Mongo Nation

Epic clash of the weirdo-comedy lovers

Johnny Firecloud Vs. Jeremy Azevedo

I recently caught a screening of the new Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) film Gentlemen Broncos, and found that I had vastly different feelings about the movie than another of our writers, one mister Jeremy Azevedo. Things got a bit heated in our point-by-point exchange, but the character assassinations and personal attacks shouldn’t be taken as anything more than hard-fought opinion flag-planting, dear reader. We do it for you. It’s all for you.

JOHNNY: I didn’t enjoy the film nearly as much as I’d hoped to. Gentlemen Broncos isn’t terrible, or even bad really but it seems to aim specifically for the 8 year-old boy demographic. The comedy of it isn’t lost on me - the Yeast Lords sci-fi fantasy world is hilarious, especially when co-opted and completely gayed out by Dr. Ronald Chevalier.

But the intentional awkwardness that made Napoleon Dynamite great is far too heavy-handed here, and while the characters are hilarious, the whole thing just seems too deliberate. The comedy is way overplayed, and the best parts of the film were in the trailer (except the snake shitting on that dude - that was pure gold). The book cover art is totally awesome and the use of Ray Lynch’s music was brilliant, but I felt like I had a brain-STD after the movie.

JEREMY: Deliberate? Overplayed? This, coming from a guy that’s a card-carrying Tim Burton fan. So T.B. can make 300 variations of the same goddamn movie, but Jared Hess isn’t allowed to employ a similar style more than once?

Personally, I find his style unique and refreshing when compared to nearly everything else out there. How many Star Wars/blowjob gags can we tolerate from Kevin Smith? How many times is Judd Apatow going to have some fat guy tell us the same dick joke? Gentlemen Broncos was consistently funny, while at the same time giving us a glimpse into a world that very few, if any, moviegoers have ever looked in on. I can’t believe that Hess is more or less the first person to successfully turn a camera on the one weird kid that everybody remembers from school, but never actually met, and tell his or her story.

At the very least, you have to admit that 100% of the fantasy sequences were incredibly awesome, and that Dr. Ronald Cheveliar was an instant classic character. Did you notice that he was always wearing a Bluetooth earpiece, but that he always spoke to people on a regular phone? Broncos was filled with little touches like that which warrant a re-watching. Like Napoleon Dynamite, it will require repeated viewings to fully appreciate the depth of humor beneath the dryness. Maybe you just need to watch it again.

JOHNNY: Card-carrying Tim Burton fan? You cheap fucking swine - my initial response to your “do you like Tim Burton?” bait question was “not really, no” - before admitting that some of his work is good. But it’s too limited in vision, he rides Johnny Depp’s rod a little too hard for real appreciation and those freaky Indian-midget oompa-loomps were horrible. I won’t deny that.

That said, Gentlemen Broncos would definitely be a unique and refreshing tale, if Napoleon Dynamite hadn’t existed before it. I won’t argue that Kevin Smith is more overrated than Judd Apatow, whose fetish for fat underdog protags is only worsened by the fact that he casts his shrill, haggard wife in every goddamn thing he does.

Yes. The fantasy sequences were fantastic. Once I regressed to my 8 year-old self I laughed like hell, and I’m sure I’ll appreciate it more on repeated viewings, but it’s gonna take some fantastic fucking weed. Chevalier’s bluetooth was hysterical, however, as was Sam Rockwell’s gay lisp. But dear Christ, that Pedro wannabe with the big grin was terrifying and horrible. I was also bothered by the fact that he never got his teeth kicked in for writing a check post-dated for the following year, but I digress.

JEREMY: Whatever. You probably have a “Jack Skellington” tattoo on your bicep. You don’t gotta lie to kick it, dude.

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A funny new sitcom about game-dorks, dorking out about games!

Welcome to Critical Flaw, the hilarious new skit-com about two roommates named Khail and Kovic!

Yep… Those are really their names. No, I am not shitting you.

Follow them as they try to understand the world around them and all the video games contained therein. How will they do this?  With the help of numerous, conversation-derailing flashback sequences, of course!

Mr. Show and Arrested Development star’s literary debut

By Jeremy Azevedo

David Cross is one of the more subversive comics performing today. His act, despite accusations of being “lefty” and “P.C.” by faux-blue collar comedian “Larry the Cable Guy”, is really anything but.

It’s easy to call Cross “Left wing” because he doesn’t pander to the lowest common denominator, or because he’s suspicious of virtually everything. Really though, he’s just not a joiner. And having read his book, “I Drink For A Reason”, I can safely say that he most likely has as much (if not more) disdain for hippies as he does for republican conservatives. After a certain point, though, you have to wonder how he came to view himself as being so goddamn superior. It would almost grow tiresome if it weren’t also consistently hilarious.

At 45 years old, Cross is essentially the original, proto-hipster: Anti-everything and yet always on the front lines of nearly every cultural shift. Most comics would’ve given up on the whole “cutting edge” bit and started making children’s movies by now. (Eh… David Cross sort of does that too… When he’s not already too busy being awesome in Arrested Development, Wonder Showzen and virtually every animated series on Adult Swim!) I can imagine that the pressure to always be “cool” and to also live up to his own personal standard of being completely infallible when it comes to crass-consumerism, ego and musical taste must be exhausting. And yet he soldiers on, taking down everything from Urban Outfitters and “top ten lists” to Jim Belushi and patriotism. Not even scrapbooking is safe from his unerring stream of ridicule. (Although between you and me, scrapbooking had it comin’.)

