This American Life Parody
Stop everything and follow this link to a damn near pitch-perfect "This American Life" parody called "Going Postal." The comedian in question (Kasper Hauser) must have listened to fifty episodes, because he even gets Ira Glass's cadence and pauses basically correct. Impressive and hilarious.
This is, to my mind, much better than The Onion's "This American Life" parody, which only felt about half-successful to me: it nailed Sarah Vowell and certain types of repeated stories, but had the overall tone wrong--I don't think you could call the show "smug" or even "upper-middle class" with any claim to accuracy. Maybe I'm sensitive because they've been so good to me, but I found their satire rankled in a way that Hauser's doesn't. So congratulations, Mr. Hauser. You've just raised the bar admirably.
(Thanks to Carolyn Castiglia for tipping me off.)
UPDATE: As Carolyn points out in comments, Kasper Hauser is a sketch comedy troupe in California. I thought the name sounded familiar. I should have looked the guy up: he's a famous feral child of an earlier century. (Though it turns out the name's "Kaspar" with an a.) Here's the address of the wikipedia article since I'm back on the computer that won't let me post links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser
This is, to my mind, much better than The Onion's "This American Life" parody, which only felt about half-successful to me: it nailed Sarah Vowell and certain types of repeated stories, but had the overall tone wrong--I don't think you could call the show "smug" or even "upper-middle class" with any claim to accuracy. Maybe I'm sensitive because they've been so good to me, but I found their satire rankled in a way that Hauser's doesn't. So congratulations, Mr. Hauser. You've just raised the bar admirably.
(Thanks to Carolyn Castiglia for tipping me off.)
UPDATE: As Carolyn points out in comments, Kasper Hauser is a sketch comedy troupe in California. I thought the name sounded familiar. I should have looked the guy up: he's a famous feral child of an earlier century. (Though it turns out the name's "Kaspar" with an a.) Here's the address of the wikipedia article since I'm back on the computer that won't let me post links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser
Labels: humor and whimsy
posted by Cowboy Dave Dickerson | 12:51 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Dave - Kasper Hauser is actually a sketch group in Cali - they're great.
Hilarious!
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