The Starving Games

Continuing a tradition that dates back to the earliest satyr plays of Pratinas and Aeschylus, here is The Starving Games, the latest spoof from fellow tragicomedians Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg to mine similar comedy out of sight gags, bawdy sexual overtones, and references to popular mythology. Indeed, much as Euripides’ Cyclops satirized Odysseus’ encounter with Dionysus, so Seltzer and Friedberg have here perverted our own ancient folklore, slipping their gags about asses and things going into asses into The Hunger Games as hilariously as something going into an ass, then including reference to Avatar, The Avengers, The Expendables, Angry Birds, 50 Shades Of Grey, Taylor Swift, and “Gangnam Style”—all in a new, ribald context to mark the annual, ritualistic harvesting of the year’s pop culture crops. And, just as they did in ancient Greece, we leave flush and giddy with the experience of seeing the things we recognize and revere so close to asses and gay people. And so our civilization flourishes, until someone finally burns it to the ground.