Before I start I'd like to say that I started to write this while taking dump...
So while I'm currently working on a comedy movie right now I have conducted a bit of "research" to help me work on in it. since my movie extracts allot from popular culture forming a comedic abomination that would force you to laugh (or at least I think it would), I had to be familiar with said popular culture before actually trying to criticizing it. so based on some peoples comments (like scott and nick) I spread out to check mel brooks, properly this time not just like a couple of scenes of space balls but actually seeing history of the world and blazing saddles, but then I'm an avid movie goer/downloader so I also go see movies that are playing right now. now I also remembered (well a friend of mine talked about him allot) woody allen, now I tottally respect him as a comedian and although I didn't see allot of his work (the full ones I saw were like ANTZ and scoop, I saw bits of others but that's not allot) so I downloaded manhatten since my friend told me it was his favourite, at the same time I was dowloading Hot Rod (because Isla Fisher is hot, don't judge me I'm a dude I have two heads I use for thinking and as an equal opportunity employer I employ both heads for equal times, {in retrospect that sounded disgusting}) and both downloads ended within 10 minutes of each other so I skimmed quickly both of them.
Then it hit me (it seems to be hitting me allot these days) comedies right now are all slapstick in your face joke driven farces that are just joke after joke with a minor plot just barely holding the movie together (like a spaghetti strap tank top on a 500 pound woman) while older movies the jokes where a little more subtle, like in manhatten for instance woody allen inserts the lines inbetween to grab your laugh while you're not really paying attention, while modern movies are mostly forcing it out, I'm not saying that is bad, but seriously is this all we can do regress to the days of the three stooges and laurel and hardy (which were awesome in their own way) of pure physical comedy and gags and not really have a script to pull it out together.
most scripts now are lacking some substantiality along with the laughs that kinda dilutes these movies. I loved superbad and the forty year old virgin and knocked up, seth rogen is hilarious so is steve carell, but then a movie like superbad was successful as a box office hit, but then go to the critics and they'll be raving on what a piece of crap this is and how it is not really a movie worth paying for, the public loves it, but really has the public degressed to not wanting to use their brains at all to laugh, I mean you can get clever jokes, the writers are capable of doing that, having a more clever premise to a movie that would provide you with even more laughter.
Like how disney or shrek would slip in more clever jokes for the older viewer (or in horton hears a who the anime scene for the geeks that still love Dr. suess beyond their teen years) those are clever, the simpsons did the same and were subtly commentating on their surrounding without much vulgarity, whereas in southpark the only quote I can think of is "Kyle you stupid asshole !!", I still watch these shows and movies for fun (hell they ARE funny and I like to laugh ALLOT) but then why are they growing and really good smart comedies are starting to dwindle, it's the same back home the most successful comedies are like "El Lemby" or "Elly Baly Balak" which highly depend on the physicality of the actor acting stupid. Borat did the same thing but Sasha Baron Cohen (who is a better actor and Isla fisher's fiance and father of her Daughter {creepy stalkerisms don't worry I'm not that creepy in person} ) was clever enough to send a proper message with his movie, as ridiculous as it was, it still was a clever commentary on modern day america (coming from a british dude acting kazakhestani).
Tarantino and Rodriguez two of my most favourite Directors of all times make movies that might not fit within the comedy region, but still the humor in them is enough to get you laughing for a while, even without knowing so yourself or even wanting to. Their humor is clever in subtle ways, you'll laugh in the midst of the action, with the trademark restaurant conversations of Tarantino such as the "like a virgin" or "I don't believe in tipping" in reservoir dogs or even the very famous quarter pounder speech in pulp fiction (btw in egypt we have both quarter pounder and mcroyale and their both way over a quarter of a pound) are hilarious in their own way because they are clever enough to resemble a real life ocnversation yet crazy enough to be funny, same for rodriguez when he inserts small lines that add the humour element, like "are you a mexican or are you a mexican't" from once upon a time in mexico as well as the bartender moving with the bar to avoid bullets in the begining of that movie. simple elements that just make you laugh without even wanting to.
so if those elements are possible why not then are there more substantial comedy movies that have more elements to them then just jokes followed by jokes that dilute the movie enough to make it not really purposeful anymore. I'm saying this and my current script is already like that, and I can't do anything about it right now since I'm about to finish it, and it's more than halfway done, but i tried to add substantiality to it in a subtle way although i think it might not completely go through, but hey I'm trying my best for a first attempt. you see i never thought i would go into comedy, i always thought comedy was sort of a transitional phase for bigger better things, when I started doing strips for my school newspaper, they started to become a hit and people loved them, but i always wanted to go for bigger stories more than just comedy. people started telling me they like my comedy, I did standup a couple of times and people liked it too, so it got me thinking hey what if my strongest element IS comedy, and don't get me wrong that was a hard Decision because around people I'm NOT FUNNY, and I get told that over and over again, but when I do a comic strip, a stand up act or even art that has humor within it, people like it and tell me so, so i hope I'm not fooling myself by illusions of people just saying that because they're trying to be polite, and they are actually enjoying it, or else I'll be falling into a trap of which I can't get out of, because now I realised that comedy in itself is an art, and not an easy one to delve into, the art of making people laugh without resorting to stupidity or ridiculousness is hard but hopefully I'lll be able to reach that point where I can make you laugh, and you would laugh without just trying to be polite...
