True Blood is a stupid show. I realized this halfway through the second season, when the show became more about the gratuitous sex and other forms of fan service rather than the tension between vampires and humans. It’s too bad, because the first season had a fairly tight story, likeable characters, and enough suspense to make me want to marathon one episode after another. After the season 2 finale, which had a terribly corny ending that I will not spoil, I rolled my eyes and vowed to never watch this show again.
For those of you who are completely lost, let me explain what this hot vampire commodity is all about. Adapted from the Southern Vampire Mysteries novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is premised upon the idea that vampires have “come out” and decided to live with the humans. They claim not to be the bloodthirsty killers who only view humans as walking lunch boxes and to prove this, they’ve resorted to drinking synthetic blood created by the Japanese. Set in the mystical American south, the show is supposedly about the vampires’ struggle to fit into society, but somewhere along the way it degenerated into the NSFW version of Twilight.
The show is centered around a Mary Sue of a female lead, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin). She’s your typical God-fearing white girl-next-door, except she’s also some sort of telepath. She cannot have intimate relations with people because she hears their thoughts, especially during physical contact. This is why she falls in love with a vampire named Bill (Stephen Moyer); for some reason, she can’t read vampires the way she can with humans and she feels at peace with someone for the first time in her life. There’s also a really hot vampire named Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) who is older and more powerful than Bill. He also as a thing for Sookie, which I don’t understand, because she’s so wholesome and dull it sickens me to look at her. Sookie works in a bar, where her boss Sam is apparently some sort of shape-shifter. Guess what, he has a thing for Sookie too! There are a bunch of other characters, but I won’t talk about them because they faded into the woodwork after the everyone-wants-Sookie angle became True Blood’s dominant theme.
You’re probably wondering, if I hate this show so much, why am I even blogging about it? Well you see, I learned that season 3’s first episode would show Alexander Skarsgard’s nekkid ass. How can I resist? Just look at how gorgeous this man is! So I downloaded the episode, watched it with my boyfriend (who hated me for it afterwards), and found a reason to continue watching True Blood once more.
WARNING: spoilers, sexual content, and NSFW images up ahead!
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According to this humor test, my humor style is “vulgar, complex, and light. Yours is the most versatile and also the most popular kind of humor. You’ll crack a joke about just about anything, but you’re not mean-spirited or intimidating, so you can get away with it–even when, for example, you bust on Mexicans. You appreciate a good dirty joke as much as next person, but, over all, you’ve got a brainier approach to humor than most. Now just go out there and write up a routine; it’s likely you’d be good at it. ”
The test results couldn’t have said it better (except that I can’t make my own jokes). Although my sense of humor can be mean (well, according to nicer people’s standards), I particularly enjoy jokes or comedy shows that are intelligent and clever. I mean, think about it–the more clever the joke is, the meaner the punchline. >:D To give you an example of stuff I find funny, let me tell you about my two favorite shows (they’re actually cartoons) and why anyone with a sense of humor should watch them.
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Drawn Together
If you think that reality shows have sunk to levels so low that calling them “stupid” would actually be a compliment, then you will enjoy Drawn Together. It’s the first animated reality show about 8 cartoon characters from all over the cartoon universe living in one house, trying to get over their differences so that they can come together as a family. And other heartwarming things like that.
As with any reality show, Drawn is very character-driven. There’s Xandir, the gay video-game hero on a never-ending quest to save his “girlfriend”. Ling-ling, one of my favorites, is a Japanese trading card monster reminiscent of Pokemon’s Pikachu. Captain Hero is a superhero who isn’t quite a big, blue Boy Scout. There’s also a Disney-esque princess called Clara who likes to express herself through songs, a mystery-solving singer named Foxxy-Love (think Josie and the Pussycats, except she’s black), an internet cartoon, Spanky Ham, and Wooldor Bat. I’m not sure what the hell Wooldor is. He’s my least favorite character, and even the Drawn Together players share my opinion. My favorite character is Toot Braunstein, a forgotten 20’s sex symbol who is violent and has various eating disorders.
In every episode, the show’s mysterious producer basically comes up with various tasks and challenges for the cartoons in the Drawn Together house, and they all either screw up or screw each other (they mostly screw up). I suppose people who are very sensitive about racial jokes won’t appreciate this show because there are quite lot of it. Personally, I don’t mind laughing at racial jokes; I think they’re funny. Let me clarify that I’m not a racist, but I don’t see anything wrong with laughing at established racial stereotypes, including Filipino ones. Life is already too serious and stressful as it is; people really ought to lighten up about the whole racial thing. And this is one of the reasons why Drawn Together is so great–they don’t take the whole race issue very seriously.
I look forward to watching this show every week because not only does it keep me laughing for a good thirty minutes; I always feel better and more cheerful afterwards. (Except for this one episode that involved taking a crap on pizza. My sense of humor may be vulgar, but that doesn’t mean I find toilet humor funny.) There are only 8 episodes in the first season, but the second one should be out around October. >:D I hope they come out with an anime schoolgirl character; that should be really interesting.
Drawn Together airs in the United States at Weds 10:30p/9:30c on Comedy Central, and 10:00 pm Saturday on Jack TV in the Philippines.
Happy Tree Friends
Happy Tree Friends is a short cartoon series about the misadventures of rainbow-colored, stuffed toy-cuddly cartoon animals. Don’t be fooled by their sugary-sweet appearances because this show is so not for little kids. (I imagine it’d be cool if I raised my kids to Happy Tree Friends but I don ‘t want them to grow up trying to dislocate peoples’ limbs or bashing peoples’ faces in with planks of wood. I’m certainly going to be their first victim.) No matter how their day begins, each episode always ends with somebody’s eyeballs falling out or arms getting torn from their torsos.
It reminds me of this game my friends and I play called “It Could Be Worse”. I played it once with two girl friends who are into yaoi (anime boysex) and Pat, who runs far far away from yaoi. We made Pat start all the stories, and no matter how he began it (”The Teletubbies came to the Philippines for a concert.”), every single one ended up with boysex or two of our mutual male friends having boysex. Finally, frustrated and traumatized with his head on his hands, Pat said, “A tree falls in the woods.”
“It could be worse. The tree could land on a daisy chain.”
I know there’s nothing very funny about woodland animals getting torn up into shreds, but this show makes me laugh so hard, I feel like I’m going to die. It’s probably because the characters are so wholesome and innocent-looking that when something violent happens to them, it doesn’t quite fit the picture. I’m not that sure what channel plays this in the States but my sister told me MTV plays Happy Tree Friends here in the Philippines. Not that it’s a problem since all the episodes are in the website.
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No, my humor style isn’t the most mature thing on earth. It doesn’t have to be. Perhaps someday I’ll outgrow this and be as dry and humorless as an Agustinian nun. But while I’m still in my youth and unaffected by the horrors of racism and reality, I shall revel in my vulgar sense of humor.
