Building an Island

Island #1 brings something to comics that hasn’t been as popular as it once was for a long time now, the anthology comic book. When DC, Marvel and most other publishers started out in the comics industry, they published a generous amount of anthologies and used many of them to introduce some of comics’ most long-lasting and recognizable (world over) characters. While Peter Parker is no longer Spider-Man, the character started out in the pages of Amazing Fantasy, an anthology. Superman came from Adventure Comics, Batman came from Detective Comics, Thor came from Journey Into Mystery, and all characters became so popular that they took over those titles before getting titles with their own name on the cover. In more modern times, titles like Solo, Flinch and Vertigo Quarterly prove that DC never gave up on the idea of the anthology, even if they couldn’t keep the first two titles alive for long.

With over 110 pages, Island #1 has Brandon Graham (Prophet) and Emma Rios (Pretty Deadly) working on new material alongside a range of new talent, exposing them to the audience of mainstream comics. This first issue starts off with a two-page cover spread, a four panel sequence above a small island leading into a bigger and more developed island, with open ports, docked ships, houses scattered around the edges and a view of the fish, abandoned submarine and relics that exists under the ocean. Marian Churchland starts the interior with two oil paintings, where the first comes off as an image of waves crashing against one another and the second a darker look at the ocean with an island in the distance, taking place during the night or the moment before a storm where the clouds cover the sky. These paintings set up Island as a different kind of anthology, one that could be part art book, part comic, part prose, part unexpected collection of polaroids found in the locked drawer of an abandoned building, a mix tape of what Graham and Rios think deserve the spotlight.

The first story, “I.D.,” is written and drawn by Rios and brings four people, that talk like they’ve never met before, into a diner to discuss what we later find out is body reassignment. In what comes off as the not too distant future, readers find themselves looking into a world where the media has just reported on the explosion of the Deimos Mission Vessel, part of a mining colony project. Not long after, a riot and storm break out and police come in to pacify the situation, dragging our innocent group into the dispute and putting them on their way to seek shelter. With a main theme of what seems to be change, “I.D.” starts off with the world full of exploration, development, social transition, displacement and an unknown organization offering people to take on new bodies in an untested experiment. With glimpses of character insight taken from the interviews the unknown organization has with the protagonists, “I.D.” hints at a story full of commentary on personal politics, the ways people identify themselves, deal with the identities society places on them and how to live with them.

After “I.D.,” Rios sticks around for a few pages to provide water colors for Kelly Sue Deconnick’s prose piece, “Railbirds.” The autobiographical short story takes a confessional tone as Deconnick describes events in her past that deal with becoming a writer, feeling like a writer and reminiscing on her relationship with friend and mentor Maggie Estep before her death from a heart-attack. The story weaving from memories of times spent on the race track with Estep, her first encounter with her husband, and the death of her grandmother and time as a smoker. These memories are looked at through a metaphor of horse racing, with the numbers and odds tied to them, and rules of writing as ways of living life. The writing is executed with odd transitions, coming off as stream of consciousness at some point and exposition at others. This can make reading it awkward, and make a reader wonder what images where in Deconnick's mind and what “Railbirds” would have been like if it was split up through panels in comics form, where Rios was given more range to work with. Nevertheless, there are rewarding moments, especially towards the story’s resolve, “Causality gives me comfort. But the truth is, bad things just happen sometimes and you don’t get to know why. You can’t steer a rollercoaster and the form won’t tell you who’s going to win.”

Graham’s contribution brings readers (back) into the world Multiple Warheads. Familiar characters Nikoli (a werewolf) and Sexica (an adventurer) walk through their alternate version of russia, where inhabitants can be anthropomorphic animals or flying whales that have restaurants built around them and have parts of their body harvested to feed diners. With each page, Graham packs information into his panels. With very detailed environments, readers aren’t only shown a new sci-fi/fantasy world, they have many new details identified and explained with meticulous notations, regardless of how superfluous these items seem. These notations often come off as a way for Graham to pack puns and jokes into the pages, giving his audience more than just a story, but a sort of narrative aside that somehow doesn’t break the pacing of his story. While Nikoli and Sex’s story starts off as a sort of romantic comedy in disguise, where the humdrum details of their relationship and personal lives, and Nikoli’s sense of inferiority to Sex, are focused on, some of the most visually impressive and enthralling moments aren’t concerned with their relationship at all. Starting off the chapter, Nikoli’s dream of “the wolf’s life” where a child rides a wolf on a short adventure through a magical forest that, along with its inhabitants, could have been in the movies Labyrinth or Never Ending Story. These few pages show animals with numbers in place of detailed faces, and works with a pacing similar to his other Image book, Prophet. This pensive sort of development is also present in the short part of the story that focus on the mysterious wizard that hides in the depths of the wailing walls and is delivered in a way that excites and begs to be elaborated on. By the end of the final chapter, Nikoli is left on the beginning of what could be the start of his own adventure and “Multiple Warheads: Ghost Town” leaves readers with plenty of reason to see how it picks up. The only downside is that three months will pass before it continues in Island #4.

“Dagger Proof Mummy” is the third cliffhanger in the first issue of Island, and marks the first entry for a relative unknown that goes by one name, Ludroe. Besides a credit in Prophet #44 and King City (both Brendon Graham books), there’s not much out there about Ludroe, besides his blog. Dagger Proof Mummy shows a world of skateboarding, anthropomorphic cats and a mysterious figure that doesn’t seem to be fatigued by the knives those cats keep stabbing him with. Drawn in a graffiti style, the story focuses part on Reno and her teenage struggle of finding a group that fits in with. Choosing skateboard culture, she focuses her attention on Dirk, the king of the local skaters. With a backwards cap, Dirk gives her the advice on pulling off tricks by telling her, “It’s mental. Most people rehearse for failure. Once you break down your barriers… Anything is possible,” before before skating around the arch of an underpass. When Dirk attempts to jump the narrow bridges, something goes wrong and he vanishes in the gap between them. Soon after, dagger wielding cats appear, surrounding Reno before a mysterious figure wrapped in bandages comes to save her and taking daggers in the back in the process. Is this mummy Dirk? Maybe the next issue will answer this question.

