Results tagged “humor”

We hope a few current and former D.C. Council members didn't storm the WTOP newsroom with pitchforks today. Reporter Mark Segraves penned a sort of comedy post for his far too rarely updated Malcontent Minute blog/online column where he suggests casting choices for a movie about local D.C. politics. Naturally, the story would revolve around Marion Barry, and he picks Don Cheadle to play the flamboyant former mayor and current Council member, which sounds about right. But the ladies of the D.C. Council don't fare quite as well with Segraves in the casting chair. He chooses the not exactly well-liked (and not exactly an actress) Star Jones of The View to play Linda Cropp, even going so far as to mention that she'd need to get her gastric bypass reversed to pull off the role. Perhaps even more harsh is his suggestion that former Golden Girl Bea Arthur should play Carol Schwartz. Bea Arthur is 86 years old, while Schwartz is only 64. Brutal. Other, less totally mean casting suggestions include Russell Simmons as Anthony Williams, Hillary Swank as Cathy Lanier, and Morgan Freeman plus 50-pounds as Charles Ramsey.

Since we run an internet web site thingy that people in Washington read, DCist HQ often receives unsolicited mailers from companies looking to push politically-themed products onto teh blogs. Usually we just get books. Sometimes it's something a little more creative, like a T-shirt or a coffee mug with a cute phrase on it. And then there are the items you just can't ignore, no matter how obvious it is that we were only given them in the hopes we'll immediately post a photo of said kooky product on our home page. We feel a little dirty, but when you get The Senator McCain Gargoyle and The Senator Obama Dragon delivered to your door, what else can you do?

Dating in D.C. is notoriously hard for women. A D.C. resident named Rachel has made a parody of the infamous "Obama Girl" video, in which she chronicles her break-up with a guy who loves Barack Obama more than her. It's pretty well done. (via the DCist tipline)

This time we're doing Overheard in D.C. a little differently — as a contest. One of this week's crop of overheards almost requires a follow-up, so give us your best guess in the comments as to what the kid did before, and the winner will be mentioned on next week's Overheard. It's not exactly a free pony, but hey, you can forward it to your pals and be the envy of your office.

Aside from maybe donuts, parties are the best thing ever. You meet people, funny stuff happens, maybe somebody gets somebody else's phone number. Especially if the party was at your place, it's fun to wake up groggy and see bottles and cups and other detritus strewn about in the mid-morning (or better yet, mid-afternoon) sun — the sign of a job well done, a party well had. And if it was a really good party, you can talk with friends and try to piece the evening back together. But if you have to ask, it was probably you.

Washington has arguably some of the most interesting conversations in the United States. Where else can you find people who know about and are ready to debate the fate of Pakistan, military strategy in Iraq, which presidential campaign staff is doing the best job, the arcana of House rules, and minutiae about the U.S. code. It's a great place to be around a lot of well-informed people.

The National Zoo is a fantastic place. It's one of the best zoos in the country, is free to the public, has nice scenery, tons of great exhibits and interesting animals and of course, is the source of your cute little default avatar. Plus, turns out some zoo animals are a great source of ingredients for area restaurateurs.

Anyone who has read the menu at the Brickskeller can tell you that Julius Caesar called beer "a high and mighty liquor." But aside from being a favorite of Roman conquerors, it causes people to say funny stuff - stuff that when you overhear it, makes you really want to know how that conclusion was reached. What winding path was taken to get there?

The majority of Overheards in D.C. fall into only a few categories: funny sex stuff, dumb tourists and weird kids. There's the occasional amusing political thing, or some quip that somebody sent in because they think they or their friends are funny. But there are always those that make absolutely no sense unless you are knowledgeable about some extremely narrow area of trivia, such as say, documentaries about lost and possibly mythical Brazilian cities.

Seeing A Tuna Christmas is like going home for the holidays. Not because my family clan is anything like the wacky clan of characters who make up Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas. But because the sense of humor, silly and pun-tastic, is exactly like my Dad's. And while I can't say it isn't amusing, it's kind of nice that I only really have to deal with it for extended periods of time when...

MONDAY: Jerome Groopman — a New Yorker staff writer, best-selling author and professor at Harvard Medical School — will be at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue to discuss his latest collection of essays, How Doctors Think. If they're like our favorite television doctor, it's probably "What's the best way to humiliate my employees today?" 7 p.m. $6 TUESDAY: Min Jin Lee will be at the Johns Hopkins University-SAIS Bernstein-Offit Building to read from her...

Last week a little dose of relief came to the city's art lovers and critics, as the National Gallery of Art announced they've filled the position to head up their department of modern art, vacant for around six months now. Harry Cooper comes to the NGA from the Harvard University Art Museums, and Washington City Paper's Jeffry Cudlin does a good job putting it in perspective. In other museum news, camera-in-cell-phone technology is officially history....

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just...

Some people love kids. Some people feel differently. Kids provide unconditional love, but they can also make any flight or train ride interminable. They have great imaginations and can be funny and sweet, but they can also ask the same question 80 times, just because they want to. But whether you're a kid person or not, it's hard to argue with their ability to say complete nonsense. Maybe the non sequiturs match up with whatever...

MONDAY: We will never understand why some people dislike Garrison Keillor. Personally we enjoy his folksy manner and dry sense of humor, even if A Prairie Home Companion is at times a bit hokey. Keillor will be at GW's Lisner Auditorium to read from and discuss his latest book Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon. Books will be sold by Olsson's. 7 p.m. Psychotherapist and author Amy Bloom will be at Politics and Prose to...

