Category: Funny Stuff

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Funny Stuff Television & Movies

Behold, a stop-motion child is born!

It's a WTF? Christmas!Maybe it’s just because I’ve been sick as a dog and still wearing myself out running around chasing the boy, but somehow Christmas just hasn’t settled into my mental landscape as a reality this year. I know it’s only about a dozen days out, but for some reason this year it’s just not “real” for me. This isn’t a “bah humbug” thing, but more of an “oh well” thing. It’s there, I’m aware of it, but that’s about it.

If there’s one thing that has gotten me almost in the Christmas mood this year, it’s been ABC Family’s relentless showing of every Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas special…ever. They’re showing stuff that I’ve never even heard of, and here I thought I was a consummate fan of that particular sub-genre of Christmas special. Some of the stuff is just about Krofft Saturday Supershow trippy, shoehorning Christmas imagery into bizarre quasi-pagan-new-age storylines. I’ve seen no fewer than three completely different “origin stories” for Santa produced by Rankin/Bass. Heck, there was even one I’d never heard of before that jammed Leprechaun legends into a Christmas story – one begins to sense the faint sound of the bottom of the barrel being scraped. But it’s all good fun.

I’m not sure what to think of this new special airing tonight that’s supposedly produced in Rankin/Bass style; I’ll have to wait and see. If they pull it off without even a CGI assist, then I say bravo – they will have single-handedly resuscitated a style of filmmaking that, if it wasn’t already dead, was at least on life support. If it’s just CGI animated to look like stop-motion, then…bleh. At any rate, they’d be hard pressed to match this loving tribute to the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials that aired way back in the first season of MadTV in the mid-1990s – you know, the season when it was good.

I remember this being a big hit when I was working at the Fox station at the time; around Christmas time, Marty Houston and I would sing the “we’ll get even” song incessantly around the building, and didn’t give a crap who was listening in. Good times.… Read more

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Funny Stuff Television & Movies

Everything you ever wanted to know about time travel in Star Trek explained.

In a recent exchange on Digital Press regarding J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie, I speculated that it might be possible, with Leonard Nimoy’s appearance in the movie, that the Chris-Pine-as-Kirk timeline might be set up as an alternate timeline, clearing the decks for whatever future adventures await and simultaneously preserving the Shatner-as-Kirk timeline and all that follows it. When I was told that this would be a continuity train wreck, this was my response:

Everything you ever wanted to know about time travel in Star Trek explained.

Any questions, class? 😛… Read more

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Funny Stuff Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Watching the manimals flee……

Seen in a localized ad window on Livejournal:
Animial Medical Clinic
…man, I hope they can get their money back on that ad.

In other news, to wrap up today’s marathon run of blawg entries, the Phosphor Dot Fossils DVD (wow, I haven’t talked about that in at least 20 minutes!) is now available at Digital Press Videogames in Clifton, NJ, where it made its in-store debut just in time for last weekend’s NAVA gathering. If you’re within the reach of the mighty DP store, go hit Joe and co. up for a copy.

Okay, no more bloggage until tomorrow. I promise.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Funny Stuff Gaming Home Base

Numerous random strings of written syllables

I’m in industrial-sized shitheaps of pain right now. Somewhere between Sunday and this morning, I did a number, probably a very large whole number, on my back. Sunday consisted of me working on the farm and doing a lot of lugging-around of the birthday boy and his copious haul of presents; today consisted of me moving at little as possible and repeatedly saying “ow.” I felt like I was just going to fall over ever time I had to pick Evan up today. I’ve taken lots of extra strength Advil just so I can keep moving/functioning enough to keep up with him, and even then, “keeping up with him” has consisted largely of “sitting/laying in the same general area where he’s playing.”

