It is rather mind-blowing to try to think about the talent who have come and gone from the Simpsons studios over their stories history. From writers and voice-actors to celebrity guests, it is the longest running comedy show in history for good reason. Because it has been a consistently driving force in entertaining people for well over two decades now. But most people who love the Simpsons cannot help but think back to its golden age. The golden age of the Simpsons, for those who don't know, are when Conan O' Brien used to write for the show. Well, two nights ago "Simpsons Take the Hollywood Bowl" happened, and for those who don't know, one very special man showed up and did a very special song he had written for the show, many seasons ago. The monorail song, sung by none other than Conan O' Brien. Sorry the footage is a little shaky, but that is what happens to your hands when you are trying to film pure magic.

(YouTube Link)

So let me sum this up for you. Two nights ago at the Hollywood Bowl, people got to see Conan O' Brien (among many others) sing songs from the Simpsons live. Mark that one under: things I will forever wish I went to see live. I cannot be the only person feeling that right now.

Via Pajiba

I would think that most of you know about the amazing series of Ted Talks that have become more and more popular over the last few years. Amazing forward-thinking, life changers telling us how we can do the same.

In this particular entry, eco-entrepreneur Shubhendu Sharma explains to us all how we can help grow a mini-forest anywhere. And how by doing so, we are doing a huge part in helping to save the environment, which we all know could use some help right now. It is a remarkably simple plan we can all take part in, and it will only take you a little over four minutes to learn how to do this. Take the time, your planet will thank you for it (just not literally, because that would be weird).

(YouTube Link)

Sometimes, as humans, we don't realize the small and simple things we can do to make life here last a little longer and to make the quality of it better for all.

Wimp

Image credit: Flickr user Leon Brocard

As writers, every one of us on this site try to find words that are a step apart from the most over-used words you often see on the web. Problem is, we have these words programmed into our minds and tend to use them as reflex. Although a thesaurus is a good way to break that mold, thankfully, some websites do the hard work for us so we don't have to.

Just English assembled a list of synonyms for the 96 most commonly used words in English, and you don't have to be a writer to appreciate it. These words can even help you sound more fluid and less cliche' in conversations. We all use the word bad quite often, but have you ever called your Brussels sprouts "ghastly"? Well, now you can and impress all the fellow Brussels sprout haters around you as well.

The fact is, this language is a gift and we often scoff at it or misuse it. This list helps switch up your thinking when it comes to that.

Image Via McDonalds

Fast food is a booming industry, not only in our country, but all over the planet. Now, you have fast food chains like McDonalds and Pizza Hut moving themselves to as many different locations as they can in the world. One thing they seem to notice is, there needs to be area specific food for wherever they are putting up a new chain, or the place just will not succeed.

This means, you have McDonalds in different countries serving things that they would never serve here whilst also making sure they still have some American standards available for their varied customers. While the above lobster roll may be familiar to some New Englanders and Canadians, that is not necessarily the case for every other location. Most chains have never carried it, and that is just one example of many. Heck, that example is mild. How about a pizza stuffed with barbecue sauce and cream cheese? Yeah, this gets pretty odd.

Mental Floss put together a cool list of 15 items you can get at other fast food places around the world. Some of the food is familiar, some of it, not so much. Burger King's pumpkin burger being a prime example of just how WTF some of this stuff gets. But remember the old saying: one man's yuck is another man's yum. Sorry, I just made that up, but it stays.

GoPro videos seem to be the new go-to video if you want to experience something from a perspective you thought you never would be before. They have risen in popularity over the last few years as the rigs themselves have gotten less and less expensive. Though I did GoPro an afternoon of writing once, not too many people were too impressed, as they can live that themselves, any day. But a GoPro video of a master pool player sinking crazy shots from a bunch of great perspectives, including mounted to the cue itself?

Yeah, that is some great use of the technology, and shows just how impressive some of these shots really are.

(YouTube Link)

Truth is, you don't even have to be a fan of pool to be sucked into this one. There is just something mesmerizing about watching the fluidity and physics of some of the balls he sinks. Almost makes pool look easy for a minute. That is the thing about most GoPro videos. They trick you into thinking you can do it, too, for a second. Just for a second, though.

