Fear of a Black Hat is to Hiphop what Spinal Tap is to Metal.
Fear of a Black Hat is a 1993 American mockumentary film on the evolution and state of American hip hop music. Written and directed by Rusty Cundieff in his directorial debut, the film stars Cundieff, Larry B. Scott and Mark Christopher Lawrence. Fear of a Black Hat is similar in format to the satirical film about early 1980s heavy metal, This Is Spinal Tap. It is told from the point of view of a graduate student who is documenting the hip hop group N.W.H. (which stands for "Niggaz With Hats", a reference to N.W.A.) for a year as part of her thesis.
The title is derived from the 1990 Public Enemy album Fear of a Black Planet. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 1993, and was later theatrically released on June 3, 1994. While critically acclaimed, it was a box office bomb. Its stature has grown in the years since its release and the film has acquired a cult following.
Sassy the Sasquatch, commonly known as just 'Sassy' is the deuteragonist in The Big Lez Show, a minor character in both the spin-off/prequel miniseries The Mike Nolan Show and the Mike Nolan’s Long Weekend and the titular main protagonist in the spin-off series, Sassy the Sasquatch. He is Lez's best friend and next door neighbour. Sassy lives and hangs out with a group of three other Sasquatches - Donny, Wayno, and Scruffy - as well as Owlanox and reside in a run down house next door to Lez.
One of Sassy's defining character traits is his ability to take excessive amounts of drugs without being injured or dying as a result. He is shown as being constantly high, whilst accusing other characters around him for being 'druggos' in the meantime.
Sometime after parting ways with Scruffy, Sassy is walking aimlessly around Antarctica watching the auroras, when suddenly a giant orb of light (which he encountered and involuntarily ate earlier in the show) erupts out of him and consumes him. He arrives in another dimension. After figuring out how to break free from this place, by using his imagination, he meets his Higher Self, who explains what he and his purpose are.
His Higher Self explains that he keeps erasing his memories and reliving his past. Confused at which past he's reliving, Higher Sassy shows Sassy all the experiences he forgot, including the universe in which The Big Lez Show occurred. After quickly (in our perspective) reliving through the events of The Big Lez Show, Sassy remarks how sad he feels about Lez's death. Higher Sassy is struck with the idea to send Sassy into the Jez universe, so he can have some closure and leave with the knowledge that Big Lez is alive and living his best life in another dimension. Returning with some proper closure and satisfaction with Lez's story, Sassy returns to his Higher Self. After Higher Sassy asks Sassy what he wants to do now, Sassy's last request is to relive the story once more. Higher Sassy is surprised but obliges, allowing Sassy to return to Earth in the year 1991, in a forest beside Nigel's ranch outside of Brown Town. After arriving, Sassy uses his interdimensional portals to retrieve Owly, Wayno, Scruffy, and Donny from their respective timelines. The five of them return to Nigel's property through the portal. The sight of this understandably freaks Nigel the fuck out who requests them to go back to wherever they came from. However Sassy's portal seems to break down, preventing them from leaving. With the five of them arriving on Earth in 1991, so begins their lives in Brown Town, which many years later, leads to the events of the entire Big Lez Show.
As his Higher Self reveals, Sassy is an interdimensional time traveler, or 'observer'. Sassy was splintered from his higher self (which is a sort of deity) for the purpose of exploring the multiverse, collecting memories and experiences, with which to ultimately return to his Higher Self to learn more about the multiverse. However after living through the events of The Big Lez Show, Sassy misses Lez after his death, and wishes to relive the story again. Sitting at the fire, after recounting the story to Nigel, Sassy eats his "magic jelly bean" which erases all his memories (and gives him a bit of a buzz), after which all he wants is to see a dinosaur. Right after this the aforementioned grey aliens arrive out of an interdimensional portal. Seeing this as his opportunity to see a dinosaur, he barges into the spacecraft and starts pressing buttons and generally fucking around with the alien tech. Obviously pissed off by this, the four aliens handcuff him and oblige to take him back to dinosaur times. They drop him off in handcuffs on Earth on the day of the KT mass extinction event 66 million years ago, completing the cycle which the series started off at.
It's unknown how long Sassy spent reliving this cycle of experiencing and forgetting, but he definitely did it a fuck-ton of times. Eventually however, after god knows how many cycles, Sassy makes the ultimate decision to cast his magic jelly bean into the campfire, finally breaking the cycle and allowing Sassy to live on to see and experience new things. After this he presumably returns to and becomes one with his Higher Self again, though it's never explicitly shown in the show.