Merriam-Webster’s final entry for “Island” reads “an isolated group or area; especially :  an isolated ethnological group.” While the stories in Island aren’t connected to one another thematically, the book exists as a sort of island in the ocean of contemporary comics that mostly concentrate on the genre-based stories of spandex heroics, science fiction, fantasy and whatever Post-Berger-Vertigo is turning into. With a business model of turning out quality books of all kinds and selling the first volume of trade paperbacks for $9.99, Island also functions as a way to look at Image Comics as an Island in the comics industry, one that takes chances that pay off, excites readers, and worms its way into becoming a top contender of Marvel and DC with the guts to put out an anthology that has 30 pages more than Vertigo Quarterly for same $7.99.

This article was originally published by Popmatters

The places I'll Be Going Traveling 60 Words Per Minute

I previously mentioned I'd be taking a little time away from this blog to contribute to another blog that concentrates on the music scene of my local area, Philadelphia. My contributions don't really get in the way of my updating to this blog, since I never used it to discuss matters I cover at Radio Static. Well, dear readers, I'm afraid this blog has just turned second fiddle.

As of a few days ago, I became a contributing writer to the pop culture website Pop Matters. I never knew if the site's name was a declarative statement or adjective and noun, but they get 1,000,000 unique visitors a month and I'm going to be submitting 2 articles a month for their comics page, and possibly random contributions to other pages. My first two will be the pieces where I wrote about Vertigo Comics and war comics, both originally published on a friend's blog before I decided to break out my web design knowledge and make this bad boy. Fear not, you will still be able to find those articles here. I'll also be retaining ownership of everything I write and posting them to this website a couple days after they go live on Popmatters.

As for the longer piece on comics I hinted at and am still writing / researching (yeah, I know I've been working on that a while, but I'm working a lot and in the middle of moving blah blah blah), it's about religion in comics and I'll probably be submitting it to Pop Matters because it's going to be a doozy.

Until then, keep an eye on Pop Matters and stick around here to see what my editors don't want you to see, you know, the true grit.

Grant Morrison & The Aftershock of Comics, or The World of Comic Books Is Exploding & A New Universe Is Blooming

A lot has been going in the word recently. There's wars going on overseas. Gay marriage became legal countrywide and the threat level went up on July 4th for the U.S. Google and Apple are spitting on each other for some new bout of nonsense that will most likely be settled in an overly long legal dispute.  But, none of that matters anymore because it's only two days old and this week is one of the most exciting things to happen to comics in a long time. The bad news is that on both counts, you're going to have to wait a while before any of it actually happens. Still, the news is very exciting! Yesterday, it was announced that Grant Morrison (yes, that Grant Morrison) will be the new editor-in-chief for Heavy Metal Magazine (yes, that Heavy Metal). If that isn't equal part exciting and wonderful, let me make it even weirder than Morrison's mind could conjure up by telling you Entertainment Weekly (yes, that Entertainment Weekly) broke the story. It will be very interesting to see what Morrison does with the magazine, considering how the publication has evolved into something that has many stories that focus on either a tone of heavy violence, elements of softcore pornography, or a mix thereof, and Morrison's stories are usually weird yarns that make you feel like you've been shooting up heroin with the ghost of Buddha and listening to the Dalai Lama divulge the secrets of the universe. Or maybe they're just incoherent gibberish. Either way, Morrison's stories are a rollercoaster ride that everyone should take the time to enjoy, while many Heavy Metal stories past the mid 80's are more action/adventure and T&A sensationalism. For that reason, it's hard to place Morrison in the world of contemporary Heavy Metal, but that may not be what will happen when you consider what the man has to say:

We’re trying to bring back some of that ’70s punk energy of Heavy Metal, but update it and make it new again. One of the things I like to do in my job is revamp properties and really get into the aesthetic of something, dig into the roots of what makes it work, then tinker with the engine and play around with it. So for me, it’s an aesthetic thing first and foremost. The idea of immersing myself in the aesthetic of Heavy Metal is exciting. It’s going to change the clothes I wear, the way I create; it’s like a performance for me. Beyond that, just the idea of being able to curate stories, decide the direction of the magazine, and work with great talent and develop new talent is an exciting opportunity.

The idea of digging into the roots of Heavy Metal, a place where artists like Moebius, Bilal, Loustal, Boucq and Crepax enriched the soil, may be one of the things that is missing from comics today. While the prime usual suspects of Heavy Metal didn't shy away from sex and violence, they brought american audiences styles of art that hadn't been seen in comics and told stories that no U.S. publisher would dare tell (they had the comics code). The roots of Heavy Metal didn't just bud glorified smut and violence, they sprouted original comics stories and highbrow erotica. To revamp that plant as e-i-c might be one way to fertilize minds that Morrison hasn't pollinated yet, it may go up in smoke, but knowing morrison, it'll be one hell of a burning bush if it does. (Yes, I intentionally kept that metaphor going that long to juxt-a-pose Morrisons mixed one).

On the other end of comics news is Aftershock Comics. While Image Comics has been showing Vertigo that they've been in a bit of a dizzy spell for about a decade when it comes to creator-owned work, Aftershock has announced that it will be coming to comic shops in a big way by publishing creator-owned work from writers like Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Paul Jenkins, Garth Ennis, Justin Jordan, Phil Hester, Neil Gaiman, Frank Barbiere and Marguerite Bennett. If you haven't heard of Aftershock, that may be because they haven't released anything yet or because their site isn't fully developed. One great thing about Aftershock also involves its editor-in-chief. Mike Marts, former executive of the X-Men line will be taking the helm of e-i-c for Aftershock and explains, "When we launched AfterShock, our mission was to attract the best comic book creators in the business, and we're beyond excited to develop original projects with these industry leaders, but it’s only the beginning." With Gaiman, Ennis and Palmiotti, it's hard to imagine Aftershock not doing well. It's even harder to imagine their panel at San Diego Comic Con not being flooded with that name recognition. What makes them most interesting is the mission statement on their Facebook page, which reads, "Aftershock is a comic book company that combines the creative edge of an independent comic book publisher with the strengths of a traditional one." While this statement is vague, it hints at some promising possibilities like the idea of world building through serial titles that may have finite runs, but begin, middle and end like proper stories. With a mission statement like this, it echoes the idea of what CrossGen set out to do while mixing in the sensibility of classic Vertigo. Making a statement on his participation with the new publisher, Ennis offers some insight saying, “AfterShock looks to be making all the right moves. I’m delighted by the arrival of a new home for independent, creator-­owned comics.”

Comic Con may shed more light on these projects and answer questions, but Morrison's Heavy Metal and Aftershock sound like they will shake up the world of comics by doing what no one expected and the big two will regret not doing in the first place, giving fans what they already like and presenting it them in a way they never knew they'd love. 

