More Toys for Tink!

For a cat vs. mouse video, I think this has some notable production value. The low angles combined with a come-hither kitty stare add up to an all-around entertainment.

Roommating: The Series

Anyone who's ever had a random roommate can relate to this series about the trials of sharing the same apartment and the same remote control.

Internet Party

This week, I was slapped in the face by the popularity of Cracked.com Internet Party video. As a noob to the tech game, I assumed that no one outside of this 7by7 square mile city knows or cares about the dozens of video sites that allow you to search by pet name, favorite color, or most inappropriate moment.

Marvel vs DC

More brilliant than the concept behind this "Get a Mac" ad parody, is the way that the superheroes are able to embody the confidence and charm of the original Mac vs. PC characters. There is something sad and slightly lonely about our Superman (DC). Even though he is a popular and historically loved superhero, DC is vulnerable to younger, sleeker, hipper upgrades. And that’s when this hotshot, oldie but never-fully-appreciated goldie (Marvel) comes to town, saving the geeks from impending browser-crashing doom. Over time, the cyberworld grows to rely on Spidey more and more by the day. Poor PC... Umm, I mean DC. He may never be the reigning super power again.

The Landlord

Appearing on Ask a Ninja about a month ago, Farrell is one of the first A-list comedians to show the community that he is not above web comedy. His new sketch, The Landlord, also exhibits the web potential to allow popular personalities to express themselves, uncontrolled and uncensored.

Operation Kitten Calender

This short aired as part of VH1's acceptable.tv series last Friday. I think it is brilliantly executed and the idea is so true-to-real-life it’s amazing. The December kitty calendar fold is always the most outrageous. And lets not forget... incredibly CUTE!

Douche

The only thing funnier than lame niche products ads is watching other people make fun of them. This hilarious spec ad by Superdeluxe creators, The Post Show, is a brutally realistic take on the Douches that wear too much men’s cologne.

Puppet Rapist

Like Sesame Street gone horrible wrong, Waverly Films creates an f’ed up world where puppet and people live in murderous dismay. Airing on Channel102 last year, this googley-eyed puppet drama is dark variation on the classic crime serial.

Happy Morning

To kick off 2007, I want to flashback to my favorite example of commercial insanity from the oh-so-far-away year that was 2006. This Folgers ad features freakishly happy townies cheerfully singing praises of morning. Emanating a brilliant yellow light, these happy singers remind me of something I once saw on the Teletubbies.

The spot features happy oompa-esque creatures creeping into bedrooms and bringing the joys of coffee. And the website that accompanies this ad campaign is equally as absurd. With helpful services, such as a Boss Tracker, an automated morning email response, and a personal wake up call, Folgers seems to have noticed that not only do we need coffee to wake up -- we need the blinds drawn and the sheets pulled off of our beds.

Slob Evolution

A response to the wildly popular Dove Evolution campaign, this video deconstructs the sharp, emaciated features of a male model. Watch as the rocker-esque model transforms into “that guy” who lives next door and never leaves the sofa.

Would you really want to see an ad for this lard-o plastered across your fair city? Created by the campaign against real life, this viral argues that consumerism has created the current standard of unattainable beauty. In reality, nobody wants to see the guy next door, except when he is getting the morning paper and cordially saying hello. So maybe, just maybe, the computerized falsehoods that advertisements project are in everyone's best interest....

Jetset

Created by Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf, Jetset is a weekly teen culture web show that highlights cool and often geeky things found on and offline. Dedicated to using web vision as a communication tool, Jetset focuses “on teen life and interests as it relates to today's global online culture.”

Though the show may target to teens, there is some thing universal about Jetset’s quality programming that appeals to a much larger audience. By combining issues of insecurity, angst, and morality with a fun-fictional vibe, Jetset makes note of important issues without preaching or talking down the people who may suffer from them.

