The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time
The fifty greatest comedy sketches of all time from Nerve and IFC. All with video. Some highlights: SNL’s consumer probe & word association; Mr. Show’s pretaped call-in show, Upright Citizens Brigade’s ass pennies, The State’s porcupine racetrack, lots of Monty Python, some classics, and the inevitable winning sketch.
There’s no more sure-fire way to kill something’s intrinsic comedic
value than to try to examine what makes it funny. The minute you start
thinking, you stop laughing. So why, then, have Nerve and IFC.com
devoted an enormous amount of time, manpower, monetary resources,
server space and posh catered lunches to the pursuit of ranking the
boob tube’s finest sketch comedy offerings?
In part, we’re here because magical new technology
(*coughYouTubecough*) allows us to do more than just pontificate for
paragraphs on end — now we can pontificate for paragraphs on end and
provide audiovisual evidence to back up those pontifications. We
provide the context, share our thoughts and feelings, and let you
commence with the guffawing and, naturally, the disagreeing. After all,
the comedy sketch — short, sweet, completely silly or shot through with
social commentary — worms its way into the public mind like nothing
else, and has easily made the leap to the web when other forms have
faltered.
Any list is bound by the limitations set on it — consciously and
unconsciously — by its creators: we kept our 50 selections to stuff
that’s appeared on television by choice, and to what’s appeared in
English out of necessity. One must also bear in mind the availability
of material; who knows what comedic treasures are lost to us because
they simply don’t exist anymore?
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Rube Goldberg-esque pool trick shot
If Rube Goldberg played pool, he’d set up trick shots like the gent in this video.
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Remember Me
Remember Me.
A multimedia documentary about one family’s struggle to deal with the
loss of a parent. This series is the 2008 Pulitzer winner for feature
photography.
It’s kind of intense.
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Jules Verne Illustrations
The Smithsonian’s Jules Verne Centennial site has a collection of a large number of high quality scans of original, engraved illustrations from Verne’s works. From the fantastic (interior of space vehicle, flying ship, spacewalking) and mundane (two dogs, a nice meal, elephant trying to break free from a hot-air balloon). And don’t forget to check out the portrait of Jules Verne and his many technological prophecies. For information about the publishing history of Jules Verne read this scholarly article by Terry Harpold about illustrations of Jules Verne stories, focusing on Le Superbe Orénoque. It also includes a wealth of illustrations. Finally, as a bonus, here’s a picture of the National Air and Space Museum’s scale model of the spacecraft Verne came up with for his De la Terre à la Lune.
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A Whiz Kid in Kenya
Tevis Howard, a 2007 Brown University graduate and recent recipient of the Draper Richards Fellowship and the Rainer Arnhold Fellowship, is the 2005 Founder and Executive Director of
KOMAZA, a non-profit community-based
organization in Kenya. KOMAZA’s mission is to “end chronic poverty in
Kenya by promoting health, economic growth, education, and
infrastructure development” through a tree farming social enterprise. Partnering with the Tree Biotechnology Project, KOMAZA plants fast-growning, drought-tolerant Eucalyptus trees as a cash crop for rural, substinance farming communities.
In 2002, then 17-year-old Tevis Howard was recognized by Forbes ASAP magazine (which ceased publication in October 2002) as an ASAP Teenage All Star and won third place in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his research developing a novel treatment for multiple sclerosis. Declared to be a “prodigy” and a “whiz kid” early on, Tevis helped publish a report in 2002 on immunology and Malaria in Kenya. In 2006, Tevis won a Rhode Island competition for his KOMAZA business plan.
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YouTube Sucks
Youtube.com is being really really slow tonight, which is making my website appear to be slow, its not my fault, I swear.
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Hello Kitty Tombstone
Death can be cute when it’s commemorated with a Hello Kitty gravestone. (The
video offers a glimpse of an Easter Island style tiki gravestone, too!)
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Repaired inner mechanism 1875 automaton lady
Dug North, who runs a great blog “for makers and collectors of mechanical
automata and mechanized toys” says:
This is the repaired inner mechanism of a Vichy automaton made in
France in 1875. The complete automaton depicts a lady who breathes, closes her
eyes, turns her head, fans herself, and lifts her glasses to her eyes.
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Popecam
A Webcam of the Tomb of Pope John Paul II. Just in case he decides to go zombie on us.
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You have 20 seconds to comply
Putting
up a sentry! Commercially available paintball sentry guns. Optional extras
include a VR heads up display. If $1399 is too much you could build your own. Watch out
for spies!
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Most outrageous cheats in sports
Bombs, hitchhiking at the Tour de France, and rigging the Paralympics…
RobDurdle.com 