#the funniest shit is just a bunch of characters walking off something wild that just happened

[grayintogreen]

I really have to say that in the wake of the quip post going around and me rewatching LOST, there is really nothing funnier than a scene that isn’t supposed to be funny, isn’t even set up to be funny, but through the absolute absurdity of the situation is hilarious. To wit, there is humor in playing an absurd scene completely straight without trying to draw attention to how absurd it is.

To use LOST as an example, there’s a scene where two characters meet on an abandoned ship in the jungle (which is funny on its own) that goes like this:

In one corner we have John Locke, currently playing with a knife while the guy he manipulated into coming into the jungle with him on a convoluted quest to get HIM to kill their mutual abuser because he couldn’t do it himself is banging on the door to the brig because Locke is allergic to explaining things as all the island mystics tend to be.

In the other corner, entering the scene, we have Danielle Rousseau, local island crazy lady that everyone has accepted as just a staple of the experience and is deemed an Ally despite the fact that she doesn’t join their group, lives on her own, and has death traps strewn throughout the jungle that are just commonly referenced as a thing that happens.

The two of them regard each other. “Rousseau.” “Locke.”

(And now it’s already funny to the Philosophy Major crowd but wait there’s more.)

Rousseau looks at the door where there’s still shouting and banging. Locke doesn’t explain anything. “What brings you to the ship?”

(Keep in mind that Rousseau is the one who showed the survivors the ship and makes frequent trips to it. LOCKE is the one acting weird. Locke has decided that the only way to make this situation Not Awkward is to just roll with it. He is legitimately Bavarian Fire Drilling his way out of what would CONCERN MOST PEOPLE.)

But here’s where it gets funny.

“I’m here for the dynamite.”

Okay. So you have one person who has locked someone in the brig for some reason and another person who is known to be EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS to the health and safety of others because of her death traps going “I need dynamite” and none of this sounds like sane reasonable behavior and the punchline is just both of them staring at each other and NOT QUESTIONING ANY OF IT. Rousseau walks out with a box of dynamite, Locke continues to wait for a murder to occur.

THAT is funny. That is humor that requires insight into the characters, the situation, and how none of the steps taken are the steps you’d expect. Humor doesn’t have to rely on zingers and meme worthy lines- it requires you to be able to take a completely absurd situation and play it absolutely straight. No irony poisoning and SEE WE KNOW THIS IS STUPID will ever compare to watching two characters just completely refuse to react to something weird or even treat it as anything other than normal behavior.

[twoofcups]

my full endgame thoughts

what i liked, what i didn’t like, in no particular order. 

[MAJOR spoilers ahead just FYI] 

WHAT I LIKED 

the final battle scene was so cool! seeing everyone together like that was wild. watching carol RIP the fuck through that ship was incredible. 

carol’s short hair. ughghghgughghghg i just about passed out she’s so beautiful. i also loved that they let her be quippy and sassy like god intended, because i was worried that they’d water her down but they didn’t, which was good.

scott reuniting with cassie made me fucking cry like HELLO????? i could’ve watched a whole movie just about that. 

the team setups were really good. i liked that rocket and thor stuck together, and that rocket helped him when he was getting into his head too much. 

i LOVED the scene with frigga so much. thor needed that. WE needed that. i’m interested to see what he does next. 

the one scene where all the ladies protected peter and then wrecked thanos’ shit..i mean wow...the power of women 

the opening with clint’s family god dusted was really well-shot

loki fucking grabbing the tesseract and then bouncing STAYS one of the funniest parts of the movie 

peter seeing gamora again and saying “i thought i lost you” and then stumbling towards her to touch her face made me ugly cry in the theater. so did rocket jumping on top of groot. 

the whole scene with thor and bruce, when bruce is touching his shoulder and telling thor how GOOD he is...that sent me. thorbruce CONFIRMED we STAY winning.  

speaking of which professor hulk is the sexiest fucking thing i’ve ever seen. he’s big and thick and shredded but also dresses like a sexy professor and has humor and confidence. not only is is AMAZING to see bruce finally being confident in himself, but it’s also INCREDIBLY sexy. i keep saying the word sexy but like literally it was i’m Gonna fuck him. the blue t shirt and the cardigan SENT ME.

say what you want, but lebowski thor was also incredibly sexy. he was BIG he was CHONKY and he had long hair and was wearing a drug rug. a4 thor was columbia flashback foggy nelson and that was hot. the beard looked a little fake though dkfjhdjk it looked like cotton candy. 

