Shall I Compare Thee To A Cup Of Pudding?

I hate poetry. I still compare a lot of stuff to sonnets, they’re just so damned useful. As a comparison, I mean.

Think about it. Sonnets have an uncompromising structure and are usually boring as shit. Nobody you’d want to have a drink with has even seen one in ages. They’re still synonymous with artistic skill, if not artistry. Or maybe it’s just a certain level of artistic elitism.

That’s what makes them so useful.

Take Puddinstrip for example. What? You don’t Puddin’? Shut up.

No, I mean it, shut this window and go over to youtube and type Puddinstrip. Then, when you’re done, follow Matt Oswalt on Twitter and come back and read the rest of this post. I’ll wait.

Okay, fine. Don’t do it. You’re only hurting yourself.

Puddinstrip is a semi-daily online video series. They’re short, often less than a minute, and as artistically constrained by their format as a sonnet is. Basically, Eddie Pepitone goes nuts in a break room while Matt Oswalt eats a pudding cup. Or pretends to. It could be more meta than I thought.

The humor is usually brutal, often repulsive and sometimes cruel. You know, all the stuff I dislike in my comedy. It also isn’t always funny. I don’t miss an episode.

The question is why.

For all his (presumably ersatz) brutality and misery, there is a gleefulness to Mr. Pepitone’s ranting. It’s all terrifically – and horrifically – absurd, juxtaposed with the banality of a generic office break room.

In a way, it’s like vomit. Visually beige with disgusting bits of color and flavor. It’s also like a sonnet.

See why sonnets are so useful? If I stopped at the vomit thing, you might not want to check it out. Or maybe you would. If you would, you’ll love Puddin’. Even if you’re grossed out, you should give it a shot.

Oh, and please try to sit through the ad. I’d like to see Mr. Oswalt get a check for more than 89 cents for all his hard work.