Stumbling Through History

Drunk History Vol. 5 w/ Will Ferrell, Don Cheadle & Zooey Deschanel from Will Ferrell

What happens when you give a historian wayyyy too much to drink, have them relate a historical incident and then have actors recreate it? Hilarity. And another installment of Drunk History, this one featuring Will Ferrell, Don Cheadle and Zooey Deschanel. [Slightly NSFW for language]

Please do not think that the historians are faking their level of intoxication for comic effect. At least two other episodes feature various historian upchucking copious amounts (though this particular one doesn't). (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Technorati tags: funny, drunk, history, Funny Or Die, Don Cheadle, Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, Lincoln, Douglass

Little. Yellow. Hungry.

Live-action Pac-Man, for some inscrutable reason. As someone who has spent many a quarter and many an hour playing the various flavors of Pac-Man, I don't ever recall playing a version where any of the characters were beaten about the head with sticks. (via WTF Japan, Seriously?)




Already sold, unfortunately, but this sweet Pac-Ring was available last winter on Etsy.



Watch Pac-Man: The Movie online, which, at just under 5 minutes, lasts about as long as your average game.

Technorati tags: Pacman, Japan, movie, etsy, WTF

Morning Jukebox

Fujiya & Miyagi - Ankle Injuries. Holy craps, this is great. Get it? Craps? Because there's so many dice? Here all week, folks...



Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone. You know what they say, it's all fun and games until the Army shows up...

Technorati tags: Bat For Lashes

Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?

One of the running jokes on the dearly departed Fox sitcom Arrested Development had to do with how no one in the Bluth family seemed to be able to do an impression of a chicken to save their life. Unreality has the rest of the nothing-like-a-chicken diagrams and an accompanying nothing-like-a-chicken clip from the show.




This giant chicken statue sits outside a hotel/restaurant in the nearby (to me) town of Byron Center, MI and is a bit of a local landmark, for obvious reasons.

Unbeknownst to me, the Byron Center High School recently held a community "Chicken Dance" out by the behemoth bird, getting a whole bunch of the locals out there dancing the Chicken Dance as a fundraiser for a local children's hospital.



Technorati tags: Arrested, Development, chicken, dance, Byron, Center

Recipe for disaster

(Germans + carousel + motorcycle) - common sense = ^hilarity/_{spinal injury} (via Blog on a Toothpick)

Technorati tags: carousel, motorcycle, German

Dollar Menu Origami

Won Park is a master of origami, where the artist creates three-dimensional representations of flowers, birds, etc, usually using a single sheet of paper. His specialty using currency, specifically, US dollar bills. See a much larger sample of his work at The Design Inspiration. (via FAZED)


Dollar Scorpion


Dollar Koi

Technorati tags: origami, Won, Park, dollar

Take all the wheels you want, but ride all the wheels you take.

These bicycle ballet guys are talented and all, sure. But if they're not going to even use the front wheels... man, that's just wasting wheels. (via Epic Win FTW)

Technorati tags: bicycle, bike, ballet

Suddenly I'm feeling a lot better about my combo helmet-hair/ windshield-sized glasses senior photos

The 23 Best Class of 2010 Senior Portraits





Technorati tags: senior, portraits, wtf

Putting the WIN back in swing

A programmer named Tristan wrote a bit of Python code that takes any music file and makes it swing. It works by taking each beat and time-stretching the first half while shortening the second half. The Police's "Every Breath You Take below, but see the Music Machinery write-up for a whole bunch of other examples, including "Enter Sandman" and "Sweet Child O' Mine".

Every Breath You Take (swing version) by TeeJay

Technorati tags: swinger, swing, python, hack, music, Tristan

R2-DJ

Eclectic Method - Robots from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

From Robby the Robot to R2-D2 to Eve and WALL-E, Eclectic Method mashes up some robo-tronica. (via Popped Culture)

Technorati tags: robots

Save money. Live better. Buy alligators.

16 Items They Only Sell At Chinese Wal-Marts

Technorati tags: Walmart, China

Morning Jukebox

I've always loved the cover of Jimmy Cliff's "Johnny Too Bad" as done by Steve Earle and The V-Roys, and occasionally will play it when I'm on the radio*. Here they are performing on the UK show "Big Mouth" from 1996.

