Saturday, July 14, 2001

Chinese Olympics

Now that our pals, the Red Chinese, will be hosting the 2008 Olympics, it seems to me the current Olympic games just won't give them a chance to show off their special skills. Here are a few new events that will:

100 Meter Tank Run. Contestants in tanks compete to see how many dissidents they can crush in a 100-meter replica of Tiananmen Square. Extra points for crushing photographers taking historic photos.

Top Gun Spy Plane Intimidation Rally. Aces from all over China show how far they can go when it comes to scaring the shit out of some career American military slobs in a C140 spy plane. Death is an immediate disqualifier.

Spy Plane Disassembly. How fast can YOU take the plane apart? Furious competition will answer just that question. How fast can you put it back together? Who cares?

Tibetan Asskicking Contest. Nonviolent Buddhist monks are carefully handselected to get their asses kicked and do nothing about it. Top-seeded contestants are privileged to compete in Richard Gere Asskicking Contest later in the day.

Sweatshop Relay. Foremen from around the world compete in bullying their teams of shackled, abused women to see who can produce the most miniature American flags and Amnesty International bumper stickers.

Software and CD Piracy Competition. How many bootleg copies of Windows 2008 and Metallica's Load can you press while the clock is ticking? Lars Ulrich Asskicking Contest to follow.

Thursday, July 5, 2001

The Hitler Channel ...

AKA the History Channel. Seems to me, 90% of the time, it's playing something about Hitler...when it ain't a buncha gangsters and ghosts. Fuck it. Why not be upfront about it? Why not just call it...

THE HITLER CHANNEL

Open INT, Hitler Channel set. ROGER DUMM sitting behind desk with assorted Hitler memorabilia* all around him.

DUMM: Hello, I’m Roger Dumm.

History is a paradoxical tapestry of achievement and atrocity, creation and destruction and more cultures than you could shake a stick at. But here at the Hitler Channel, we say to hell with the tapestry. We don’t care about the "big picture" any more than you do -- which as why you won’t hear word one about Ur of the Chaldees, the Cargo Cultists or the War of Jenkin’s Ear. We know what you want and we give it to you...

All Hitler, all the time.

With that thought in mind, we now return you to part 7 of “The Recipes of Adolph Hitler.”

Scratched, crappy old B+W footage. Standard issue BBC announcer’s voice, the kind of self-important delivery “Monty Python” made fun of. Throughout, the ANNOUNCER’s words are illustrated with the appropriate choppy film clips and badly-drawn maps and graphics.)

ANNOUNCER: An ardent vegetarian, Hitler was self-taught in various means of vegetarian food preparation and had instructed his kitchen staff accordingly. Since Hitler was as competent in this area as he was in the fields of watercolor painting, architecture and military strategy, by the winter of 1943 he began showing signs of malnutrition and protein deficiency and had also become subject to random attacks of explosive diarrhea. Aware of his weakening condition, Hitler’s generals were increasingly concerned -- knowing that Hitler, in his deteriorating state, was clearly not up to the task of leading the Axis powers for whom, by now, the war was going badly on several fronts.

Hitler’s generals began openly urging him to compromise his vegetarianism -- to at least consider soups and stews based on a modified beef stock. Hitler responded by chewing the carpet. The generals responded by basting the carpet in beef stew. This worked for a time until, on the night of October 14th, 1943, Hitler experienced a particularly intense attack of diarrhea. The carpet was subsequently thrown out.

By November of 1943, Hitler was at last willing to agree that a light vegetable stock was insufficient for his nutritional needs. But he was still unwilling to compromise his vegetarian principles.

Instead, Hitler responded by launching an intensive research program.

Here, for the first time, is the recently declassified footage of Hitler’s secret "Uber-VegetableForschungsinstitut" in the Harz Mountains.

Black and white footage of underground, concrete-block lab in which a Nazi version of the Galloping Gourmet chops vegetables and maintains running commentary in gutteral pseudo-German.

