A Poor Man’s Guide to the Movies

Even during the Great Depression, people queued to see the movies.

The good thing about being really, really, super poor this particular summer is that it hasn’t been all that hard to trim down my entertainment budget.  I’ll be honest… I’m not a big fan of thrillers (Splice), stupid comedies (Get Him to the Greek) or Shrek movies, so really, there hasn’t been a lot so far that I’m dying to pay eleven hard-earned dollars to see.  And when people start to tell me about how great Get Him to the Greek is, or how Splice is actually a compelling movie that brings up intriguing questions, I usually either think to myself that I’ll watch them when they’re streaming on Netflix (which I’m paying like $16/month for already) or I ignore those evil assholes completely.

Still, let’s be real… it’s as hard to keep Michael Trenary out of the theater in the summer as it is to keep Jamie Oliver out of a PopFountain post.  So whilst rolling about $20 worth of pennies that I would later use to pay my June electric bill, I developed a brand new way to prioritize my movie ticket spending.  Behold, A Poor Man’s Guide to the Movies…

Comedy Showdown: ‘Community’ vs. ‘Modern Family’

Compelling soap opera it was not.

This season has brought us some amazing new shows as well as some lackluster ones (sorry, Jamie Oliver, but I hope to God this is the last time I will bring up your lame-ass Food Revolution.)  Through it all, two sitcoms have outshone the rest, and it is those two sitcoms we sit down and dissect.  Enjoy!

Michael: For you, which has been the better new comedy this season: Community or Modern Family?

Kiki: I’m going to have to go with Modern Family on this one, although I do enjoy Community a lot. Modern Family for one is more consistent. I know when I watch I’m going to lol at least once. (Which for me is saying something. I usually watch it on Hulu by myself at 7:30 am so there isn’t a need to outwardly display how much I’m enjoying the show. But I do. I lol every episode.) I also enjoy more of the characters on Modern Family. Cameron is of course my favorite with his broad comedic bits and flare for the theatrical. He’s every theatre person I’ve ever known all balled up into one giant lovable lug. And his melodrama is always perfectly juxtaposed to Lily’s adorable dead pan.

Michael: Can a baby really be credited with a deadpan?  I mean, she’s probably staring at a Beanie Baby off camera…

More like Team Andy Richter

How semi-timely and cool of myself to be writing about the Conan/Leno War.  Here are some fast and dirty facts to get you up to speed of where I’m at in this back-and-forth slap and tickle fest:

1. I never watched old Conan. I was either too young or behaving too old to stay up that late. Mama needs her sleep.
2. Triumph the Annoying Dog never has and never will be funny to me.
3. But, neither will Leno.
4. I didn’t start watching Conan until he took over The Tonight Show (for a whopping .2 seconds). I actually watched Tom Hanks (who I have an unhealthy love for) dub him Coco. From then on I kept Huluing mainly so that I would have stories/quotes to Twitter about and because I felt like I was finally lame enough to watch late night programming before I went to bed.

There you have it. But what am I left with now that Conan is no longer Mr. Tonight Show? Well, I got another 42 mins back that I can use to watch LOST, Jamie Oliver (nice previous plug Michael!), and Modern Family (which continues to be the best thing to happen to sitcoms since Friends and Will & Grace).

I just feel kind of  “meh” about the whole thing. For a while I was outraged for Conan. I mean, Leno sucks. Big time. But then I realized that I don’t care about late night. Why is it still on? I can’t wait for old people to die so we can finally get some good programming up in here. If we can’t have social security at least give us good tv. None of this Leno Hits the Streets piece of bullshit.

And while I do have tickets to tomorrow night’s performance of Conan’s Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on TV tour, I’m more excited to a.) just feel a part of something that is so topical and doesn’t involve vampires and b.) to see Andy Richter. Because he is a reason to wish that Conan was still Mr. Tonight Show.