i liked that thor made brunnhilde the new leader of new asgard, and i was surprisingly pleased about him needing to go with the guardians. i think he really did need some time away from new asgard because he was really depressed there, and i think he needs a change of scenery in order to heal without having to worry about the fear of losing his people (again). he’ll come back.  

i liked how there was like a golden halo and then t’challa, shuri, and okoye walked out. however, what confused me was that sam was the one who reached out to steve, and he wasn’t the first one out? it would’ve made more sense. 

the ENTIRE nebula arc was so fucking good and i’m so glad she played a big role. i was incredibly pleased with that and i thought she was very well written. and i love that she swayed gamora to the good side by telling her that they would be friends/sisters in the future. 

scott was a gift the entire time 

STEVE WITH MJOLNIR !!! 

controversial of me but i liked steve’s ending. i get why people don’t like it and that’s okay, but i think he deserved to be rewarded for everything he did. seeing him old and happy filled my heart with joy because he DESERVES that he DESERVED that life. and he’d done all that he could in the present and could finally retire. the whole “moving on” arc was tossed out, yes, but it was tossed out with the snap. the snap destroyed that part of steve and do you guys genuinely think he’d EVER want to fight again after that????? honestly. and i get that like, you guys think he was sitting idly by while hydra infiltrated shield but 1) we don’t know that. we literally have no clue what he did or did not do there, so we shouldn’t make assumptions. 2) how much could he have really changed without fucking up the time-space continuum??? there were two steves in the 1950s--one with peggy and one on ice. future steve probably couldn’t fuck with too much because it would impact what his past self would accomplish. all the things that happened in the timeline had to happen in order to lead to the conclusion that thanos would ultimately lose. so if he changed even one thing, it could’ve resulted in thanos winning. i also don’t think he abandoned bucky, because bucky knew. he said “i’m gonna miss you”, which seemed strange because he was only supposed to be gone for five seconds. he knew that steve was gonna stay, and he was smiling and nodding to sam, so clearly he didn’t feel abandoned. he just wanted steve to be happy because steve is his best friend and they love each other. also sambucky is about to get some RIGHTS !!! steve was happy and deserved happiness after all the work he did like he was fucking EXHAUSTED. i think y’all forgot that it had been 5 years so naturally he was going to fall off the original course of character development because he was traumatized. he DESERVED to be with peggy and to be happy, and to rest easy knowing that everything would work itself out. 

and furthermore i don’t give a fuck about stucky like who fucking cares??? like lmao the time has come and gone this is sambucky’s house now and we’re HAVING FUN!!! “the movie sucked because steve and bucky’s friendship is over” oh boo fucking hoo they probably still visit him at the retirement home and stay friends. and furthermore, part of being with someone “’till the end of the line” is letting them do what’s best for them and putting their happiness first. bucky isn’t selfish. steve isn’t selfish. they both had to do what was best for them, and letting your friends be at their happiest is sometimes more important than keeping them close. like believe it or not part of loving your friends is not treating them like a possession and actually letting them go if they need to. steve was still in love with the past and he knew that bucky had a future in the present. they both had to do what was best for them and it’s OKAY. 

samcap made me cry the hardest out of the whole movie. i only cried three times but the Second steve unveiled the shield i started fucking sobbing because i wanted it for sam so badly. i wanted steve to have a happy ending but i also wanted falconcap more than i wanted anything else. sam was ALWAYS meant to be the next cap, gays we WON!!! and bucky just...standing there and smiling because he’s in love with sam and really proud of him i...it was a LOT. i can’t afford disney+ so somebody better let me leech off of them so i can watch their show lrkdjlkfjg 

overall i had fun and i was entertained but that being said 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE 

i didn’t like that there was no intermission because i thought there would be and i had to pee for like 2 and a half hours. i knew tony was going to die after doing the snap so i watched thanos dissolve and got up to piss while he was dying because i don’t give a shit gfdjklkjd i’m glad he’s gone and that we don’t have to deal with him anymore though 

i get why natasha chose to be the one to die (clint had a family and i get that) but watching her get fridged still sucked because for a good chunk of the movie afterward there were like No Women. but the scene itself/the acting was good. i also hate that tony gets this big fuckin funeral with a wreath on the water and natasha got a bunch of men arguing because they no longer had a woman to keep them in line. she was the one who kept shield together after the snap. she was the one who sacrificed herself for the soul stone so that they could win. what she did was just as important and she deserved a heroes sendoff.