I'm Expanding, Like The Universe

For those of you out there that like what I'm doing (I use Google Analytics and know I've got repeat readers out there), I'd like you to know that I'll be contributing to another blog: Radio Static Philly. With Radio Static, I'll be focusing on bands and live events around the scene in Philadelphia, my current physical territory.

At Radio Static, we're not out for the money. We're just a group of people that are passionate about music, love the Philly scene and want to help it grow by giving more exposure to the acts and venues that help develop the modern sound vibing through the streets in the City of Brotherly Love. If this sounds like something you'd like to know more about, check it out.

I've said my peace and will hopefully return to long-form essays with-in a week, bringing you a piece dealing with comics. I've got a lot of things on my end and also have some reading to do because my research has given me more than I originally planned to work with. Who knows, I may come back tomorrow with a short something or other if I get inspiration or insomnia. Stay tuned and beautiful, world.

Spoon Covers The Cramps, Oh The Lack Of Horror

The Cramps: Rock & Roll Spook Show

The Cramps came on to the music scene with songs that obviously and unapologetically ripped off riffs from classic gems of the 50's/60's era garage rock, surf rock and rockabilly. This has been well documented with the 3 volume compilation set "Songs The Cramp Taught Us," which brings the original songs together. What distinguished the songs The Cramps put to tape from the original source material is lyrics that came from the pits of hell and describe scenes of horror. While The Misfits did something similar, Danzig would scream and croon many of his lyrics while Jerry Only played his guitar at the speed of punk rock. Not striking as deeply into the punk sound as The Misfits, The Cramps kept a toe-tapping rhythm under lyrics that were spoken/sung with Lux Interior's performative vibrato in a way that exaggerated the elements of paranoia and creepiness of the lyrics in songs like "I Was A Teenage Werewolf," "Human Fly," "Green Door," and "Voodoo Idol." These songs don't only narrate spooky tales, but attempt to make the audience just as unsettled as the characters in them. It wasn't just the effects on the guitar, but the way Lux Interior sang that gave The Cramps a distinct sound and made the horror movie aspects of their music work so well. 

If you've never heard of The Cramps, you may not alone. They were nowhere near mainstream and probably make a few people uncomfortable. When songs like "TV Set," describe homicide and dismemberment, The Cramps weren't exactly radio friendly. Since the movie Poltergeist is being remade, it makes sense that the soundtrack could use a cover or two. One cover that will be on it is Spoon's version of The Cramps classic "TV Set." While Spoon's cover of The Cramps is actually very good, it is absent of the creepiness that makes the original unsettling. Spoon's version is so clean that it comes off as The Cramps if they were produced by Phil Spector. Britt Daniel does a great job of transcribing the jittery cadence Lux Interior first performed it with, but the frightening tones present in Lux's voice is not in Daniel's. While the cover is well worth listening to, it only make me wonder how great it would be to watch a scene in a horror movie where the original version plays as people are running scared.

The Sandman Movie Is Going To Be An Action-Packed Joyride, or Joseph Gordon Levitt Doesn't Watch Television

I have feelings and stuff

For those that don't know, actor and musician Joseph Gordon Levitt is adapting Neil Gaiman's Sandman for the big screen. It's likely no stretch to bet both Sandman and Gaiman fans are excited for this project since it has been in development hell for over a decade and the books have been one of Vertigo Comics biggest sellers for over two decades.

Still, the begged question of "why a movie and not a tv show" is even more present in a time where shows like Game of Thrones have become international successes. While movies are still big projects that gain popularity in many countries, Game of Thrones hit a level of popularity so high that its piracy is its own story. With creative sets, costumes with beautiful detail , very good acting, and visually astounding special effects and lush cinematography, Game of Thrones is pushing the boundaries of what to expect from television. And it's not alone. 

Before Game of Thrones, HBO, AMC and other channels produced shows like Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Tudors and many others that brought television audiences stories that were more often delivered through movies. With great plot lines, writing and acting, a show like True Detective attracts movie actors (Woody Harrelson, Matthew Mcconaughey, Collin Farrel, Rachel McAdams) to the small screen for quality roles. It also tells a whole story that could easily suffer the pitfalls of truncation which so often happens in film. With this renaissance of television goin on, it's confusing that Levitt would say the following while trying to explain why he's making Sandman into a movie:

I think a big screen adaptation is a better idea and here’s why. If you did the episodic version, I think it could very well end up as a not-as-good-version of what is already brilliant in the comics. But by reworking the material into a big movie, Gaiman’s brilliant characters and ideas get to take shape in a way they never have before. Also, I think Sandman deserves to look absolutely mind-blowingly awesome, just on a visual level, and as cinematic as some tv shows are becoming these days, they still can’t compete with big movies visually, just because they can’t afford to.

This isn't to say Sandman shouldn't be a movie. (I don't think it should be, but that's not what I'm getting at here). However, looking at a show like Game of Thrones, the budget averaged 6 million per episode in season 4, and 8 million in season 5. With ten episodes, a season costs 60 -80 million dollars. To put this into perspective, the new Terminator movie has an estimated budget of 155 million. The new Terminator movie costed just under twice as much as the last season of Game of Thrones. While Terminator Genysis isn't the adaptation of a comic book, Kick-Ass is, and it cost 30 million, half as much as season 4 of Game of Thrones. While the budgets of these two movies factor in a great deal of action and explosions, Sandman's source material has none of that. Sandman, like Game of Thrones, is a plot based epic that will need a nice amount of CGI. Unlike, Game of Throne, Sandman doesn't have action. For this reason, it seems hard to imagine that HBO "can't afford to" adapt Sandman. However, when reading his quote, it seems easy to imagine that either Levitt doesn't watch television, know much about arithmetic, or is turning Sandman into the Terminator.

Oh no he didn't!!!!!!

Rethinking Music with Beck's Record Club

You wish... and so do I, to be honest

Imagine taking a group of musician with styles that only the most bizarre venn diagram would show overlapping traits. Then, put them in a room and have them cover another band's record. This is the goal of The Record Club, and the mission statement of the project goes a little something like this: 

Record Club is an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day. The album chosen to be reinterpreted is used as a framework. Nothing is rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. A track is put up here once a week. The songs are rough renditions, often first takes that document what happens over the course of a day as opposed to a polished rendering.There is no intention to 'add to' the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens.

