Mongo Nation

Our top 5 clips from the cult classic sketch comedy show

By Jeremy Azevedo

In just 3 short seasons, MTV’s The State established itself as one of the most influential sketch comedy series of all time, and kick-started the careers of some of the most successful comedy actors, writers and directors of our generation.

From Thomas Lennon and David Wain to Michael Showalter and Kerri Kenny-Silver, the original cast of The State reads like closing credits of nearly every good comedy in the last few years (that wasn’t produced by Apatow). Despite all this, fans have waited over a decade for The State to be available on DVD, even paying obscene amounts of money on eBay for the one shitty VHS compilation that MTV releases years ago. The reasoning behind the excruciatingly long wait has to do with music rights or some such bullcrap, but the fact remains that the the wait is now officially over. So you can stop sending those 400 page manifestos to MTV now.

The irreverent humor exhibited by The State was hugely influential on comedians and humorists in the 90s and beyond, as it stood as an (actually funny) alternative to the more structured comedic formula established by dead horse-beating shows like SNL. Probably no one was sitting around wondering what you would do with $240 worth of pudding, but The State was more than happy to tell you what they would do with it… Or what goes on in the sub-molecular world of teenage hormones… Or how to catch a Muppet in the wild, or what to do when your mailman stops delivering mail, and starts delivering delicious tacos. Fans of Reno 911, Stella, I Love You Man, Hot Wet American Summer, Drop Dead Gorgeous and all the dozens of projects that have been produced by this comedy collective over the years should take this opportunity to revisit the genesis of The State’s particular brand of offbeat humor.

In order to show rather than tell that these sketches hold up just as well today as they did ten years ago (because these skits all sound batshit crazy on paper), we’ve compiled a collection of five of our favorite clips from the show. Check ‘em out and be sure to pre-order your copy of The State on DVD, available July 14!

Betty’s Pancake House

Put a bag on your head and hop on the ugly bus to Betty’s No Good Clothes and Pancake House!

The Barry Lutz Show

America’s foremost primate zoologist feels “research” is such a restrictive term and he prefers, “Monkey Torture.”

Inbred Brothers — Army

Two of the dirtiest inbred soldiers you’ll ever see! Bang… bang… I’m shootin’ your butt. What am I doing?

Service With A Smile

Chicken Sandwich, Carl! Can we talk to a manager, please?

Porcupine Racetrack

See the full musical performance of Porcupine Racetrack in all its glory. The excitement! The drama! The costumes! The orphans! The porcupines!

Mike Tyson, Snoop Dogg, Shane Mosley & Warren G on Fight Night Round 4

We were at The House Of Blues in Los Angeles earlier this week for the red carpet debut of EA’s Fight Night Round 4 for the Xbox 360, which is looking like the most realistic boxing experience one can possibly have without ending up in the hospital! While we were there we spoke with the people’s champ, Mike Tyson, current fan favorite “Sugar” Shane Mosley, 90s rap icon Warren G and Mr. Snoop Dee-Oh-Double-Gee himself. Check out our tour of the red carpet right here:

Truth in advertising or wishful thinking?

By Jeremy Azevedo

I’ve been playing Guitar Hero since 2005, and as a longtime advocate of Guitar Hero in general, I must say that I am both delighted and troubled by the existence of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits.

Ever since the introduction of Rock Band and the subsequent inception of music DLC, many of us have been wondering “why on earth haven’t Neversoft and/or Activision remastered the goddamn songs from the first two Guitar Heroes for use with the whole band already?” I don’t know if they were short-sighted when acquiring the rights to the songs in the first place, or if it’s just that much more difficult to get original masters or what, but two years later we finally have our answer. Obviously Guitar Hero as a franchise is not a huge supporter of DLC, so it should come as no surprise that the “Greatest Hits” compilation of songs from previous games should be packaged as a stand-alone title at full retail price.

The question, then, is: “Is this really worth paying $60 for?” I don’t know what the answer to that is. It depends on who you ask.

