The headline might not be the most descriptive or articulate, but you'll understand when you see this short YouTube clip. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceNf-11-ddI]
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YouTube
Hilarious. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMikQAhrN-w]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzyXtDVc_yw] This video of a duck relentlessly following around this puppy is so freakin' cute that I want to drop kick both of them into a vat of boiling oil and deep fry them both. That's how cute they are.
Holy cow! This is something that the people at Discovery Channel's Planet Earth missed out on: a cow doing a flying leaping kick straight to the face of a man. After this round, the score is decidedly in favor of the cow. Currently, Cow 1, Man 0. After seeing this clip, I for one welcome our kicking cow overlords.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2erbd6dMd4A]
God bless the Internets.
Well kids, it's yet another Sunday. Did you go out all Saturday night with nary a call or thought of your significant other? Well, ease the inevitable "why didn't you call?" fight today by taking some advice from Stevie Wonder in today's segment of Easy Listening Sunday. Go ahead and pick up your cell phone and give him or her a call just to say you love them. However, I strongly advise against drunk dialing such a message to those that are definitely NOT your significant other. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxwJjJq2GZk]
Update: And of course here is the appropriate relevant YouTube clip that my short entry below refers to: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od4KKw8tp20]
This movie (Swingers) is definitely in my top three favorite movies of all time. I used to watch it with my friends in college as part of our pre-game ritual. Anyway, like I said: I got it under control.
Just want all you skeptical bitches to know that I've GOT IT UNDER CONTROL!
Are you nursing such a serious hangover that death or at the very least, coma is preferable to your current pounding headache? Never fear--your easy listening sunday is here. Today, it's Lionel Richie. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDZcqBgCS74]
I don't like to editorialize too much on the "Easy Listening Sunday" entries (it should be about the music...), but I think this video tops what I thought couldn't be topped--and that was Elton John's music video from last sunday ("Nikita"). Consequently, I'm compelled to jot a few words.
There's so much to be said about Lionel Richie's "Hello" music video--or should I say short movie? Is it a music video? Is it a short movie? I don't know!
Thesis: "Hello" is actually seminal because it created its own genre: the music video-short film-musical. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" gets a lot of the credit for reinventing the music video format (and Jay Z's "Big Pimpin" gets a nod in music video history primarily for the most gratuitous spillage of Cristal on curvy sun-bathing women), but I think "Hello" is a sleeper gem that music historians and Vh1 "I love the..." and "Top 101..." shows have unfairly overlooked.
In addition to its technical merits, Hello is also pioneering for the positive social message it broadcasts. The video and Lionel Richie sends (sings?) a powerful voice that addresses the public's misconceptions and prejudices about the blind: Blindness is not a disability nor a hinderance. It may prevent being able to tell the difference between a single and a hundred dollar bill (as Chris Rock said), but in matters of significance, consequence, and weight blindness is as much an obstacle as cake is to a fat, hungry kid. This is not to suggest that blindness is delicious.
This video humanizes the blind. It shows that a blind person can be a captivating actress, graceful ballerina, AND a master sculptor. A blind person can be beautiful, popular, intellectual, and posess a warm personality. A blind person can also make their acting teacher fall in love with them. The message is that a beautiful actress/dancer/sculptor who also happens to be blind can find love! Blind people love, too. What a powerful film. It's too bad the blind can't see it.
Lionel Richie, on the other hand, demonstrates how easy it is to stalk a blind person. Because they CAN'T SEE YOU--or so he thought! The ending is the coup that elevates this video from "good" into the pantheon of greats. I hope someone from VH1 sees this penetrating analysis and argument and devotes an entire marathon to Hello, like they do with Thriller...which doesn't have one iota of social redemption and if anything only generates and fosters fear mongering among the general dominant populace towards the much maligned zombie community.
It's an obvious skit from SNL--hosted by Colts quarterback and (this pains me to say it) Super Bowl champ Peyton Manning--but this is still a pretty hilarious spoof of those NFL and United Way commercials: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-6Ky7_sfPc]
For the first time in my favorite game show, Jeopardy's history, the contestants all finished with identical scores for a three-way tie!
That is so gangsta. Who is Bonnie Parker?
Check out the video clip (I heart You Tube):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV9vuKfVO04]
I love Alex's response when he sees the final contestants score: 'AH-HA!'
Update: From Metafilter's usual bookish crowd discussion, some have theories on this result not being as randomly odds defying as it appears on surface.
"Doofus Magoo" writes: The guy in the lead was grinning like the cat who ate the canary while the answers of the other two were being revealed, so I think he was deliberately angling for a two- or three-way tie -- and why not? He had to know the other two had bet it all, and regardless of whether he ends up with $16,000 in a tie or $16,001 as the sole winner, he gets his money. By bidding the lower amount he gets to make one or two other people very happy at no cost to himself.
In fact, you could argue that he benefits from this strategy, as he gets to compete again against people that he may be confident he can beat.
"SeizeTheDay" continues: I agree with Doofus (I don't think I've ever said that before...it's just so odd). The guy is apparently a puzzle wiz and a computer science professor. He clearly knew what he was doing when he made that bet. There might be a three-fold argument: one, he was doing the other guys a really nice favor by tying instead of winning outright (since 2nd place gets $2500 and 3rd place gets $1000); two, he was ensuring that he knew who his competition would be for the next time (dude has now won over $60K; he's clearly not dumb); and three, his name and face will always be in the Jeopardy record books for being a part of the three way tie. Pretty ingenious.