Beck started Record Club in June of 2009, but I didn't find out about it until recently. After watching some of Beck's old music videos online,  I let youtube cycle through videos on its own while I opened another tab on my browser to research for an upcoming article. At some point, a song that  I was unfamiliar with came on. Beginning with part of the original INXS song, "Gun in the Sky," the video goes into a reworking the song, beginning with a drum beat that could belong to an industrial band before Angus Andrew, of The Liars, starts singing. Scratchy guitar comes in to flesh out moments and is followed by a clumsy keyboard line that could be coming from a child's casio piano or melodica.

Joined by members of The Liars, Os Mutantes, Keyboardist Brian LeBarton, and St. Vincent, Beck would go into the studio to cover Kick, by INXS. While those musicians may all share influences like Talking Heads, Beatles and random jazz figures, they record with very different styles and unique approaches to melody and rhythm which sometimes result in the abandonment of them, as with Liars. With "New Sensation," reverbed violins and flirting background vocals come in to produce what tonaly sounds like it could have been a b-side from the Sea Change sessions. This aesthetic would carry over to the group's version of "Devil Inside," to remove all of the attitude INXS put into the song and replace it with a haunted sound.

Abandoning the others, Beck takes over all roles for a three track version of "The Loved One." Structurally, his version is close to the original, with electric guitar substituted for acoustic to end up with a song that reflects his "Mellow Gold" era.

It's not just Beck taking control through the whole experiment. "Never Tear Us Apart" is a nice collaboration that follows the original song closely and shows off Annie Clark's singing. With "Mystify," The group moves through upbeat to calm moments. The cover stays in the calm area, breaking it down and reworking it as a country song, with emotional violin, pensive guitar and thoughtful vocal delivery to make probably the best song from the session, except maybe for it's closer.

Ending the session and record is "Tiny Daggers." For this track, members of The Liars take control of the creative direction to make the song sound nothing like its original. Where other songs make it obvious that Record Club is Beck's pet project, "Tiny Daggers" sound like a Liars song, not a cover. With menacing drums, noisy electric guitars and a reworking of the vocals, something that doesn't at all resemble the source material comes out of the experiment to produce an angry song nine minutes longer than the original.

Beck and friends have done four other sessions, covering Velvet Underground and Nice, The Songs of Leonard Cohen, Yanni's Live At The Acropolis and Oar, by Skip Spencer. Videos are available on youtube and tracks are available on Beck's website. They're all worth checking out, but I think the version of Kick is the best one and hope Beck will return to do more sessions.

♪ How Do You Solve A Problem Like A Pop Song ♪

In 2012, Beck put out a record in the form of a book filled with sheet music. He may be an eccentric genius.

Beck's done it again. After winning a Grammy that caused a little controversy (Kanyeversy?), Beck decided to take a different approach to music with his new song, "Dreams." While the award winning Moon Phases is somber, moody and borders on depression, Beck decided to come back with a 180° rotation that had  his foot land on the kick drum. It's hard to expect anything from Beck, an artist that has used samples like a hip hop dj (Odelay), country like a boot wearing cowboy, and left field antics like he's Captain Beefheart (Stereopathetic Soulmanure). Expecting what Beck will do next is an exercise in futility. When he released a book of sheet music (Song Reader) for fans to play, he showed his audience that his next album may not even be an album.

While Midnite Vultures was a funk/rock masterpiece that could propel any dance party into 3 a.m., "Dreams" isn't funk as much as pop/disco ala MGMT. This new sound isn't surprising considering he's working with writers and producers that have made careers for themselves writing and producing for Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce. Though this new single is an unabashed, straight-up pop song, it's not as cotton candy as Britney Spears or princess party as Katy Perry. A little shocking upon first listen, it eventually comes off as exactly what you would imagine a pop song by Beck to sound like. With that, I'll leave you to press play and make up your mind.

Here's an interview Billboard did with Beck about his new song and upcoming record:

Culture Crop: Managing Mainstream Marijuana's Morals

Freeling rolls away her worries behind Reagan's back.

Cheech and Chong may have created the stoner comedy. Since then, movies like Half Baked, Pineapple Express and Friday have been fueled with silly jokes about weed and the people that smoke it. When people are smoking marijuana in movies or tv, it’s not often taken seriously. The theme of teenagers smoking in the basement of That 70’s Show and in Dazed and Confused show high school kids getting high as something to laugh at. In Poltergeist, the mother smoking in her bedroom, while she relaxes with her husband, was a set up allowing the tone of the movie to jump from calm to anxious. Using pot as a plot device normalizes the substance. Having the mother be a smoker didn't add to her character development, didn't give her character a vice to overcome in order to save her child and family, it didn't change the story at all. The mother smoking a joint was just dressing, possibly a relic from writers that were coming into their own during the summer of love. Though, this scene could have been a slap in the face of the Reagan's own republican perspective and the onslaught drug culture would face during his terms: look at the book Mr. Freeling is reading in the foreground while Mrs. Freeling is rolling up something for herself in the background.

"I learned it by watching you!"

By telling people to "just say no," in 1982, Nancy Reagan aimed the spotlight to a war on drugs that officially started in the summer of 1971. The 80's and 90's saw P.S.A.s filling airwaves. T.V. shows put out “special” episodes where a character has a special problem (domestic violence and A.I.D.S awareness were two big players in the P.S.A. game too). Drugs become demonized with the help of the media and writers eager to snatch from the headlines. Not every P.S.A. targeted children. One of the most memorable of these announcements directly targeted adults by warning them that a child's bad habit may be an imitation and perpetuation of what they see parents doing.

Even still, fighting a problem isn't about placing blame, it's about coming up with solutions and informing your target audience of the answers. A key element to getting your message to an audience is letting them know that it affects them, no matter who they are. When you show kids that not even their idols at Bayside High were free of troubles and pressures, your message gets a chance to resonate. Kids may not want to listen to parents, it's part of their DNA after all. Instead of having a sit down with your kids, taking them out of their routine to give them a talk that may be uncomfortable, why not have the talk placed into their routine? Better yet, why not have their best friend, Zack Morris, give it to them when he's over next time? It's sneaky! It's genius! It might have even worked on some viewers when Saved By The Bell gave over-achiever Jessie Spano her own  substance abuse problem. Under the pressure of acing tests and keeping up with clubs to look good for colleges while pleasing parents, getting ready for the big dance and being a teenager, Jessie turned to caffeine pills to keep up. In this special episode of Saved By The Bell, "Jessie's Song," Zack convinces Jessie that she doesn't need the pills, that the pills are the enemy. In this episode, the audience sees a teenager, faced with very typical problems, turning to drugs for an answer.