If Guitar Hero: Smash Hits contained all or most of the songs from the earlier games, then I would say yes, buy the game immediately. There were so many great songs in the first two games in particular that you’d be foolish not to… In the beginning, there wasn’t as much pressure for the developers to appeal to a mainstream audience, so absolutely no concessions were made to include shitty tweeny-bop bands in the slightest. This is not to say that Guitar Hero has gone half as pop as Rock Band has, but there was a distinct lean toward metal earlier on that lends itself particularly well to the simulated band experience. The more obscure stuff doesn’t work as well with the karaoke, but that’s always been my least favorite part of the game so I don’t personally mind that as much.

The problem, though, is that of all the 200 or so songs that could have been used for this game, there are only 48 on the disc. Considering that Guitar Hero: World Tour had more than 80, I just don’t see how this warrants a full retail price tag. The only explanation for this that I can see is that there must be a sequel coming exactly twelve months form now, possibly even two, that contain all the rest of the material that didn’t make it on this one. There are simply too many awesome songs that weren’t included for me to believe otherwise. And, considering that this is marketed directly at longtime fans of the series, I can’t help but feel that I am being taken advantage of by this fact.

Economic considerations aside, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits is a welcome return to familiar territory. Playing “Mother” on vocals and “The Trooper” on drums was way rad. My lady piece, who claims to be “sick to f**king death of goddamn Guitar Hero” (her words, not mine) played drums on like five songs and then went on to sing maybe ten more. So I suspect that this would make a great party game, as usual. Plus, the addition of open-note strumming for the bass guitar, the slide bar on guitar and competitive play add a whole layer of depth to the experience that wasn’t originally present. In fact, some of these additions make the tougher songs a lot easier to pull off than they were originally, which is nice. I’ve been missing “Cowboys From Hell” and “Bark At The Moon” for quite some time now, so it was very satisfying to play them again on guitar, bass and drums.

In conclusion, I award Guitar Hero: Smash Hits 7 out of 10 Unicorns Fighting a Robot Dolphin:

+ 1 if you really dig the OG fan service
-1 if you’re seriously butthurt by the fact that there’s no Rolling Stones, Megadeth or Guns N’ Roses in this particular edition.

We demo the latest in shooting and slicing technology

Red Steel was the first third-party game to find success on the Nintendo Wii, generating massive sales despite generally lukewarm reviews. Red Steel 2 addresses critics’ gripes regarding visuals, controls and aesthetic by setting the game in a retro-futuristic setting similar to 1973’s cult sci-fi classic, “Westworld”. The graphical presentation takes a major leap forward by using a less realistic, cell-shaded look like “No More Heroes”. Lastly, the control has been largely improved by utilizing the new Wii-Motion Plus to give the player true 1:1 control over the game’s weapons.

We shot a video of our friend Duke Ferris from GameRevolution.com demoing the game live at E3. Check it out!

Are they out of touch? (Short answer: Yes.)

By Jeremy Azevedo

While at a press conference for a boring documentary about the history of the electric guitar that no one will watch, Jimmy Page and Jack White were challenged to comment on the concept of music based video games.

I am so goddamn tired of musicians ragging on the state of the music industry and bawling about how much money they’re losing (as if making millions of dollars a year to fiddle on thier little guitars is a right and not a privilege), then turning right around and attacking the only forms of music ditribution that real people actually still use (i.e. downloading services like iTunes and Guitar Hero/Rock Band games). Apparently these seemingly obvious concepts of industry evlution and supply vs. demand are entriely foreign to Jimmy Page and Jack White, who are not interested in participating in the music gaming fad/proven-effective modern business model. Relying on the age-old “it’s not like playing real instruments” argument, Jimmy Page had this to say:

“You think of the drum part that John Bonham did on Led Zeppelin’s first track on the first album, Good Times Bad Times,” Page said. “How many drummers in the world can play that part, let alone on Christmas morning? Christ I’m old.”

