Lincoln Trek in the news
Channel 17 in Decatur, IL covers Bob Willard's tromp through Abraham Lincoln country in October 2005
Funny or Die Presents (S01E01)
I sure do love when things live up to my expectations. I mean I knew Funny or Die Presents would make me laugh; it seemed impossible that it wouldn't. It was just really nice that it made me laugh as often as I hoped it would. The format is akin to most sketch comedy programs with multiple, unrelated segments within the program. After the amazing retro-styled titles and credits we're brought to a funny old man host accompanied by a secretary and some weird machines that give it a rather quirky but charming feel. The host is there primarily to break segments up, but often I feel like we see him for pointless reasons that just make it feel like you're on the FoD site waiting for your next video to load. Except I can't create a new tab and go back to Reddit while I'm waiting.
The first episode is broken down into four segments, starting with Derek Waters: LOL, which is basically like three short skits within itself. This block starts off with the hilarious sight of Steve Little aka Stevie Janowski from Eastbound and Down in a fat suit, used with subtlety so it's actually funny, refraining from that stupid over the top Martin Lawerence/Mike Myers/Eddie Murphy style that makes me want to throw myself in front of a McDonald's truck. I thought most of these segments fell kinda flat, and didn't make me laugh a whole bunch. I guess his style of so-stupid-it's-funny wasn't for me, which is disappointing because that's not always the case.
They do, however, pull off stupid-funny quite well with the ending skit, Space Baby. The beginning where you learn about the history and everything is not that entertaining, but once the mission starts, the sketch is pure gold, especially once Fred Willard gets to improv a few lines. Another smart move was bringing over the famous Drunk History from the website. This one brilliantly cast Will Ferrell as Abraham Lincoln and also Don Cheadle and Zooey Deschanel taking a break from doing mostly serious roles, and having some fun...