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Archive for November, 2007

Really Fast Clapping, Sorta Fast Clapping and More Men’s Winter Fashions: The Daily Nooner (EST)!

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

Awesome Video Of The Day

Kent “Toast” French: The World’s Fastest Clapper

They say everyone is good at SOMETHING, but how did this guy figure out that his special skill was clapping really fast? Was he just clapping all the time when he was younger and eventually some of his friends noticed and were like, “That is some FAST clapping, bro!” I don’t know about you, but if my friend was always sitting there doing his fast clapping routine, I don’t think I’d be friends with that dude for very long.

I guess it’s easy to make fun of this guy for spending so much time trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records, but you know what’s even sadder? Being a WANNABE World’s Fastest Clapper. Besides: Have YOU ever met Richard Simmons? I didn’t think so.

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This Heroes recap was going to let you go, but instead will now knife you in the stomach

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

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If we didn’t know that Heroes was ending for the season next episode, this would have been a relatively satisfying episode. We got to find out a bit more about the Company and Adam Monroe, there was a modest amount of gunplay, and one of the Wondertwins got butchered. That ticks off a lot of check boxes. But knowing that we’ve only got 42 minutes of Heroes left this season, it’s hard not to feel like things are getting a bit rushed. The plague that threatens the world just doesn’t feel terribly menacing yet, there’s still a billion unanswered questions about Adam Monroe and the Company, and Sylar has been sidelined for most of the season. In the (potential) final episode next week, these topics are either going to be handled quickly, or not at all. That feels like kind of a rip. At first glance, the only ones we have to blame for this are the striking writers, and by extension, Communism. However, here at Cracked, our editors encourage us to take the long view, so I’m also going to blame George W. Bush, Rich Hollywood Jews, and my parents.

Things we now know:
How did Adam know exactly where Victoria Pratt was? Everything we knew about her suggested that she had gone deep into hiding, and very few people knew where she was. I’ll guess that the Nightmare man read Angela Petrelli’s mind and told Adam about it, even though we haven’t seen any direct evidence that the two are co-operating. Still, it beats my other theory, which centered around an edited scene of Adam and Peter Googling her.

We still don’t know whether it was Bob or Mohinder that decided to save Bennet’s life, although both are aware he pulled a Lazarus. The big question here of course is what form the inevitable father daughter reunion will take when Claire and Noah cross paths again. I’m personally hoping that it’s some kind of Three’s Company-esque situation, where having both had their memories erased by the Haitian, the two meet on a blind date. They immediately hit it off, and are only moments away from a passionate kiss, when they’re interrupted by Matt Parkman, who’s now their landlord.

Micah and his cousins are back, and take part in one of the most inane stories I’ve ever seen on television – the Great Backpack Caper. I understand that there have to be some lighthearted moments in a show that features such grave threats to the world, but this is taking things a bit far. Last year Hiro and Ando’s hijinx managed to lighten the mood of the show without coming off as contrived or trivial. Micah’s cousin (I’ve completely forgotten her name) has gotten a pretty raw deal. To be the worst new cast character in a field that also includes West and the Wondertwins is both astounding and shameful.

Speaking of everyone’s favorite Hondurans, a couple weeks ago I said I’d tolerate their return to the show once they finally did something. Technically they didn’t actually do anything this episode, though fortunately for us, someone did do something to them, in the form of a knife to the abdomen. Alejandro’s ambush of Sylar while armed with nothing more than a wispy mustache was woefully ill-advised.

Incidently, watching Sylar smooth-talk Typhoid Maya is really unpleasant to watch. It feels a little bit like watching old people flirt.

I’m a little fuzzy on how Peter intends to save Caitlin. How exactly does he think that changing the future will save the girl that he left there? For a plot device as overused as time travel, you’d think someone would have figured out by now how to use it properly. I’d suggest writers should steer well clear from using time travel in their stories. Aside from some very specific exceptions - e.g: stories where characters from Star Trek : The Next Generation travel back in time to take twentieth century fan fiction writers back to the future with them - I never use time travel in my own work any more.

What Me Found In A Storage Bin?

Monday, November 26th, 2007

Apparently, Galveston Bay authorities have arrested a couple for the murder of “Baby Grace” — the toddler whose body washed ashore in a storage bin last month. Based on the child’s composite sketch, I’m guessing the break in the case came when police began investigating individuals with motives for killing Alfred E. Neuman.

 

And this just in: The composite artist has also released his sketch of the couple arrested by the Galveston Bay authorities.