*Every other Wednesday night 9-midnight EDT. I'll be there 5/19/10, so pop on over if you so inclined and give a listen and a shout!

Technorati tags: Steve Earle, V-Roys, Johnny, Too Bad

Here's my card....

After fake sunglasses catchers [see below] and fake ping-pong ball stunts [see below the below] of the past, are we really to believe that the Master Business Card Thrower is for real? (via Epic Win FTW) [see belowest]







Technorati tags: business card, throwing, sunglasses, ping pong ball

Just adding chocolate chips isn't gonna cut it anymore

Jim likes to make pancackes for his three-year-old daughter, Allison. She seems to like them, but, being three, she probably doesn't really care too much.

Jim's Pancakes (via The Presurfer)

Technorati tags: pancakes

You can't spell SCIENCE without TRUTH... oh, wait. Yes you can.

Just about anything sounds believable when you say it with confidence and simple pictures. Fake Science teaches you everything you need to know to fail your next science exam.







Technorati tags: fake, science

It really was their final answer

They’ve applied to be a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, they’ve flown to New York from all over the country, they’ve passed the screening exams, they’ve earned a chance at the Fastest Fingered Question, they’ve won the FFQ and now they’re sitting in front of the audience and the cameras ready for their chance at $1,000,000. The excitement within them is building, this money is going to change their lives forever…here they go…first question….

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire First Question Fails

Technorati tags: duh, TV, Millionaire, fail

Morning Jukebox

Mika, for when you want to listen to Queen but you're tired of all of Queen's songs. Mika - Grace Kelly

Technorati tags: Mika, Grace, Kelly

Oh look! It's Mr. Manfrenjensenjen from Winchestertonfieldville!

I was talking with my sister recently and somehow the subject of fake, obviously made-up names came up. The wonderful timesuck that is TV Tropes has a whole category devoted to the phenomenon entitled:

The Unpronounceable Alias
One of our heroes is traveling or acting under false pretenses, and is asked for their name when they'd really rather not give it. Unprepared for this, they quickly stammer something that's barely a word at all, let alone a name. If it's supposed to be a full name, it often ends in "the Third".

A few examples below, but you should read the entire page (good luck stopping after you get started -- I have lost entire afternoons to TV Tropes).

In Mr. Deeds Winona Ryder's character, an investigative reporter, makes up a false identity in order to investigate Longfellow Deeds. When Deeds asks where she's from, she hesitantly makes up the town of Winchestertonfieldville, Iowa. Unfortunately, the plan backfires when Deeds ends up taking her on a trip to her supposed childhood home in Winchestertonfieldville...

A Fish Called Wanda The rather dense Otto is attempting to explain to Archie Leach's wife just what the heck he's doing in her house. Part of his flimsy cover includes the alias Mr. Manfrenjensen...jen. When she picks apart his story, she idly repeats this pseudonym perfectly.

The Simpsons In the episode "The Last Temptation of Homer", Homer feebly suggests the alias "Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo". Unimpressed, Moe says it's the stupidest name he's ever heard. As a patron gets up and exits the bar, weeping, Barney calls after him "Joey Joe Joe...!"

Technorati tags: TV Tropes, fake, names, aliases

See You Next Wednesday, Right Here In The Trunk

Apparently Tarantino likes the Inside-The-Trunk point of view shot quite a bit. The Blogger software is being a bit obstinate and I'm feeling a bit dense as I can't get the pic to display in full size. Click it to enlargify.
(via Cynical-C)




John Landis has directed any number of 70s and 80s movie classics (Kentucky Fried Movie, Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf In London to name but a few). Landis has several recurring motifs he includes in many, though not all, of his movies. In-the-know moviegoers look for these little Easter Eggs that more often than not appear in his films.

See You Next Wednesday
Landis' most well-known running gag is a reference to See You Next Wednesday, which is usually in the form of a fictional film mentioned within the actual movie. The See You Next Wednesday blog lists at least 14 John Landis films that reference it.

