Portal:Comedy

Grim Fandango is a personal computer game in the graphic adventure genre released by LucasArts in 1998 and primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. As with other LucasArts adventure games, the player must converse with other characters and examine, collect, and use objects correctly to solve puzzles in order to progress. Grim Fandango's world combines elements of Aztec beliefs of afterlife with style aspects of film noir, including The Maltese Falcon, On the Waterfront and Casablanca, to create the Land of the Dead, which recently departed souls, represented in the game as calaca-like figures, must travel through before they reach their final destination, the Ninth Underworld. The story follows travel agent Manuel "Manny" Calavera as he attempts to save Mercedes "Meche" Colomar, a newly arrived but virtuous soul, during her long journey. The game received positive reviews, praising its artistic design and overall game direction in particular. Grim Fandango was selected for several gaming awards at the time of release, and is often listed in publishers' lists of top games of all time. However, the game has been considered a commercial failure, which partially led LucasArts to terminate their adventure game development, contributing to the decline of the adventure game genre.

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Credit: Bain News Service

Buster Keaton (born Joseph Frank Keaton, October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American silent film comic actor and filmmaker. His trademark was physical comedy with a stoic, deadpan expression on his face.

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• ...that according to TV critic Gareth McLean, none of the Britons featured in the Channel 4 documentary series New Hero of Comedy are "Heroes"?

• ... that the first episode of the third season of 30 Rock is currently the most watched episode of the series?
• ... that to create an authentic fantasy setting in the Kröd Mändoon pilot episode "Wench Trouble", costumes were built without zippers or velcro and weapons were built by an ancient weapon replica specialist?

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They say the seeds of what we will do are in all of us, but it always seemed to me that in those who make jokes in life the seeds are covered with better soil and with a higher grade of manure. — Ernest Hemingway

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Bruno Maddox is a British literary novelist and journalist who is best-known for his critically lauded novel My Little Blue Dress (2001) and for his satirical magazine essays. After graduating from Harvard University in 1992, Maddox began his career reviewing books for The New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post Book World. In early 1996, he was appointed to an editorship at SPY magazine and within a few months he was promoted to editor-in-chief, a position he held until the magazine shut down in 1998. Maddox wrote My Little Blue Dress between 1999 and 2001. Since its publication, he has focused on writing satirical essays for magazines such as GEAR and Travel + Leisure; he also contributes a monthly humor column to Discover magazine called "Blinded by Science", drawing on his early exposure to science and technology. Maddox is likewise a contributing editor to the American edition of The Week magazine. (More…)

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• ... that the live-action comedy series Community had a stop motion animated Christmas special?
• ... that a short story in The Bewitched Bourgeois was described by critics as both a "comedy of errors" and a parable about the inevitability of death?
• ... that Romanian actor Matei Millo continued an 1877 performance of a politically charged comedy even after the offended authorities had extinguished his theater's candelabra?
• ... that during a comedy routine Reuben Solo drew a graph plotting the audience's reaction to his routine?
• ... that the Canadian Association of Stand-up Comedians has lobbied to have stand-up comedy recognized as an art form?
• ... that both the comedy film Starbuck, and the Holstein bull it was named after, had cloned remakes?