Monday, March 24, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
chronicling The warman
I was never into journaling or writing my own thoguhts but I guess there is a time for everything, I think that now more than ever i should start writing down what comes to my mind because with my irregular sleep patterns and hectic life style i guess there is no way else that i could preserve my mind so to speak. also in retrospect looking back on these journals if you will might inspire me to do more work later on. the only other time i wrote a diary like think was when i went to holland, i would stay everynight writing my parents and friends what i did that day with details and anecdotes also what I spent that day which was probably the best enconomic planning I did in my life (and i was in 6th grade), someting which I need to do here to know where my money is going (although it's mostly comics and going to the movie theater).
Anyhoo so I notice allot of people tend to write down their thoughts (I'm looking at you Liana) which kind of inspired me to write down my own thoughts. but I didn't know where to start, till one day when I was browsing facebook and came acroos one of my friends' photography albums, he had loads of pictures of Egypt, and nostalgia hit me like a 2 ton brick on crippled squirrel, anyway so I kept looking at the pictures from pictures of rural areas and poor kids being happy, to the lavish trees and parks to the amazing skyline over the nile, then it moved on to pictures of mosques in old cairo, those age old buildings that where in cairo since the fatimids that built cairo as their capital in 969 BC, which reminded me how cairo is known as the city of a thousand minarets, and it moved me to the topic I would like to discuss, which is relegion and spirituality between back home in Egypt and here in the US.
You see I am a relegious person, but yet I try to be moderate in everything i do, so I'm not overly crazy conservative and go out and smite people, or even go blow myself up in the name of Allah (which is the arabic word for god and not another different god than the one in the bible or the Torah), but that's not the topic at hand, you see ever since I came here I met allot of people that are not relegious and/or spiritual, some even don't believe in god, at first I was like how can this be it is soo illogical, but then interacting with people here I noticed hey they have every right to renounce any form of relegion till the end of time. America the mascot of capitalism, has succeeded in commercialising everything that is holy, I mean holy crap (tm), christmas became christmas inc., halloween no longer represents it's origins but is now a reason for candy sales to rise as well as costumes (which i don't object to), you see it's fun for the festivities to be blown up like that, but this is soooooooooo overly commercialised that the whole point of relegion is diluted in just something to make you feel guilty for having fun, and then you have those extremists who want to slash it all and be overly relegious and make you feel so bad about yourself for not accepting a certain person as your lord and savior, hell even when you mention relegion here people directly think christianity, now if this isn't monopoly, we all might as well not collect 500 dollars when we pass by go. so here's the wrap up, anything that represents relegion has been commercialised and the whole meaning of relegion is transformed into extremist christians yelling about christ's , and the logo for relegion became the church so when politicians talk about sperating relegious ideals for the state they say seperate church from state ignoring any other option of relegion, and then the awareness about any other relegion is zero to none, hell my roomate thought i don't eat beef because I'm muslim (we don't eat pork, hindus don't eat beef) and then compared me to mormons WTF. so really I don't blame people here for completely forget about it and have fun with their lives, by all means have fun.
But still the mystery remained, why haven't I reached this conclusion back home, why haven't I met people that resent relegion back home as much as here, how come relegious holiday have this spiritual energy floating in the air that just feels you to the brim with spirituality even if you weren't really spiritual or very relegious or pios. what makes people back home be tolerant and knowledgable baout other relegions why is it judeo-christian tradition in america and back home christians and jews and muslims know that those three are the same relegion with minor differences depending on the time and region where they rose.
Then it hit me it's the region, the culture, the tradition, growing up in egypt surrounded by these ancient mosques side by side by even more ancient churches, growing up in the land where moses was born and jesus escaped too, to one of these holy lands of old where the biblical stories happened, it's like when you watch lord of the rings in new zealand and then you see these mountains where gandalf rode shadowfax or the desert where they placed helms deep, you tend to like the movie even more right ? ofcourse I'm not comparing lord of the rings to relegious stories (although Tolkien was borderline refrencing it, but maybe a little more subtle than C.S. lewis) but then growing up near these spiritual holy lands, probably makes you beleive more that "hey, that shit might have gone down for reals", for jews in america the red sea might just be a legendary place, while for people in israel or in egypt the red sea is where they go diving every summer. I climbed mount sinai where the ten commandments went down, and the list goes on. I mean people in the US think someone made up every relegion, where back home everyone knows (even if they don't beleive it) that it came from a higher power. and I'm rambling on, but hey i finally understood how I became pios and remain moderate enough for people not to notice that when they meet me for the first time, if they know i am I get this weird look like "ugh he's gonna try and convert me now" but no that's not what I'm about, not at all. but I'm just surprised on how the great spiritual feeling I get back home turns into that ugly commercial monster that pushes people away from the core and yet succeeds in taking all your money, it certainly would make you hate it to death, so now i just feel sorry for the people living here because seriously even while not believing in relegion, that whole feeling of spirituality is like no other it is just unexplainable, but I urge everyone to seek out of this commercialised hell hole and look for their inner spiritual feelings, it is truly worth it.
