Salon.com > L.c.

Aw

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:36:00 +0000

Some things are just black and white, and cuteness is one of them.

Aw

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 19:47:00 +0000

A fluffy head is a hard thing to hold up.

Teletubbies say “hey hey”

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:40:00 +0000

Demographic-shattering revelation: Squat Teletubby legs make great Hammer pants. In this Tubby clip dubbed over with "2 Legit 2 Quit," Dipsy shows off his fancy footwork. Is that a backup dancer in there?

Ministry of silly chops

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:10:00 +0000

If only all martial arts movies were filmed this way.

Buzzkill

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:17:00 +0000

Parents and regulators may not approve of Showtime's unsubtle ad campaign promoting the second season of "Weeds," but it took a bunch of thieving stoners to do something about it. Shortly after debuting on a New Zealand highway, a billboard sporting some giant dimebags filled with green moss had paraphernalia-craving passersby leaping for handfuls of the stuff. The security camera that brought us this highlight clip was meant to ward off vandals, but installing an oversized Tetris console might've been wiser. (Via Best Week Ever.)

Television war

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:18:00 +0000

This summer, a new brand of wartime violence is lighting up Iraq's TVs -- the kind filmed in front of a green screen on a Los Angeles studio lot. According to Newsweek, the L.A. production company 900 Frames and Lebanon's EFXFilms spent over $1 million shooting an anti-suicide bombing PSA aimed at potential attackers.

The ad simulates a busy outdoor market in Iraq before and after a suicide mission, followed by verse 5:32 from the Quran and the slogan "Terrorism has no religion." For a rough translation of 5:32, visit IslamiCity.

MacGeyser

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:32:00 +0000

Someone finally tried it. In a genre ruled by gags (for an example, see the next-to-last MoMENTOS video), one brave soul marched blindly into the darkness of digestive mystery to discover firsthand what really happens when you chug Diet Coke and then swallow Mentos. And it's not pretty.

But the judges over at the official Mentos Geyser Video Contest did not reward this man's generous act of self-experimentation. Their only thanks for his original research was to disqualify him for failing to use "caution and common sense" in creating his Mentos geyser, a verdict that cost him the year's supply of Mentos (and change of pants) that his service so richly deserves.

Aw

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 17:59:00 +0000

The goldfish whisperer.

Entropy awards

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 12:58:00 +0000

For this poor TV interviewer, it's hard to keep the conversation moving when the set won't stay still. Internet rumor places the show in Slovenia. Any other guesses?

When a software glitch stalls a game of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" on German TV, the contestant is amused, but our heavy-jowled host looks as if he's been caught onstage in his underwear.

The Microsoft Office

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:24:00 +0000

Tongue-in-cheek training videos are all the rage these days. Earlier this year, Microsoft U.K. commissioned David Brent, aka "The Office's" Ricky Gervais, to talk about his business expertise in faux-inspirational videos for Microsoft employees. "Office" co-writer and co-director Stephen Merchant plays the company straight man, asking the questions and fixing Brent with a puzzled stare. The two videos have been set loose on the Internet, likely their intended home all along. Any Microsoft U.K. employees out there who know if they were shown to staff?

Project run away

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:47:00 +0000

Before "Project Runway's" Vincent Libretti began cracking himself up by constructing dog outfits, he starred in this short film by Mark Steven Shepherd -- called "Are You In?" -- which opened the 2002 San Francisco Indie Film Festival. In it Libretti delivers a nasal but impassioned monologue about nanotechnology that could almost pass for Woody Allen doing a cable vs. DSL commercial -- until Libretti ends up bare-assed in a laundromat.

As one "Runway" fan on the Television Without Pity forums deftly put it, "Did Vincent create this wacky, loony on-camera persona to get the part ... or did he get the part because he really is a wacky loon? A puzzle wrapped in an enigma (but not pants)."

You can see the video here. (Via Defamer.)

Star wreck

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:38:00 +0000

At Comedy Central's roast of William Shatner Sunday night, Andy Dick's tongue was loosened by several vodka cranberries. But the actor's mouth didn't so much form incriminating words as visible streaks across the faces of his fellow roasters. More graphic than Dick's assault on Nichelle Nichols -- which even a well-deployed evening wrap couldn't suppress -- was George Takei's description of Shatner as a rich, chocolatey dessert. (Via the Hater).

Aw

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:03:00 +0000

More evidence that cats have mastered levers.

Republican potty

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:00:00 +0000

We're scoring a Jon Stewart trifecta today with this delicious clip on the macaca mess that Sen. George Allen, who is up for reelection, stepped into when he called one of his opponent's volunteers a racial -- or fecal? -- slur.

100-yard ‘stache

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 16:14:00 +0000

On a recent episode of "The O'Reilly Factor," Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera went from decrying Mel Gibson's critics to going after their own. Following a bout of showy restraint, they complained about the "corporate masters" who back "rappers" Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, as well as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Start the clip at 1m30s to skip the Mel recap.

Stephen Colbert, naturally, took Geraldo's complaint very seriously and called Jon onto "The Colbert Report" to demand an apology. It takes a big man to own up to his mistakes, and an even bigger mustache to erase them.

Sierra’s mysterious powers

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:29:00 +0000

A lot of commercial scenarios are far-fetched, except when they turn out to anticipate terror plots. This Sierra Mist ad, set at an airport security checkpoint, stars Michael Ian Black (who is way less pissed off than air travelers were Thursday) and the redoubtable Kathy Griffin.

Perhaps the unimaginative Department of Homeland Security should hire Sierra Mist's (or even McDonald's) prescient ad team to stay on top of terrorist threats. (Via Consumerist.)

Aw

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 01:50:00 +0000

Cats necking.

Leaders who lunch

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 13:29:00 +0000

We meant to post this last week. But now, with our president again off on vacation during a dangerous time, we wonder again: Is he really in fighting shape? Jon Stewart pursued the subject in depth.

Seeds of rebellion

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 19:13:00 +0000

There's a new school of backyard pyrotechnics in these parts. Making watermelons explode is an ideal summer pastime perhaps rougher than Diet Coke and Mentos but still rewarding in its gory, colorful and harmless carnage. What better way to vent one's heat-induced rage than to take it out on an innocent fruit?

With this craze, YouTubers are advancing in a veritable farmer's-marketplace of ideas. By exchanging and testing adventurous methods -- from crude bundles of sparklers to the more delicate (and harder to come by) liquid nitrogen -- they're letting us in on the latest in fruit-stand firecrackers. First up: the nitro.

Dry ice.

The firecracker.

Game on

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 15:57:00 +0000

Video-game retailer Game Crazy had more than players in mind when it shot this training video for new employees. It likes to think of its sales force as "doggs" who can load up their G.C. "playas" with lots of "20-inch chrome rims," or game accessories. Zelda Scott, the cherub-cheeked white woman Game Crazy hired to recite lines like, "I'm down here in the hizzouse, you know, the hizzy, with the G.C. posse to get the 411 on Game Crazy," does the best she can with her newscaster enunciation. (Note: This clip is the full 16 minutes, but Zelda's segment -- the highlight -- is at the very beginning.)

(Via Consumerist)