The 2 most recent episodes of Wonder Showzen have been really amazing. In the first one the gang has no budget and decide to go to Chinatown to buy a bootleg version of their show, which they then watch. The bootleg looks like a 3rd generation vhs dub and has tracking lines on it and skips quite a bit. The crew then declares war on the bootleg versions of themselves and after a brief scuffle they come to a truce. And then this happens:

Devendra Banhart, who I interviewed awhile back, is also in the episode. Download it here.

And then in the most recent episode it’s a full length parody of “Hee-Haw,” which I’ve never seen, called “Horse Apples.” They had previously done a “Horse Apples” segment before:

The episode stars David Cross, Zach Galifianakis, Will Oldham, Jon Glaser, Todd Barry and a ton of other funny people. Download it here.

Here’s a video of Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat being interviewed by Joan Rivers. Joan seems to have a tough time with the interview and they kind of make fun of her a bit.

I recently upped a trailer for the shot-for-shot remake of Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark to youtube and it’s been getting some views.

“In summer 1982, three Mississippi boys decided to film a shot-for-shot remake of their favourite movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. After years of toil - which saw one of them being set alight, another having his head blown up, and the whole lot of them blagging the use of two US submarines - their backyard odyssey is being hailed as a crackpot masterpiece, not least by Steven Spielberg himself.”

That’s from a really great article called Raiders of the Lost Backyard by Jim Windolf. Dan Clowes read the article, loved it, and hooked up with a movie producer who had bought the rights to the life stories of the kids involved. Currently Clowes is finishing a script for a biopic on the filming.

I had the good fortune of seeing the remake at a film festival last year and let me tell you that it is amazing. They do some really dangerous stunts and the whole thing makes you feel good inside that these kids were able to turn their obsession into a very entertaining film. Sadly because of copyright laws they can only screen it at film festivals where all the profits are donated to charity. As a result it could be quite some time before we see any sort of official release.

For more info, go here.

Here are some Zach Galifianakis videos that I like. Zach’s going to be on a show called Dog Bites Man on Comedy Central next month. The show also stars A.D. Miles, who’s been in a bunch of Stella stuff, and Matt Walsh, from the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. It’s written and produced by Dan Mazer, who is the main writer and producer for “Da Ali G Show,” which gives me some hope. It’ll air June 7th at 10:30.

Sorry about the lack of updates. I’ve been away in Southern California. A very strange place. I’m not sure I’m used to it yet.

Anyway, it was a good trip. I got to see a lot of friends and do some fun things. I stayed with Jordan and we ended up watching quite a few ytmnd videos. I had seen some before, but I had no idea what “ytmnd” stood for. Take a guess. “You’re the man now, dog.” That’s the inspirato. The line was spoken by Sean Connery in “Finding Forrester.” To hear Sean say it to a muppet typing, click this. We also got a lot of enjoyment out of Captain Picard’s art lesson.

And check out this video that J had a hand in crafting:

And here’s some songs I got off his computer that I’ve been enjoying:
Manitoba-Jacknuggeted
Nobody and Mystic Chords of Memory-When the End Meets the Beginning
The Cardigans-Iron Man
Sven Libaek-Music for Eels

Quite possibly my favorite UCB sketch.

Awhile back I came across the short films of Adam Elliot, an Australian animator who won an Academy Award in 2003. His films are incredibly simple, poignant, sad and funny all at the same time. He relies on claymation and a narration that is the very defintion of droll. Here are 3 films entitled “Cousin,” “Brother,” and “Uncle.”

The following is a Wendy’s training video from the 80s featuring a dude rapping about how to properly cook burgers. Watch for the guitar solo on the spatula and the singing meat.

Word on the street is that it’s just like a sequence in Truffaut’s “Day for Night,” which I can’t verify since I haven’t seen that. But it’s still pretty cute nonetheless.

Wonder Showzen is the one of the most awesome shows on television today. It follows the structure of a kids’ program like “Sesame Street” and completely turns it on its head by having some of the most scathing, subversive content on the air. It’s really amazing. The first season recently came out on DVD and the second season is currently airing on MTV2 Fridays at 9:30. There will be 3 more episodes on the air for this season. Here’s some of my favorite segments from the show:

And here are all the episodes from season 2 for download. Get ‘em quick while the links are still up: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5.