Sneak Preview: Aristophanes and More

Well hello there! It’s Sunday, and that means sneak preview day here on the Jacke Blog.

On Monday, we’ll take a look at the comic plays of Aristophanes on the History of Literature podcast. What did that comedic pioneer actually invent? What were his satirical targets and how well does the satire hold up?

And the key question: are 2,500-year-old jokes still funny?

Are they as funny as this?

INTERVIEWER: If you came home and saw that your house was on fire, what’s the one thing you’d run into the house to save?

ERIC IDLE: My penis.

What else, what else… how about another run through the best and worst posts of the year? You can see some highlights (and lowlights) from last year here:

The Best

This Is It! The Top Post of the Year (2014)

And the Worst

Here It Is! The Worst Post of the Year (2014)
The Countdown of Ugh! Continues! Worst Post of the Year #4 (2014) (my favorite – still scratching my head over this one)

On Thursday, we’ll be back with another edition of the Restless Mind Show, topic TBD. I’m going to scrap the idea of imagining Friedrich Nietzsche playing the part of the Bandit in a modern-day Smokey and the Bandit because, well, some ideas must die. Instead, we might talk about reading Proust in China.

Ad finally, here’s some holiday cheer for you, and by “cheer” I mean that special bluesy kind of cheer that makes all your synapses fire and brings a lump to the back of your throat. There’s no real video, so just click on the link, play this song in the background, think of Wynton and his hero (“Pops is bad, man. Pops is bad”), and think of fireplaces, baking cookies, and snuggling under warm blankets with loved ones. Happy Holidays!