 

Magician Mime Dancing, Sports Hat Juggling and Men’s Fashion Demystified: The Daily Nooner (EST)!

Monday, November 26th, 2007

Awesome Video Of The Day

Ken Create: The Greatest Sports Hat-Juggling Magician Mime Dancer Of All Time

When I was in college, Ken Create1 and I performed together as a duo: I would juggle the sports hats while he would dance around me in full mime gear (we took turns with the magic tricks). It was a big hit on the local circuit for a while, but I started to feel restricted by our rigid, over-rehearsed act. I tried to spice things up by juggling different kinds of things (blank CDs, hamburgers, dead birds, etc.), but Ken got really pissed off and told me to stick to the routine. I even ordered some books on Amazon.com about jazz tap and Kabuki theater and had them shipped to his house, but he took it as a back-handed insult and refused to speak to me for weeks. Soon the gigs started drying up, and eventually we went our separate ways.

I don’t harbor any ill will toward Ken. How could I? He was kind of like a mentor to me. I’ve moved on with my life, but I’m glad to see that Ken’s still doing his thing. Know why? Because Ken Create is probably the greatest sports hat-juggling magician mime dancer of all time.

1 Lest you think this is all some sick joke, here’s his press kit (complete with detailed listings of every nursing home he’s ever performed at).

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For God’s Sake, Let Him Come Pick Strawberries Already

Monday, November 26th, 2007

Listen up, Hollywood Producers: your writers are striking, your comic book movies are tanking, and your minds are so disconnected from reality you wouldn’t know a good movie idea if it blogged up and bit you on the ass. So heed my words: MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THIS GUY.

While Spider-Man was busy undergoing intense self-reflection, Batman was failing to let go of any goddamned bad thing that ever happened to him, and Superman was being charmingly aloof, this guy was saving an orphan from dying in the desert. The kicker? He was an illegal immigrant attempting to cross the border!

Jesus Cordova left his homeland and braved the merciless desert in order to earn money to send back to his family, came upon a 9-year-old boy who’d been involved in a car wreck, and rather than fleeing north as he’d planned, John McClaned it, gruffly muttered “I’m getting too old for this” (in Spanish, one assumes) and proceeded to keep the kid company and give him his fucking jacket until Border Patrol arrived to save the boy and deport his ass back to Mexico.

The movie’s basically done: you’ve got your selfless heroism, your innocent victim, and your tragic downfall. All you need to add is the uplifting finale where Cordova strides across the U.S.-Mexico border, each Patrol officer stepping aside in quiet respect.

Also, if this does get made into a movie (preferably starring Javier Bardem and Dakota Fanning), I get royalties. I called it.

Presidential Candidates Embracing Internet Fads!

Friday, November 23rd, 2007

Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee is showing the electorate he’s pretty hip for a guy who doesn’t believe in evolution. His latest commercial plays off the popular “Chuck Norris Facts” internet phenomenon:

Okay, not the funniest thing he could have done. (Some Mike Huckabee Facts might have been better, but he gets points for trying.) Still, politics is a competitive game and he’s not the only candidate who knows how to turn internet trends into crafty marketing. Here are some other things we can expect to see as election time closes in.

Starting next month, voters will get a good laugh and Barack Obama will get some much-needed internet-cred with this new website: www.OBAMA4PREZ.com

Soon after, Hillary Clinton will add LOLCATS technology to her her campaign posters:

But it will be Rudy Guiliani who will capture the internet zeitgeist with 1Rudy1Cup:



(This post was made possible by a generous humor grant from the Matthew Tobey Foundation.)

Call Me When You’ve Got HoloSlaloms

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007

It’s Winter, and if you’re a troubled inner city vagrant, then that means it’s time to start wrapping your droppings in cheesecloth for warmth. But if you’re the exact opposite of that, it means SKI SEASON!

And 2007 is no ordinary ski season: at Heavenly Ski Resort in California, the future of sliding down frozen water on wooden planks has arrived.

The resort is installing California’s first-ever, and America’s longest, zip-line ride. The line will shoot skiers 3,100 feet down the mountain they just spent an hour getting to the top of in a matter of seconds.

Besides highlighting the futility of skiing, the zip-line will also treat you to a gorgeous view of the trees as they whip past, pointy limbs eagerly reaching for a stray limb to impale.

Not into hurtling down things? Then you shouldn’t be skiing. But if you insist on visiting Heavenly resort and falling on your ass in the snow until your tail bone is numb, you might as well get it on tape.