A surprising number of other recurring motifs make it into his films, including references to King Kong, Oldsmobiles, cameos of other directors and others as well. A more complete listing here.

Technorati tags: film, movies, directors, Tarantino, Landis, See You Next Wednesday, trunk, motifs

Morning Jukebox

A great horn-filled soul cover of Wilco's "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" by Chicago's JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound.

Technorati tags: JC Brooks, Wilco

I can do that! Come back next January and I'll prove it!

Only two people have managed the whole walking on water trick. One lived about 2000 years ago. The other was Ric Ocasek circa 1984. These guys seem to be trying to get into the club. Real? Probably not, but still interesting. (via YesButNoButYes)

The Jesus Lizard manages to pull off this seemingly impossible feat on a daily basis.






Toad The Wet Sprocket - "Walk On The Ocean" (1991)




Violent Femmes - "Jesus Walking On The Water"

Technorati tags: water, walking, tagname, tagname, tagname, tagname

You, circa 2030

In 20 Years lets you upload a picture of yourself and, using age progression technology, let you see what you will look like (maybe) in 20 years. (via The Presurfer)

Technorati tags: 20 years

Morning Jukebox

Cheesy yet fun video from Klymaxx, "The Men All Pause". Are you sure all those guys aren't staring and slackjawed because of the keyboardist's somewhat frightening fe-mullet?

Technorati tags: Klymaxx, Men All Pause

Stands for... Bastard Profiteers?

Thanks, BP! (via Boing Boing)




Oh, wait. Maybe BP's master plan was just to calm down the waves a little bit...

Technorati tags: BP, oil, spill, tshirt, water

Suspicious Package

TSA screeners deploy "nude" body scanners in a professional, competent manner.

Just kidding, they get in a fight after making fun of each others' penis size.

Technorati tags: mine's bigger

Morning Jukebox

Randy Newman - "Louisiana 1927"

Technorati tags: Randy, Newman, Louisiana, 1927

A whole lotta awesome

Thanks to Neat New Stuff on the Net, I just discovered 1000 Awesome Things (how did I miss it?) and am going through some entries from the past two years with a big stupid grin on my mug.

1000 Awesome Things is just a time-ticking countdown of 1000 awesome things. Launched June, 2008 and updated every weekday. April 2010 saw the release of the 400-page hardcover, The Book of Awesome.

Some recent ones that made me say, "Yeah! That is awesome!":

#519 Glue Movies
Glue Movies are movies that you can't stop watching anytime you stumble across them on TV. For Mrs. Captnkurt, I would venture to say it may well be Overboard, a goofy rom-com from 1987 starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. I guess you can put me down for My Cousin Vinnie.




#558 Getting a stuck ball out of somewhere by using another ball
No further explanation necessary. It's just cool.

Technorati tags: 1000, Awesome, Things

Would you buy a used mobile home from this man?

I Love Local Commercials is run by a couple of guys named Rhett and Link. From their FAQ:

It's simple, you nominate a local business that you think is worthy of attention and, if it's one of the more inspiring entries, we'll help them get that attention. We'll do whatever it takes (funny songs, crazy antics, perhaps even some amateur pyrotechnics) to make the best local commercial on whichever side of the Mississippi you happen to reside.

The end results are hilarious commercials that may look and sound like SNL parodies, but they are the real deal. Here are a couple of examples. More can be found at ilovelocalcommercials.com.




These guys sell mobile homes. This is their commercial. Watch it. Or don't. Won't hurt them none... (via J-Walk)

Technorati tags: local, commercials

Morning Jukebox

Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken

Camera Obscura are an indie pop band from Glasgow, Scotland. This track is from their third album, Let's Get Out of this Country. I love the juxtaposition of bright, sparkly melody with really sad lyrics. The video translates that same vibe just perfectly as well. I think this YouTube comment I found from iamjackscolin under the video sums it up absolutely perfectly.

possibly the happiest sad-song I've ever heard

I alternate between wanting to run top speed through the streets of New York, and wanting to curl up on the floor of my closet and cry myself to sleep.

Technorati tags: Camera, Obscura, Camera Obscura