Thank God for the nice haul of nifty new toys; that’s made it possible to keep him concentrated in one area of the house. He got a little electronic basketball goal thing (which, being the little hacker that he is, he’s already figured out how to score infinite points without actually doing anything with the ball), and neato little steering wheel dealie with a little screen on it, which will run through the alphabet, counting 1-10, various songs, or just play a somewhat primitive driving game depending on what he does with the wheel, the horn, etc.; the steering wheel thing is really kinda cool. (I admit it, I played the little driving game while he was messing with the basketball goal today.) He also got a couple of shape-matching toys, new storybooks, and other goodies. His party, such as it was, went well for the most part; he was already tired by the time the birthday cake rolled out, so he was pretty chilled with everything. “Electronic steering wheel thingie? Cool….cool…”

In other news, AtariAge is having its first label contest in some time, for a new Atari 2600 homebrew called Lead. I had to download the latest public beta to see what the heck it was about, and found that it’s a really cool game with a very interesting take on in-game sound. So I’m going to enter my first AA label contest in 4+ years on this one – this would be a cool game to be a part of.

I’ve also entered a much goofier contest on doctorwhoforum.com, in which the rules are to make a funny single-panel “comic” using only action figures – and the only Photoshoppery allowed is to put text on the image. This is my entry, which only works if the “odd figure out” is recognized (it’s a Star Trek: First Contact Borg figure):

Cybermen vs. Borg

I’ll let you know if I win any Adipose. I’m pretty sure that I won’t, because the individual running the contest has made it clear that bonus points can be scored by playing to his interests and quirks, of which I, being mostly a lurker, was largely unaware. *shrug* Oh well. I’ve still got enough fat on board even if I don’t win any Adipose.

Back to gaming for a moment – I’ve actually been getting some gaming in lately, largely in preparation for PDF Level 2, but I’ve also been trying to write reviews for the site as I go. I’ve been on an Intellivision binge lately, so that’s not a bad place to start looking for recent reviews. I’ve even posted the (long overdue) first Aquarius game review. And it is, in fact, as bad a game machine as legend would have it.

Adipose gags aside, if I may say so myself, within the context of still being a short fat bald guy, I thought I was – relatively speaking – lookin’ good for Evan’s birthday party. I got a pair of slacks on that hadn’t fit me in five years, and dug out one of my favorite shirts, which now no longer looks like the buttons are going to burst open, Hulk-style, which is how it’s looked for the past couple or three years. I think I’ve got a good start. Chasing around after a toddler will probably help me lose another 30 pounds by the time he turns two. If I can just get my back straightened out, this whole fatherhood thing is a pretty healthy gig.… Read more

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Funny Stuff Music

I just thought you’d like to know that

liquid Q*Bert delivered hot - or at least disturbingly warm - and fresh to your doorOne of my antibiotics that I’m on turns my pee orange. And my sweat too. We’re talking bright orange. Melt down Q*Bert, pour him in the toilet, that’s what it looks like. Complete with @#%&*!.

Now there’s a point to this story. I went Sunday after my first doctor’s visit to procure the aforementioned orange-pee antibiotic from Walgreen’s. There were two pharmacists on duty, an older guy and a younger lady. He briefed me on side-effects, and as he was doing this she was walking toward the counter. His litany of affected bodily fluids got to “If you wear contacts, this’ll stain your contacts orange. If you sweat, it’ll stain your underwear orange.” To which I replied, “Well, I don’t wear contacts. But I do wear underwear.” [pause] “Most of the time.”

At the sound of that statement, the lady pharmacist very quickly turned on her heel and went back the other way. 😆 I went to the same store today to pick up more crap that had been prescribed to me, and lo and behold, she stayed right away from me for some reason…

I’m listening to the new “Peter Gabriel & Friends” album, and so help me, first thing on the album is one of these tracks that I’ve been wondering about for years, featuring Tim Finn. Actually, featuring Tim and Andy White, which might date their contributions back to their brief collaboration as ALT (Andy, Liam O’Maonlai, Tim) in the mid-90s. Given that not all of the songs on the album even feature Gabriel himself, my first impression was that some of these tracks were very literally dusted off so they could find a home somewhere. I’m not saying that the “guest artist” tracks are necessarily bad, but it’s perhaps not what you’re expecting when you’re enough of a fan that the words “new Peter Gabriel album” trigger that Pavlovian buying response. I also notice that there’s a lot of Karl Wallinger (World Party) on here – and rather fewer of Gabriel’s usual session players. And “Burn Me Up, Burn Me Down” finally gets a proper release…even though it was finished at the time of Up and damn well would’ve been a better lead single. Sorry, I know I’ve said that before. I’m just bitter.

And orange. Yes. Bitter and very, very orange.… Read more