This Week in Potentially Funny Media

Albums:

Steve Martin: The Crow - New Songs for the Five-String Banjo

Steve Martin seems to have hit a point in his career where he can pretty much do whatever the hell he feels like, and this is a CD of new banjo songs, so we have further evidence to support that notion. There’s some comedy on this album, I hear.

DVDs:
Rifftrax DVDs: Little Shop of Horrors, Swing Parade, Missile to the Moon, Reefer Madness, House on Haunted Hill, Night of the Living Dead, Shorts vol. 1 & 2. – These’ll run you about 10 bucks a pop and they’re all out today. We had no idea they were even releasing these, but at that price, most of them are worth it.

Ghostbusters (Bluray) – Conveniently timed to match the release of the mega-hyped videogame. Harold Ramis was on Fallon last week and commented that this was designed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ghostbusters, and that it was notable nobody was celebrating the 20th anniversary of Ghostbusters II. We applaud Harold Ramis for being self-aware.

Spaceballs (Bluray) – When’s the last time you saw Spaceballs? Was it more than 5 years ago? If so, prepare to discover that this movie hasn’t aged well and isn’t really funny if you’re over, say, 10.

Dr. Strangelove (Bluray) – Some consider this to be Stanley Kubrick’s finest film, which is a pretty big claim to make, but that it’s one of the most enduring and sharp comedies of all time – still endlessly quoted and referenced to this day – ought to mean something. Some have complained about the picture quality on this Bluray edition to be a little heavy on the film grain, but hey, it’s an old movie.

What’s Up Tiger Lily - Woody Allen's first movie, rereleased to coincide with the premiere of his poorly reviewed feature-length episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (which you can find in theaters under the title Whatever Works). Here, he redubbed an old kung-fu movie. Lots of egg salad jokes. Absolutely reeks of the 60's. Watch it while wearing go-go boots and sipping from a martini glass.

Family Guy vol. 7 - Normally we wouldn’t cover Family Guy here, but this box set contains the amazingly hilarious Surfin’ Bird episode from last season. Seriously, that episode was great, haters be damned. They should’ve ditched the lame Jesus plot, though, and just did 23 minutes of Surfin’ Bird gags. In fact, just ignore this box set and go watch the episode on Hulu or something, and skip past all the Jesus bits.

Comedy Toxic Waste of the Week:

Rodney Carrington: El Nino Loco

Doing “research” for this feature I stumbled upon this guy Rodney Carrington who has a new album out tomorrow and it turns out his entire act is comprised of novelty country songs. I haven’t heard the album outside of some clips, and won’t hear any more out of principle, but based on the title there’s probably some racist shit in there somewhere.

This is the sort of thing that gets purchased alongside a Ron White DVD and a ticket to a Fathom Events Glenn Beck “comedy” concert. There isn’t anyone who would listen to this that you wouldn’t (or shouldn't) hate on a basic human level.