People always complain about tourists in D.C., wearing dumb clothes, standing on the left, clogging up the Hard Rock Cafe (actually, we're fine with that). But it's difficult to be in a new place and abide by the local customs. Back in the olden days, we heard that burping is polite in Korea, which sounds pretty awesome if you are an elementary schooler eating as much pizza and Coke as you can at Chuck E....

What's That You Say, our roundup of the best, funniest, and most interesting comments of the past week, is back, and this time it's got taxi terrorism, school ponderings, Chinese food debates, and more. If you haven't already, take 20 seconds to register and make your own avatar. ----- The hybrid taxicab post spurred a lot of comments, but we particularly liked Reid's: Wait, do hybrids come in skeezy Buick? ----- Friday's Overheard in DC...

During the 1960s the feminist movement gained momentum as it actively questioned gender norms and confronted oppressive stereotypes. By-products of the time included a number of women’s art collectives, such as the Art Workers Coalition (AWC) and the Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), all giving voice to women questioning their place and role in the world. WACK!, currently on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, derives its name from the various...

Baltimore's Dan Deacon, who plays tonight to a sold-out Black Cat, does things differently. His latest album, the critically acclaimed Spiderman of the Rings, starts with cascading and overlapping samples of Woody Woodpecker's laugh. Usually called an "absurdist composer" rather than solo electronic musician, he packs a crazy sense of humor, samples and loops into a building frenzy on tracks like "Crystal Cat," the 11 minute "Wham City," and "Snake Mistakes." In concert, Deacon sets...

A begrudging Mazel Tov from DCist to the city of San Diego is in order, as the Associated Press reports that Bai Yun, the San Diego Zoo's female panda, is definitely pregnant. Bai Yun has been put on "24-hour birth watch" after officials detected a fetus and fetal heartbeat through ultrasound images on July 18. More tests confirmed the pregnancy and the zoo made an official announcement yesterday. As you'll no doubt recall, Mei Xiang,...

Puppets. Off-color humor. Off-color humor involving puppets. What could go wrong? Well, plenty, if BurleyQ is any indication. This exhaustingly awful entrant into the Capital Fringe Festival may appear to have a wacky, whimsical premise, but instead is the kind of show where you find yourself digging your nails into the knee of your theatergoing companion, eagerly waiting for the 50 minutes to pass. Think painfully bad jokes, laughably poor production value, frequently off-key singing,...

When you find yourself cupping the balls of a bull, you know your life has taken a turn for the weird. At least, that's what Stephanie Garibaldi found after spending time in a Mayan village, just after deciding Ivy League College was not for her. Garibaldi's is one of four stories involving faith and self-discovery showcased in Chocolate Jesus. The work is performed by regulars from SpeakeasyDC, a monthly storytelling night featuring seasoned regulars and...

Written by DCist contributor Lynne Venart Heineman Myers Contemporary Art owner Zoe Myers snatched up Claire Johnson at the most recent Art Basel in Miami. In her first show at the Bethesda gallery, Johnson’s work is sure to spark speculation about the best donut shop in the area, for all of her works in Yummy, a new show of work inspired by food, are donut portraits. Johnson, a former portrait painter, fell in love with...

Mayor-For-Life Marion Barry continues to amaze us. Not only is he utterly untouchable by the long hand of the law, but he is an amazing politician; he just keeps getting elected to practically anything for which he's run. Now, he's even won a race he wasn't actively campaigning for: Barry (or his likeness, rather) was selected to fill the last slot at the forthcoming Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Penn Quarter. The museum, which will...

On Sunday, with their 7-2 win over the Brewers, the Nats reached the All Star break and the season’s traditional halfway point. With the team on a not-quite-as-bad-as-expected 66-win pace, those of us who write about them are stuck somewhere between the building euphoria in Boston and the pitchfork and torches crowd in Cincinnati. One of the beautiful things about baseball, though, is that the long season generates plenty of moments, both incredible and pathetic,...

You've heard it all a million times before — nobody dances at shows here! People don't get into the music! There's just no soul in D.C.'s music scene! The Hall Monitors heard your cry and happily came to answer the call with their brand of throwback garage rock & soul reminiscent of the guitar and Motown greats that made most of us (well, OK, me at least) learn to love music in the first place....

A few years back, Diana Saez was an endangered species in the city's female comedy circuit. She and a few others dropped abortion, lesbian and self-deprecating body image jokes at Dremo’s, Rendezvous and other weekly stand-up gigs. They were typecast as female comics, and had to play that card to get attention. It was an era when Janeane Garofalo was probably the only "real" chick comic on anyone's radar. But that crop of talent has...

Michael Moore is a loudmouth. His films tend towards the brash, arrogant, and inelegant, usually leaving subtlety and nuance to smaller personalities. He has a flair for public spectacle and complete lack of shame that would make P.T. Barnum proud. But say what you like about Michael Moore, he's no dummy. He just plays one in the movies. Sicko, Moore's examination of the state of America's health care, may be his smartest film. It follows...

Rogue and peasant slave? Try petulant teenager. Jeffrey Carlson’s take on the title character of Shakespeare Theater’s production of Hamlet, is much more a pouting, stubborn young man rather than a noble, conflicted individual. At first, Carlson’s Hamlet seems a bit affected. He's constantly sniffing, as if a coke addict, and it seems for awhile that his steady whining will be too much to handle for the entirety of a three-hour production. But his portrayal...

Washington has had a love-hate relationship with the Segway for some time now. Certainly, they are useful modes of transportation -- who among us begrudges the UPS man, or even the tourists, from trying to zip around our city's streets in a more efficient manner? But at the same time, pretty much no matter what you do, if you're riding one, you look like a douchebag. This isn't to say the technology isn't cool, or...