Point Austin: Stepping on Your Punchline

When free speech becomes hate speech

July 24, 2009 News Column by Michael King

NASA Joke Has Aggie Punchline

It takes a real Aggie to spot an Aggie wannabe

Feb. 17, 2006 News Feature by Michael King

The Aristocrats

The gleefully profane The Aristocrats provides a survey of some of the best comic minds in the business.

"...and Paul Provenza. "The aristocrats!" It’s the non sequitur punchline to a filthy joke well-known among comedians. It’s mostly..."

Aug. 26, 2005 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Miami Rhapsody

"...and an inability to develop a scene beyond the punchline. Too often, you can see the one-liners coming even..."

March 3, 1995 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

2015 Academy Award-Nominated Live-Action Short Films

This live-action group is unified by a general desire to tug at the heartstrings.

"...a variety of exotic backdrops before delivering a somber punchline. Israel’s “Aya” similarly overstays its welcome, taking a slight..."

Jan. 30, 2015 Movie Review by William Goss

Poetry To Ponder the Universe To

Nick Courtright to read from 'Punchline' this weekend

"...more philosophical matters in his new collection of poetry, Punchline (Gold Wake Press)...."

March 23, 2012 Books Post by Kimberley Jones

Wanderlust

A downsized Manhattan couple played by Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd stumble into a modern hippie commune and begin to reassess their goals in life.

"...know how to work a joke, even when the punchline is foregone...."

March 2, 2012 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Happily Ever After

This French romantic comedy is little more than a heap of clichés whenever the director and star Yvan Attal's real-life wife, Charlotte Gainsbourg, disappears from the screen.

"...back on so many bad relationship clichés for a punchline; in moments – particularly when Gainsbourg, Attal’s offscreen wife,..."

Sept. 30, 2005 Movie Review by Marrit Ingman

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Pitt and Jolie, who are reduced to set dressing in their own star vehicle, nevertheless pack a lot of bang for the buck.

"...doesn’t satisfactorily explore either idea, instead hitting the same punchline ad nauseam. Part of the problem is the script’s..."

June 17, 2005 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Dopey comedy is good fun.

"...racial identity just hard enough to land an equal-opportunity punchline. Everybody – from cops and white-boy extreme-sport junkies to..."

July 30, 2004 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Kissing Jessica Stein

"...her first girl-on-girl deep-tonguing. Kissing Jessica Stein is a punchline in search of a joke, perhaps a product of..."

March 29, 2002 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation 2002

"...that add up to little more than a one-note punchline (“Love That Pussy”) … but even those'll seem like..."

Jan. 25, 2002 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Greenfingers

"...that these guys are killers is used as a punchline, not as an entryway for examining the rehabilitation process...."

Sept. 14, 2001 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Meet the Parents

"...joke often wears thin and you can see the punchline of certain sequence setups well before their eventual delivery...."

Oct. 6, 2000 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love

"...This humor may take the form of a visual punchline as described above or the farcical anarchy that dominates..."

July 28, 1995 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

"...It consists of one long set-up with no final punchline, though New Nightmare obviously gets points for conceptual originality...."

Oct. 21, 1994 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Too Outrageous Animation

"...can't tell a joke simply by blurting out the punchline, and since this collection of cartoon shorts is supposed..."

Aug. 26, 1994 Movie Review by Joey O'Bryan

World's Best Commercials: Cannes 'ninety-Two

"...for a mere second, you're sure to miss the punchline. Ranging from the clever to the bizarre, the majority..."

Jan. 28, 1994 Movie Review by Pamela Bruce

Colin Nutley's House of Angels

"...the comedy is more the observational kind than the one-two-punchline kind. Aiming for some broad humanist message, the film..."

Nov. 26, 1993 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

City of Hope

"...be a little relentless on its way to the punchline -- it makes us earn it -- but it..."

Oct. 25, 1991 Movie Review by Kathleen Maher

A Local Pick for Free Comic Book Day

Creators of Punchline offer a super-powered narrative

"...The comic is a super-powered sort of narrative called Punchline, wherein one longtime caped crusader has been fired from..."

May 1, 2019 Arts Post by Wayne Alan Brenner

A Simple Twist of Fate

"...comedy that rejected all notions of traditional humor: the punchline was that there was no punchline. In A Simple..."

Sept. 9, 1994 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Boulder Acoustic Society

Friday

"...Boulder Acoustic SocietyPunchline (Nine Mile)..."

March 19, 2010 Music Review by Melanie Haupt

The Phoenician Scheme

Wes Anderson caper is a lovely lark

"...Texas-born expat auteur mines a camera pan for a punchline (a camera pan!) and draws inspiration from Bergman, Hitchcock,..."

June 6, 2025 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

His Three Daughters

Estranged sisters gather at their father's deathbed

"...controlled; there’s real sleight-of-hand magic in her transition from punchline to a fully fleshed-out person. Disappointingly, Coon – victim..."

Sept. 6, 2024 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Kinds of Kindness

Yorgos Lanthimos follows up Oscar winner Poor Things with a ponderous arthouse anthology film

"...of R.M.F.” remembers that a good setup deserves a punchline, and its bitter insight into our dependence on our..."

June 28, 2024 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

What Happens Later

Ryan and Duchovny ponder the road not taken in magical rom-com

"...2015 directorial debut, Ithaca), director, her presence makes this punchline preceding the joke all the more fascinating. But What..."

Nov. 3, 2023 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

The lackluster return of the DCEU kid in a hero's body

"...lead to frustration, and the Shazam siblings are the punchline of local media due to their penchant for destruction...."

March 24, 2023 Movie Review by Matthew Monagle

The Aviary

Desert-set cult drama is a little dry

"...defying authority? Elaborate head game? If only the oblique punchline lived up to what begins as an auspicious premise...."

April 29, 2022 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Last Night in Soho

Edgar Wright travels through time into London's sleazy history

"...hand at an earnest horror-thriller as opposed to the punchline-punctuated frights of something like Shaun of the Dead. That..."

Oct. 29, 2021 Movie Review by Trace Sauveur

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