I suppose I've spent the last few weeks watching spoofs of superheroes. Specifically the funny movies and television shows that mock people who wear tights and fight crime.
My nephew James had recently pulled out
The Specials from my DVD library. I hadn't seen it in a few years, but it's still pretty hilarious. The best thing about this movie is that the characters don't ever seem to fight crime. This morning, I picked out
The Tick live action series. Still solidly funny, even though it doesn't seem like a show that most people would get. People often blame Fox for cancelling the show, but it makes sense. I still get a kick out of the episodes. I should probablu rewatch
Mystery Men at some point. That's a movie that's intensely different from the source material, the obscure characters in Bob Burden's rigorously obscure comic masterpiece,
The Flaming Carrot. Anything to do with The Flaming Carrot should probably be viewed through the lens of absurdism or dada. Mystery Men diverged from that. Honestly, I don't think the majority of the American public is smart enough to get Bob Burden's work.
I've never been a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. Think I saw the first one once. I was a huge fan of the comics, especially when they first appeared, but by the time they were a cartoon show they just seemed really watered down to me. However, the TMNT really do belong in the pantheon of comics spoofs. I just won't be watching those films any time soon.
There's this documentary called
Confessions of a Superhero, that gets into the lives of the people who dress up in costume outside of the Mann Chinese Theatre, or whatever the place is called nowadays. Since I grew up on Hollywood and even worked the same block that these guys worked for several years, I find this movie quite close to my heart. I'm going to have to watch it again.
What weird stuff do you like to watch?
edit:
Of course, I forgot to mention Joss Whedon's fabulous web-series
Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. Worth watching again and again.
