Given last week’s review of Redshirts, I thought I would provide this Comic-con video (shaky, NSFW graphic in the background) that helps to illustrate the humor behind Scalzi’s book. It is a skit written and enacted by Scalzi and a sci-fi friend [ed: Patrick Rothfuss, a ‘minor’ player in the current SF & Fantasy scene, as pointed out by none other than Steve’s better half] :
And, yes, the shaky video is an essential part of the post-Comic-con experience.
Steve Saideman is Professor and the Paterson Chair in International Affairs at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. He has written The Ties That Divide: Ethnic Politics, Foreign Policy and International Conflict; For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism and War (with R. William Ayres); and NATO in Afghanistan: Fighting Together, Fighting Alone (with David Auerswald), and elsewhere on nationalism, ethnic conflict, civil war, and civil-military relations.
The sci-fi friend is NYTimes bestselling fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss. The skit was performed at w00tstock 4.0, a vaudeville and storytelling show put on by Wil Wheaton, Mythbusters’ Adam Savage and the music-comedy duo Paul and Storm as part of the San Diego ComicCon side festivities at the Balboa Theater. Here is the link to videos of the whole show, including a possibly more stable version of Scalzi’s skit: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEB725113E44F9AC5 LeVar Burton makes a guest appearance. Scalzi also performed the skit earlier at a library event with Wil Wheaton if you want a variation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz5S2x_tJ70