10 – Bringing Up Baby

The oldest film on the list, Bringing Up Baby is classic slapstick, mile a minute comedy. It’s a story about a scatterbrained heiress who has a pet leopard named Baby, and a paleontologist who keeps on getting wrapped up into the misadventures and clumsiness that goes on. What really makes this film stand out, though, is the frenetic pace that it’s written. They generally say that a page of a screenplay is the same as about a minute of screen time. Bringing Up Baby has a 102 minute run time and a 200+ page script, so the dialog doesn’t stop, which is where so much of the humor comes form.

9 – The Fearless Vampire Killers

Also known as Pardon Me, Your Teeth Are In My Neck, The Fearless Vampire Killers walks that line between horror, of the time period, and comedy. It follows an inept group of vampire hunters who end up in a remote village in Transylvania. There, the dimwitted assistant falls in love with the beautiful daughter of the innkeeper. Unfortunately for them, the mysterious Count Krolock is also interested in her. I think that this one is a bit more of a deep cut for a lot of people in terms of comedy. I really enjoy the way that the story unfolds.

8 – Shaun of the Dead

Basically anything that Edgar Wright does is brilliant, and his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost at the top of what he does. The start of their parody trilogy, Shaun of the Dead is a humorous look at a zombie apocalypse. Oddly enough, though, not my highest zombie comedy. This one just parodies zombie films so well and also is just very British. If you haven’t seen it, check it out, I think even if you don’t like zombies normally, this parodies it just so well.

7 – Cockneys vs Zombies

Straight into the other zombie film, this one is a much smaller budget but funnier in my opinion. Some of that is because it has Shaun of the Dead leading the way, but also because it’s just more British. They weren’t trying to create something to hit theaters, they just wanted to make something very goofy. And it works, with a cast that isn’t highly recognizable, the tropes it plays off of are and the acting is good enough to really make it work. It has some of the most iconic zombie moments I’ve seen, such as a slow speed chase that I won’t spoil, but so good. This does lean into a bit more of the zombie gore that you’d expect, so probably not where I’d start with zombie comedies.

6 – The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element is one of those movies that whenever it’s on TV, I have to stop and watch it, at least for a minute, which is bad because it’s always on TV. The absurd world that is created and the juxtaposition of Bruce Willis and Chris Tucker’s characters just works so extremely well. And to have Gary Oldman in a role that is completely out there is fun as well. This film really shouldn’t work, there are so many random parts working against each other, but it’s just a hot mess but an enjoyable and very funny one. Maybe not originally meant to be a comedy, because of how it plays out, it’s hard to see it as anything else than that, with some adventure undertones.

5 – Doctor Strangelove

Back into older films, Doctor Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Love the Bomb is a satire of American lifestyle and the power and destruction that it might be bring, but at the same time having much more going on than that. Peter Sellers does a great job in all of the roles that he plays in the film, and it just moves along so quickly as well. The whole thing is completely absurd and doesn’t ever really stop pushing itself further out there. And it’s not just simple comedy in the film, but there’s a lot more going on, which was fun to dig into after a few viewings. I think this film still holds up even with it being a bit older.

4 – Hot Fuzz

The second film from Edgar Wright and Nick Frost and Simon Pegg makes the list a bit higher than Shaun of the Dead. This film, because I think we’re all more familiar with cop shows, just has the parodying nature work better. This whole play on a buddy cop film and just even regular cop films works really well, and the jokes are very good. While there is a bit of gore, the whole thing plays out well in the film and definitely a parody worth checking out, especially if you’re not sure about parodies.

3 – Big Trouble in Little China

Jack Burton is an incompetent buffoon who happens to stumble onto some Big Trouble in Little China. What works so well in this film is that fairly often an incompetent main character will luck their way into being the hero in the end. In the end, though, Jack Burton is still an incompetent buffoon who has to be saved by a lot of other people throughout the film and can’t do really anything for himself when stuff starts to get weird. However, when stuff gets weird, you start to get a lot of good comedic moments as Burton needs to be bailed out of situation after situation. Definitely a cult classic comedy.