Anyhoo so I notice allot of people tend to write down their thoughts (I'm looking at you Liana) which kind of inspired me to write down my own thoughts. but I didn't know where to start, till one day when I was browsing facebook and came acroos one of my friends' photography albums, he had loads of pictures of Egypt, and nostalgia hit me like a 2 ton brick on crippled squirrel, anyway so I kept looking at the pictures from pictures of rural areas and poor kids being happy, to the lavish trees and parks to the amazing skyline over the nile, then it moved on to pictures of mosques in old cairo, those age old buildings that where in cairo since the fatimids that built cairo as their capital in 969 BC, which reminded me how cairo is known as the city of a thousand minarets, and it moved me to the topic I would like to discuss, which is relegion and spirituality between back home in Egypt and here in the US.
You see I am a relegious person, but yet I try to be moderate in everything i do, so I'm not overly crazy conservative and go out and smite people, or even go blow myself up in the name of Allah (which is the arabic word for god and not another different god than the one in the bible or the Torah), but that's not the topic at hand, you see ever since I came here I met allot of people that are not relegious and/or spiritual, some even don't believe in god, at first I was like how can this be it is soo illogical, but then interacting with people here I noticed hey they have every right to renounce any form of relegion till the end of time. America the mascot of capitalism, has succeeded in commercialising everything that is holy, I mean holy crap (tm), christmas became christmas inc., halloween no longer represents it's origins but is now a reason for candy sales to rise as well as costumes (which i don't object to), you see it's fun for the festivities to be blown up like that, but this is soooooooooo overly commercialised that the whole point of relegion is diluted in just something to make you feel guilty for having fun, and then you have those extremists who want to slash it all and be overly relegious and make you feel so bad about yourself for not accepting a certain person as your lord and savior, hell even when you mention relegion here people directly think christianity, now if this isn't monopoly, we all might as well not collect 500 dollars when we pass by go. so here's the wrap up, anything that represents relegion has been commercialised and the whole meaning of relegion is transformed into extremist christians yelling about christ's , and the logo for relegion became the church so when politicians talk about sperating relegious ideals for the state they say seperate church from state ignoring any other option of relegion, and then the awareness about any other relegion is zero to none, hell my roomate thought i don't eat beef because I'm muslim (we don't eat pork, hindus don't eat beef) and then compared me to mormons WTF. so really I don't blame people here for completely forget about it and have fun with their lives, by all means have fun.
But still the mystery remained, why haven't I reached this conclusion back home, why haven't I met people that resent relegion back home as much as here, how come relegious holiday have this spiritual energy floating in the air that just feels you to the brim with spirituality even if you weren't really spiritual or very relegious or pios. what makes people back home be tolerant and knowledgable baout other relegions why is it judeo-christian tradition in america and back home christians and jews and muslims know that those three are the same relegion with minor differences depending on the time and region where they rose.
Then it hit me it's the region, the culture, the tradition, growing up in egypt surrounded by these ancient mosques side by side by even more ancient churches, growing up in the land where moses was born and jesus escaped too, to one of these holy lands of old where the biblical stories happened, it's like when you watch lord of the rings in new zealand and then you see these mountains where gandalf rode shadowfax or the desert where they placed helms deep, you tend to like the movie even more right ? ofcourse I'm not comparing lord of the rings to relegious stories (although Tolkien was borderline refrencing it, but maybe a little more subtle than C.S. lewis) but then growing up near these spiritual holy lands, probably makes you beleive more that "hey, that shit might have gone down for reals", for jews in america the red sea might just be a legendary place, while for people in israel or in egypt the red sea is where they go diving every summer. I climbed mount sinai where the ten commandments went down, and the list goes on. I mean people in the US think someone made up every relegion, where back home everyone knows (even if they don't beleive it) that it came from a higher power. and I'm rambling on, but hey i finally understood how I became pios and remain moderate enough for people not to notice that when they meet me for the first time, if they know i am I get this weird look like "ugh he's gonna try and convert me now" but no that's not what I'm about, not at all. but I'm just surprised on how the great spiritual feeling I get back home turns into that ugly commercial monster that pushes people away from the core and yet succeeds in taking all your money, it certainly would make you hate it to death, so now i just feel sorry for the people living here because seriously even while not believing in relegion, that whole feeling of spirituality is like no other it is just unexplainable, but I urge everyone to seek out of this commercialised hell hole and look for their inner spiritual feelings, it is truly worth it.
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