i didn’t like how a lot of the other characters treated thor. there were too many jokes during scenes where he was trying to be serious. like when he was BEGGING to put on the gauntlet so he could do something Good, that was not a time for jokes. but still, they made a joke about his weight and i was like uh cool i’m gonna KILL YOU. like thor arguably went through the most because he experienced 3 genocides (losing asgard, thanos attacking the ship, and the snap) and felt directly responsible for ALL of them. and nobody was taking care of him. though i do like that it showed a lot of his vulnerability because we’ve never seen him hit rock bottom. it’s just that some of the other characters treated him like shit while he was going through something. they should’ve shown his trauma/panic attack as seriously as they showed tony’s but everyone is too far up tony’s asshole to give a shit about other characters’ trauma being treated with care. but tony is dead now clink clink bitch! 

clint going crazy going stupid and choosing to target the yakuza instead of white criminals in his own country was :/ i didn’t like that. but also i get it because scarlett probably asked to film a scene in her home country uwu we stan an asian american queen ldksjglkdfjlgkfdlkj 🤧

i hated how there was that starmora reunion and then she just like??? kicks him??? twice??? just like thor, peter’s trauma is played for laughs like shut the fuck UP!! 

lol so every single one of peter’s friends got snapped, huh??? i feel like that’s bad writing but they all needed to be the same age in far from home so like I GUESS. 

not enough carol :( 

i would’ve liked to see okoye on the time travel team but i also get that the world is falling apart and that she and m’baku needed to protect wakanda. 

i hated the fact that the mcu’s “first openly gay character” was just joe fucking russo with a dead husband. bitch i’m gonna kill you. 

like obviously it wasn’t a perfect movie, but the perfect movie doesn’t exist. i just took it at face value and had fun. it accomplished its goal of entertaining me. i had a good time and i’ll probably see it like...One more time to see what i missed. but overall i liked it because rocket was in it and he is a funny raccoon :o) 

[elm-tree]

BE MORE CHILL OFF-BROADWAY: THOUGHTS

So I got to see Be More Chill at the Perishing Square Signature Center last night, and it was absolutely incredible! I just wanted to rant about some of my favorite parts. Spoilers ahead!!

Okay so at Jeremy’s laptop had a “Black Suits” sticker on it and I actually laughed out loud when I saw it. I thought it was a cool little inside joke for Joe Iconis and Will Roland

Will Roland pouring lotion into his hand after “waitin’ for my porno to loud” freaking KILLED ME. 

The costumes were all so bright and colorful and it made all the characters stand out.

Brooke pretty much had a can of La Croix in her hand the entire show and it was hysterical. 

Gerard Canonico has such amazing stage presence. When he was onstage, it was HIS SHOW. 

Rich was also wearing a Deadpool belt which I loved. 

I’m pretty sure they actually redesigned all the costumes and din’t reuse anything from the Two River Theatre production, which I found super cool. 

When Michael entered for his lil reggae section at the beginning, the audience went wild and it was jut really cool. 

Michael’s sweatshirt has a bunch of patches on it, and one of them was a gay pride flag. 

Will Roland can play vulnerable and soft very well. I got to see him in Dear Evan Hansen and the entire time I kept thinking “this guy just walked right out of Be More Chill”. I was super happy he was a part of this. His Jeremy was very relatable and awkward, I loved it.

Christine doing the choreography from A Chorus Line and then getting lifted up before signing up for the play was hysterical. 

STEPHANIE HSU IS SUCH AN INCREDIBLE ACTRESS. 

Okay so “I Love Play Rehearsal” is a really great song, but I always find myself needing to be in a specific mood to listen to it. BUT SEEING STEPHANIE DO IT LIVE WAS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. The energy she emits is something special. 

Jake was smooth as FUCK and I loved him. He gave off a total fuck-boy vibe cause of his costume, but he was so damn like-able. 

Also Jake dabbed at some point during the first rehearsal scene and it was FANTASTIC. 

The choreography during the Squip Song was super cool. There was a lot of tutting. 

Rich is just such a great character. The Squip Song was incredible, and they added in a new rap-ish section at the end which totally worked for the character. 

Basically Rich was just an uncontrollable ball of fire. 

Two Player Game was so cute and I just love George and Will so much. 

They had fake video game footage playing during Two Player Game, and one of the zombies in the game dabbed. 

The Michael/Mr. Heere relationship is so great. Michael was really trying to help Mr. Heere out whenever Jeremy was shit-talking him. 