No one is perfect

By the end of the episode, the demon drugs are thrown to the floor and a good talk between old friends shows Jessie that she has loving people in her life to get her through problems, that she doesn't need drugs. The conclusion of this episode is that drugs are bad for your health, don't get you what you want, and, when Zack Morris (the personification of cool) is telling you to stay away from them, that they are not for cool kids, even if it's JUST caffeine pills.

Fast Forwarding to 2005, when the smoke from the Reagan era had cleared to elect one president that "did not inhale," and another that lived it up, Showtime put out a show called Weeds. Even though it was on a premium channel and it debuted after a legion of pot themed movies, Weeds came out on the small screen, the same screen that brought us all those Public Service Announcements. It may seem easy to write the show off as a prime-time soap opera, but it was more than just pretty faces captured in the flash of the California sun. Disregarding the relationships and sentimentality centered at the structure of a primetime soap, the show's basic plot shows something serious going on (growing?).

Weed is given a pin-up girl. how times have changed.

When the main character of Weeds, Nancy Bowtin, finds herself trying to keep her family in the same tax bracket they were in before her successful husband died, she decided to sell pot. Being the single mother of two children and choosing to sell drugs gives a tv show a lot of topics to run with, everything from how circumstances blur the lines of right and wrong to the which-batch-of-brownies-is-for-the-school-fund-raiser-and-which-is-to-sell episode (I'm not sure they did that episode, but they should have!). Still, what's most interesting is how Weeds shows a cultural shift, from the days of the P.S.A. and episodes with special lessons about drugs, to a time when pot is almost a central character in the show, one that is not only normalized but glamorized, and sold like hot rods (pictured left).

It's now well passed the 80's. The public service announcements that used to air on television are not very present and that may be because T.V. and movies don't have the same cultural cache they once did. More people are tuning into pay channels to watch shows produced with the creative liberties that were afforded to Weeds and The Soprano's. Still, even more people are being visually entertained by the internet. Like Weeds, High Maintenance doesn't focus on pot. Weed is the background noise of this series that just got picked up by Vimeo. The show is revolves around pot and wouldn't be the same thing without it, but the show doesn't try to make a statement about pot or its use.

If Seinfeld was a show about nothing, High Maintenance is a web series about a weed dealer biking through New York City. But Seinfeld wasn't a show about nothing, it was a show about a comedian and his group of friends that were over-grown children trying to behave like adults and failing miserably at it. With a show about a pot dealer, it's almost impossible not to have smoking in the show, but this show has no agenda. With legalization popping up in states and the promises of big money being the main focus of marijuana in the media, the plant is given a new life and cultural weight this century. Still, this show is not out to advocate. One episode starts off showing what seems to be a young couple, Heidi and Mark, in love. The camera shows the two new characters in their twenties set up a fort in the living room, eat meals together and talk about this and that between moments of affection. While this happens, Heidi is seen smoking marijuana occasionally. When Heidi leaves to pick up food, Mark, stays home to wait for their delivery man. Once there, the guy (yes, that is how he is credited) and Mark start catching up. Mark starts talking to the guy about Heidi. He reveals he met her online, that the past two weeks have been great before showing him a picture of her. The guy, a man about town, reveals that Heidi is actually "Homeless Heidi," a scam artist that uses unknowing men. All the times Heidi has been shown asking for money for the delivery food, or to pick up groceries or buy the pot, flood back to Mark and he knows the guy is right. In this episode, aside from the guy, pot smokers are shown to be deadbeats that are smart enough to con people, contrary to their easy going, peace-loving, absent-minded cliche.

In the episode "Helen," the show starts off with a man, in his late twenties or early thirties, lying on a bed with his sickly mother as they talk and watch television. The audience learns that the mother is bedridden and that her son, Patrick, cares for her. The camera watches as he shops online, grooms himself and accepts delivered groceries. We get to see into the uneventful life of Patrick before the guy knocks on the door. A cleaned, well dressed Patrick answers the door and invites him in. The two chitchat before it's time for an exchange. It's discovered that Patrick has a crush on the guy when he makes an awkward grab for the guys waist. The guy, always cool (for all intents and purposes, he's the personification of pot, which is assisted by not giving him a real name), brushes it off as no big deal by acting natural and leaving amicably. When the guy does leave, Patrick is shown throwing the bag of pot in a cigar box filled with others like it. The credits don't just begin to scroll, instead the guy is seen on the streets, enjoying the wonders of a parade on the streets of New York as a happy song plays. A massive divide is being presented between these characters. If the guy is a personification of weed, then Patrick, a man that never leaves his house, may be a symbol for closeted gay men. If pot was the plot device for silly jokes, then it has now become one to talk about, or at least hint at, bigger issues and look at complex characters with real problems that have nothing to do with substance abuse.

Ellen & Ruth watch birds while Saul gets high 

While the pot might not have gone to the person you expected it to in "Helen" (the sick mother), High Maintenance takes nine minutes to bring another look at how marijuana intersects with sick people. In "Brad Pitts," We are taken into the life of Ellen. Ellen likes to go out and watch birds when she's not at the office. Other than that, all we get to know is that she's having trouble eating and setting a date for the doctor. This story focuses on her making a solid friend in her community of bird watchers, and getting someone to drive her to and from her appointment. In the process, she happens to choose someone that knows the guy, Ruth and her husband Saul. Aside from the very serious tone of this episode, "Brad Pitts," manages to bring in comic relief. After Ellen and Ruth start to talk, Ruth suggests Ellen smokes pot to bring back her appetite. The laughs start when Saul gets in touch with the guy. Not able to get it himself, Saul calls the guy explaining how he'll need to bring it to Ruth by using profanity as he urges the guy to be polite to his wife and friend that have no real experience with dealers. The guy arrives briefly to help out the ladies and the laughs hit a crescendo when he gets a call moments after leaving because Ruth thinks she's gone crazy before the whole episode wraps with an element of closure as Ellen is seen eating ravenously while exit music plays.