Citizen Smith is a British television sitcom written by John Sullivan, first broadcast from 1977 to 1980.
It starred Robert Lindsay as Walter Henry "Wolfie" Smith, a young Marxist "urban guerrilla" in Tooting, south London, who is attempting to emulate his hero Che Guevara. Wolfie is a reference to the Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone, who used the pseudonym "Citizen Smith" in order to evade capture by the British. Wolfie is the self-proclaimed leader of the revolutionary Tooting Popular Front (the TPF, merely a small bunch of his friends), the goals of which are "Power to the People" and "Freedom for Tooting".
Wolfie dresses in a stereotypical fashion for rebellious students of the period: logoed T-shirt, denim jeans, Afghan coat and black beret. He supports Fulham F. C. and occasionally wears a Fulham scarf. He rides a scooter and spends most of the time at his girlfriend's house, which means he constantly clashes with her parents.
Jesus is a Palestinian (Dutch: Jezus is een Palestijn) is a 1999 Dutch comedy written and directed by Lodewijk Crijns (b.1970). The parody on religious fanaticism and millennialism, which involves the topics of self mutilation, incest, and euthanasia, is the director's first full-length movie. Click on the image for the film.
Ramses (Hans Teeuwen) is a dorky twenty-something who has been living in a commune in Limburg for eight years. Piercing from head to toe and dressed in a shapeless robe, he practices the teachings of Kahn-Guru. Just before his rather painful (genital) initiation, his sister Natasha (Van Kooten) appears on the scene with the message that their father (Mascini) is dying in Amsterdam. Together they go to the capital where Ramses is introduced to the female gender and to a Palestinian prophet in the Bijlmer who has decorated the roof of his apartment as a landing place for the Messiah.
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents..., which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene.
1985:- England has been invaded by the Warsaw Pact countries and middle-class couple Hermine and Godfrey retreat to their rural hide-away but after witnessing a bunch of incompetent commandos kill each other, they get separated.
In keeping with the war theme of the episode, Hermine is reading a copy of The Sun from the time of the Falklands War. The headline "GOTCHA" was from 4 May 1982, about the sinking of the Argentine warship ARA General Belgrano.
With - Robbie Coltrane, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Daniel Peacock, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders.
Sane Man was Bill’s first full-length comedy special, taped in 1989. This is the early years and the foundation of what would become his signature material and point of view. Funny and thought provoking, he attacks corporate America with venom, and almost screams at people to start thinking for themselves.
Among the ruins of a London devastated by nuclear war, the survivors ineffectually cling to increasingly meaningless social structures. While radioactivity randomly transforms various people into animals and inanimate objects, an absurd election for prime minister takes place. And the parents of Penelope (Rita Tushingham), a young woman who's been with child for nearly a year and a half, want her to marry a man with a promising future, though the fate of the world itself is rather dim.
After the successes of his Beatles films, A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help! (1965), director Richard Lester was given a degree of free reign by United Artists, and was able to use Spike Milligan’s one-man show as the basis of this sharply satirical end-of the-world comedy starring a Who’s Who of British acting talent.
In a vividly-realised post-apocalyptic London, Mrs Ethel Shroake is crowned Queen, and Lord Fortnum awaits his imminent transformation into a bed sitting room. Meanwhile, seventeen-months pregnant Penelope and her parents leave the safety of their underground carriage to find her a husband, and finally reclaim their baggage.
Part Goons, part Samuel Beckett, The Bed Sitting Room’s acerbic wit and bleak outlook confused audiences and led to it falling out of circulation for decades.
The aftermath of the Apocalypse has been explored many times on screen across a variety of genres, including Mad Max (1979), 28 Days Later (2002) and Children of Men (2006).
Oil was the second episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson. It was first aired on BBC2 on 16 November 1982.
The Young Ones changed reality for many people, including me.
A 1968 television broadcast written by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Cleese, Chapman, and Brooke-Taylor also feature in it, along with future Monty Python collaborators Michael Palin and Connie Booth.
In various sketches, Cleese demonstrates exactly what the title suggests—how to irritate people, although this is done in a much more conventional way than the absurdity of similar Monty Python sketches.
Martin Alan "Marty" Feldman (8 July 1934 – 2 December 1982) was a British comedy writer, comedian, and actor, easily identified by his bulbous and crooked eyes. He starred in several British television comedy series, including At Last the 1948 Show and Marty, the latter of which won two BAFTA awards. He was the first Saturn Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Young Frankenstein. Feldman died from a heart attack in a hotel room in Mexico City on 2 December 1982 at age 48, during the making of the film Yellowbeard.
