
... at the Uptown cinema. But it was presented by the wiseguys of Master Pancake Theater (touring the NW from Austin) and they heavily fuck with the film: stop it, skip parts, splice in bits from other movies, perform sketch-comedy riffs, play drinking games, talk over the dialogue...
They were great, and it was the only way I could've sat through a Twilight movie—one third of my brain swimming through the sea of vapidity and two-thirds enjoying the jokes.
But one thing I didn't catch: Why are vampires sparkly in the sunshine? Their skin is made of diamonds? Their sweat glands are full of glitter? It's such a weird—and culturally loaded—detail.
And here's a sentence I never thought I'd type: I'm looking forward to the Twilight sequel.
Tonight, Master Pancake Theater brings their crazy Twilight evisceration to Portland's Cinema 21.
Thank you, Homo Thugs (aka Kevin Barnett and Jermaine Fowler). This is fucking hilarious.
It's fucking gorgeous outside! But if you're sunburned/stroked/hate sunshine, consider spending the evening in the cool, dark basement known as Comedy Underground with a drink in your hand while (former Seattle comedian) Andy Haynes, Nick Turner, and Sean O'Connor take turns telling you jokes.
If you're busy tonight, you can also catch them Friday and Saturday night at 8:30pm—info and tickets here.
Now for all you suburb-trucking car lovers out there, here's Haynes proverbially shitting all over mass transit. DON'T SAY I NEVER DID ANYTHING FOR YOU:
Whatever plans you have for Sunday night—gardening, hugging your family, checking for cancer moles—cancel them. Instead, secure a date, head down to Rebar, and watch comedian Kyle Kinane roll up his sleeves and dazzle you with jokes.
You won't be disappointed. Kinane, a master storyteller and gleeful fuckup, has turned his strengths—drinking, being the creepiest guy at Wal-Mart—into a hilarious career. Each story unfolds leisurely, like trains colliding at a walker's pace. Here's what I mean:
Kyle Kinane, presented by Mirthling!
Rebar (1114 Howell St)
July 8 at 7:30pm, doors open at 7:00pm, 21+
$10 adv/$12 dos
Now then, go get your tickets here.
Yup, Rob McKenna really said that. And you know what makes it even funnier? He said it in his own press release touting his receipt of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association's 2007 "Freedom's Light" award for open government:
“The public’s access to information is paramount to our society,” Attorney General McKenna said. “In fact, when trying to overthrow a society the first thing someone tries to do is seize control of the media and the information. The Constitutional founders, Bill of Rights’ authors and Supreme Court justices all understood this and lived to protect this right.”
The Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, an advocate for community newspapers, freedom of the press and open government, created the award in 1995 to honor individuals who have protected the public’s access to information.
Who knew at the time that rather than making an eloquent defense of democracy McKenna was actually plotting out a roadmap toward overthrowing it?
Tonight is another benefit show at the Neptune for the families of those killed by a mass murderer on May 30 (colloquially known as the "Cafe Racer shootings," though the killer also murdered a woman by Town Hall and, later that day, himself).
The music/comedy lineup includes host Diva LeDeviant, Star Anna, Cathy Sorbo, Kasey Anderson, Liam McCormick, Kermet Apio, and musical guests the Maldives.
I'd never seen Kermet Apio perform—though I'd often heard his name—until one night just after the shootings when I was supposed to perform something at the Weird & Awesome cabaret, founded by comic Emmett Montgomery, at Annex Theater. I couldn't think of anything to do that would be both entertaining and fitting for the circumstances, so I bought a case of beer, hauled it onstage, and told dopey jokes that some of the shooting victims (circus and vaudeville folks) used to tell onstage as a tribute. (They were joke machines.) I paused before each punch line and, if anyone got it, I tossed him or her a beer from the stage. ("What's the difference between an erection and a Corvette? [Pause.] I don't HAVE a Corvette!")
To my shock, the audience was calling almost all of the punch lines. I ran out of beer, which I hadn't anticipated. When I went backstage afterwards, somebody said: "Of COURSE they got all the punch lines. That's an audience full of comics!" Right. Duh.
Anyway, Kermet Apio did a set later that night that was gloriously funny, both nodding to the heavy hearts in the crowd but also detouring into his own stories and taking people's minds off the troubles of the day. And he'll be performing tonight. I recommend it.
How did I miss this? Last November, the Limerick-based Rubberbandits—the Irish boys who brought you the stupidly genius/geniusly stupid "Horse Outside"—released a new song. As far as I can tell, it's poking fun at the painfully artificial tokenism on TV and movies when writers try to assemble diverse "gangs" like Captain Planet and the Planeteers, or the most recent X-Men movie.* Not that diverse gangs are a bad thing, or that they don't exist. But sometimes it just feels goofy. Behold:
"I've got a Puerto Rican and a nervous Jew/An intimidating Russian with a fake tattoo/I've got a hot blonde with plastic boobs/But there's something missing from my crew/I need a black man!/In my gang/A black man doing black-man things." And I always love their dance moves.