LaughingSquid

Don't you wish life gave us as many opportunities to monologue as the movies seem to give people? Just that perfect opportunity when the room is quite right after something awesome (or troubling) happened or is about to happen? That moment when we can stand up, and just inspire (or scare) everyone into awed submission? Believe me, I have tried forcing monologues and it does not go over well.

Thankfully, WatchMojo put together a list of the top movie monologues. So, essentially, you can watch these and take notes, knowing just the right time to bust out that perfect speech to floor everybody. Just a quick warning, though. You are not Sam Jackson, so do not try to monologue like him. It just wont work. That screaming, preaching style seems to work really well with him, but makes other people look silly. Just warning you.

(YouTube Link)

I will tell you, as awesome as the list is, it made me really happy to see the speech from Jaws in there. Part of me thinks that should have been number one, but that might just be me.

Image Via Wingzone

There are few things out there as funny as religious fundamentalism. The idea that people like to use the concept of God or religion as an excuse to attack other people, sects, or beliefs is insane. While there are so many examples of it out there, I would like to take a moment to point out the website God Hates Shrimp to you all. I am pretty sure you can figure out who the site is satirizing, and it makes it all even more laughable.

You see, this site is here simply to prove how asinine the ideas of places like the Westboro Baptist Church are. Sites like this exist to show us that, sometimes, in our own narrowed mind, there can be huge gaps. The truth is, while we cannot prove or disprove the existence of God, and will like you no matter what your belief system is, the reality is, he or she would not likely hate shrimp. Or anyone or anything else that is different, for that matter.

A site like God Hates Shrimp just reminds us how skewered some people's views are, and does so in hilarious fasion.

I think it is still safe to say, years later, we are still deeply affected by Heath Ledger's portayal of The Joker before his tragic and untimely death. Maybe one of the most menacing and freaky characters ever put on film, it is a character and portrayal that will forever be remembered for just how chilling and frenzied it all was.

It may be years later, but NECA has crafted a finely tuned Joker collectible (please do not call it an action figure. Anything that can cost upwards of two hundred dollars is no longer a toy) and it bares a freakish similarity to the character we all knew and feared. NECA is not one to deliver aything less than a stunning collectible, so this Joker should come as no surprise to anyone. But still, just imagining that face peering at me from somewhere on the shelf in my office gives me the willies. The company announced the final packaging design for this fine Q scale figure today -and it's impressive.

Please note, a price point has not been announced yet. But expect to pay anywhere from $75.00 to $150.00 for the piece. Remember kids, NECA makes art, not toys. Keep in mind, a lot of the stuff they sell ARE toys, and I'm simply saying that to justify my own inevitable purchase of this Joker figure when it comes out this fall. -via ToplessRobot

(Image credit: NECA)

I found Bedfellows many, many years ago, and have never been able to shake it from my mind. It is about as short as any short film can come, clocking in at just under two and half minutes. But let me warn you right now, that two and a half minutes is ten times scarier and more efectively made than most full length horror films that have come out recently. It was made by a company called Fewdio, and they have an extensive collection of horrifying shorts over on their page that I seriously suggest you check out.

I will openly admit. though. Few can touch on the horror that Bedfellows does. It plays off a fear we all have, and will make you think twice next time you get into bed and your spouse is facing in the other direction.

(YouTube Link)

Short, but scary as well get out.

There are websites out there that are so weird, you don't know what to really say about them, but you know you want to share them. One such website that falls under that category is called Letters To Lorne, and it can really suck you in if you are not paying attention. It is easy to lose track of time amid this kind of madness.

The site was built by a man who seemingly almost won a "anyone can host" content on Saturday Night Live once, and then bombarded the show's creator, Lorne Michaels, with letters on a regular basis as to why he should be on the show. Considering none of us have ever heard of this guy, safe to say his letter writing campaign was not overly effective.

