Episode 153 - PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE

Channeling his gift for comedic rage into a bracing and wonderfully odd character study, Adam Sandler reached his acting pinnacle in Punch-Drunk Love. It's a film that observes Sandler's onscreen persona through a distorted lens, and the Kafkaesque world created by writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson serves as the deconstructed version of a typical Happy Madison comedy. It's the Sandman as we've never seen before--and likely will never see again.

The Summer of Sandler is swerving into auteur territory, so put on your critical studies cap for an episode rich with theories, analyses, and meaningful lens flares.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Produced by JoAnn Sellar, Daniel Lupi, and Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Luis Guzman, Robert Smigel, and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Episode 152 - ROCKO'S MODERN LIFE

Years before "adult" became a verb, Rocko's Modern Life tried to warn us what was in store outside the bubble of childhood. Younger viewers tuning in to laugh at funny talking animals were surreptitiously served a reality check in tidy 10-minute segments. The cartoon's surreal slapstick punctured the perceived glamour of the grown-up world, while also taking aim at the excesses and absurdities of...well, modern life.

Jake Beal returns in this episode of Conglom-O proportions, as we raise Heck in our raucous appreciation of a Nicktoon that was well ahead of its time. This'll be a hoot!

Rocko's Modern Life (1993-1996)
Created by Joe Murray

Episodes featured in this podcast:

"To Heck and Back" (aired 10/10/93)
"Rocko's Happy Sack" (aired 11/21/93)
"Kiss Me, I'm Foreign" (aired 12/4/94)
"Wacky Delly" (aired 1/26/96)
"Zanzibar" (aired 4/21/96)
"Closet Clown" (aired 7/16/96)