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Reactions to the Most Disturbing Thing Ever on Television

On Sunday, Game of Thrones (SPOILERS COMING), the show with brilliant acting, what feels like a dozen plot lines and incredible jaw-dropping, stomach churning scenes topped itself and also set a new low in television at the same time.  The final scene of last night’s episode was devastating from a plot point (I’d rank it with Ned Stark’s Season 1 death) and managed to smash (literally and figuratively) the carnage and devastation of the Red Wedding episode.  It was simply the worst thing I have ever seen on television.  The fact that for almost 20 hours I have not been able to remove the scene from my mind speaks to the power of the show’s creators, but also to the unspeakable horror that the scene presented.   A man took an ax to the skull earlier in the episode and I could not even recall that until this morning.  Two great comedies following Game of Thrones got nary a laugh from me until I re-watched them this morning.

Some people may think, “Dude, settle down it is just a show and fiction,” but let me pose this to those people – if there was a simulated child rape on the show, with CGI penetration would people be disturbed to the core or just say “Oh well Game of Thrones does it again!”  Seeing (DOUBLE SPOILER – LAST CHANCE) a man have his eyes gouged out and skull crushed and splattered at the bare hands of another man should trouble you, fiction, simulated or real.  It is a horrific image that I cannot yet scrub from my conscious thought.  The sounds, the sight (on top of feeling devastated at losing one, and possibly two engaging and popular characters) and the screams and looks of horror from two characters have made this too gruesome to me to fully compliment the artistry of it and the acting of those involved.

But since I am a comedian, I decided to sublimate my anxiety and horror into a short comedy video. So here it is! Enjoy:

For more opinions, comedy and bridge burning check out the Righteous Prick Podcast on Podomatic, iTunes and NOW on STITCHER. New Every Tuesday so subscribe on one or more platforms today – all for free!

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Sons of Anarchy or The Walking Dead – Who…

In the wake of losing Breaking Bad I, like a lonely person after a break-up, have reverted to bad habits.  I wanted to give up on Sons of Anarchy for a variety of reasons. The first was once a biker gang was involved in international arms smuggling and getting in Civil War style battlefield escapades (but with rocket launchers), without a hint of law enforcement intervention I sort of had my eyes permanently rolled back in my head.  Then there was the burning of people alive.  And this season, in addition to the usual throat slitting and head bashing (this show is on basic cable – they cannot say fuck so they overcompensate with the word shit and insane violence – see this sketch as an example) there was a school shooting massacre by a 12 year old, which felt so out of place that it really just felt like the show’s creators said “I don’t think we are offending/shocking/repulsing enough people – PLOT AND SENSE BE DAMNED!”

On the other end of the living spectrum, but even further along on the violence spectrum is The Walking Dead.  The Walking Dead is like Breaking Bad’s dumber, sluttier, less attractive sister that I have decided to hook up with in an attempt to hurt Breaking Bad’s feelings.  Thanks to Netflix I have been able to “binge watch” The Walking Dead.  It is a show that I must admit, considering I bashed it for an entire podcast episode, that benefits greatly from the cinematic feel of binge watching.  I always maintained that the first season of Walking Dead was a strong season and that season two, for several reasons articulated on the podcast, was weak.  I actually enjoyed it a lot more on a second viewing (in two days), though my main complaints are still valid (lack of black people in Atlanta, Shane’s varying accent and enhanced physique despite wandering the earth in a gym-less apocalypse, etc).  But watching the show in the aggregate like that led me to see about 1000 head smashes, ligament tearings and eye gouges in a short amount of time.  The show really is incredibly violent and it is not restricted to “dead” people. As season 3 progressed (I am 4 episodes in) it seemed more slashes and rips and blood poured forth from living people.

The fact is with language restrictions and sexual restrictions still on basic cable shows it seems like the only envelope they push is violence and it is now pushed to the max.  I hate to sound like an old fogey (for the last time stop texting and walking!), but the violence on basic cable in these two shows is ridiculous.  I am just assuming that child rape is really the only place left to go.  And I am betting that Sons of Anarchy will be the one to do it.  It would make no sense on The Walking Dead, since most of the villains are zombies, though in season 2 a now-deceased character alluded to a roving gang that raped two teenage girls while their father watched.  But I think Sons of Anarchy is the show with the “courage” to actually showcase this as a climactic scene.  That show literally has nothing left to do except that when it comes to a checklist of awful things to show on basic cable, other than make Ariel Castro an honorary executive producer.  Either way I think we can all agree that the parents who bring their children in for that fateful/eventual audition should be arrested on the spot, or at least be featured in Bruno 2.

On a lighter note, it has inspired one of my new sketches for this month. Considering how crushing a skull to the point of hearing a brain get squished (that sound that sounds like moist fruit being stepped on) is the most in-demand sound in cable television (Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Sons of Anarchy to name a few that now show that merely beating a guy to death just doesn’t get America hard without hearing the brain squish), my next sketch character will be the Spielberg of Skull Crushing Sound Effects.  Look for it in a couple of weeks, along with my Dante de Blaiso/Bill de Blasio parody.

For more opinions, comedy and bridge burning check out the Righteous Prick Podcast on Podomatic, iTunes and NOW on STICHER. New Every Tuesday so subscribe on one or more platforms today – all for free!