Seeing Tropic Thunder recently made me realise that Hollywig still has the ability to make me laugh – despite how often it tries and fails. Tropic Thunder proves without a shadow of a doubt, that satire can be funny without the need for mindless attempts at ’spoof-ing’. Anyone can mimic a film, add a fart sound, and make it funny. God knows I would probably laugh…but I laughed the first time they did a Scary Movie, but since then, all of the *insert word*-Movie-movies are absolute shizen.

Moving on from the blood-curdlingly bad ’spoof’ films, we enter the territory of the ‘Will Ferrell takes his top off in this movie and/or he sings some lame pop song’. Will Ferrell is the biggest hit and miss for me, way moreso than Ben Stiller. Anchorman was incredibly funny, but he wasn’t the sole reason for its appeal to me, as the whole package – the other cast members, the production values and the somewhat traditional construction made it a riot. At least that movie had a respectful dig at most of the things it parodied, in a way similar to the ultimate comedies from the likes of the Zucker brothers.

The Zucker brothers are one of the reasons I have grown to be as wrong as I am; the Flying High movies will be taken with me to my grave. Now, Will Ferrell is a funny guy. He is a good comedic actor with pretty good timing. But for me, he hasn’t made me laugh since Anchorman. That racing one and the ice-skating one were unbearable. But they were no way near, no, not even in the same dimension of shite as those spoof movies and the atrociously bad, terribly un-funny and downright painful movie Norbit. Eddie Murphy was funny once, now he is just a shell of what he once was. Coming to America, his stand-up videos, Beverly Hills Cop, 48hours – all movies that made me laugh and he was critical to their success. Somewhere along the line he fell into the ‘comfort’ trap of doing the easy movies; being a fat-ass was funny in Nutty Professor but to base a whole movie around him being a retard was, as Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jnr’s alter ego in TT) going “full retard” and missed the mark on all levels.

Which brings me back to Tropic Thunder. Yes, you could say its a spoof of the movie industry along the same lines as those coming from the ‘people that brought you scary movie 18′ guys, but it was far and above more than that. It was clever in its execution to the point where it required the viewer to actually have some sort of passing interest in the machinations of the industry for many of the gags to pay off. The amount of background gags, little easter eggs here and there in this film will make the purhcase of the DVD essential.

The film has shown Hollywig how to make people laugh without appealing to some lowest common denominator. I want more movies where its not until you leave the cinema and start talking about it, do some of the funniest bits become apparent. Also, having Tom Cruise don a fat suit and get his groove on is also a winner. So your honour, it is my belief that Hollywig may have found its saviour – its guiding light. Stiller and the guys that brought the well-written comedies like Knocked Up and Superbad should now be seen as setting a benchmark for movies to make people laugh on more than surface levels.

This is another memo to a different group of brainless morons, similar to those over in Hollywig. The land of TV is a bright, colourful and desperate place. Shows have to compete with their movie brethren and now the internet and all of its download-y glory. This has led many people, myself included, to be in more power over what I watch than ever before. Foxtel iQ plus a dedicated home theatre pc connected up to our TV/hi-fi has meant that I get to watch what I want, whenever I want. Except when TV fat cats let their shows take on schedules that seem as logical in sequence as that David Lynch movie where Naomi Watts plays with herself.

Take two of the best shows on TV: South Park and Family Guy. Both shows are regular views on my crowded TV schedule – somewhere in between my Monday night footy shows and some random Criss Angel MINDREAK awesomeness (best magician ever). Monday nights used to be great, because you get home, acquire the latest Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad, and sit down for a good couple of hours of animation sensations. But that is not to be anymore. Why?

Because some knucklehead over at TV-land has decided to ram their fist up the butt of the schedule of both South Park and Family Guy. The last 5 aired episodes of Family Guy have had at least 2 whole goddamn weeks between them and now, all of a sudden, the show has disappeared off the radar. What am I meant to do without this show? I thought, well, you know, it might be ok, I might be able to tide myself over with some American Dad and The Simpsons. But, as fate would have it, Family Guy was THE reason or the Monday night animation action. It was the only one I had to watch, the others were just filler. And now that its gone, I don’t think I could give two shits about the others.

South Park used to pop up later in the week and it was usually worthy of being the only show worth watching on whatever night we used to get it. Yes, I don’t remember. Looking at tv.com’s episode listing, it has the next episode as 1 October 2008. What in the name of wide wide world of sports is going on? At least South Park was airing weekly, buto have 5 month odd break? Come on guys. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are legends but honestly, this long off is just a slap on the knob with a wet bus-ticket for all of us who like the show.

So all you TV fat cats, stop being such dicks, and bring the shows back. You had your wretched strike, the writers should be full of creativity (or shite) so there are no excuses. All the voice talent has to do is talk – I talk all the time and get paid nothing – so they can get off their asses and get back into the booths.

TV you suck right now. I don’t want to talk to you…for now.