glass House. He has also appeared twice on Comedy Central Presents. He was born on August 12, 1974 in San Anselmo, California to an engineer father and artist mother. He has toured in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. He signed up for his first open mic when he was 19, playing to a room full of sailors at Holy City Zoo in San Francisco and began touring nationally by the age of 22. Barker has not produced any of his own CDs, however he is a part of the compilation album entitled “Pot’s Greatest Hits: A Stash of Standup Comedy”. In an interview with Wickedinfo.com, he said that he was “inspired by some British comedy when [he] was a kid” such as Monty Python, and the Two Ronnies. However, he claims no to watch much standup these days so as not to be influenced too much by what other comedians are doing. Barker’s comedy covers topics such as technology, holidays, banks and the news. In this video, Barker talks about office technology and the tedium that comes with purchasing and ordering items such as fax machines and printers. Later, he goes on to talk about Myspce and how he goes to the zoo with his Myspace friends. The point of this piece is to make the audience aware of the realities of having Myspace “friends”. In the beginning of the bit, he talks about buying a printer and in the end says that he believes that the internet is going to change the way that we do business. These parts seem to function primarily as entertainment and nothing more. However, the part about Myspace seems to be much more of a social criticism than the rest of the joke. The audience that this bit is meant for is the generation of people who are growing up with websites such as Myspace and Facebook who suffer from bleak social lives caused by dependency on online relationships. The audience would most likely be slightly offended by this exaggeration of someone going to the zoo and typing on their laptop “Look at the Giraffe.” But later, they will likely take into consideration that it is ridiculous to call people who you only know on the internet actual friends

Jackie Kashian

This video is of Jackie Kashian during her performance on Comedy Time. Comedy Time is one of the first made-for-mobile networks which has become the global market leader in original comedy content created for wireless handsets. This video was filmed at the Found Theater in Long Beach, California. Kashian has made appearances on NBC, VH1, and A&E. She recently had a tour in Australia for 10 weeks for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and ABC Australia said, "the gem of the night was Jackie Kashian. Her droll, perceptive description of her family was hilarious." The Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote, "Jackie Kashian’s comedy is that rare, wonderful combination: smart and funny." She has two CDs, "Cake Is Not My Downfall" and “In A Sweatshop of One”. Her influences include Dana Gould, Maria Bamford, Marc Maron, Greg Proops, Zig Zigler, Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, Lenny Bruce, and Sam Kinison. Kashian’s comedy covers topics such as dating, marriage, family life, and video games. In this video, Kashian talks about online dating and her relationship with her husband. The point of this piece is to inform the audience of the benefits of online dating. She doesn’t mention it in this video, but other times that she’s performed this bit, she mentions that the guy who she met using an online dating service is the man she married. The audience that this bit is meant for is the whole population of people who can identify with using an online dating service and also those who may have never used one, but are curious to try. The audience would most likely be merely entertained at first by her stereotyping of video game designers and other “geeky” jobs, but it is also likely that after thinking about it, they will discover the true message of the joke which is that online dating helps you meet people.

In The Know: Should We Be Shaming Obese Children More?

"In The Know: Should We Be Shaming Obese Children More? | The Onion - America's Finest News Source." Home | The Onion - America's Finest News Source. 28 Mar. 2009 . This is a video clip on The Onion website which is associated with the joke newspaper. This clip discusses the merits of shaming obese children into losing weight. It satirizes the idea that American children are fat because our society is too nice or accepting of it. The material consists mainly of “experts” (including a professor from American University) discussing their opinions and experience with the effects of the use of shame as a corrective device. They specifically mention the effectiveness of making shaming a fat child a family activity, and the role of the media in this problem by allowing fat characters to be considered witty or to get dates. Also, being in association with the newspaper, this clip satirizes the news media more generally by discussing this issue on a mock news show. The newspaper and this clip of its associated news show is designed to mock the trivial topics covered by real news media. It satirizes the lack of depth in news coverage and this specific clip especially deals with the callousness, ignorance and hypocrisy seen in the news media. The audience for this piece would be mostly young American adults who read or are at least familiar with The Onion newspaper and who "get" the joke.