This is sort of my favorite thing about David Cross and comics like him. He gets into arguments with entertainers that take the easy road and play to Middle America’s insatiable lust for fart jokes. And then he writes fart jokes of his own, but addresses them to an audience that considers itself “highbrow” and enjoys the aforementioned fart jokes “ironically”. Where one comic might play the “aw shucks, tell-it-like-it-is” game with the audience and point out a shared stupidity, David Cross instead chooses to stand on a platform and point out that the audience is itself stupid. And yet he still gets the laughs without having to pretend that he himself is part of the “problem”. This is the quality that I think makes him a superior comedian.

His body of work speaks for itself: David Cross is routinely great in most everything he does. Meanwhile, he gets to act like an over-educated and under-stimulated asshole and get away with it at every turn. It’s something that I suspect creative types really respond to, and may be why there is a bit of disconnect between how he is received by critics and how he is received by the public. The brutality with which he rips on The American Way Of Life requires a more sophisticate palette than most casual observers are likely to have. Conversely, those of us that find humor in the things that other people are passionately serious about will have a great time reading “I Drink For A Reason” and laughing at the absurdity of ourselves, and our neighbors, along with David.

If you enjoy David Cross’s stand-up, you’ll certainly also enjoy this book. It basically amounts to a comedy album in written form. It’s one of those books that are great to leave on your kitchen or coffee table and read a chapter over breakfast, or while taking a dump (or both at the same time, if that’s what you’re into). There’s even some great callback, like when Cross writes the “Magic Christian” inspired “I Think Rich People Are Boring”, and then later revisits the concept in “Sitting On A Pole Trying To Win Some Money”. Some of these articles are just lists, which is funny because he has a chapter later in the book making fun of lists. There isn’t much in the way of deeply personal anecdotes, but then, this isn’t a memoir, and Cross is sort of too successful to have any really great crybaby stories about living in squalor or giving truck stop hand-jobs to feed his kids like J.K. Rowling or Chelsea Handler (who doesn’t have kids that I am aware of and probably does that sort of thing just for fun, I’m guessing).

I award “I Drink For A Reason” 8 out of 10 Unicorns Fighting A Robot Dolphin:

+2 If you think “Arrested Development” was the best comedy ever on television
+1 If you think “Arrested Development” was the second best comedy ever on television, after “Married With Children”
-2 If you know you’re a redneck when… (Fill in the blank with some dumbass remark about incest or trucks or something)

For more information on the book, please visit IDrinkForAReason.com

Additionally, do yourself a favor and check out David Cross in the ultimate pwnage of blue collar “humor” on WonderShowzen’s classic “Horse Apples” episode. You won’t be sorry.

Now with 100% more Boosh than no Boosh at all!

By Future Sailor

The Mighty Boosh is a show that’s not easily described in words. I could tell you that it’s about two weird dudes that are unlikely friends and bandmates in a fictional band, predictably called “The Boosh”. And that they work in a magical thrift store with a Shaman and a talking ape.

I could also tell you that The Mighty Boosh is the next logical step in the evolution of English stoner comedy. But maybe it’s better to just show you:
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If that clip isn’t the sort of thing that appeals to you, then you must have come here by accident. You probably meant to go to Goatse.cx and somehow ended up here instead. It’s ok. It happens. For those of you that are already fans of the Boosh or maybe just curious, however, you may be excited to learn that there is a brand new special edition DVD collection out right now!

The Mighty Boosh Special Edition DVD collects all three seasons of The Mighty Boosh, along with a metric shit-ton of bonus material. There are stickers and postcards for the more tactile fans among us. There are also incredibly weird deleted scenes, live footage from the stage show, interviews and behind the scenes featurettes. If it exists and is related to the Boosh in any way, it is included on these 7 discs. My personal favorite is a “crimping” (sort of like a synchronized, acapella freestyle) collection that is certain to melt your face off with awesomnisity if you are not suitably prepared.

Each and every season of The Mighty Boosh is jam-packed with great characters, songs and classic moments. Even non-fans are probably familiar with the worldwide Internet sensation that is known as “Old Greg”; everyone’s favorite undersea Rick James transsexual fish-man. And you don’t really have to have any prerequisite knowledge of the Boosh to enjoy “The Strange tale of the Crack Fox”… Although it might help to keep a light on whilst watching this one (the Crack Fox is vaguely terrifying). Keeping a doobie handy wouldn’t be too bad of an idea either (provided that you have a proper prescription, of course!)

To put the popularity of this show in perspective, I went to a “secret show” live performance by the Boosh in Hollywood this summer, and you’d think they were handing out free blowjobs and bars of gold by the length of the line outside. Don’t be the last of your friends to experience The Boosh. It’s awkward when the rest of us are trying to talk about it and do impressions and stuff around the water cooler, and you’re just standing there all like, “Oh, that sounds cool, what’s this Mighty Boosh all about anyway?” Get with the goddamn program already, man.

I award The Mighty Boosh Special Edition DVD 9 out of 10 Unicorns Fighting a Robot Dolphin:

+1 if you find the silly English accents charming and fun
-2 if you find the silly English accents obnoxious and grating.

We interview Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Diablo Cody and the rest of the cast!

Last week we went along with Ryan Rotten of ShockTillYourDrop.com to the premiere of Jennifer’s Body (which was awesome, by the way). While we were there, we talked to Megan Fox, Adam Brody and director Karyn Kusama about the film, their experience working in horror for the first time, and whether or not Megan “eats any girls” in the film. Check it out!

Don’t worry, we also talked to Diablo Cody, Amanda Seyfried and Panic at the Disco, who were there performing their new single that appears in the film.

For more of Jennifer’s Body, watch Ryan Rotten’s on-stage Q&A with the writer and cast!

Also feel free to watch this bootleg video of Panic at the Disco performing live at the event, if that’s what you’re into.