High Maintenance isn't a show about weed, it's an anthology about characters. These episodes range from five to fifteen minutes. In that amount of time, it's hard to tell big stories, but the perfect amount of time to take a look at a group of strangers. Like a collection of stories by Raymond Carver, with each new act of High Maintenance, the audience gets to peek into the lives of a person, or group of people, and see what makes these people move and stay together. As a viewer, you never know when the guy is going to make an appearance, only that he will. It's not the guy that keeps someone clicking the play button on each new episode, it's the writing and the insight. Without the internet, a show like High Maintenance may not have been given the room to breathe: there are no guidelines to length, the main character doesn't have a real name and he's barely in it for most episodes. It might also have a hard time getting commercial sponsorship.

With the internet, format is malleable and largely at the discretion of the creative forces behind a video or movie. Sponsors may not be needed, after all, this very website costs nothing to post to, neither does youtube. While the internet is filled with its share of people making big clicker videos that show people unboxing phones and giving tips from everything to make-up to videogames, the internet has opened doors for well-made, thought provoking shows like High Maintenance, even though it's a show about a pot dealer on the surface.

On the other end of the internet spectrum, exists the show Getting Doug With High. On comedian Doug Benson's video podcast / talk show, Doug and a group of people, mostly other comedians, sit around a table and get high. If pot was a supporting character or prop in the background for other shows, then it is the main character and setting for this show. Unlike most talk shows, there are not fascinating stories taken from the paper for the host and guests to discuss, just weed to smoke and a few marijuana related trivia facts to talk about. A guest comes on, smokes, talks about his or her first experience with pot, smokes, answers questions from twitter and smokes some more.

Doug Benson, professional stoner.

What makes this show worth talking about is that, despite its basic format and Wayne's World production value, it succeeds. In between the actual smoking, there's a lot of talking. With a room full of comedians, the talking tends to turn into funny off-the-cuff jokes. The show is unchallenging but that is why it's so good. Void of any pretense, whatsoever, episodes of Getting Doug With High have garnered more than 1 million views. Building an audience and branding himself through twitter, Benson proved that beyond the pot, he's a businessman that earned his show sponsorships with several companies and products advertising during the short segment breaks. While all the sponsors are for pot smokers (vaporizers and delivery services), this show is still finding a way to keep itself rolling in the green (pun intended). What's best about this show is that, despite Benson saying that he doesn't know how the show can be funny for people that aren't smoking while watching, it is. While it may be a novelty to virtually get high with comedians and actors, I can honestly attest that it's still entertaining to watch stoned comedians and actors joke around with one another while sober. After all, you don't have to be drunk to laugh at Drunk History.

It's hard to say how long before all of the United States will have Marijuana legalized, if it will be a good thing in the long run, or if it's way overdue. Still, the change in public attitude is seen in everything around us, from the teenagers in the park that don't fear a ticket (I'm writing from Philadelphia) to the movies in theatres and the shows on television and its successor the internet. A change is happening and starts with what people perceive pot to be. Some shows like Getting Doug choose to attach itself to the classic view and depict pot as a recreation for people to relax with as they joke with friends. The show Weeds used pot as the glue used by a mother to keep her family together. Now, the show High Maintenance uses pot as a plot device that gets the camera behind closed doors to take a look at how strangers live and talk to one another. In these times, there's as many way to use weed to tell a story as there are uses for hemp.

Imitation, Stagnation & The Digital Frontier: How To Get Away With Comedy In The 21st Century

A studio executive walks into a writers' room. The executive changes the direction of the sitcom. No one laughs.

It's fairly common to see trends emerge. Sometimes trends come from geographical locations, as with Hair Metal in the sunset strip, Grunge in Seattle or Gangsta Rap that radiated from Compton before moving to New York. Those examples just came from the 90's. California was the birthplace for psychedelic music in the 60's. With the assistance of radio and television, Jefferson Airplane's white rabbit and the Door's fire would cross the country and influence people that would take music in new directions, but it also spawned a wave of imitations as well. When a style becomes popular, be it  in cinema, music, fashion, it becomes imitated. When a record company puts out a Britney Spears, another company come out with a Christina Aguilera. This is the way competition works in commercial societies. This is even true for comedy.

The Three Stooges are Forever Funny

Since before video, competing comics have been stealing, borrowing, buying and copying bits and styles. When Charlie Chaplin hit vaudeville with a physical comedy routine that drew an audience big enough to turn him into a movie star, other performers were paying attention. Soon after, a string of acts including The Three Stooges came out to entertain and earn money with physical comedy. While Chaplin was more political and had the charm and spirit of an underdog that made audiences cheer for him, the Stooges weren't stealing as much as borrowing when they played scheming and violent characters that were constantly hoisted with their own petard. They were also making movies with sound, something Chaplin movies were lacking when his career would overlap with the Stooges.

Today, hollywood is putting out more sequels than ever, making it hard to know if audiences can't get enough of something good, or if executives don't know how to tell when the milk has spoiled. Guidelines can offer a checklist that identifies tried and true methods. But, when followed too closely, that checklist can be a guide to a circular path. This is the case with late night television. It's understandable that television executives would want to repeat the success of a show they are fortunate to have greenlit, but when they get too caught up in not wanting failure, you can easily get a product that clearly tries to imitate. When Stephen Colbert ended The Colbert Report, Larry Wilmore took over his time slot to create The Nightly Show, which comes off as a depressing imitation of The Daily Show and doesn't even bother to create a unique title for the show as much as bank off The Daily Show's success. The Colbert Report wasn't The Daily Show. While The Daily Show was busy mocking the subjects of major news stories and the cable hosts that discuss them, The Colbert Report took the format of a cable news show to satire far right commentators, specifically Bill O'Reilly. This difference allowed both shows to make fun of the same topics without fear of coming up with the same jokes.

Since their topics and structures came from cable, it's fitting that both shows aired on cable channel Comedy Central. Also, these shows probably wouldn't be able to get away with some of the bits they do on network. Something else to consider is that Comedy Central (a member of the Viacom conglomerate) has no ties to the cable news networks and companies it mocks, which make it clear from hurting the reputation of the Viacom family and sponsors tied to Comedy Central. Being on cable, these shows have freedom and less restrictions from censors. These freedoms give The Nightly Show no excuse to not go for a more original and daring feel, to do something that separates itself from The Daily Show, beyond the comedy-infused roundtable discussion it steals from Bill Maher.

Granny Smith or Golden Delicious?

