Game

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Marvel at these horrifying theme songs

A few years back, I got into the habit of watching old episodes of the 1966's Hulk from Marvel Superheroes created by Grantray-Lawrence Animation and laughing at how clunky some of the exposition is, but something else stuck with me ever since. The theme music wasn't good. Yeah, it gave a nice overview of the Hulk origin story, but it really isn't memorable for the right reasons.

So I decided to see if I could find some of the other title sequences from that series and the other Marvel series from the 1960's, and they are almost all equally corny. Since I am really quite the neophyte when it comes to comics, from watching these intros, I still have no idea what the storylines of some of these are so I can't comment on accuracy.

Iron Man
Mighty Thor
Sub-mariner
Captain America

And when you compare those ones with the big dog, Spiderman, they come off sorely lacking. I bet if you were in a public place and just started humming the theme from Spiderman, other people would join in, because it is just that damn catchy, is it not. It is still corny, but man, it really sticks with you. It truly is one for the ages.

As a point of interest, I found a site that has the theme songs from a lot of the cartoons from the past, which really gave me a frame of reference for this whole thing.

Monday, October 8, 2007

An Open Letter to the Nations of the World regarding insults

I am sure by now everyone has heard about the joke about the Philippines on Desperate Housewives that led to a huge furor, and it reminded me of the controversy and lawsuit surrounding the Brazilian-based episode of The Simpsons.

Somehow I think these efforts are ill-advised. Yes, there may be some hurt feelings, and people may have been offended, but complaining and bringing lawsuits against the producers of television shows that made a statement or insinuation that you didn't like in a comedic way isn't the best course of action.

These communities should do what Canadians do... we don't get mad, we just get even.

Did you hear any stories about Canadians complaining about the episode of the show that took the family to Toronto and Bart and Milhouse joining the Canadian Basketball team, or that the Canadian kid Gordy in You Only Move Twice being in the slow class? Or Canadians being upset about being the theme of an Oscar-nominated song by the South Park boys?

No.

What happens is our comedians and sitcoms take some shots back, and despite our reputation as being such nice people, we are absolutely merciless when it comes to the burn.

For example, the CBC sends Rick Mercer down to Washington or another major American city, and makes people on the streets look like idiots. We give it back as good as we get and aside from an incident involving Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in Quebec, we don't get all up in arms about jokes made at our expense. We just dish it back... because that's how you win a putdown contest. You just have to be funnier than the person or group insulting you, and in large part, we are succeeding.

I think this is a lesson for every community out there that gets pissed off about a little jibe on a television show about their country of origin... just burn America back and everything will be good. I mean, in real life, if you tease someone and they get all upset about it, you want to tease them some more, don't they?

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Thank you to Semaj for the inspiration behind this post.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Sunday Night Video: Do you do Poison?

I was watching Hot Fuzz again over the weekend and I decided to go to youtube to see if I could find any more of Olivia Colman's work, and I discovered some sketches from a show called Bruiser, which had a particular character with psychotic tendencies.

I absolutely love the pacing of this sketch.

The importance of pause

I have come to appreciate that most important button in an airplane is 'pause.' This is especially the case for long-haul flights. Whatever you are using to watch a video requires this. Not only can this allow you to go to the bathroom or sort out any food thrown your way, it is the only way to deal with the constant interruptions of children. It is the key to sanity.

This means you need a laptop, video iPod or video on demand system on the plane. Nothing else will cut it. All of the value lies in the 'pause' feature.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Battles Not Seen in Nature: A Culture Kills Comic

Another surreal one.

I love that blob character, love it. Thanks Strip Generator.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Week 21: Pageant of the Transmundane

Hello from the vast wastes of New Mexico... my, it does get cold here at night. Anyway, it is another Friday night, which means, it is time for another Awards ceremony.

Without further ado, I give you the award winner.

Emma is a collector of odd things in her haven of Fed By Birds, and I was truly unnerved by this creepy video of a starling talking.

First of all, I didn't know starlings could talk and secondly, the manner in which it is speaking is sort of robotic and creepy, like it is out of some weird British horror film. I mean, if there was a different soundtrack under its ramblings, and it was a little darker, I would the distinct feeling that something bad was about to happen to the person hearing its requests.

And because birds are involved, what better way to celebrate this bird-related win than with a picture of Homer Simpson with a murder of crows. I think it is quite fitting for the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award, don't you?

Congratulations Emma, and here is a badge for your site commemorating your win.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogosphere to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

The Clerks parody that needed to be made

There have been blends of Clerks with Star Wars, Snakes on a Plane, He-Man and as a Silent Movie

Of course, there was a re-imagining of Clerks was a long time in coming.

Heroes, a cartoon which has nothing to do with the NBC show, but does have a lot in common with Clerks, the Animated series.

Enjoy!