Saturday, March 01, 2008

Marching In...

Hey there 'Redheads... Welcome to the month of madness. Sadly, my Terps turned purple choking on a 20 point lead and lost a game that'll probably keep them out of the NCAA tournament. Degenerate gambling just isn't the same without a real rooting interest to pin your hopes to. It turns out, everything I know is wrong. I just found out that one of ingredients of the miracle cold fighter, Airborne, is bullshit, apparently. You might as well pop a Pez when you feel a cold coming on. They lost a class action lawsuit for false advertising that'll have them cutting checks like Steve Martin at the end of The Jerk. I also ran across this depressing item...

MILWAUKEE (March 4) - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69. He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.

I'll put this in terms that the bereaved geeks will understand. He was losing hit points and was finally unable to make a saving throw vs. death. May a chorus of Umber Hulks sing thee to thy rest... His spirit will live on...in the hearts of people who have no life.

Originally, I wasn't going to make this an official blog. I was futzing around, putting some ideas down in cyberspace to use for a YouTube contest that's being sponsored by TurboTax, and I figured I post it for feedback. They want entrants to come up with tax jokes, with the eventual message being that TurboTax is the easy way to do it. So, I put together a small tax bit, in the style of a Dennis Miller rant (they're fun to do...once you figure out the formula, it's sardonic Mad-Libs). Here's what I have so far...

Tax time is coming up soon. Taxes are a sticky time for most comedians because we ride the poverty line like a bear on a unicycle in the Russian circus. Unless IRS stands for Internal Ramen Noodle Service, there's not a whole lot I can kick back to the government. Alot of times, I'm paid in free drinks. I can't exactly put a stamp on a shot of Jager and expect to be square with Uncle Sam. Although last year, the Anheuser Busch brewery claimed me as a dependant. And deductions are tough to figure out. What about all the times I've donated my services and was charming and witty without proper compensation? What's the blue book value of a fart joke?

For most people, doing their taxes is so horrific they get the same gut wrenching reactions as when they watch 2 Girls, 1 Cup. It doesn't help that the tax code is so complicated, it makes Macbeth in Swahili read like the Cliff Notes to See Spot Run.

If you think you've got it bad, pity my friend, the accountant. Every year around this time he becomes so reclusive, he makes Dick Cheney look like Rachel Ray. He locks himself in a bunker and starts crunching numbers like Cookie Monster let loose in a Thin Mint factory.

All is not lost, though. Our push-button age that lets us google our youtubes has also brought us TurboTax. You plug in all of your information and suddenly you've gone from Laurel and Hardy to Ernst and Young.

Lotsa so *blank* it makes *blank* look like *blank*. It needs tweaking. I'm not trying to write Twain over here. I just want a passable entry into a YouTube contest. Not the loftiest of goals, but it'll divert my deficit of attention for the time being.

Quick programming note: Turns out that I won't be working with Judah Friedlander when I return to the DC Improv, March 26th-30th. Instead, Ian Bagg will be the headliner. His name is a much smaller score in Scrabble, but don't let that keep you from checking out the show.

Switching gears to a serious matter, please take the time to follow the link and read about a plight that has befallen comedy comrade, Ryan Conner.

To be continued...

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1 Comments:

Blogger mduette said...

I'm just so distressed about Airborne. What, oh what is next? :P

12:48 AM  

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