Charles Barkley hosted Saturday Night Live this weekend, and they had this Star Wars skit filmed and ready to go, but it was cut for time. It's supposed to be an outside-of-the-canon story featuring the "Mos Eisley Five" (who all look strangely familiar) negotiating for the release of a captured rebel pilot.
But the action comes to a standstill when Barkley points out a feature of most of the Star Wars movies that didn't make much sense. As if we have a shortage of those!
You know what they say, you can have the job done quickly, or cheaply, or well, but never all three. You'll be lucky if you can get two of those, so think carefully about the outcome you want most. And woe unto the employee who delivers good work quickly, because he's not only raising the expectations of his future work, he's also ruining standards for everyone else. In this case, he knows a lucky break can set you up for heartache later, because you can't count on lightning striking twice. Just ask any band that's known as a one-hit wonder. That's not quite comparable to office work, but you get the idea. This is the latest comic from Jeff Lofvers at Don't Hit Save.
In the fall of 2007, a simple animation about the difficulties of living with a cat hit the internet and became a sensation. It was a few months later, on March 4, 2008, that animator Simon Tofield signed up for a YouTube account, and things really took off for him and his cat. Today, Tofield posted this video to celebrate his channel's 10th anniversary. It's about a birthday cake only a cat could love.
It's a cake made of cat food! But the cat is going to act like a cat, whether it's a special occasion or not.
Things usually run smoothly at the Academy Awards ceremony aside from a few mispronounced names or, in one extreme case, when the wrong envelope was handed to the announcer.
But before the Oscars begin the Academy can really screws things up in a major way, especially when it comes to nominations, leaving some of the biggest names in Hollywood feeling burned.
These nomination-related mishaps began at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, when they revoked Charlie Chaplin's individual nominations for Best Actor, Writer, Director for a Comedy and Outstanding Picture for The Circus, fearing he would sweep all four categories.
They handed him a special Honorary Award for “for writing, acting, directing, and producing The Circus" instead, which made the whole ceremony seem like a big joke.
The Academy screwed up again in 1954 when they nominated the John Wayne western Hondo for Best Story without bothering to find out if it was an original story first.
They revoked their nomination after discovering Hondo was based on the Louis L'Amour story The Gift Of Cochese, which came out in 1952.
Albert Ostman was a lumberjack who decided to get into the gold prospecting business. He went to British Columbia in 1924, where he set up camp at Toba Inlet. That was when he was kidnapped by a Bigfoot, but he didn't tell his story to the public until 1957. It started when he noticed that things in his camp were taken or moved around while he was gone prospecting. That discovery can make you lose sleep.
Albert Ostman decided he was going to find out the guilty party’s identity and, instead of going to sleep, he stayed wide awake in his sleeping bag, with his rifle right by his side. Unfortunately, a hard day toiling for gold took its toll and Ostman quickly fell asleep. But not for long: he was jolted from his sleep by a sensation of being scooped up and carried away while still in his sleeping bag. In fact, that’s exactly what happened. For roughly three hours or so, Ostman was unceremoniously carried through, up, and down, the dark woods by something large and powerful. According to Ostman, he had heard stories of “the mountain Sasquatch giants” from Native American sources. Finally, the terror-filled trek came to its end. That much was made clear when the mighty creature relaxed its grip on the sleeping bag and let it drop to the forest floor.
When daylight came the next morning, Ostman found himself surrounded by a family of Sasquatch, which he described in detail. He managed to escape after six days. Read the story of Ostman's adventure with Bigfoot at Mysterious Universe. You can read Albert Ostman's complete account here. -via Strange Company
It seems like people are getting catfished more than ever since the movie Catfish came out in 2010, but that's probably just because people are more wary of being conned and they can now share their stories online.
However, if you find out the person you've been texting on Tinder who catfished you is an actual fishman would you share that story on social media?
This silly skit from The Late Late Show with James Corden may not be anywhere near as good as the Oscar nominated movie it's based on The Shape Of Water, but James Corden does look pretty cool in that fishman suit. Maybe it's time for a Creature From The Black Lagoon reboot starring Corden?
-Via GeekTyrant
While knowledge of natural remedies gets handed down from one generation to the next, you have to wonder about the first person to try opium, peyote, or coffee. Well, we know about coffee, which was consumed after a goat herder saw how it affected his flock. Maybe we picked up other remedies from the animal kingdom. Yes, animals have their own medicine, in a phenomenon called zoopharmacognosy.
The range of animals known to make use of medicinal materials is amazingly broad. To qualify as self-medication, the ingested material should not be part of the regular diet and should provide no known nutritional value. Dog lovers may be familiar with grass-eating, when our canine friends seek to soothe an upset stomach by eating indigestible plant material to induce vomiting. Other examples include certain types of parrots and macaws that eat clay to aid digestion. Some lizards feed on particular roots to help counteract snake venom. Pregnant lemurs have discovered the lemur version of prenatal vitamins, chewing particular leaves to aid milk production, labor, and reduce parasites. Brazilian spider monkeys take fertility-enhancing or contraceptive plants. Nor does self medicating need to be natural. Sparrows have been known to integrate cigarette butts into their nests, having somehow discovered that the nicotine residue impedes parasitic mites.
Dumb beasts, indeed! Read more about self-medication among animals at JStor. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: Flickr user Lennart Tange)
People love to tell dreamers that their heads are in the clouds, acting as if this is a bad thing, but isn't it better to keep your dreams alive and soaring high rather than letting your dreams die?
