Categories
humor

Gladwell Raises New and Troubling Questions

I just listened to last week’s episode (#348 Tough Room) of This American Life.

This week we bring you backstage with comedy writers at The Onion. They start with over 600 potential headlines for their fake-news newspaper each week, and over the course of two days, in the very tough room that is their editorial conference room, they select 16 to go in the paper. Plus other people speaking their minds in very tough rooms.

One of the contributors, Malcolm Gladwell, relates some prankery from his days at The Washington Post. The mp3 is available on TAL’s website, and you can also get it on iTunes. For those not interested in digesting stories aurally, Gladwell wrote a version of this story for Slate in 1996.

Categories
humor

Patrick Stewart on The Extras

I just came across this clip of Patrick Stewart on The Extras. This is an old one that you may have seen before, but it’s a classic.


[Patrick Stewart Fantasies – Daily Motion]

Categories
humor

Life Imitates the Onion

Back in January 2001 The Onion satirically told us Bush’s plan to end the US’s “Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity”. It’s scary how accurate they were.

“My fellow Americans,” Bush said, “at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us.”

Categories
humor

George Lucas in Love

George Lucas in Love title screen

I don’t know how I missed this when it made it’s way onto the internet a couple of years ago, but for those Star Wars fans that have always wondered where he got his inspiration, here it is: George Lucas in Love. (Runtime of 8 minutes 44 seconds on Google Video)

Categories
humor

Robert Tourtelot: A Real Live Denny Crane

Viewers of the popular David E. Kelley show Boston Legal will be familiar with the outrageous behavior of William Shatner’s character Denny Crane. What they may not be familiar with, is the real life version of Denny, Mr. Robert Tourtelot, a “jack of all trades” lawyer from Southern California.

Recently Tourtelot contacted Travis Corcoran, owner of the How-To DVD rental service, “Smart-Flix”, and accused him of breaking the law. When Corcoran questioned lawyer Tourtelot on which law, exactly, he had broken, Tourlelot responded, that it wasn’t his job to educate Corcoran and that he should get his own attorney for that.

Shortly thereafter, the story gets VERY interesting, with Tourtelot doing everything from short-jokes and name calling, to challenging Corcoran to a fight and even threatening to call in the FBI.

[Tourtelot:] Dear Mr. Corcoran: I am in receipt of your e-mail to my client, Mr. XXX. I note your comments about me. I have a proposition for you. I will pay your way to California if you will agree to come and meet me in a gym, the address of which the limo driver who meets your flight will have.

Oh yes, the deal only includes a one-way ticket, as I do not believe you will be needing the return portion! Ciao, and have a good day. RHT

[Corcoran:] Are you proposing a boxing or MMA match?

I accept. I’ll pay my own way back, of course.

Any weekend in June works for me.

Please mail the airline ticket (departing from Logan Airport, in Boston) to the address I previously supplied.

I look forward to our bout (I usually do heavy bag work in my training sessions, but I’ll make sure to add some speed bag work to the mix over the next few weeks).

Shall we specify the same $1,000 wager that you suggested to Mr. XXX in your bet about my height?

[Tourtelot:] Plain and simple, pal. A street fight.! By the way, do you have a Black Belt also?

[Corcoran:] Please send the plane ticket.

If the Boston Legal writers happen upon this story, they should totally write it into their script because I can totally imagine Denny Crane doing all of this.

For comedy relief, check out The Robert Tourtelot saga.

(via)

Categories
humor

Defective Yeti Recommendations for Genetically Engineering Cats

Matthew Baldwin’s shares his humorous recommendations for genetically engineering cats.

Categories
humor

How Superman Should Have Ended

I came across this Superman parody which I think you will enjoy. It’s called “How Superman Should Have Ended” and I couldn’t agree more.

Categories
humor

Malcolm Gladwell vs. Stephen Colbert

My favorite author goes head to head with Stephen Colbert.

View it on The Colbert Nation site.

Categories
humor religion

Mr. Deity

Mr. Deity is a clever video series that, to some, might explain why God acts the way he does. I particularly liked episodes 2 and 4.

Categories
parody video

Spiders on Drugs

A couple of weeks ago I watched the video Spiders On Drugs.

It’s a parody of the old Hinterland Who’s Who show that you may remember if you watched Saturday morning cartoons in the 1980’s here in Canada. Hinterland’s Who’s Who would come on between shows—I used to hate them, “enough with the stupid animals I want to see cartoons!”

This interesting read is the story of Andrew Struthers who made the video and his narration of what happened after he posted it on YouTube.