"He smoked sometimes half-a-carton (5 packs) of cigarettes daily, drank copious amounts of black coffee, and ate a diet rich in eggs and dairy products". - Mel Brookes
Feldman was part of what could be called the 'cream of British comedy' (no pun intended...much), many of the members of which are in this amazing photograph:
A group of Beatnik artists and poets convene for a weekend of debauchery, destructive behavior, and clever conversation at the house of naïve young wannabe Desmond while his parents are out of town.
Series One, Episode Three.
Original Air Date: 17th January 1983.
Written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens. Directed by Bob Spiers.
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE (b 1934) is an Australian comedian, actor, satirist, artist, and author. Humphries is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.
Presented in the Warlpiri language. This is a classic. A video about cars in the bush and how the locals get around and keep the wheels turning, no matter what happens. The Bush Mechanics form a rock band and their first paying gig is a half-day's drive away - now they just have to get there. None of them own a vehicle, so they resurrect a derelict car, load it up with band gear and hit the road. This episode follows the five Bush Mechanics as they bounce along rough bush tracks, encountering Jupurrula, the magic mechanic who helps them overcome their various car catastrophes with his bush ingenuity.
Monologue from the late great Graham Chapman (of Monty Python fame). Televised in UK on November 16th, 1984.
Chapman’s entry is a remarkable
blend of Pythonesque madness and brazenly unfiltered confessional of a
type that utterly absent from, say, the Flying Circus run—nakedly autobiographical was the one thing the Circus never was. As a result, Chapman’s Opinions
piece, from the viewpoint of 2013, feels distinctly modern. In tone,
It’s not far off from one of Stephen Colbert’s “The Word” segments,
although far more dangerous in more or less dispensing with the use of a
“persona” outright.
Similar to a TED Talk in length and scope, Chapman dedicates his
allotted time to a discussion of the role of peer pressure in fueling
overpopulation—the subject is a clear proxy for a subject close to
Chapman’s heart, the feelings of alienation that a gay man experiences;
Chapman alludes to this aspect a couple of times directly, as does the
voiceover intro. Watching it, you have the distinct feeling of Chapman
finally getting something off his chest, and at times his actorly anger
seems entirely synonymous with his own actual anger—the contempt and
pain that mention of his “neighbors” elicits seems wholly unfeigned. In
the years of Thatcher and AIDS, such a talk must have seemed bold
indeed. Towards the end of the program, Chapman talks quite frankly
about sex, links repression and substance abuse, and even addresses the
proper attitude towards death.
Bill Hicks' "Sane Man" is a concert performance from the summer of 1989
- although most of the material in this show can also be heard on his
"Dangerous" album, there's something to be said for watching the man on
film. His passion for his subject can only go so far on CD, and his few
visual gags don't translate well.
The image of Hicks as a visionary, howling unregarded in the
wilderness, has been overdone among his hardcore fan base, but watching
"Sane Man" shows how accurate that description really is. His act
attacks runaway consumerism, the pornography industry, non-smokers, the
nature of American politics and all points in between. His interaction
with his audience is not typical of a stand-up comedian, as he goads
and cajoles them into feeling as angry about his topics as he himself
does - sometimes it works, but at other times Hicks seems totally
isolated on stage.
More than ten years after his death, Bill Hicks' voice deserves to be
heard by a wider audience. "Sane Man" is a fine place to start.
David Hoyle's channel here
This is some of the maddest shit I have seen online for a little while, even if it is a product of the crazed acid vision that so many shared in the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the 1990s.
The episode opens with Blackadder at home, preparing to go to court to celebrate the return of Sir Walter "Oooh what a big ship I've got" Raleigh (Simon Jones). Blackadder is typically sarcastic and embittered, refusing to join in the festivities and endures much taunting from children, to which he retaliates by shooting one with an arrow. Melchett arrives and offers Blackadder a potato, the last having just been discovered by Raleigh on his voyages; Melchett plans to smoke his. Blackadder declines, scoffing that people will be "eating them next." At the court, Raleigh's tales of discovery greatly impress the Queen. Blackadder attempts to upstage him by declaring his intention to circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope, a journey Raleigh believes is impossible, stating that sailors do not count it as part of the "Seven Seas" owing to its treacherousness. Unbeknownst to the Royal Court, Blackadder's bold declaration is a bluff, and he intends to merely sail to France and enjoy a holiday, before returning to England with tales of great bravery. Blackadder enquires of Raleigh which seaman would be insane enough to Captain such a voyage, and is told where to find Captain Redbeard Rum. ("Usually up the Old Sea Dog.")
