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Talking to Todd Strauss-Schulson About His New "Body Horror Comedy" Short Film 'Valibation'


Valibation, a new (NSFW) short film from A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas director Todd Strauss-Schulson, is really creepy, funny, and not at all like Harold and Kumar. The short follows Yale Guttman (James Kirkland), a man so in love with his iPhone that it fuses with his hand. If smart phones are the new cigarettes, as the short suggests, then this is a really compelling and cool looking Surgeon’s General warning. Take the next twenty minutes (don’t worry, it moves fast) to watch the short film, and then take the next five minutes to read my conversation with Todd. We discussed everything from his motivations for making the short film to ways in which you can help him feel validated.

Are you paying attention to your phone or me right now?

I'm currently on my MacBook in bed with my iPhone two feet from me. I'm sending emails about the short and furiously checking Vimeo hit counts. The irony is not lost on me that I made a short about affirmations coming from Facebook and Twitter and your devices, and here I am refreshing Twitter and Facebook to see what people thought about this movie.

How many likes do you need the short to get in order for you to feel validated?

The bucket of validation has a hole in the bottom; it can never stay full for long. God, that’s so sad and revealing. I would love for the short to break 100k views, but for a 20-minute body horror comedy it seems unlikely. READ MORE

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Talking to First-Time Director Todd Strauss-Schulson About A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

Unless you have a really big computer monitor, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, will be the first time you see Todd Strauss-Schulson’s work on the big screen. While all the familiar faces return for the third installment of the franchise, the movie marks the directorial debut for Strauss-Schulson. Strauss-Schulson earned his stripes as a director of short films and sketches right here on the internet. He found success with his signature brand of web videos that combine smartly written sketch comedy with cinematic action.

I recently caught up with Todd to talk about making a movie for stoners, how he got hired, and craft services. READ MORE

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The 10 Events That Inspired the Best Comedy This Year

My Mom always told me that it’s important to be an informed citizen and to follow the news. She also told me that laughter is the best medicine. So with that advice in mind, why get your news from serious places like the New York Times or Meet the Press when you can get all your news from funny places like The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, or The Onion? You might not know as much, but according to my mom, you probably won’t ever have to go to the doctor. The following list compiles the ten news events/people/ideas that inspired the most comedy in 2010. The rankings look at the number of cultural references across the major comedic outlets, like The Daily Show/Colbert Report, South Park, Saturday Night Live, etc., in combination with the view count and quality of the comedic content. The rankings are in no way scientific and there are some really funny things that happened in 2010 that didn’t make the top 10, like TSA body scanners for one. So please forgive me if you think jokes inspired by the ground zero mosque were way more prevalent in 2010 than jokes inspired by anything on this list.

Please note: Comedy from 2010 that made fun of events from 2009 were not included in this list (e.g. Tiger Woods and Avatar). READ MORE

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Woody Allen's Slow Journey Away From Comedy

Chances are good that you're not going to go see Woody Allen’s latest movie, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Let’s be honest: it doesn’t exactly look like a return to form for the once universally acclaimed writer, director and actor.

Allen has made his share of mediocre films as well as outstanding ones, but before he turned to film, he was a comedian. Today, you can catch a joke here and there, but even the trailers for his films struggle to force a smile. Allen, still well known for his self-deprecating neurotic style of humor, has cut himself off from the contemporary world of comedy. READ MORE

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