Will Franken's "Things We Did Before Reality" Podcast
Our friend Will Franken has been plugging away at the podcast mills, and the result is the wonderful "Things We Did Before Reality" podcast. Will's a standup comic whose style is best described as "one man sketch comedy." He passes in and out of voices and characters with astonishing fluidity, creating a bizarre and compelling comic pastiche.His podcast is similar -- strange characters weave in and out of bizarre situations to hilarious effect. Highly reccomended, particularly for counter-culture enthusiasts and Python fans.
Here's an MP3 of his most recent episode, "Whose Dick Do I Gotta Suck to get a Blowjob Around Here?" In it, a rose-tinted version of 1950s Brooklyn is recast with Islamic terrorists, among other hilarious scenarios.
Previously on TSOYA:
Will Franken performs on our "Goofaround Gang" episode
Elsewhere on the interweb:
Will Franken interviewed by SF Standup
In real life:
Will's coming to LA on the 13th and 14th to perform in Garage Comedy and Comedy Death Ray (plus See You Next Tuesday!). He's also performing a solo show at the UCBT on the 29th.
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posted by Jesse Thorn at Friday, November 03, 2006
5 Comments:
Wow, I really disagree with his politics.
Still, I like the show. It can often be pretty hilarious and it's always pretty amazing how easily he weaves in and out of characters and ideas.
Hi premo vasquez,
I did the interview with Will that Jesse linked to in the post, and I'm curious to know more about your reaction to his politics. What do you disagree with?
He just seems to be obsessed with satirizing anyone who's ever sympathized with a figure the media hates. The Mo character he did in that one episode that the French group supported, the whole speech about hate ccrimes; I don't know, it all sounded to me like these arguments I get in with well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) white guys in philosophy and english classes about how white people are always hated by liberals and minorities are always given the benefit of the doubt.
I think that mindset is false and pretty dangerous, and while I obviously can't grasp all of Franken's political ideas from a few poidcasts, I think the ones he's shown in the four I heard were pretty far off from what I believe.
In the interview, I specifically asked him about his Islamic satire (interview) and if you read his long response, you will get some insight into his political beliefs. I don't totally follow your comment, but I will say that I strongly agree with his answer there, and I think that his perspective is very lacking in comedy. Anyways, thanks for responding, I was just curious, not trying to get in a political argument here.
I'm sorry if I got off on a tangent/don't know how to type out my thoughts concisely or clearly, but I just think he's obsessing over something that doesn't matter. The reason why some American comics don't make fun of radical muslims is because they have very little interaction with them (also, he's talking about a very limited comedic community there, since many mainstream American comics hold very little back when it comes to making fun of Muslims), while almost all Americans interact with fundamentalist Chritians on a daily basis.
Also, this part of your interview irks me:
On an artistic level, people are afraid of being stigmatized as racist. The epithet ‘racist’ carries such moral weight nowadays that careers can actually be ruined over knee-jerk accusations that have no basis in fact. I read somewhere that UC Berkeley–not known for overt racism–nevertheless hired a “Chancellor of Diversity and Inclusion” at a salary of $200,000 a year. So political correctness has become not only a barometer of moral weight, it’s also a major money-making industry.
I absolutely understand his point, but some of his bits (or sketches, I'm not sure what you'd call his work), particularly the hate crime one, have that very shallow view of accusations of racism that a lot of people have. A lot of people who I'm not sure know exactly what they're talking about.
Anywya, thanks for the interview (pretty solid stuff there) and the discussion. I don't really mind being in political discussion, except for the fact I can look like a jackass from time to time.
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