The most basic premise goes something like… a female worker gives lots of sexual innuendos towards a male, and in the end, it’s revealed that it never was about the sex. However, my favorite episodes are the ones that play around with the format a bit more.  Specifically, I love the  “Helpful Bus” episode, which you can see below.  It actually guest stars Craig Robinson, one of the stars of the film “Hot Tub Time Machine”.  In other episodes of PG Porn, cameos are also made by Nathan Fillion (“Castle”, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog”), Alan Tudyk (“Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story”), and of course, actual porn stars.  You can see Pat and I discuss the show, along with our review of “Hot Tub Time Machine” on episode 17 of OK, Good Stuff.

See the entire series here: http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn

Each episode gives a glimpse into their relationship and the relationship with their girlfriend and wife. The show really is funny, and most of the humor develops from the fact that Nick really wants to be friends with Tim, but Tim does not at all want to be associated with Nick.  You can see Pat and I discuss the show on episode 16 of OK, Good Stuff.

See the entire series here: www.oldfriends-theseries.com

Some of the choices are quite absurd, but the fun comes when the characters imagine what their lives would be like if they chose either of the options presented.  Even though the show doesn’t evolve throughout the series (it’s literally the same format each episode), many of the episodes are quite funny. You can see Pat and I discuss the show on episode 15 of OK, Good Stuff.

“You Suck at Photoshop” is unique because the entire time, the viewer is watching a video screenshot of the narrator’s computer.  The whole premise is in each episode, the narrator is teaching us, the viewers, a different skill in Photoshop to alter images.  The narrator, though, played by co-creator Troy Hitch, is digruntled,  bitter, and upset about his cheating wife.  Do you think he sounds like Dane Cook?  The show is really hysterical, and even offers some good tips for Photoshop!  You can see Pat and I discuss the show on episode 14 of OK, Good Stuff.

“You Suck at Photoshop” can be seen on My Damn Channel.

Joe and Kate (which can be found at strike.tv) stars Joe Kelly, a writer for “How I Met Your Mother” and Kate Purdy, who has written for MadTV.  Watch episode 2 below, and then head over to strike.tv to watch the entire series. It’ll only take you 6 minutes… why not check it out?

Brainstorm (which can be found at brainstormtheshow.com and DailyMotion) is a show about an ad agency called “Yogurt” which is going under due to an inappropriate TV spot leading to the sudden firing of a majority of the employees. The agency needs to nail a pitch for a campaign for “THE” Altoids, & so they bring in the best in the business: Rock Shanz!  The main character of the show, Ben (played by Jamie Elman) has a history with Rock as he stole Ben’s ideas & girlfriend at the same exact time.  Hilarity ensues.  Watch the trailer below, and then head over to brainstormtheshow.com to watch the entire series.  It’ll be the best 45 minutes you’ll ever spend on the internet.  This show also stars Michael Blaiklock, Todd Grinnell, Peter Holden, Charlotte Newhouse, & Genevieve Jones.

Good stuff, okay?

The second callback is from a couple weeks back, the new production company from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, hitRECord.org.  They had their first test as a production company at Sundance 2010.  They set up a booth for the ten day festival and spent those days working with people at Sundance and around the world to create some great collaborations worth showing off the closing day. To see exactly how they work together to make their records click here.  Our picks from the show are below. If you want to see our conversation on these videos watch Episode 11 of OK, Good Stuff.

Derrick Comedy:

Opposite Day: Imagine working at an office that replaced casual Fridays with opposite day Fridays.  That can’t end well.

Memory Loss: This sketch is a play on the movie “Momento”.  It is based around a character that has a certain type of memory loss.

Blow Job Girl: Worst blow job ever.

hitRECord:

Morgan M. Morgansen’s Date with Destiny: This video started with two actors in front of a white wall with two chairs.  Every other element was added by many other people to create the final video.

Find the Sun: Many different people adding their voice to this PSA on “Finding the Sun”.