The resort is looking forward to one day soon offering “omnipresent video technology.” Cameras cleverly disguised throughout the park will film your runs and you’ll be able to view the tapes while you’re downing cocoa at the lodge.

That way, for a nominal fee, your friends can have a lasting souvenir of the time you shit yourself on the zip-line ride and sprayed down the Snowbunny Ski Skool kids.

To polish off the trifecta of ski resort innovation, Heavenly plans to release large-print versions of their maps for the elderly who may have fuzzy eyesight. Now even blind-as-a-bat Grandma can find her way to the zip-line! See? It all goes back to the zip-line.

Happy Turkey Day!

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007

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Wii sells like Hot Cakes. Ironically, Hot Cake sales continue their 40 year slide.

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

hotcakes.jpgHere’s our monthly look at the North American console and video game sales for October, courtesy of the NPD group. We should caution that none of the information contained within will validate your console buying decision, or invalidate that of your friends. Studies show that how well your chosen console has sold in a given month has little to no effect on the length of your penis*

*(re: RFC 793 - Proposed measure for the value of an Internet user’s arguments)

Hardware Sales (lifetime in brackets)

Wii 519K (5 million)
Nintendo DS 458K (13.5 million)
Xbox 360 366K (7.1 million)
Playstation Portable 286K (8.9 million)
PlayStation 2 184K (39.5 million)
PlayStation 3 121K (2 million)

Software Sales

360 Halo3 433.8K
360 Guitar Hero III 383.2K
WII Guitar Hero III 286.3K
PS2 Guitar Hero III (w. Guitar) 271.1K
NDS Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass 262.8K
WII Wii Play (w. Remote) 239.7K
360 The Orange Box 238.4K
PS2 Guitar Hero III (no Guitar) 231.7K
PS2 Fifa Soccer 08 129.7K
NDS Brain Age 2 116.9K

Xbox 360 sales dropped down from 527.8K last month, which suggests that the “Halo” effect has all but disappeared. Nevertheless, given its strong game library, the 360 should be positioned for a strong holiday season. That is, assuming it doesn’t garner any more negative publicity about the RROD problems - or worse. What are the odds of a 360 exploding and killing someone before Christmas? Probably not high. But also probably not zero.

Measured on a weekly basis, the PS3 did a bit better than last month, though that’s essentially the same as saying that it “sucked a bit less hard.” Fact: PS3 sales are still hilariously low. However, these figures are from the period before Sony’s latest round of cuts to the PS3’s price and feature list, so Sony fanboys are hopeful sales might pick up yet. Nevertheless, at $399, the PS3 still represents the most expensive console available. If sales don’t pick up soon, industry experts expect that by next summer Sony will have slashed the feature list down to the point where a PS3 is composed of little more than a Sixaxis tied to an egg carton with some yarn.

As for everybody’s favorite bowling and cow-riding simulator, the Wii climbed back up to the top of the hardware charts this month, despite having yet another soft month of software sales. What on earth are people doing with their Wii’s? Aside from “not buying games for them.” It kind of makes
scorpion_ns3.gifme wonder if everybody else knows something that I don’t. Is there a hardcore porn Easter egg in the Weather Channel? I looked for weeks but the only thing I ended up with was a sore wrist.

In software sales this month, the big news is the success of Guitar Hero III. GH3 sold very well across all platforms, including a healthy 286K units for the Wii, and a whopping 500K for the PS2 version(s.) This suggests to me that whether you play games in 480i or 1080p, the only thing that matters in the end is that you play them like a hurricane.

So Book-like, You’d Think It Was a Book (but it’s not)

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

Do you love to read books but hate reading books? Amazon.com finally has the answer for you.


It’s called Kindle
and it’s described as a “wireless portable reading device,” where the screen is so realistic and glare-free, it’s almost like reading a book. You can bring Kindle with you on long train rides, to class, the library, and anywhere else you can take an actual book. At $400, the Kindle is perfect for someone desperate to live out that book-reading adventure they could only fantasize about for years.

The Kindle, which Amazon scientists have been working on for the last three years, boasts the following characteristics:

  • Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
  • Memory card that holds up to 200 books.
  • Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
  • No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments.
  • You know what else feels like real paper and doesn’t require cables or monthly bills? Fucking books.

    It’s also worth mentioning that you can’t obviously directly upload books that you already own onto the Kindle; you’d have to acquire them from Amazon. So if I desperately wanted to re-read The Novelization of Judge Dredd,, I’d have to pay for it again despite the fact that a perfectly good copy exists on my bookshelf.

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