Debuting in the morning hours, censors and sponsor obligations didn't prevent David Letterman from pushing the boundaries of what was appropriate for tv, familiar to what came before, or even interesting to viewers. Johnny Carson may have been the first person to take advantage of late night, making The Tonight Show something special by bringing out out drunk guests and including sexuality to an audience that grew up with a black and white TV set, but Letterman really exploited what late night hours could do. Letterman's morning show wouldn't last long. This didn't mean his style needed changing to make people laugh. The format stayed the same when executives realized it worked better in late night, perfect for the slot after The Tonight Show, which it would compete with when letterman moved to CBS. Wondering "will it float?," and "is this anything?," a brand of irreverence dominated the comic style of Letterman for over thirty years as a TV host that didn't mind if Justin Beiber or Cher weren't behind the jokes they would be a part of. In a lot of ways, Late Show with David Letterman created the template for what late night TV would become once Carson retired. Looking at current late night shows, it's clear how Conan O'Brien, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon all grew from Letterman's style of comedy.

Comedy by Conan, a new style?

The current cast of late night hosts build on approaches Letterman stylized for late night audiences, but each has a different flavor that prevents them from being direct imitations. Everybody's best friend, Fallon is the late night Mr. Nice Guy and the cute one. O'Brien is the class clown and the smart one. Kimmel is the rebel, employing his family and kicking his first season off with an open bar, as if he was still hosting The Man Show. Seth Meyers is the oddball in the group who took a lot of his Weekend Update bits with him when he signed on to host Late Night.

Though these shows owe a lot to Letterman, it's hard to say they are imitating him as much as being strongly influenced by him, and continuing on the new late night formula. When Conan and Meyers took over Late Night, they were taking on a show Letterman created, and facing a time slot Letterman set a precedents for and a demographic he mastered appealing to. When Fallon took it over, he did the only thing he knows, the thing he still does as host for The Tonight Show, he acts kind of silly, but clean and gets starstruck when he interviews big names.

Pardon my French

One part of late night that Letterman didn't directly influence was The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Prior to Ferguson, the show would be hosted by Tom Snyder and Craig Kilborn. With Snyder, the show would focused on serious interviews. With Craig Kilborn, the original host of The Daily Show, humor  was brought from behind the host's desk and the show started to more closely resemble a late night talk show. With a minimal budget, Craig Ferguson debuted with a new style of comedy that would turn The Late Late Show into what could be thought of as Wayne's World if it was actually funny. It's no surprise that it's Letterman's own production company, Worldwide Pants, that put Ferguson on the air. Not like Letterman in style as much as attitude, his timing can ignore traditional meter. Unrehearsed, Ferguson's cold introductions were improvised. Remaining loose, Ferguson would act first and think second. Letting profanity fly, he had editors dub over bad language with a sound effect of him saying "ohh la la" in a French accent and put a French flag over his mouth, a clever way of saying "pardon my French."

Geoff Peterson, gay skeleton

Fallon and Leno would keep a clean show that could appeal to many people, but Ferguson didn't mind getting dirty. Discounting the role of censorship, Ferguson would also shun political correctness. Creating recurring gags from bits he improvised, Ferguson decide to make fun of his producer, regularly calling him a racist when he would tell Craig certain words would be dumped. When a group of girls would be sitting in the front of his audience, he would identify them as sitting in "lesbian row." He would even question men on their presence when they sat in lesbian rown. Not directly mocking lesbians or undermining racism, his style of comedy would constantly be putting topics into an unsafe territory that could easily offend anyone that didn't think he pulled off the joke. This isn't just the result of a comic mind that went on stage as Bing Hitler early in his career, it's something that happens in comedy clubs, the place where jokes are born breathing or stillborn.

Ferguson created recurring characters like Sid the cussing bunny, Secretariat (two interns in a horse costume), and his sidekick, Geoff Peterson, an animatronic skeleton with a voice that sounds like George Takei's. When Geoff Peterson (voiced by Josh Robert Thompson) made it to the show, Craig Ferguson's iteration of The Late Late Show developed into something late night television had never seen, a show  filled with innuendo, unplanned antics and (intentional) awkward pauses. Ferguson's style kept the show on for ten years, twice as long as runs of previous hosts. It's unfortunate that Ferguson left late night when CBS gave The Late Show to Stephen Colbert instead of him, something that costed CBS a lot of  money. It's unfortunate because Ferguson was a refreshing and unique talent in the late night world. It's also unfortunate because his replacement, James Corden, has turned The Late Late Show into a rip off of the british talk show, The Graham Norton Show.

What's the deal with facebook? Sure,
there's faces, but I don't see any books!

When shows that are as original and successful as Letterman's and Ferguson's get put on the air for long runs, it begs the question why studios and executives are currently making the same thing and repeating formulas in such great numbers, as with The Nightly Show and  Late Late Show with James Corden on TV and the string of sequels released in the theatres. Is it to build a franchise? Is it to continue with a property it's already acquired? Is this a fear based decision that prevents studios from taking a chance on something that may fail and lose money because it upsets an audience it tries to challenge? With a culture that is getting more and more sensitive, comedians have taken notice. Bill Maher has been commenting on this for decades, even naming one of his shows "Politically Incorrect." But, Maher is a comedian that has built a reputation and audience by pushing buttons and upsetting people. Jerry Seinfeld, on the other hand, is a comedian that has a reputation for being clean. That said, it's not to be taken lightly when Seinfeld was on Colin Cowherd's ESPN show and talked about how political correctness is changing people to the point where words like "racist," "sexist," and "prejudice " are used by people that "don’t know what the fuck they're talking about.” If this is a buzzword culture that America is turning into, it's important to realize that the people using these words, even if they are misappropriating them, believe in them. To this end, it's understandable why the media may want to adjust their programming to be sensitive to members of its demographic, stick with proven molds. With Fallon so well liked, it's no wonder CBS wants it's own nice guy in Jim Corden, or that they have him use the Graham Norton format of bringing all guests out at the same time, something new to American TV, but a hit when Norton uses it on BBC.

However, comedy is something that historically makes people uncomfortable. Comedy clubs are often underground, dark and filled with people that are drinking. Taking the gas out of unfortunate truths, jokes often come off as insensitive, but if they were sensitive they wouldn't be jokes, they would be basic observations. It's not easy to go in front of a group of people and make them laugh. It would be even harder to make them laugh by catering to each person's emotional response. This is why comedians don't think about what someone will tweet or write on a blog in response to a joke. It becomes a numbers game, appealing to the mass audience while ignoring who gets upset. When people tweet about offensive material, they can build steam, and that is why buzzwords and hashtags bring a backlash on comedians. When Bill Maher brought up the Seinfeld quote on his show Real Time, guest Jeff Ross addressed the idea of political correctness and comedy in a significantly more serious way than he speaks to anyone he roasts on Comedy Central specials:

Jeff Ross, seriously funny.