* Thanks to Paul Constant, professional watcher of garbage—like the Republican primary debates!—for helping me with examples.
UPDATE
Commenter Zuulabelle pointed me towards "I Like to Shift Girls" which is also a marvel. Two new Rubberbandits song in one day! Too much good stuff! Video below the jump.
If you'll recall, Flatstock was almost cut from this year's Bumbershoot programming due to lack of space. But looks like they made it work after all! Hello Flatstock, goodbye all my money.
The festival also announced the 2012 comedy line-up and IT IS GREAT. Janeane Garofalo! Doug Benson! Paul F. Tompkins! Too Beautiful to Live! Brian Posehn! AND MORE!
Because whenever I read a headline like "Romney Pranks the Press," I immediately think of Romney's long history of "pranks," like this classic, or the oldie-but-goodie where he tricked a blind teacher into walking into a glass door.
But, no. Instead, he made a joke about erasing the media's hard drives, which is apparently a callback to that hilarious prank at the end of his term as governor of Massachusetts, when his administration deleted government records. What a kidder, this guy.
We're giving away tickets to so many great shows—the Duke Spirit! The Tempers! Fresh Espresso! Brian Posehn! And more!
It has been one hell of a long, rough week, Seattle. You know what helps caps weeks like this, aside from drinking boxed wine in a bathtub* until you barf?

Sunday's lineup will feature singing clown-dancer Jenna Bean Veatch! Puppeteer Kyle Loven! Comedian Kermet Apio! House Weirdoes Travis Clarke and Kevin Vogt! Beloved yellow journalist Brendan Kiley! Lovely prizes and jokes from tween prodigy Barbara Holm!
Sunday, June 3, 7:30 p.m., $5-$10, Annex Theatre. Go laugh your ass off and help celebrate the anniversary of this freakish flipper baby of a variety show. You won't regret it.
*Easy cleanup.
KISW's BJ Shea Comedy Riot is at the Paramount Theatre tonight—it features Lisa Lampanelli, Chris Hardwick, and John Keister. It's been a long week. You could probably use a good laugh. So STG gave us a pair of tickets to give away!
To enter, send your first and last name to freetickets@thestranger.com with Comedy Riot in the subject line.
A winner will be chosen at 1 pm TODAY, so HURRY!
A winner has been chosen and notified—thanks to all who entered!
Then today is your lucky day! We're giving a pair of tickets away on Line Out.
"... if you're not fucking, then the absence of fucking is occurring!"
Classic Reggie Watts. He opens by asking who in the crowd is from Brooklyn. They cheer. Then he asks who's from Manhattan. They cheer, and he flips them shit for sounding a little "nose-forward." Then: "How many people here have ever had sex?" Hesitancy from the crowd. "That's okay! You don't have to be embarrassed! It's okay!" And then this song:
Chalk it up as another step on the quest to articulate what should be obvious to everyone.

And you know the players: Smart local comedians Paul Merrill, Anita Goodman, and Derek Sheen, led by Children of the Atom's Elicia Sanchez.
Tomorrow's your chance to witness the beautiful collision of wit and campy horror as these funny people tear the 1988 slasher flick Cheerleader Camp a new asshole and then gently plug it with a pom pom (BYOPP). In case you still need convincing, horror movie website mostersatplay.com calls Cheerleader Camp "care free... full of tits and gore... tedious... but overall, good times."
The free fun starts at 7:00 pm at The White Rabbit in Fremont.
There will be drink specials! Prizes! Cheese puffs! Tits! Gore! Comedy gold! And a live podcast taping afterward—filled with fresh tits and gore jokes and cheerleading-inspired freestyle rapping—with these same funny people! For more info, check out The Enematic Cinematic: Lives.
What more could you ask for on a Tuesday night?
I'm a fan of yours and you've helped me out before (you answered a letter of mine ages ago, and your advice was good), so given how annoying it must be to be the recipient of so much hyperbolic, misdirected, and ignorant vitriol right now, I thought I'd share this with you. I'm a standup comic, and I've been doing this joke for at least five years. The point of the joke—particularly the part that starts about two minutes in—is basically the same point that you were making. I think it's a completely accurate and fair point, but some crowds just freak the fuck out when I do this joke. It used to bother me but now I realize that their reaction just comes with the territory because I am intentionally tweaking ways of thinking that need to be tweaked. As were you.
Props to everyone involved in the creation of the glorious Funny or Die video.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Siege of Sarajevo, the longest artillery siege—even longer than the Siege of Leningrad—and one of the most infamous in modern history. It was brutal, with a poorly equipped citizenry going into old war museums to find working rifles and ammunition.