STORMTROOPING GOURMET: (sniffing the air) Ja -- nothin’ sez luvin' like something from der oven, ja? (rubbing hands) Here come der veggies! Ja!

A tiny model choochoo train chugs in front of him loaded with vegetables.

STORMTROOPING GOURMET: (instinctively doing a vegetable “selektion”) Das es ein goot carrot! Das es ein INFERIOR carrot! Das es ein UNTERCARROT!! (stomping on carrot, then shooting it)

ANNOUNCER: But Hitler's quest for the "Ubercarrot" would remain a fruitless one. Which is to say, vegetableless...

In January of 1944, the Allies began the initial phase of “Operation Herbox” -- a plan to drop thousands of beef bullion cubes on Hitler’s mountain redoubt and drive him insane with guilt over the irresistable lapse from strict vegetanarianism that was sure to follow. According to this plan, Major Donovan of the OSS would subsequently parachute into Hitler's retreat disguised as a large radish. If the Allies....

Etc....

....all Hitler, all the time.

*including a dung-stained carpet, natch.

Sunday, June 10, 2001

Anime territory dept.

Well, the otakus over in Japan voted for their all-time favorite anime programs for this year. And they never seem to get enough, well anyways, here's the list:

According to “Newtype, the moving pictures magazine,” the 20 most popular anime TV shows in Japan are...

1. Angelic Layer

2. Inu Yasha

3. Cowboy Bebop

4. Gundam

5. Cardcaptor Sakura

6. Noir

7. Martian Successor Nadesico

8. Sister Princess

9. You're Under Arrest

10. Comic Party

11. Louie the Rune Soldier

13. Ah! My Goddess

14. Detective Conan

15. Gene-Shaft

16. VANDREAD

17. Argento Soma

18. Junguru ha itsumo haru no chiguu

19. ZOIDS New Generation/Liger Zero

20. Di Gi Charat

Following that....

21. Giant Choad Robot

22. Inu Assho

23. Dragon Warrior Transvestite Junior Accountant Boy

24. GoddamMofo

25. GoddamMofo: the Next Generation

26. Rapidly Multiplying Market-Spinoff Cute Mutant Animals

27. Gaijin Otaku Wannabe Hour of Shameless Crap

28. Fearless Richard Gere Flying Gerbil Attack Squadron

29. Large Breasted Schoolgirls in Short Skirts Planetary Defense Squad

30. Bondage Planet 9

31. Methamphetamine Racer

32. Ah! Moist Sex with Underage Supernatural Being!

33. Philip Marlowe the Barbarian

34. Gene-Sprice

35. Evangelion: Teenage Suicide Counseling Hotline

36. Evangelion: Destroy all Pokemon!

37. Fukyu! Yogoura sukka beeg dogdikku!

38. ROIDS: Generation H

38. Hello Kitty: the Revenge

39. Yeast Infection Princess Mung

40. Hentai Christ: the Resurrection

Friday, March 30, 2001

Spamku

We are here to help
Horny farm chicks fuck in barn
Peace of mind for you!

Viagra online
Thinking of you, click me now
Make her moan for hours

Think big, win bigger
Cash instantly if you win
End the creditor

Right now is your time
Lost girlfriend, credit report
Knowledge is fleeting

(Haiku cobbled together from spam, obviously)

Sunday, February 18, 2001

!@#$$%!

There are folks who say cursing is stupid, the result of a lack of imagination, etc. This is only because they don’t know how to curse well.

But I do. A partial list follows as the original trash-talking file got trashed and I had to rewrite it:

Filthy list below jump:





Saturday, February 17, 2001

On Language

"There’s a fine line between clever and stupid.”

—This is Spinal Tap

Let’s talk about the naming of things.

Two examples of names for things which do a tightrope walk along the clever/stupid line.

