"What makes a boy, and what makes a girl?" asks the documentary "The Gender Puzzle," above. It turns out we're none too sure, as the old XX / XY distinction isn't the whole story.

Meanwhile, a couple in Sweden is conducting their own investigation on the subject, by refusing to reveal the gender of their 2-year-old, named Pop:

“'We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,” Pop’s mother said. 'It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.'"

The child's parents said so long as they keep Pop’s gender a secret, he or she will be able to avoid preconceived notions of how people should be treated if male or female."

For almost 40 years, Jack Chick has been churning out little comic book "tracts" in support of his particular brand of paranoid, hate-filled Christianity. You've probably come across at least one in a bus station, phone kiosk, or diner bathroom.

Directed by Jack T. Chick Museum of Fine Art curator Kurt Kuersteiner, the excellent documentary "God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack Chick" takes a look at the man's impressively large body of work, which has found an audience with both Chick's fellow fundamentalists as well as with comic-book aficionados and other heathens.

No, the notoriously-reclusive Chick does not appear on camera, but longtime Chick artist Fred Carter does give his first-ever interview. We also hear from Chick scholars/fans like Hal Robins, Daniel Raeburn, and Rev. Ivan Stang, who winningly admits to a near-conversion experience with Chick tracts. Watch this if you dare, HAW HAW HAW! (Jack Chick fan in-joke.)

Above is "Johnny Berlin," a 55-minute portrait of a guy named John Hyrns, who works as a porter on a luxury train while planning to move to Phnom Penh to write a novel. Most of the documentary is just Hyrns talking, which works because he's a pretty funny, compelling talker. Watching him muse philosophically over The Who, his lackadasical approach to dating, how to donate your liver, the power of Windex, navy bean soup and more is almost hypnotic.

It got me thinking about some of my other favorite documentary "characters" -- the talkers, geniuses, visionaries, weirdos, outsiders and whatnot whose virtual company I have enjoyed. Here they are, in no particular order, after the jump:

Barack Obama won the presidential election, so who cares about voter fraud, right? But there were allegations that ACORN cheated for Obama. Election fraud is something everyone should be concerned about, regardless of who you voted for. Politicians have cheated and will cheat again, just like Charlie Sheen. Promise. So even if you loved Bush and don't think there was any fraud in Florida or Ohio, you should still watch "How Ohio Pulled It Off." This isn't just about Bush, it's about the heart of democracy.

I've been listening to "808s and Heartbreak," Kanye West's latest album, at my desk recently, and while I won't get into what I think of it (I agree with Pitchfork's take), I will say that I don't get this Auto-Tune robovoice phenomenon. For a while it seemed like Cher's "Believe" was an isolated case. Then T-Pain, Lil' Wayne, and Kanye got ahold of the software and now everyone sounds like the girl from "Small Wonder." Where did it come from, and more importantly, why do some people like it?

Wikipedia says that Auto-Tune was invented in 1997, but musicians have wanted to sound like machines for a long time. Here's a clip from the Documentary Channel about Bruce Haack, the purported godfather of techno music. Haack was using robotic vocals in his music in the '60s, and showed off his music on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." I doubt Haack would have expected his techniques to be used to such an annoying degree 40 years later, but as this parody of the effect shows, it does mask terrible singing. (I'm not talking about you, Kanye. Please don't flame me in your blog.)