A Stranger reader in Sarajevo, Amir Telibechirowich, wrote us a few weeks ago to ask whether he could send a series of jokes from the siege era as his form of commemoration. This is from a city where an underground radio station "celebrated" the day that the siege became the longest by playing the Queen song "We Are the Champions." (Another station, he told us, would begin broadcasts with: "'Good evening to all three of you out there who still have batteries for the radio set.' Of course, this was referring to the fact that electricity was gone in most of the city back then.")
Some of these jokes are grim—very grim. But they were the product, Amir says, of people trying to stay sane in extremely grim circumstances. Here is a photo Amir took in his neighborhood during the siege. He explains it in the caption:

Oh my god, you guys, this is so great. I saw this Buzzfeed link about people posting a barrage of questions about women's health to Rick Perry's Facebook wall (because he's obviously an expert on women's reproductive health, right?), and I almost didn't believe it was real. I went looking to verify that it wasn't one of those funny internet images that someone makes up, and damn. Go look at the comments on any of his posts, and you'll find questions like:
Dear Governor Perry, if my IUD effectively stops my menstrual cycle, do I still need a menstrual hut? If so, can you please remind me of the dimensions (in cubits)? Looking forward to your response.
Governor Perry, I'm post-menopausal, but I'm still having hot flashes. Do you think hormone therapy would help? The therapy would not be identical to contraceptives, so would taking those still be considered sinful? Should I have my husband contact you to discuss this issue so that he can explain it to me in terms that he'll know I can understand?
Gov. Perry, I need your advice. I have a really heavy flow...
Here is a Washington Post blog post about the protest. My productivity for the day is totally shot now. A few more after the jump.
What happens in the end?
Lovers of comedy, discomfort, and public displays of eroticism take note: Tomorrow is the official launch of Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction, a night of comedians writing and reciting the most erotic fan-fic tributes they can think of on the topics of their choice (think Golden Girls, the Pixar hit Cars, etc.). I interview comedian Bryan Cook, the brains behind this event, over here. But you know what's more impressive than words on a page? An erotic reading of Charlotte's Web with local luminary Derek Sheen!
Remember: This is but a taste of pleasures to come. Catch more tomorrow night at the Rendezvous Jewelbox Theater, 7:30 pm, $7, 21+.
I love you, Law & Order: Acting Reel Unit.
A medically induced coma, but still—this is no one's fault but Lindy West's.
In other news, Lindy's last-ever Concessions column is over here. Sob!
Thanks, Slog tippers Cracker Jack and Luke!
The always hilarious (and actually very good actor) Bob Odenkirk of Mr. Show and Breaking Bad has a new short featurette over at Adult Swim titled Let's Do This! It chronicles the ups and many, many downs of a small crappy movie studio in North Hollywood, co-stars funny people Brian Posehn and Natasha Leggero, and SURPRISE! It's funny. And it's only 9 minutes long, which you can watch instead of smoking a cigarette. This show could save your life!
Chances are, you already have plans to celebrate the second-most romantic day of the year—the first being Grandparent's Day—by sharing a bowl of noodles with your lover or crying together in a bathtub (that bathtub better be clean, Preston).
But if you don't, here's what you should be do: Go see the Laugh Lover's Ball—the largest and longest running independently-produced comedy show in Seattle, organized by local comedian David Crowe. Yesterday, I interviewed Crowe about the event and here's what he had to say:
Do you prepare for a love-themed comedy ball differently than you would a normal set?
My participation in Laugh Lover's Ball goes way beyond just doing a set. I'm essentially a lowly road comic who does the odd corporate gig and comedy festival. I"ve been doing comedy for 20 years now. About 17 years ago I decided I wanted to create an annual comedy event in Seattle. Why? Well, for a number of reasons.
Civic Reason: Everyone is looking for something fun to do on Valentine's Day. A comedy event on that day seemed like a perfect fit. That's how the name Laugh Lover's Ball came into being.
Selfish Reason: So I could perform in one of Seattle's big theaters at least once a year and feel like I'd somehow made it in show business.
Fun Reason: It was a chance to work with some of my favorite comedians and bring to my home town for a few days.
Charitable Reason: Doing all this just to enrich my own bank account didn't seem right so I involved a charity. To date LLB has given about $120,000 to local charities, at first Sound Experience and now the It Just Takes One Foundation, which brings child development programs to underserved communities.
There it is...
Iranian intelligence experts also warned of the very real, and very frightening, possibility of the U.S. providing weapons and resources to a rogue third-party state such as Israel.
Hey look! Lindy West reviews this year's batch of Superbowl commercials over at MSNBC!
Penn "& Teller" Jillette is not pleased:

I can't wait till an African-American writes something Penn Jillette doesn't like and he lets that nigger have it.