Cheese God

Chris Farley, not looking so good.

You probably best know Chris Farley from his stint on Saturday Night Live, where he played such characters as the motivational speaker or… Chris Farley on The Chris Farley Show. You might also know him for Tommy Boy, his first major film role, which was also his best.  But what you probably don’t know was his constant rise & fall with drugs, alcohol, and overeating.

The Chris Farley Show, the biography now out from Penquin books not the SNL skit, is the classic tale of the crying clown. The story, although fascinating, can be a depressing read. The book constantly talks about his struggles with drugs and alcohol. Even in the middle of the book when Farley reaches the height of his career and is completely substance free, you really can’t enjoy it because you know exactly where it’s headed.

It’s no secret how it ends, with Farley’s death, although some of the circumstances around it will probably be news to you. That would probably be the biggest drawback of this book, the fact that i could never be happy with the current state Farley”s career was in at that point in the book. In fact the better things were going for Farley the sadder it was, because of how depressing it was that Farley had so much going for him, but threw it away due to his drug and alcohol habits.

Now, the above doesn’t mean the book wasn’t good. On the contrary it told an interesting story that is quite enjoyable if you can get past that whole depressing thing.  The construction of the book itself is told not just from the point of view of the author, but rather by his family, friends, and coworkers.

The story is told via a serious of quotes from people like Alec Baldwin, David Spade, Norm MacDonald, and Conan O’Brien with an occasional chime in from the actual author. The book feels like what a transcript of an A&E Biography of Farley might look like, but not as much as a fluff piece as those things tend to be.

This is what the book looks like.

Speaking of Biography, a recent special on that channel examined the lives of many comedians would struggled with similar problems. It’s amazing how many comedians have struggled with depression ergo drugs, alcohol, and ultimately death. People like Jim Belushi, Freddie Prinze, and Richard Pryor all seem to have had similar problematic lives. Of course the TV special took less than 10 minutes on each person and failed to go into any real detail on why they were that depressed.

The Chris Farley Show however does deliver and help you realize how someone could be driven down such a path like that Farley went down. Though it doesn’t make it excusable, reading how Farley struggled with his career and his depression over the realization that every movie he made seemed  to be worse than the last, paints a picture of just how someone can turn to drugs to escape.

If you are looking for a chance to laugh and fondly remember Chris Farley stay away from this book, instead add the best of Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live or Tommy Boy to your Netflix queue. However if you want a well told book telling the straight up truth about Chris Farley’s long winding fall, give this book a read. I would also recommend this book as a gift to anyone who is involved with over drinking or drugs so they can see just how badly these things can screw them up.

The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in 3 Acts is available from Amazon at the low price of $10.88, as of 7/1/09, and from other fine retailers across the land.

The application I used for the comics management on this site never really worked 100% the way I wanted it to, and now, thanks incompatibility with other things running on the site, it doesn’t run even at 1%.

So with that in mind I have switched to this more simple, less crazy looking design. I will be working to get the comics from the past to display properly. As far as new ones, well, I’ll they’ll probably be back eventually, but don’t hold your breath… unless you can hold your breath for about two months.

When Jackson Looked His Best

For the last 15 years the media has been anti Jackson. They accused him of sleeping with kids. They questioned his parenting skills just because he dangled them from balconies. They questioned his disintegrating nose. They said every song he made sucked since the Dangerous album just because it did. They laughed at him when he showed up to court wearing pajamas. They did at least until he died. Now the media loves him.

Well, we here at cheesegod are not so easy to pretend our past doesn’t exist. We made fun of the King of Pop, we are not ashamed to say. So here for your reading pleasure is the best of Michael Jackson on Cheesegod:

Jackson’s Face Melts in Fire
Originally published on November 2, 2003 during the midst of horrible fires that plagued California. Many people suffered and needed help. We chose it as a just time to make fun of Michael Jackson.

Jackson Also Calls Blanket “Baby”
Originally published on February 17, 2003 just after the ABC/BBC special on Jackson aired. Michael Jackson called his baby Blanket. You don’t even really need to joke about that. Reading back on it, this article is pretty inappropriate, you have been warned.

The Michael Jackson Nose Generator
Michael Jackson has had a ton of nose jobs. That’s been the source of constant jokes aimed at the guy since about two years after he was born. Why should us at cheesegod be any different?

On a side note, as someone who grew up in the 1980s Michael Jackson was bigger than life. He was huge. He was legendary. I remember when the video for Black & White came out it was premiered on network television. It was a huge freakin’ deal. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t like him back then. I hope that whatever Jackson was accused of doing in the last 15 years of his life was just false or just misunderstood.

Now I’ll leave you with what probably my favorite video growing up, Billy Jean. I remember as a little kid pretending to walk down the elementary school hallways pretending the tiles would light up as I stepped on them.

The race to rip off Nintendo is on!

The new Sony peripheral in action

The blogosphere (a term I just made up) was all a twiiter about the news of the Microsoft announcements regarding their motion detecting controls Monday. But just one day later Sony out did them by introducing their mind control platform.

Introduced before a group of fanboys disguised as wannabe journalists, Sony’s mind control setup would be the first major accessory for their ominous Playstation 3 system.

The new device includes two electrode connections that would be inserted about three inches into the front lobe.

“It’s a snap to install yourself,” Sony representative Kaz Hirai said from a stage featuring a number of large TV screens, none showing All My Children, “In test groups only a small percentage of users suffered from lobotomy like symptoms.”

Once installed, the device doesn’t actually allow you to play any actual games, but rather just feeds impulses into your brain, tricking it into thinking you are wasting your time.

“Nintendo has Brain Age, well we have a Brain manipulator.”

Mr. Hirai denied the rumors that the device also filled your mind with anti-Microsoft thoughts and would make you tape part in a global conspiracy to assassinate Nintendo Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

The device is expected to retail for $650.00. It would have been cheaper, but Sony insisted on including support for Blu-Ray, MiniDisc, Beta, and UVF.

Due to a large number of happenings taking place this month in my personal life, this month of June will feature nothing but repeats as far as the comics go. Hopefully when we get to July we’ll get some new, although not any funnier, comics.

But this month of June should be pretty cool, as it will feature nothing but astronaut comics. Some of which you may have missed. I apologize for any grammar and spelling errors, I’m no good at that type of thing.