Archive for

June 2009

Bearded, semi-frightening infomercial star Billy Mays dead at 50

As if we hadn't lost enough beloved figures of American pop culture this week, pitchman Billy Mays was found dead this morning in his Tampa, Florida home. What is it with 50 year old guys dropping this week? That's only 20 years older than I am right now...Unacceptable...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529328,00.html

This is my favorite Mays remix video...I'll be playing it while pouring out a little Orange Glo is Mays' memory...Definitely look for a tribute on next week's TWIYT.  RIP Billy.

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Ricky Gervais Invents Lying, Hangs Out with Tina Fey and Louis CK

When I first read about Ricky Gervais (easily among my favorite living comedians) making a film with Louis CK, Tina Fey, Christopher Guest, Jeffrey Tambor, Jason Bateman, Patrick Stewart, John Hodgman and Jonah Hill, I knew it would be something I'd want to see.

Somehow, I'm still blown away by how funny and fresh this movie looks. It's an odd, abstract premise (in a universe where everyone is purely honest at all times, one guy figures out that he can lie without consequences) and it sounds gimmicky, but the jokes certainly seem to work. It could just be a perfect fit for Gervais' acerbic, smugly superior persona.

Here's hoping that Gervais has created his third masterpiece. This is now officially among my most anticipated films of the year.

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"Transformers 2" a lot like the first film, only longer, more shrill and with 20% more racism!

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Yes, yes, I haven't seen it. And probably never will. But according to reviewers and bloggers, the film features two minstrel-esque robots who speak with "urban slang," sport gold teeth and...wait for it...don't know how to read. Even the SCREENWRITERS are telling Film School Rejects that they are not thrilled with how the characters ended up, and insist that they had nothing to do with the gold tooth stuff.

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/orci-and-kurtzman-respond-to-claims-of-...

M.B., you've done it again.

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My nominee for Father of the Year (via @codeshaman)

Premise: You will be the dog walker hired by daddy (me) to walk Skittles. I will introduce you to the kids, and you will tell them you are going to help Skittles get her exercise when Daddy is too busy to walk her. At that point you will walk Skittles to your car and take her to her new family 20 minutes from my place. Then return holding just a leash. The story will be that Skittles broke free of the leash and took off. At this point prepare for crying, things being thrown at you, and possibly cursing. My kids are young and dramatic, their girls.

Pay will be $500. The job will take roughly 2 hours at best.

Folks, this is what I call parenting. Also, is anyone else wondering how his dead aunt managed to give the kids a cocker spaniel? Meddling families extend into even the afterlife! My God...has anyone told Tyler Perry? He could probably squeeze at minimum a tetralogy out of that.

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The business of killing Nazis is booming in the new Inglorious Bastards trailer...(via @pcnerd37)

Could I want to see this movie any more than I do right now? I'm not sure it's physically possible.

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Is it really that difficult to see the humor inherent in "Bruno"?

The film has not been screened for a large number of gays for a reason. Throughout the many private screenings [the filmmakers] have had, the reaction from gays has been almost uniformally one of alarm. It is not a scathing depiction of homophobia -- but a grotesque satire of homosexuality. BrĂ¼no is a sickening mixture of narcissism, fetishism and shallowness - and he is virtually the only gay representation in the movie. The 'homophobia' of the various straight men who he encounters and propositions, seems only natural when faced with such an odious sexual monster.

Why don't people understand comedy?

Listen, this is VERY EASY. Sacha Baron Cohen's characters are not intended as direct insults to minority groups. CLEARLY. They are ridiculous over-the-top caricatures designed specifically to illicit a REACTION from people who don't know better. By playing to every stupid, backwards stereotype Americans have about homosexuals (particularly European homosexuals), Cohen teases out prejudices that most bigots would not typically reveal to a movie camera.

You don't even have to have seen the "Bruno" film to know this. (I haven't seen it). This is what Cohen's characters ALWAYS DO, and it's what Bruno did on the old (ingenious) episodes of "Da Ali G Show." It's PATENTLY OBVIOUS. In fact, what makes the movies so hilarious is that the character is SO OBVIOUSLY a joke, a silly collection of quirks that could only be created by a comedian playing a prank on dumbasses.

The same thing happened when "Borat" was released in 2006...Simpletons complained that it was offensive to American immigrants or people from Central Asia. It's not. Try to get jokes, people...It makes them more funny.

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In 2012, a bunch of skyscarpers will fall down and John Cusack will protect his family, just as the Mayans predicted...

Seriously, is the "end of the world" really just going to be the collapse of a bunch of high-rises? Because that's about all that happens in this trailer. Apparently, if you live in Nebraska, you're going to be totally cool.

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