What's so funny!?

“So that’s what Joss Whedon is up to these days.” said my girlfriend as I told her about the new project by the producer of the Buffy and Firefly series.

Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a 43-minute musical film that was written exclusively for internet distribution during the writer’s strike that crippled the film and television industry late in 2007. It consists of three acts, each approximately 14-minutes long. Initially aired online as individual episodes, they are available on iTunes in the US and Canada. A link for the rest of us is here. The show is essentially a Whedon family affair with Joss and co responsible for writing, directing, music, lyrics and the score.

Dr Horrible is a villain played by Neil Patrick Harris (yes, Doogie Howser), and largely revolves around him (and his alter ego, Billy) trying to get into Bad Horse's Evil League of Evil and essentially trying to take over the world. His nemesis is the superman-like Captain Hammer and the pair compete for the affections of the idealistic and generous Penny.

The show reminded me of Flight of the Conchords with the use of song to make most mundane moments surreal (even with songs about the mail that has arrived) and having characters who are trying to achieve something and failing. However, the songs and writing have a sharp Whedon edge which will please most fans.

The entire musical will be released on DVD in the not-to-distant future, but for the moment, here is the youtube trailer.

A friend lent me the DVD to Bill Bailey's highly successful tour in 2003. I saw Bill come out to Australia many years ago, doing a great bit of musical comedy as part of the Comedy Festival Gala. Love him :)

I decided to find his website and have a look at what it had to offer. I didn't know Bill had done so many other CDs and DVDs (not even mentioning the Black Book series).

Bill writes his own blog which looks pretty odd-ball. Make sure you check out the site, his disc- and DVD-ographies as well as some amusing t-shirts from his various tours - "There's no past, there is no future, just one pulsating present...please leave your message after the tone."

Check him out:www.billbailey.co.uk

Flip Flop Flying is the personal website of Craig Robinson. If you've never heard of Craig, that's no surprise as he's big in Europe as a purveyor of pixel art, where images are drawn at the pixel level.

But Craig doesn't try to draw monsters or images that will appear in magazines. He draws people, really really small. His first book Minipops was a huge hit in the UK and has dozens of pictures of celebrities and bands from around the world drawn pixel by pixel. It's amazing what information is central to the 'uniqueness' of an individual when you only have a few pixels to characterise them. Below is his picture of Nacho Libre:

Craig's website is a mixture of blog, celebration of his many visual pictures and portraits and his upcoming book "Atlas Schmatlas" which I hope to review when it comes out later this year. If you want to more about his art or read some of his amusing musings, I suggest you check out his website, post-haste:

http://flipflopflyin.com/

Ever sat around the house wondering what films like Star Wars, Jaws or Pulp Fiction would be like if they were animated, condensed down to 30 seconds and performed by rabbits? No? Well neither did I.

But Jennifer Shiman has. Beginning with the spoof of The Exorcist, she has created dozens of cinematic spoofs, all 100% the result of her own blood sweat and tears. Her website www.angryalien.com was achieving 25,000 hits per day and was eventually sponsored by Starz Entertainment Group.

Her Flash animation of The Shining won an award at the Ottowa International Animation Festival and her spoof of Titanic was added to its DVD release.

So if you find yourself having a spare 30-seconds and a desire to see Fight Club or Alien performed by rabbits, I suggest you check out her one woman Flash animations!

Many thanks to Miss A (No. 2) for sending me the link to 'Funny or Die'. A comedy website developed by aspiring comedian Michael Kvamme with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s company, Gary Sanchez Productions.

The concept for this funny website is "Vote on the videos and decide whether they’re funny or die a fiery death. Videos that get enough die votes go to the crypt where they languish in comedy hell. But ones that reach immortal status shall make people laugh forever".

Make sure you check out the site and vote for your favourite bit of comedy. Here's the YouTube link to Will Ferrell's 'The Landlady'. Very funny :)

www.funnyordie.com