A great example of the “actions speak louder than words” attitude of the show can be found in their latest episode. Zadi and Steve address personal debt and video game addiction in such a fictionally disguised manner that I barely caught on to the implications. Personally, I thought the video game detox sequence was brilliant. And with the Wii and the new Xbox coming out this holiday season, I may have to enlist some of my friends. Click here to watch

Give My Regards to Doogie

Good thing Doogie came out of the closet, because this musical outburst on The Megan Mully Show may have raised a few eyebrows otherwise.

Who knew that my favorite drunk from Will and Grace had her own daytime Talk Show? Or that it was still on the air? The show claims to combine the classic talk and variety shows and feature a mix of celebrities, real people, music and comedy. And this clip that includes CBS's How I Met You Mother’s cast proves all of the above.

Earlier this week, Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel broke out in operatic song, performing "Confrontation" from Les Miserables. With very little encouragement needed to convince these seasoned actors to put on a show, I love how seriously the duo belts out their favorite show tune. A big fan of Segal on Freaks and Geeks, I couldn’t stop laughing at his serious, quasi-professional performance.

I’m to Busy Blogging

This short is hilarious, mostly because it is my life - and probably the life of any other online editor – in a nutshell.

Who would've ever thought blogging was this hectic? There have definitely been times that I've ignored the world because I was “blogging.” Fashion trends come and gone, major news broken, celebrities walked by, and I was too busy to notice.

Even more ridiculous is the tone in which this guy says the word “blogging;” he says it like eight times in one minute and I just couldn't stop laughing. “Um..sorry, I’m blogging.. can’t you do that I’m blogging…Send that to my voicemail. I’m blogging here.” So funny. Also, who in the internet biz actually wears a suit any more? My suggestion: put on some jeans and some Chucks and get a latte, Bud. Because in this web savvy world there is a whole lot of blogging to be done!

Nobody's Watching Friends

Does any one else feel gypped? I can’t believe that I spent 10 years watching the sitcom that Derek and Will highlighted in 90 seconds. In this hilarious short, the characters some how manages to establish all major plot developments and the characters reactions to them.

Nobody's Watching is a scripted web series conceived by Bill Lawrence, the creator of "Scrubs" and "Spin City." Originally intended for television, Nobody's Watching broke the two cameras and a stage sitcom and fleshed out the characters of Derek and Will, two young guys from Ohio who were so over television that they decided to make their own comedy show.

In this episode, Derek and Will play all of the characters in the Friend’s cast. Though all of quirky dramatizations are effective, the Jennifer Aniston bit cracks me up.


Related: Nobody's Watching the Emmys

Smokung Fu

Who needs gum or a patch, when you can have your very own Kung Fu master to help you kick that dirty little habit.

First of all, any PSA with a man dressed up as a big fat cigarette with a cloud of smoke billowing from the top, will grab my attention. But when you mix a nicotine-clad man with a Karate master, you are just asking for trouble.

Via NoFatClips:

A PSA sponsored by California Department of Health Services. The spot was directed by Kevin Donovan (the director of The Tuxedo) at Form.

I will admit that in general, I have noticed that there are far less smokers in California than in New York. (Note: I feel like when you move to Manhattan, the local gov. gives you a complimentary carton and teaches you to inhale).

But after watching this video, I almost want to start smoking so that I can have my own Kung Fu master to help me quit.

New Simpsons Movie Trailer

In a time when computer animation brings us worlds of unsurpassed beauty, one film dares to be ugly.
With the rising trend in animation being glossy comedies such as A Sharks Tale and the Bee Movie, this trailer for The Simpsons movie reminds 3D hungry consumers that some cartoons are better left undone.

Perhaps having realized the lucrative market for animated films in which talking cartoon creatures, voiced by celebrities, have touching and hilarious family-saving adventures, the good people behind The Simpsons finally get around to bringing Springfield to the big screen.

With clips from the new film circulating online, the official trailer aired on Fox yesterday during The Simpsons episode. My favorite part is when Homer is stuck between a rock and a hard place!

There is No "I" in Halloween

It's not easy being vampire pimp. This is actually a party invite for a Birthday Bash I went to a few weeks ago, but I love the vid and it makes me excited for Halloween.



A true tale about the dark creators that lurk in the night. My first thought, this dude looks like Christian Bale. And in this amazing vamp pad, he might as well be.