2 – Tucker and Dale vs Evil

What happens when you go up to the cabin for the weekend with a bunch of college friends? Nothing good, that’s for sure, and those hillbillies who live next door, they are definitely trouble and out to kill you. Then, deaths start to happen, and it’s totally them. But Tucker and Dale aren’t killers, they’re actually just pretty laid back good guys who are getting way to stressed out as the college friends start dropping like flies and they keep on getting blamed. A great parody of standard horror tropes, while definitely bloody and gross at times, it’s simply so funny with all the misunderstandings that happen.

1 – Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

So, by now you’ll see that I like parodies and satires a lot, and at the top of my list, it’s no exception. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is an amazing film that parodies buddy cop films, Robert Downey Jr’s criminal character accidentally stumbling into a casting room and then getting paired up with a hyper particular Val Kilmer to learn how to become a detective just works so well. The whole thing is completely absurd and plays off of the trope of two seemingly unconnected stories actually being connected. This one is just over the top, and it has a big name cast that works really well.

What are some of your favorite comedy movies? Do you like a more slapstick style of comedy, or dark comedy, parody, what is your favorite type?

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But we’re all familiar with zombies in popular culture. The Walking Dead both as a comic and a TV show really brought them into the limelight and turned what was just a bunch of shambling monsters into something more terrifying where the humans might be the monsters. But we still kept getting the more standard zombies as well with movies like Shaun of the Dead. But The Walking Dead was really the show that let zombies expand. And even hit board games where the popular Dead of Winter gives you a potential traitor in your midst and everyone being selfish to some extent.

There has to be a lot beyond that, so what are some other things you can check out?

Book/Movie – Pride, Prejudice and Zombies
This one people might be more familiar with. It did have a movie come out and while it wasn’t an extremely successful movie to pick up on the zombie theme, it was advertised. But I think that the movie and book are worth checking out. Pride, Prejudice and Zombies is a lot of fun because while it twists the story from Pride and Prejudice, it stays true to many of the themes. It still has the sarcasm and it takes itself seriously. Even though the world is in the midst of a zombie apocalypse (or at least England is), there are certain principles of being a lady and a gentleman that can never truly be done away with. It’s a funny juxtaposition of those two things, and is something that Jane Austen did in her own work.

Game – Zombicide Black Plague
While this isn’t a unheard of game in the board gaming world, it does take on more of a classic zombie feel. You’re fighting off endless hordes of zombies in various scenarios that might just be about killing zombies but might have more going on as well. I have the Green Horde stand alone expansion for the game where you can get some orcs into the world as well, so there’s magic as well as zombies. There’s also Zombicide and Zombicide 2nd Edition that put it in a more modern setting, I went with Black Plague for the list because Zombicide, the original, has some issues with it, and the 2nd Edition I don’t believe is out yet. But if you want to be in one of those movies where you’re dealing with wave after wave of zombie trying to survive, but you’re not worried about the people as much as the zombies, this one’s worth a look.

TV Series – iZombie
Obviously the big TV show is The Walking Dead, but this show based off of a Vertigo comic by the same name and produced by the producer of Veronica Mars is a lot of fun. Liv Moore, get it, is turned into a zombie and now her perfect life of planning to become a doctor and getting married has to be put on hold. Not only is she a zombie, she realizes that she gains memories and knowledge that the person whose brain she eats at last, so she goes to work for the police, in their morgue, and can get access to brains to help solve cases. It has a bit of a procedural nature to it, but a lot more fun. And there’s a good supporting cast of characters around her. The villain of the show is really good. CW also didn’t mess with this show like they did with Veronica Mars, which keeps the show stronger throughout.

Movie – Cockneys vs Zombies
So the first time I went to a con, CONvergence in Minneapolis/St. Paul area, I went at the last minute because they were screening Cockneys vs Zombies and I was following the writer of it on Twitter since he’d also worked on Doctor Who. This is a good, absurd, and British zombie movie. I really highly recommend this one as it just has some wonderful moments in it. While I wouldn’t call the story anything amazing, I think that they did a great job of adding in a few expected jokes, but is clever ways. Possibly the best moment, and spoilers so you can skim ahead to the next heading if you want, is there is a nursing home/assisted living home, and when the zombies come there, one of the residents is outside. Of course that resident is slow and has a walker, so we get a great slow speed, high intensity chase as a zombie slowly shambles after the resident who is slowly walking using his walker. And that’s not the only joke that works well, definitely a zombie comedy worth checking out.

