Thing 10: More Media with Funny Women

I saw Bridesmaids last night. It was as funny as I've heard. Since I'd never followed Saturday Night Live, I was pretty unfamiliar with Kristen Wiig. She's a talented physical and verbal comedienne, and I hope she gets as many opportunities as Tina Fey has recently. I hope this is the final nail in the coffin of the remarkable argument that women aren't funny. I hope we get more media about women where they act, recognizably, like people. Particularly where the friends act recognizably like friends--goofy, affectionate, and open.

This is a mainstream movie that passes the Bechdel test with flying colors: it's full of named female characters, who have conversations with each other, that aren't about men. There are problems with the movie, of course, from a gender-politics standpoint: it frames all of the women primarily by their relationship status, even if their relationship partners are all pretty much unshown. The main character, Annie, is also framed by the failure of her dream-business, but she's the only character with an explicit career; none of the other women mention working. It's notable that the one fat character's sexuality is shown as less vanilla and more transgressive than anybody else's. There are also problems with the movie from an entertainment standpoint--a couple of lines that feel like a poor fit for the character, the big gross-out scene that feels like it came from another movie, the completely unmotivated resolution of the romantic subplot.

But overall, IT'S FUNNY. Calling an unfriendly flight attendant "Stove" instead of "Steve" is gonna make me laugh for weeks. Its humor is a gentler variation on the squirm humor that's been so popular for a while now; instead of putting mortifyingly tone-deaf people in normal situations and watching the havoc unfold, it puts a slightly neurotic but mostly normal woman in stressful situations that aren't completely implausible, and watches her sweat. That's a lot easier to take.

It's a movie that mostly lets women be people in their own right--and funny people at that. MORE OF THAT, PLEASE.

Thing 3: Jesus Christ, Superfrog

This one is not my idea--this is the superlative Glen Weldon's idea, forged in the fires of college (as are many Things That Should Exist), and first brought to my attention on the most happily entertaining podcast ever, Pop Culture Happy Hour.

But come on. Jesus Christ, Superfrog? Kermit as Jesus, obviously. Piggy as Mary Magdalene. The Count as whatsisface, the guy who washes his hands. Bert and Ernie as Caiaphas and Annas. Robin as the Apostle Peter. Gonzo as King Herod. Sweetums as any angel, at all. Possibly doubled, as the ones announcing the resurrection to Mary the mother of James and Piggy/Magdalene. (Is that even in the musical? Doesn't matter. Sweetums needs to be an angel, period.)

Doesn't this story just CRY OUT for large, Muppety choruses a la the wedding scene in Muppets Take Manhattan, exuberant or mournful as the case may be?

More (but not enough, because nothing short of THE ACTUAL SHOW PLUS DVD EXTRAS would be enough) here.

PLEASE UNIVERSE PLEASE. Although, in this case, "universe" should possibly be pronounced "Jason Segal."