I may have watched this vid about a half dozen times since the party to get me in the mood for Halloween. And let it be known that being from Massachusetts, I take the holiday's cross dressing and ghost scaring seriously. People have died over this stuff.

When the hunky vamp pulls the fake vamp teeth out of his pocket, I almost died. A subtle spoof on "protection," he converts his hot lady friend for some all-out sloppy smooching. I could go on for another graph or so about the numorous reason that I love this video, but since I actually know these guys, I'm both partial and slightly nervous of them knowing my twisted inner thoughts.

I hear that originally there was a three in a half minute version that was just as spooktacular. I'm trying to convince them to let me have a sneak peek at the unreleased version. Love these guys!

Please comment and tell me what you think!

Lil' Bush "Nuked" Episode

I wish that Bring your Child to Work Day was this distructive when I was a kid.



Usually, I was stuck in some conference room with a TV and a handful of Disney movies on VHS.

This animated series created by Amp'd Mobile features all the spoils and world domination plots that one would expect of Bush as a child. And even better, it miniaturizes all the
President's closest political confidants and makes them his playmates.

The concept of such well-known national figures being recreated as younger versions of themselves reminds me of the animated TV show Clone High. The series, which lasted on MTV for less than half a season, featured such historical big wigs as Abraham Lincoln, Cleopatra, and Gandhi and put them in high school together. Arguably the most brilliant shows ever created for MTV! Currently in it's second episode, I hold lil' Bush in equally high regard.

My personal highlights of this episode are when Bush gets bullied in school by Kin Jung Il, the inability of the Cheney's to utter a comprehensive thought, and Bush bombing lil' Mikey Moore and the Blue States.

For more lil' Bush check out the pilot titled "hot dogs".

Nobody's Watching the Emmys

Look what happens when Nobody's Watching. I think these guys may have managed to get more camera time than the winner's themselves.



After making it their mission to "get on television as much a possible," Derrick and Will, two ordinary looking guys, disguise themselves as valets and take over the Emmy’s.

When I came across this video on Google, I had a sneaky suspicion that it wasn't child's play. How would these vlogers manage to get the clearances and get the inside the Emmy's and acquire the costumes to pull of this stunt?
After following a few links, I cracked the mystery: must be easy to place yourself just inside of frame of action with the help of NBC.

The creator of "Scrubs" and "Spin City" is the brain behind the characters. Nobody's Watching is another scripted web series.

According to the invisible plot, Derrek ans Will were two "nobodies" working at the family mini-mart in Ohio. Bored of the options that television had to offer, these fictional character posted a video addressed to the TV networks on YouTube. According to their Myspace page, "somebody at NBC must have liked it, because a week later they flew us out here and gave us a bunch of money to make Webisodes."

In retrospect, I realize that I have noticed these guys before. Nobody's Watching Diet Coke and Mentos has been on the most watched videos page for the past few days. And I remember having a similar pang of internal questioning ie How did they make the fire look that good?

The explosive spoof is one of seven videos included on impytherap's (aka Nobody's Watching) YouTube profile that is currently climbing the ranks of popularity:
#4 - Most Viewed Channels (This Week)
#16 - Most Viewed Channels (This Month)
#29 - Most Subscribed Channels (All Time)

So before we have another Who Are They and Where Did They Come From mystery on our hands, let it be known that this playful duo that everybody's watching is a corporate creation.

For more info:
The New York Times wrote an article about Nobody's Watching a few months ago.
Or check out the official website, too see what else happens when Nobody's Watching.

White and Nerd

For most pop culture artists, it would be difficult to keep a niche genre alive twenty three years after they started it.



But Weird Al takes Chamillionaire's popular song "Ridin (Dirty)" and transforms it into cult-worthy comedic farse.

Best known for song parodies, Yankovic's cheeky humor is most effective when contrasting the style of the song with its content or when pointing out trends that have become pop culture clichés. "White in Nerdy" is from "Weird Al" Yankovic's new album "Straight Outta Lynwood" that's available in stores Sept. 26.