Hi, everybody. I was interested to see what kind of reaction my wager would get; you all have not disappointed me. :-)
So why did I do it? I knew that there had never been a 3-way tie before in the history of the show. (OntarioQuizzer is right that a kid had asked if there had ever been a 3-way tie before. I honestly don't remember hearing that question; maybe it registered subconsciously.) I saw the possibility to make Jeopardy history, and I took it. I've never had a philosophical objection to tie games, although I understand the strategic reasons why you shouldn't bet to tie. Making history seemed like a very special reason to bet to tie. Plus it's not every day you get to give away $32,000.
A story: This was the last show taped that day. As my family and friends and I were standing outside the studio absorbing the moment, the schoolteacher who brought the kids that day came up to me and said he wanted to thank me for teaching his kids such a lesson in sportsmanship and generosity. Two of the kids were standing there agog looking at me. It's a moment I'll always treasure and one that wouldn't have happened if I bet that extra $1.
I emailed the YouTube link to a close friend--a friend who generally immediately appreciates the wacky and exceptional--earlier this morning and her response was very indifferent. Am I the only one here that appreciates this event?
UPDATE Rosie's response to Beau's video comment below.
I just came across this clip of one of my favorite spoken word artists, Beau Sia who responds to a controversy that most people in this country already forgot about, but Beau's verbalizes a message that should be shown to a lot of people.
Check it out:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SWXZgytyQI]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z6IFUOW5Lw] This is the only MadTV skit that consistently cracks me up. My favorite line: "You know you like me, inside you want ethnic love...!"
This is possibly either one of the greatest or one of the worst dunks in the history of all of basketball in the entire world. I'm not sure which. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l77zaxQbcFo&eurl=]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekXxi9IKZSA] This trailer "outs" what we all suspected about that movie Top Gun, which masqueraded (sashayed?) around as some uber-masculine ode to normative concepts of manhood and notions of brotherness when it really was just one ol' big gay love story. A Brokeback Airforce, if you will.
This shouldn't be a big surprise--look at the title of the movie for god's sakes! TOP GUN, are you kidding me? They might as well have called it "Tom and Val's Romp Through the Sky: Gay Romp Through the Sky." Pornographers always end up making a spoof of all the major hit movies, such as:
However, when they got around to making their own special version of Top Gun, they didn't have to change the title at all. Although I suspect that Top Gun was actually referring to Val Kilmer's character because Tom Cruise is totally a bottom.
Okay, it's less of a show and actually a commercial for Volkswagen. So by posting it and replaying it here (yes, another YouTube vid--apparently that's the unifying theme today), I'm cognizant that I'm just shrilling for a large car company. However, that aside, I'm still awed by the creativity and the execution of this video that involves hand puppetry which is also rorschach-esque. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zIODJsnqXE]
The commercial isn't going to get people to buy the car (VW Phaeton) and so in that sense, it's a terrible commercial (if you look at Ad Age's rankings of most impressionable commercials, it's generally the incredibly crude ones that just pound the viewers with a simple message over and over again--Dial down the center, anyone?), but for artistic merit and originality, I'm sure this VW ad will pick up some industry awards.
This is why I love Conan O'Brian over all the other late night hosts, although my old fogie self as of late is finding his show's airing a bit past my bedtime. This is where you whisper, "That's because you're an old man. You're a burden now to our society. Shuffle away and just die." But thanks to the user generated, or rather user recorded content power of YouTube and the near instant gratification that it provides, I was able to view a segment from Thursday night's episode of Conan O'Brian that featured him (in a very special, that is in very especially disturbing costume) in an epic tennis match against tennis great Serena Williams...brought to you by the Nintendo Wii.
I won't spoil the outcome for you, but watching it and seeing just how fun these two were having with the Wii made me decide which to eventually choose between the Nintendo and the Xbox 360.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhGi0F3ms5w]
(Via) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwppgeQQ4sA]
The kick to the groin (never to be underestimated) looks to be the most efficient--altho jabbing the person with the receipt pin appears effective too...if you want to KILL the other person. Although, on second thought, stabbing a person through the frontal cortex with the receipt holder is acceptable punishment for anyone who looks towards Kryptonite's way.
(Via) An entire wedding cast reenacts MJ's Thriller or otherwise known as a buncha white people moving along to something that sorta resembles MJ's Thriller music video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmYbP0F4Zw&eurl=]
And here's the version from Final Fantasy, which is a little better but that CGI kinda creeps me out a little, but not quite in that uncanny valley way:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZIeuKG2D30]
Lastly, for comparison, here's the timeless original:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT90keJ51bY]
God damn, that MJ was the hot shit back in the day. This is one of my favoriteist music videos ever.
This is a crazy clip of a pissed off man who destroys a town by driving around in an armored bulldozer, which the police cannot stop. CRAZY. Maybe the cops should have a few RPGs in their arsenal. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwFkJMiN1Ak]
My nerd brain exploded after seeing this guy playing the Star Wars theme on his banjo. [youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQBRSwZiYS4"] This guy should have been on America's Got Talent. Watching that show and banjo man here makes me wish I was extremely good at some sort of obscure thing, like balancing a shopping cart on my chin, or driving a nail through my nose, or playing a banjo.
I can juggle three objects (as long as it isn't on fire and sharp). I was once locked out and I successfully picked the lock. I'm okay at Ultimate Frisbee. I once watched television for 16 hours straight (other than to get take out food from Johnny Rockets and use the bathroom).
I don't think any of those "skills" will get me on television.