Game – Zombie Dice
When you want a faster game to play, Zombie Dice is a simple game in the style of Farkle or other dice games. You’re rolling dice, pushing your luck to see how many brains you can get, but if you push your luck too much, you can get shot, and if you get shot you don’t collect the brains you’ve gathered this round. The game is very simple but it works well in decent sized groups because turns take a few seconds and you just need to remember your total of brains. It’s one that works well with families as well, again because of the simplicity.

Book – Chemistry
Now, I don’t know much about this series, Kristen is the one who has read it and loves it. I’m just hearing about it through her. From what it sounds like, it has elements of being a Twilight Parody but with zombies instead of vampires. And that the writing and characters are more interesting and better. And that’s coming from Kristen who still enjoys the Twilight Saga for the cheesiness that it is. This book, and series, just do have a similar story but in a more interesting way with more developed characters. So if that sort of fiction interests you, I know that Kristen and other she’s read it with, have enjoyed the books a lot.

Now, there are a whole lot more zombie themed things out there. Some of them are more serious and plenty of them are pretty silly. I wanted to highlight some that are maybe a bit more well known while others that are a bit more out there, that is you’re a zombie fan you could checkout. What are some of your favorite zombie things?

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So let’s start out with, what is CONvergence?

CONvergence is a nerdy convention based out of Minneapolis. It is around the fourth of July weekend every year. They have different themes every year, and this year it is about the nerdy means of travel. This is by far the weakest theme that I’ve gone to, the British Invasion and Dystopian. However, besides the theme, there are a lot of other interesting things about the con. It isn’t that large a con, only gathering around 6,000 people, but that means that it isn’t nearly as crazy as larger cons. In the evening the party suites/rooms open up and you can walk around the cabana getting drinks and going into different themed rooms. There have been some that are Zelda themed, the Eolian from the Kingkiller Chronicles, Star Trek, and many other different rooms. A lot of them have booze, some of them have tea, and there is the House of Toast which has something like 100 different ingredients that they put on the toast.

Why CONvergence?

Now that Wizard World Comic Con is coming to Minneapolis for the past few years, why do I still go to the small CONvergence? It’s because it is small and it attracts and older crowd. Because the drinking/party rooms are a fun part of it, it tends to have an older crowd. Along with that, you tend to have a crowd that handles themselves better. I’m sure there are incidents that happen every year there, but it tends to be less crazy. That said, the big reason I went in the first place was because James Moran was going to be there one year. He is a screenwriter who wrote “The Fires of Pompeii” episode of Doctor Who and the screenplays for the movies Severance and Cockneys vs Zombies. If you haven’t seen either of those films, do yourself and watch at least Cockneys vs Zombies. My wife doesn’t like zombies all that well, and she enjoyed Cockneys vs Zombies. It’s in the vein of Shaun of the Dead.

What Keeps Me Coming Back?

Probably the biggest thing is the panels. There are often a lot of interesting panels on different nerdy topics. The first time there were a lot of British themed panels and I got to learn a whole bunch more British slang which I’ve probably lost most of now. But the panels are probably one of my favorite parts. I’m sure that other people are really tied into the gaming aspect, or the party aspect (which is fun), or just the social aspect of cosplay and the other random events that they have going on. But when I go to a con, like CONvergence, I always hope to learn something new, and generally I do. I lost of list when I got a new phone, but I had a list of something over 50+ lousy dystopian movies that I could watch, and I maybe got through one or two during the year, but it’s fun stuff like that which keeps me coming back.

Should You Go To CONvergence?

I would recommend it. I think it is a CON that most people would have fun going to. It is one that is fairly family friendly during the day, and is a blast for the 20 and 30 year-olds who want to party in the evening. People are respectful and generally the themes are very interesting. And if you like the Cosplay, it is a great spot to do it.

If you are going to be there, look for Raven and Beast Boy on the Friday as Kristen and I will be there, and say hi. We’ll have some Nerdologists.com badge ribbons on us.

Check out CONvergence here!

And as always find us on twitter @NerdologistCast and search for us on Facebook under Nerdologists. You can find me on twitter @TheScando. Hope to see you at the CON!