I did that thing where I forgot to post again, except it wasn’t that I forgot, I just ran out of time because yesterday’s plans ran wayyy longer than anticipated. Oh well. So today’s post is about a specific sort of humor and a specific parody that brings an enormous smile to my face. Last night, Brian and I introduced our friend Anna to “Wizard People, Dear Reader” – a brilliant “audiobook” meant to be played along with the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Created by the brilliant and wonderful Brad Neely, WPDR is possibly one of my favorite things on the internet – which is kind of a big deal, considering how many things there are on the internet that I love dearly.
There was a two-fold joy in watching it last night, though. Firstly, the general hilarity that comes with lines like “Harry in a spiral of depression, turns to the escape of the world of miniature equine afficionada. He produces many a Wine-Out-Of-Nowhere spell, and is drunk every day before noon” and “Harry feels guilt pangs, but Ronnie The Bear could give a fuck” is insane, and even though I’ve seen the whole thing (heard the whole thing?) multiple times, it still makes me laugh incredibly hard every time. And that’s great and awesome in terms of making me happy, but the other awesome part of last night was the fact that Anna had never seen it before – and our friend Andrew, who popped in towards the second half, had never seen it either.
As someone who has made a name for herself as not-having-experienced-lots-of-things-pre-college, and being that girl who is constantly being introduced to new movies and TV shows and pop culture references that I was just completely oblivious to before, it’s nice to be able to expose someone else to something they hadn’t heard of before, and especially something as perfect as WPDR. I had honestly almost forgotten that it was even possible for me to know about things other people hadn’t seen. And although Anna said to me later that it wasn’t exactly her “type” of humor, I still don’t even care because know what? I think she enjoyed watching it.
This has got me thinking about why exactly I find WPDR so funny, because it’s not the same vein of humor I usually tend towards; very clever humor, that’s usually my poison of choice. Even if it sometimes goes over my head. I’ll still take it. WPDR is basically just ridiculous in every way, and it’s making light of one of my favorite things in the whole world, Harry Potter. If you don’t know what it is and have never experienced the magic before, I suggest that you check it out as soon as humanly possible. If that does not strike your fancy or you are currently doing something that doesn’t allow you to watch videos and listen to audio, I will explain to you a few high points of the perfection that is WPDR and Brad Neely.
- Having barely experienced Harry Potter before, the whole thing started as a joke at a bar, and Brad Neely intentionally created a misinformational audio recording of the first Harry Potter book/movie. Literally don’t think he knew anything about Harry Potter before he started, and I’m not sure how much he knows to date, because he certainly doesn’t demonstrate a deep knowledge while he narrates the movie. But at the same time, it’s just almost close enough to the plot that it’s truly entertaining to try to figure out what’s going on.
- He changes all of the names, and they are brilliant. Professor McGonagall becomes Hardcastle McCormick. Hermione becomes Harmony. Ron becomes Ronnie the Bear. Some characters he doesn’t even bother to identify. Snape (“Snake”) is referred to as a female.
- Harry, while still “Harry Fucking Potter,” is referred to as a variety of things over the course of the narration. One of these things is “Our velveteen Hamlet.”
- There is a beautiful moment where Ron and Harry decide to let Hermione ramble angrily, and then there is literally a moment of silence while Hermione-in-the-movie talks, and then he just moves right on to the next scene in the movie.
- The Mirror of Erised becomes the gateway to heaven.
There are so many other parts of this experiences that are majestic and should really be a part of your life. I highly recommend you check this out. If you don’t like Harry Potter you will probably enjoy the weird inaccuracy. If you do like Harry Potter, just take a deep breath and appreciate it for the comic gold that it is.
If it doesn’t make you happy, I feel sorry bad for you son.
I got ninety nine problems, but a snitch ain’t one.
(Okay. I’m done now.)