The Payless Shoestore guy was absolutely hysterical holy crap.  

So Jason Tam’s SQUIP was very different from Eric William Morris’s SQUIP. His SQUIP was a lot less harsh and very *ahem* chill. He was almost nurturing, which only made his eventual turn to evil even more stark and bone chilling.  

Stephanie Hsu was dressed as an old lady on a motor scooter during Be More Chill Part 2 and it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

Upgrade is just a super fun song and once again the flashy costumes and the awesome choreography just left a huge smile on my face. 

OKAY I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE NEW ACT ONE FINALE “LOSER GEEK WHATEVER”. It basically expanded on the end of “Upgrade” and fleshed out Jeremy’s thought process in ignoring Michael a lot more. I loved it, and it reminded me a little bit of Defying Gravity. 

Will Roland has such a gorgeous voice.

Okay unrelated annecdote: I saw Joe Iconis in the bathroom at intermission and it was so awkward I couldn’t stop laughing (i didn’t say anything to him cause I ran into him before the show, and also it was the bathroom which is always super awkward)

HALLOWEEN WAS JUST SUCH A WONDERFUL JOYOUS EXPLOSION OF COLOR

Jenna Roland was dressed as a clown (like a full body suit that covered her face) and it was so freaking funny. 

Do You Wanna Hang was just super funny. Also Rich climbing up the window chasing Jeremy was hysterical. 

Okay so the whole “Creeps” shirt thing turned out to be the shirt Michael wore during Michael In The Bathroom (”I’m a creeper in the bathroom...”)

When Jeremy turned on Michael and called him a loser, I got chills. Jeremy’s character arc is a little Evan Hansen-ish, but with a completely different tone and sense of humor. 

Will Roland has incredible comic timing. 

Michael In The Bathroom...HOLY CRAP. I’ve listening to a bunch of different versions, I’ve seen videos of George performing it, but nothing compares to see him do it live. I started crying. And the applause at the end of the song was colossal. 

The scene between Jeremy and Christine at the party where Jeremy asks her out was just so cute. You’re so mad at Jeremy for abandoning Michael, but then you start to see the old Jeremy peeking through and you have a little sympathy.

*weird robot noises*

GERARD ASKING EVERYBODY FOR MOUNTAIN DEW RED WAS WONDERFUL. 

Okay so there was actually a scene where Rich talked to his SQUIP and he didn’t want to help his SQUIP take over the school. Then he decides to set the fire. It was actually really dark. I liked it a lot. 

Tiffany Mann as Jenna Roland was so incredible. 

When Brooke came on for The Smartphone Hour, she had a banana shoved in her mouth and was just sucking on it. Later she just threw it off the stage, and it was hysterical. 

At the end of the Smartphone Hour, all the guys in the cast came out in drag and I couldn’t stop laughing. 

The applause at the end of The Smartphone Hour was so insane holy crap. 

The Pants Song made me cry tbh. The Michael/Mr. Heere bond is so great.  

They took out the line where Michael tells Mr. Heere he needs to go buy a pair of pants, which I think makes Mr. Heere having pants on at the end have more of an impact.

Michael’s awkward reaction to Jeremy’s dad asking “do you love [Jeremy]?” was GOLDEN. 

The Pitiful Children was actually switched with The Pants Song. The new lyrics worked really well. It made Jeremy deciding to help the SQUIP more believable.

The Play was just so fun to watch.

I really enjoyed the fact that Christine knew what a SQUIP was. 

THE AUDIENCE WENT CRAZY DURING “MICHAEL MAKES AN ENTRANCE”. George just kinda reggae danced onto the stage I loved it. 

BISEXUAL RICH. 

Rich was also kinda hitting on Michael (who awkwardly played it off) but it was super cute. 

The cluster of popular kids in the second verse of “Voices In My Head” just made me cry idk why. 

Jenna, Chloe, and Brooke have really good, really subtle character development. 

Michael and Christine did a little hip bump thing and it was so cute. 

Everyone was just kinda friends at the end and I was legit crying. 

At the end, Jeremy was onstage with Michael,  Christine, and his dad. They left his one by one until he was alone. He took a deep breath and the lights went out. I thought that was a great ending for Jeremy’s character arc. 

THE CAST KINDA HAD A STRAIGHT UP DANCE PARTY AT THE END IT WAS SO AWESOME. 

SEE THE SHOW IF YOU CAN GET TICKETS???