The thing is, the letters just seem to increase in weirdness over the course of the site. One can understand why a person would want to be on such a creative and long-running show. What is hard to understand is why someone would devote so much time to a "what if".

I also would LOVE to see Lorne Michaels reaction to some of these. I hope he put them all in a "crazy" scrapbook.

We may all want to pretend we don't like repetition in pop music, but obviously, it works and has worked for decades for a reason. Believe it or not, like many things, there is a science to why music affects us the way it does. Our brains react to repetition by memorizing and retaining, even if we don't want them to. So even if you hate a certain song, notice how after some radio exposure, you still somehow know every word? Guess what? That is repetition winning. Almost like classical conditioning, but with music as a variable.

As in most cases, there are people who can explain this to you far more delicately and accurately than I can, thankfully for both of us.

So even those pop songs that you rally against, too bad. Seems your brain is going to take them in and learn them anyway. It's nice to finally understand the science behind that a little better.

Ted Talks 

Image Via Snopes

Sometimes it is really easy to look in at the celebrity life, and wish you were a part of it. The huge checks and accolades and the adoring fans. The thing that we don't see is just what those celebrities did for work before they became the superstars we know them as today. Take the above photo of Steven Buscemi, for example. Another great example on the list is the simple fact that Sean Connery was a milkman (and even a coffin polisher). 

We often just assume these celebs have great lives and have pretty much always had great lives, but this list from Oddee of the unusual former jobs of celebrities shows otherwise. It shows they had to cut their teeth and earn their way just like the rest of us.

Well, except for Jon Hamm. His example is a little insane. I will leave that for you to read....

Image Via AwkwardSilenceGames

One Chance is a game quite unlike any you have ever played online. It is about a scientist who created a pathogen that is inadvertantly wiping out all mankind on Earth. You then have six in-game days to decided how you will spend the rest of your life. Will you stay at the office and do all you can to find a cure? Will you finally step away from the office and spend some time with the family you have been neglecting? Or will the madness and impending doom jusr cause you to lose your mind?

What really sets One Chance apart is that you really only have One Chance to play it. The game picks up on your I.P and unless you have multiple computers with multiple I.P's, you really only do get one chance in One Chance, which is part of what makes it so spectacular.

Quick warning, though. It is also quite bleak, so make those choices carefully. Games like this prove why you don't need sixty dollar video games and next-gen machines to be blown away by the medium.

Newgrounds

You gotta give it to the guy. Mel Brooks has been making people laugh for years now, and Monday, when the time came for him to leave his handprints at TLC Chinese Theater along Hollywood's Walk of Fame, he continued that streak of hilarity. Though many did not notice at first, it seems Mel Brooks wore a prosthetic extra finger on his left hand that was so realistic, even looking at the above picture it is hard to tell it is fake. 

What makes this so great is in 100 years, when some kid is being dragged down that street by his tourist parents, he is going to catch a glance at Mel Brooks' hand print in the cement, and for one small moment in time, this kid is going to believe you can make it in Hollywood if you are a mutant. That, my friends, is awesome.

If you didn't already love him for Spaceballs and Blazing Saddles, you have to love him for this.

Over the years, what has happened to MTV has been nothing short of a shame. where once, it was a music channel dedicated to playing (GASP) music and videos, now it is home to various, offensive reality shows that seem to hone in on the worst aspects of human beings and illuminate them. Well, why don't we flash back for a moment to what is, undoubtedly, one of the best music videos of the 90's (and ever, really). "Where's Your Head At" by Basement Jaxx. You may not know the name, you may not think you know the song, but I am hoping as soon as you are a few seconds into this video, it will come flooding back to you the same way a nightmare would. Yes, it is pretty twisted, albeit SFW. People just might look at you strange.

(YouTube Link)

Though the effects may look a bit dated by now (compared to 2001, when it first came out), it still stands as one of the most surreal and unforgettable music videos the channel ever played. On top of it, the song has one heck of a hook you will not be able to get out of your head for weeks. Trust me. Just don't start emulating the video and smashing stuff while you are watching it.

Well, you can if you want. But I recommend against it.