“Why do comedians have to water down? Comedy is medicine, it’s the best medicine. Laughter: you don't want it generic, you want it potent. We have a responsibility to shine a light on the darkest aspects of society… I once did a show for sensitive people; they wanted to become better at taking a joke. That’s what was so great about roasting criminals. I was curious if they would laugh at themselves. I think that’s the first step towards rehabilitation. And some of these PC police should try that, not taking themselves so seriously, not taking EVERYTHING so seriously.”

When you remove the mass commercial appeal and formulaic constructs used by television, you get the freedom to do and say what you want without the fear of serious audience members and their backlash forcing executives to pull the plug on a show. Without focus groups reshaping a program, creative talent gets the chance to go down unfamiliar and exciting roads. Going down these new paths are the routes people take to grow and bring about evolution. Where programming like The Howard Stern Show is fueled by upsetting people when they turn complaining callers into their own joke, other shock jocks that imitate Stern don't have an audience as big as his and aren't afforded as much leverage. Opie and Anthony never got rewarded for their stunts, they only got canceled and fined. Being dangerous, or moving against the grain in new and creative ways has become harder and harder, even with comedy. Still, there is possible to get away with new styles and approaches to comedy that have no regard for sponsors and demographics.

Doug Benson, likely high right now.

Comedians get to shift their direction with the internet, a place where being canceled isn't a concern. Youtube has given Doug Benson, Sarah Silverman, Reggie Watts, Natasha Leggero, Norm Macdonald and many others free range on VPN's Channel. There isn't a television network alive --cable, network or premium-- that would air Doug Benson's Getting Doug With High. With a singular premise of inviting comedians and celebrities to his set to smoke pot and see what happens during their conversation, Getting Doug With High can get tens of thousands of viewers in a week, hundreds of thousands in a month and over a million within a year. Eight months since it's live broadcast, the Jack Black episode reached over 1.5 million hits. With a barebones set, Benson's show has gotten sponsored by companies that make smoking accessories and helped brand him as a comedian who tours with his stand-up routine, does podcasts and a live event called Doug Loves Movies, where he talks over movies, ala MST3K, while an audience watches the movie with him. 

The show they never wanted to air.

With VPN, the Jash Network has released a series of videos that allows Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera, Tim and Eric, and Reggie Watts to let their comic sensibility run free. Keeping budgets small and working with their friends, the role of money isn't as important as it would be if these videos were being produced by a big name studio or tied to a company that would broadcast them to a large audience over the air.  With the internet, creativity is the only thing needed for these comedians to make their videos. In 2012, Silverman made a pilot for NBC called Susan 313. It was produced by Ron Howard and never aired on television, but it was placed on youtube with the permission of 20th Century Fox before it was made private. Focus groups may have prevented the show from airing, and Silverman doesn't hold any hard feelings. In the introduction she made for the episode she posted, she says, "they probably did the right thing,  but we liked the show," to make it clear that posting the video was just a way to share it with her fans. Putting Susan 313 on Youtube may have been the first step in seeing Youtube as a platform for Jash, a new way to release sketches directly to fans.


The internet is now a place where comedians with experience in movies and television go to work on passion projects they release as videos and podcasts, and where their fans get to enjoy them at their most raw. After Marc Maron's podcast, WTF, became a success, IFC gave a him a show that reinvigorated his career as a hipster icon. On the internet airwaves, Maron and his guests are permitted to say whatever they want on a show that will cross-promote his IFC show and stand-up. In this way, Maron is actively using the internet to build a brand just like Doug Benson. It's no surprise that this freestyle approach to comedy is turning the digital landscape into a poaching ground.

Two politicians walk into a
bar... wait... let's start over. 

Even though well-known comedians may be using the internet to it's fullest potential, the web is the best place to find up-and-coming talent while it's still untouched  by corporate hands. Jash and VPN is the place for the pet projects of Silverman and her friends, but Funny or Die is the user-based content driven website that asks anyone with an idea and a camera to make people laugh. Operating as a production company, Funny or Die has the potential to change the face of comedy, or at least give comedy new faces. Drunk History is probably the most successful thing to come from Funny or Die. Originally a series of shorts, Drunk History records drunk comedians as they narrate historical events for people to later act out. With enough popularity, the show has made two seasons for Comedy Central and  been adapted into a U.K. version. The positive reception of Drunk history, and Funny or Die as a whole, had HBO buy a stake in the site and commission 10 episodes for original programming. Funny or Die also gave Zach Galifianakis a place to release his hit Between Two Ferns. 

"It must kind of stink  that you can't run  like three times."

Galifianakis used his show to deconstruct a talk show format with an unscripted dialogue between celebrities. These conversations often came off as a direct attempt at making the celebrities angry, bringing up past relationships with Brad Pitt, asking Natalie Portman for her number or trying to place his hand on the crotch of Michael Cera. The success of Between Two Ferns is great for two main reasons. First, it directly profits from the hollywood milieu it exists to mock. Secondly, it wasn't supposed to be watched in the first place. Originally, the short was meant to be part of The Right now! Show. The pilot wouldn't get picked up, so the short was put on Funny or Die where it found a new life.  Regardless of antics, intentional rudeness and non sequiturs, the show became so popular that President Obama would appear for an episode that has over 11 Million views, Comedy Central would release a special, Between Two Ferns: A Fairytale of New York, and it would receive two Emmy nominations, and win one, at the 65th annual event. With its Emmy, Between Two Ferns has proved it's possible to make a show that will get ratings, famous guests and earn critical acclaim by using the internet to push boundaries production companies are too scared to push.

With each generation, styles and tastes shift. The idea of appropriate, marketable and trendy content changes with the times. While nudity used to be something only in magazines, it became common in movies and worked its way onto television with the right camera angle. But once an idea becomes popular, it's here to stay. The only difference is that with the internet, the judgement call is being taken out of the hands of people in suits that try to repeat proven formulas. The power is now in the hand of the internet audience to decide if something is funny or if it will die. In the digital age, audiences are telling television and movie studios what they want, because youtube is the new focus group and a hit count is the new Nielsen rating.