The drab gray monotonousness of modern life constantly threatens to drain the magic and wonder from a dreamer's life, so they turn to books to keep the magic and wonder alive in their minds.
And there's an instant connection when they come across a fellow dreamer who shares their passion for literary escape, so who can blame them for falling head over heels in love with their fellow dreamer?
The Blue & The Beyond is a sweet animated short directed by Youri Dekker and created by students from San Jose State University, with an art style that's just as sweet as the storyline!
A slight shift in communication can make a completely different impression. A woman can raise the pitch and draw out the syllables, and suddenly the man talking to her feels he is smarter, stronger, and more protective. We don't know how long women have used a false voice to give the people around them a curated presentation of their personalities, but we have evidence going back as far as sound recording, and particularly movies. An example is given from a Saturday Night Live skit a few weeks ago that spoofed the TV show The Bachelor.
Most of the cast members depicting the contestants adopted a certain speaking style: monotonous, with elongated ending syllables and a lot of vocal fry, in line with the voice associated with “ditzy” girls today. But host Jessica Chastain’s interpretation was slightly different: her voice had a higher pitch and a little more musicality—more AMC than ABC. Though it sounded old-fashioned, it was clearly recognizable as part of a library of voices women have pulled from over the years to play silly, sappy, or simpering women.
A version of this voice has existed since sound met film and, in a way, since a little before that. Actresses of early film played mostly damsels in distress or wide-eyed young women, and by the time talkies took over, women were still portrayed as less headstrong, more head-in-the-clouds. “The 1920s had a serious case of the cutes,” notes Max Alvarez, a New York-based film historian. “There is a prevalence of childlike women in the popular culture [at the time] … Girlish figures, girlish fashion, girlish behavior.” Along with these girlish figures came a girlish voice—high-pitched, a bit breathy, and a little bit unsure, evident in Clara Bow’s pouty purr, and even Betty Boop’s singsong.
While the type of vocalizations that signal "sexy but dumb" have changed a bit over time, it is always recognized by the audience. Read about the 'ditz' voice and how it evolved in film at Atlas Obscura.
Saturday Death by Dingul Dingul
There are those who say partying your life away is a waste of time, but what if dancing, socializing and partying is what makes you happiest in life? If that's the case then you'd better party like it's your last day among the living! Now there are those who will tell you that such a lifestyle leads to ruin, but look at all the good it has done for the Grim Reaper- that guy used to be a total stiff, but now he's one lean, mean party machine!
Take a lifetime of fun with you wherever you go by wearing this Saturday Death t-shirt by Dingul Dingul, it's the perfect attire whether you're gonna go boogie at a club or simply hang with a few friends at home.
Visit Dingul Dingul's NeatoShop for more drop dead delightful designs:
| Nakatomi Gene | Oh Sole Meow | Geek Cola | I just want to die |
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It's sad to think how many of the things we wish for in life will stay forever out of reach, and it's even sadder to think how much this knowledge screws with our lives.
We're told those things we wish for will be ours if we just stick to a schedule and work our butts off, but this is shown to be a lie because no matter how hard we work our bank accounts never seem to be full enough to make those dreams come true.
And as this strip from Heck If I Know comics shows that's why life is better in dreams kiddies, sleep tight!
-Via Geeks Are Sexy
In the latest episode Lucas the Spider, the adorable little arachnid discovers a huge creature living in his house. He doesn't know what it is, but suspects it may be a polar bear. Is he afraid of it? Not nearly enough.
This video has a guest star, Dexter, who animator Joshua Slice assures us is spider-friendly. -via Tastefully Offensive
See more of Lucas the Spider.
You know how small towns love to hold an annual festival centered around a unique theme? Near where I live, there's the Daniel Boone Festival, because he came through the mountains there, and the Chicken Festival, centered around the home of Kentucky Fried Chicken. There are a lot of places where their biggest claim to fame is that a movie was filmed there. If it was a popular movie, the festival can draw a substantial crowd of fans from far away.
Blobfest is a bona fide vintage film festival, although that one movie is shown every year. Read about quite a few other fan festivals based on movies you can attend across America and elsewhere, at Cracked.
If you got a perverse kick out of the video Unsatisfying, you will like Life is Pain. Otherwise, you might feel some pain, but it's a relatable pain. YouTuber 4096 RED illustrates common experiences of modern life, painful as they may be.
In the grand scheme of things, none of these things are important. They could even be classified as "first world problems," but as everyday annoyances, they are shared by people far and wide. By the way, those chopsticks are still perfectly usable. -via reddit
R.L. Stine is a master of taking classic horror tales and their monster stars and made them feel fresh and new again, and he's also a master of making adult horror suitable for a young audience without defanging them.
Stine is clearly quite a creative fellow, so it's only natural that such a creative guy would come up with equally creative titles for his books like "Say Cheese and Die!", "Be Careful What You Wish For..." and "My Hairiest Adventure".
But let's face it- these titles aren't totally honest about the material presented in the story.
Which is why Andrew Bridgman came up with more honest titles for all 62 original Goosebumps books, titles that are largely based on the cover art but still perfectly fitting for each story, like this book "Deep Trouble".
That really is just a shark, it only appears briefly in the story, and the main creature in the book is actually a tentacled sea monster, so yeah- not a monster, just a f#$king hammerhead shark.
See If All 62 Original Goosebumps Books Had Honest Titles here (NSFW language)
