Filed under: Urban Advice | Tags: american dad, family guy, hang overs, humor, humour, simpsons, southpark, the simpsons
15 years ago, the Simpsons was without a shadow of a doubt, the funniest programme going, so whats gone wrong? How have they gone from lampooning the classic remake of Cape Fear with the brilliance of Kelsey Grammar as Sideshow Bob , to Homer going to Scotland to catch the Lochness fucking Monster? Well lets have a look….
1: The Writers – From what I can gather, many of the writers that contributed to the brilliance of the Simpsons during the “golden era”, have moved on to bigger and better things. As this is to be expected when people are producing comedy gold as part of a large team, surely the producers could have brought in people that captured the zeitgeist? Or even held some of the writers on retainer or invited them back, rather than people that seem to think comedy is slapstick randomness more suited to Sponge Bob Squarepants.
2: Try to pander to viewers – With the likes of Family Guy, American Dad & Southpark providing animated humour for adults, the Simpsons has had to change to try and keep up, except that without an adult twist, its unrepentant wackiness (Tomacco anyone?) has made it look like a middle age man trying to prove how cool he is (or once was). Remember when the Simpsons handled political satire with a touch so subtle that both children and adults could appreciate the humour on numerous levels?
3: Loads of Money – The Simpsons is undoubtedly one of the most successful franchises of all time, I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess but I doubt Matt Groening, James L Brooks & Sam Simon are wondering where their next meal is coming from. Anything that makes that kind of money is going to end up selling out to a certain degree and its cash cow status for Fox means that they’ll always have a hand in what the show churns out. But at one point they were fearless, no political figure was safe from the yellow skin treatment (George Bush Snr being sent up as an old crank stands out) and it was much better for it.
Filed under: Urban Advice | Tags: conflict resolution, survival, urban survival
At some point in your life you will probably end up stood between at least two grown people trying to stop one or both from beating the living shit out of each other. Probably to do with football, or a member of the opposite sex. So what do you do to end the mither?
1: Provide a distraction: Wave your arms about, shit on the floor, do something to take the minds of the two potentially warring factions off the situation. Hopefully this will make them realise how futile the conflict is, compared to the sheer crackers behaviour you are now exhibiting.
2: Make them sit down and engage in a “dialogue”: Hard as fuck this one, probably more suited to a work based kick off than your two mates arguing over who’s round it is. But give it a try. Not the best solution when you’re logic is addled by booze though.
3: Knock their heads together: Worked on me and our kid when we were young uns, might not be the best method for making people see sense in a place of employment. Business’s tend to frown upon a manager smacking two peoples heads together.
Filed under: Urban Advice | Tags: bear grylls, dad, dinner, food, hangover, hangovers, humor, humour, mam, mam and dad, mum, mum and dad, ray mears, sunday dinner, survival, urban survival
So its Sunday, you’re due round at your Mam & Dads for Sunday dinner, and quite frankly, the old cranks are doing your (possibly) hung over head in. How do you cope?
1: Start drinking – Easy this, if you can stomach it, pinch a can out of your Dads stash, or crack open the red wine, you’ll soon be too pissed to give a shit what they’re giving you grief about.
2: Don’t go – I know, technically its not “surviving” but you won’t have to put up with the constant barrage of questions they’ve already asked you before. Although you’re probably hamstringing yourself here and doing yourself out of a fairly decent feed (unless your Mams roasts are as bad as mine).
3: Take the piss – I know some of you probably do this already and I know some of you probably don’t, but taking the piss can make a few hours go fast as fuck. Rip your Dad for the length of his sideburns, give your Mam grief over the state of her roast spuds. Its all good. Even start taking the piss in other ways, crack open your Dads best bottle of Whisky and sling a bag of washing at your Mam.
Filed under: Urban Advice | Tags: 2pac, Biggie, Blaq, Blaq Poet, DJ Premier, Hip Hop, marley marl, mr magic, Rap, rap attack, Tupac
On Friday the second of October, the Hip Hop pioneer Mr Magic died of a heart attack. For those that don’t know Mr Magic, in 1983, started the first exclusively Hip Hop radio show on New Yorks WBLS-FM. Mr Magic’s Rap Attack was pioneering in the truest sense of the word. Hip Hop was still a fledgling musical genre and Mr Magic along with with Marley Marl and Fly Ty helped champion a type of music that was viewed with extreme negativity by the mainstream who seemed to fear Hip Hop.
To say Mr Magic was a massive influence would be an understatement, namechecked by Whodini, Biggie, Nas, Tupac, Blaq Po, he helped terraform a musical landscape that would spawn countless sub genre’s and crossovers that don’t even know who he was or what he did.
RIP Mr Magic, you will be missed.
