so there are a few modern british comedies that i like, and you’ve certainly heard of one of them – ricky gervais’ magnum opus, the office. but have you heard of these?

extras – ricky gervais at it again as a tv and movie extra who just can’t seem to get a break. each episode features a special guest star playing themself. key scenes for the humor – patrick stewart, and a full episode featuring kate winslet as a nun.

the other two are a little less mainstream:

garth marenghi’s darkplace – the premise is that it’s a bad 80′s mystery of the week / horror show, rereleased as a commemorative edition with commentary from the writer (garth marenghi, a bad stephen king knockoff) and the actors involved. it’s absurdist humor at it’s finest, complete with terrible special effects and “crap” acting. the title credits are worth the price of admission themselves, honestly. you can get all of the full episodes on google videos. note richard ayoade as dean learner playing thornton reed.

the it crowd – richard ayoade reappears, this time as maurice moss – nerdlinger i.t. employee and center of much comedy. once again, full episodes are available on google videos. the second episode is particularly hilarious.

hopefully those of you who are snowed in today here in seattle now have plenty of new funny to watch.

the frontalittle squad is one of the strangest bands i’ve ever heard, and it really did take a while for their particular brand of internet-collaborated indie-nerdcore to grow on me, but eventually they were successful. i certainly hope that my love of songs like penny arcade and space cadet is not going to come back and haunt me like my brief 7th grade infatuation with the music of “wierd al” yankovic has. of course, white and nerdy will always appeal to a more mainstream audience than a song like saving throw, so i’m probably screwed.

perhaps of more interest to my faithful readers is that i finally got the all-clear from my doctors with respect to my elbow. turns out not getting a screw slapped in there was the right choice, and hopefully i’ll be getting back up to full strength again soon. here’s to less getting hurt in 2007.