On this week’s Episode of OK, Good Stuff we found the Crackle show So On and So Forth for your viewing pleasure. The story revolves around 5 people who are all interconnected in some way. There are ten episodes each take place with two of the characters. By the end each character has one video with every other character. It is a comedy series by the director Matt Spicer and starring Camille Chen, Diana Gitelman, Jake Johnson, Jon Togo, Armen Weitzman.

The series is more of an experiment in film and in producing internet content then an attempt to tell a full story.  There are ideas that follow through the 10 episodes, but it is more about the interactions and treatment of the characters.  There is plenty to enjoy in this likable internet comedy.  To see our full conversation watch Episode 11 of OK, Good Stuff.  Check out the trailer and first couple episodes below.

Trailer:

Episode 1: Chloe and Leland just hang out. Whether it be cooking, painting, yoga, face painting or just smoking out its all good. Leland and Chloe really connect. As the sun sets on a perfect day Leland finds a way to wipe all the good away.

Episode 2: Sam and Joy run into each other in the park. You can tell something’s wrong when Joy smacks Sam in the face. Sam learns two important lessons: The past always catches up with you and it’s not always the best idea to blab out your secrets.

The show is split into 16 short episodes that add up to an entire movie.  The full length movie was released in iTunes the same day that the show launched of Crackle.  The show had some big money and Sony Pictures behind it.  The episodes rival the production quality of any show on TV.  Could this be a the big step that internet TV was waiting for to step into some larger show? Only time will tell.

Starring Mark Gantt, Vanessa Marcil, Gabriel Tigerman, Michael Ironside, Robert Forster, Michael Lerner, Ski Cutty Carr, Autumn Reeser, Brianne Davis, Brittany Ishibashi, Brynn Thayer, Gary Grossman, Wallace Langham and Directed by Jesse Warren.  If you would like to see the whole conversation watch Episode 7 of OK, Good Stuff. Check out the first couple of episodes below.

Episode 1: Neal Bannen wants to get out of the criminal lifestyle forever… but he owes $150,000 to the notorious prison gangster Sonny Carr. After failing to triple his money and losing all his money in a poker game, Bannen’s forced to do one more job.

Episode 2: Bannen successfully pulls off the “Loft Job” with a $100,000 payday, only to be tracked down by his former employer, the mobster, Mr. B. He offers Bannen a million dollars to retrieve a mysterious box that the was stolen from him.

I am very excited to see what comes out of hitRECord.org.  If I weren’t so busy I would like to be more of a part in hitRECord.org.  The biggest reason that Maybe Hip exists is because you no longer have to live in a certain location to be able to do something in film and media.  I love that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has taken this idea and tried to do something really profound and game changing with it.  He wants anyone in any part of the world to be able to be part of Hollywood.  As he says it isn’t fair that some people just don’t get a chance to do something they want to because they don’t live 20 minutes from LA.

There is a long way for this budding Production company to go through, but if it makes it to the end the result could be something to be very proud of.  The great thing is that anyone can be proud of their part in it.  I have had the chance to converse with some people in the community and they all seem so driven to this idea that Gordon-Levitt has.  I will be watching closely when they are at Sundance and can’t wait to see the end products that they make.

The biggest question that I have is will they ever create a mainstream project.  Everything that I have seen has been very art-school. This makes sense because the kind of collaboration really lends to that kind of creation.  If they never go outside of this area the project would by no means be a failure, because there is great art to be made in that style. But if there is a day that I can go into a theater, even a small one, and watch a full length hitRECord production, that will be a very profound day for mainstream entertainment.  There are few times that things come along and really change what a film is.  Do you think this will be one of them? Let me know.

Here is a good example of what this community can do.  The first is a video that Lula and RegularJOE (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) put together from a story that Metaphorest wrote.  The video is done in rooms with all white walls, with the idea of others filling in the blanks.  The following video is the creation of Lawrie Brewster, and a handful of others, filling in those pieces.

Patrick Lothian