I find it unsurprising that someone as old and out-of-touch as Jimmy Page would find little to be excited about when it comes to music games. Led Zeppelin, once known as the “biggest band in the world” hardly needs the exposure.. They get played on the radio at least twice a day on every classic rock station in the world, and will continue to do so for the remainder of human history. But maybe it’s time for him to get with the times? Robert Plant is out winning Grammys for doing his own thing while Page is complaining about “those whippersnappers and their gol’durn newfangled electro boogie vidyuh-game devices”. Someone needs to calmly and carefully explain to this dude that f**king “Cream” magazine doesn’t exist anymore, and that “Rolling Stone” only covers Lady Gaga nowadays, amirite?

Jack White, who isn’t as old as Jimmy Page but wishes he was so that he could have more “street creed” also chimed in with his own personal tirade against arguably the most profitable sector of the music industry in the last decade:

“It’s depressing to have a label come and tell you that [Guitar Hero] is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music.” While he added that he doesn’t try to limit “which format people should get their music in…if you have to be in a video game to get in front of them, that’s a little sad. Also, I am afraid of Terminators and even my cell phone is analog.”

So here’s a guy that hasn’t made a good album since White Blood Cells in 2001, complaining about his label trying to sell more records for him by getting his music into video games so he never has to work another day in his life. Yeah that sucks dude! I totally feel you. You know what else sucks? Looking like a Jonathan Daivis’ gay little brother. What a f**ktard.

I don’t know if these people realize that the whole purpose for these kinds of games existing in the first place was (and still is) to give music fans the ability to experience their favorite music by actually participating in it instead of just passively listening to it. And it just so happens that in participating, you may discover that you actually quite like artists that you may have never given a chance before…

Just to put this in perspective, here is a short list of artists whose records or CDs I have bought in the last couple of years because I enjoyed playing their songs on Guitar Hero:

The Edgar Winter Group
Blue Oyster Cult
The Exies
David Bowie
Matthew Sweet
The Police
Kiss
The Pretenders
Valient Thor
Deathklok
Foreigner
Steely Dan
Fleetwood Mac
Dinosaur Jr.
Pat Benatar
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Eagles

We talk to Game Producer Sebastien Puel

Assassin’s Creed was one of the biggest selling games of 2007. Assassin’s Creed 2 looks to provide many of the same thrills that made the first so great, while making improvements to virtually every aspect of the gameplay and graphic engine. For sheer visual impact and fluidity of control, Assassin’s Creed 2 is nearly unparalleled. We talked to the game producer Sebastian Puel about what to expect from the sequel:

Take this handy quiz and find out!

By Jeremy Azevedo

Zombie movies are pretty much beloved by everyone, but foreign films can be somewhat of an acquired taste. Take Dead Snow for instance, a Norwegian zombie film about undead Nazis terrorizing med students in a lonely cabin atop a snowy mountain. How does one review such a thing for the average moviegoer?

Instead of presuming to know what you will or will not find interesting or important about such a film, I have instead opted to develop a quiz that will help you determine whether or not Dead Snow is for you!

1.    Do you watch pretty much any zombie movie, regardless of how implausible the premise? Y/N
2.    Do you find the idea of Nazi zombies compelling in some strange way? Y/N
3.    I’m pretty sure there are no titties in this movie. Still interested? Y/N
4.    Do you speak Norwegian, or at the very least, enjoy looking at Norwegians? Y/N
5.    Did you like Cabin Fever and/or Evil Dead? Y/N
6.    Do you prefer horror movies that startle you over those that merely create suspense? Y/N
7.    There’s no such thing as too much blood, amirite? Y/N
8.    A good horror/comedy/horror-comedy film should run no longer than 90 minutes, no matter what. Agree or disagree? Y/N
9.    You can read right? Because there are subtitles in this movie. Y/N
10.  You often think that there aren’t enough horror films that take place in snowy environments. The blood looks so much more graphic splashed all over that perfect white snow! Agree or disagree? Y/N

For every question that you answered “Yes” (“Y”, for those of you that are retarded), award Dead Snow one point. Did your total add up to a 7 or higher? If so, you’ll probably enjoy Dead Snow and should go see it right away. If not, maybe there’s probably a new Matthew McConaughey romantic comedy out this weekend or something.