Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

Mythbusters Public Service Announcement: Avoid Dropping Frozen Turkeys

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

Another Thanksgiving-related Public Service announcement: Try to avoid dropping a frozen turkey on your foot or your pets. You know, just in case you were planning on doing that for grins. At the very least you might want to wear shoes when you pull that sucker out of the freezer.

From the title, I was hoping they would recreate the turkey drop episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, but no such luck.

The Cthulhu Mythos, Played for Laughs

Saturday, November 17th, 2012

Dwight and I were watching episodes of Night Gallery, and in addition to the extremely good “They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar” (with a fine turn by the late William Windom), we also watched “The Last Lecture of Mr. Peabody,” in which a professor of comparative religion lectures on The Great Old Ones, including reading aloud from the Necronomicon, with somewhat predictable results. The Mythos is mostly played for laughs and in-jokes (including students named Lovecraft, Bloch and Derleth), but it may be the first time the name Cthulhu was ever mentioned on network television.

It’s a little broad, but it does have its charms:

The episode was written by Jack Laird, who seems to have adapted a number of Lovecraft stories for Night Gallery.

A deeper appreciation (and the nifty following screen grab) can be found here.

“Why Doesn’t MTV Play Music Videos Any More?”

Monday, November 12th, 2012

And here’s the very NSFW answer:

(Hat tip: Moe Lane)

Halloween Horrors: Brian Visits Hell

Sunday, October 21st, 2012

I checked out of Family Guy when it stopped being funny, which was shortly after the OJ Simpson episode. But I must admit, this shroomed-out Brian visiting his own personal hell is nicely creepy.

The moral: Drugs are bad, M’kay?

All Glory [ ]

Friday, October 19th, 2012

Random Google auto-completes that amuse me:

All glory…

  1. …is fleeting
  2. …to the Hypnotoad

Nothing Says “Punk” Quite Like Huey Lewis

Friday, May 18th, 2012

I know that when I think “punk,” Huey Lewis and Toni Basil are the first names that come to mind:

I can hardly wait for their forthcoming Heavy Metal collection with Simon & Garfunkel and The Bee Gees.

(To be fair, Devo were considered punk very early in their career, and Billy Idol at least dressed the part and came out of the same scene as The Sex Pistols. There’s a very amusing bit in Glen Matlock’s I was a teenage Sex Pistol in which a suddenly chastised Idol grows apprehensive over having wrecked his father’s car…)

(Hat tip: Iowahawk’s Twitter feed. )

Who better to throw out the first pitch than a horrifying, vengeful ghost?

Sunday, April 29th, 2012

Oh Japan, don’t ever change.

But there’s no reason this idea can’t succeed in the U.S. Why not have Freddy Kruger, Leatherface, Jason or Pinhead throw out the first pitch? Granted, this still wouldn’t be enough to get me to watch baseball…

In related news: Hello Kitty Ringu products.

FLCL on Blu-Ray for $18.99

Saturday, April 28th, 2012

We now interrupt this blog for some shameless huxtering: Amazon has the complete 6-episode run of the wonderful and completely insane anime series FLCL on Blu-Ray for $18.99.

This is probably my favorite anime series of all time. It’s weird, funny, and endlessly inventive. You spend 5 episodes thinking “This is great, but it makes absolutely no sense!” And then you watch the sixth episode and go “Wait, it does make sense!” It really rewards re-watching.

It’s about a boy a who has a mysterious woman bump into and then start hitting on him. That is to say, bumps into him with her Vespa at full tilt and starts hitting on his head with her bass guitar. After that, giant robots come out of the resulting bump.

Then it gets weird.

It’s awesome. Trust me.

And if a paying media outlet wants an already completed review of FLCL that Locus Online passed on, please let me know…

Happy Birthday Carol Burnett!

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

She turns 79 today. How nice of Betty White to buy her a gorilla!

In celebration, here’s both parts of the classic “Went With the Wind!” skit.

Sure, Burnett has been immortalized on stage, screen, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But has she been given her own Barbie doll?

The answer is: Yes. yes she has, with the official Went with the Wind! Barbie Doll:

Troy McClure Film, or Actual Bad Movie?

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

A more difficult quiz than you might think.