Nuckin Futs- A JibJab Year In Review

The latest addition to the JibJab pop culture collection proves that the world is, indeed, Nuckin Futs.If you were cryogenically frozen earlier this year and just woke came out of a deep-seeded coma, JibJab’s “Year in Review” will guide you through '06. Google buying YouTube, Brangelina reproducing, and the Dems winning the Senate -- this elaborate animated dance number has it all... Read more

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

Rolling Rock's Gone Ape

When Bud and MGD are bigger sellers and can afford the high price of TV spots, what is a small higher-quality brewery to do? With excessive competition in the funny, original beer ads category, Rolling Rock's answer was to cause controversy.

Last week, Rolling Rock posted this funny, bikini-clad advert for Rolling Rock on the web. To get consumers looking for the ape spot, the brewing company also started to run an ad on TV that pretended the ape spot had created controversy.

My personal qualm: The web ad isn't nearly provocative enough to be pulled from television. I feel like people who go to the web looking for this ad will feel gypped, by its friendly and not even mildly offensive nature.

Walmart's Selling Hipster T-shirts with Nazi Emblem

Have you ever pulled an image from the web without knowing its origin, historical or otherwise? I certainly have.

Recently, a blogger from Maryland, realized that a skull t-shirt being sold at Walmart was actually silk-screened image of “Death Heads.” Members of the German Nazi SS wore The Death’s Head -- an historic image of hatred that has been over-shadowed by the swastika -- symbol during WWII.

Aware that a media conglomerate won’t even sell CD’s with curse words on it, Rick, from the blog Bent Corner, informed the nearest employee of the history implications of the design. Apparently the employee didn’t think the shirt was that “big a deal” and was more bothered by shirts promoting the, "sexually promiscuous Smokey and the Bandit."

According to the Consumerist, four days after Walmart's PR firm promised the item's removal, the t-shirts bearing Nazi SS imagery could still be found on the shelves.

The news broke online late last week and I just happened to stumble across this video over the weekend. A sketch from Mitchell and Webb showcases the symbol and pokes fun at the origin of the Nazi emblem. Maybe the designer knew what he was doing after all.

The Papdits

CBS began streaming a new online comedy/reality hybrid show called The Papdits on its broadband channel Innertube. From the writer and producer of the Da Ali G Show, The Papdits is “a docu-comedy about a family from Kashmir and their interactions with Americans as they travel through the U.S.”

The comedy/reality pilot, written and produced by Ant Hines, is about a fictional family from Kashmir and the members' interactions with real Americans as they travel cross-country in their RV. The Papdits was originally developed for Fox in late '04. CBS planned revive the show last year but decided it wasn't a "mainstream show."

With the attention that Borat generated online prior to the film's release, it is only fitting that Hines’s prior work lives here in the viral “mainstream.”

Update: Full episodes that were availible on YouTube this morning have recently become private