The Band. The balls of it! A band names itself “the Band,” like they’re the only band in the whole fucking world. Not “a” band. “The” band. As if, whenever anybody asked “Where’s the band?” or said “I’m with the band” they were talking about them.

Clever ... or stupid?

Circus Circus

What a fucking stretch, eh?

I imagine a bunch of dim bulb cartoon mobsters around a conference table trying to come up with a name for their new casino.

BOSS: OK, boys, I got the theme. We’re gonna turn this whole place into a circus, see? You got your wholesome family entertainment for Mom and the kids, gambling, booze and whores for Dad. Something for everybody, know what I mean? Only problem is, I need a name...something classy. Something that says “this is a classy circus — you’re not gonna step in no elephant shit.”

MOBSTER #1: How about “the Classy Circus”...?

BOSS: No, they got one in New Jersey. Anyway, I want a name that says “circus.”

MOBSTER #2: Circus Circus?

BOSS: Nah. That ain’t classy enough. See, in Canada they got this fag circus where they put the name circus first....like “Circus Sally Manella” or sumpin. It’s more classy when you put the names the other way around like that. (pause) Think about it...

MOBSTER #2: (starting to get it) So, instead of “Circus Circus”...

BOSS: Yeah...?

MOBSTER #2: We call it “Circus Circus”...!

BOSS: Yeah!

The MOBSTERS applaud.

BOSS: That’s what I call class!

Stupid.

* * *

And, speaking of gambling, noticed how the “Gambling Industry” has redefined itself as the “Gaming” Industry and redefined gambling as “wagering.”

Gambling makes me think of “Crime Story,” “Casino” and leatherskinned old ladies with big hats and tits down to their bellybuttons pumping styrofoam cups full of quarters into the slots. “Gaming” and “wagering” makes me think of a bunch of snuff-dipping 17th century fops putting wagers on the running of the hounds. “I say, a sporting wager, wot?”....as opposed to Joe Pesci getting buried alive.

Clever, clever, clever.

* * *

3 stupid language tricks:

* Speaking of fops, the reason we say “butterfly” instead of “flutterby” is: back in the 18th century, there was a fashion among said fops of saying words backwards (as in “bassackwards”) which is why we say “butterfly” (which makes no fucking sense) instead of “flutterby” (poetic and descriptive.) Goddamn fops.

* During the Elizabethan age, folks in London sounded more or less like the folks in Dublin do today. The “King’s English” arose because King George III — a Hapsburg monarch — i.e., a kraut — spke English with a thick German accent...and all the court hangers-on did their best to imitate hm because, by definition, the “King’s English” is, of course, good.

Goddamn fops ruin everything. Again.

* Factoid: Norman Mailer invented the word factoid to describe the spurious facts that everyone swallow whole-hog (We only use 10% of our brains!) — but dumbass newscasters started using it to mean “interesting nugget of trivia” and killed the poor man’s useful neologism while he yet lived. Goddamn newscasters. Almost as bad as those fops.

* * *
The phrase “Have your cake and eat it too” is stupid. Lotsa folks say it should be “Eat your cake and have it to” but that doesn’t sound right. How about “Eat your cake and keep it?” Everybody say “eat your cake and keep it” starting now. Because I say so.

It’s klever.

LifeAlert

I hate commercials. OK, I love to hate commercials. I love to hate that commercial from LifeAlert where some old guy crumples in a flowerbed and presses his beeper.

MR. PERKINS: Help me...I’m having heart attack!

And LifeAlert responds instantly.

LIFEALERT GUY: Don't worry, Mr. Perkins! Help is on the way!

What I’d like to see...

MR. PERKINS: Help me...I’m having heart attack!

LIFEALERT GUY: What am I supposed to do about it?

MR. PERKINS: For God’s sake help me!

LIFEALERT GUY: I’m afraid you didn’t pay your bill, Mr. Perkins.

MR. PERKINS: Oh God....the pain!

LIFEALERT GUY: We sent you three notices. Three. Don’t you think that’s fair? We think it’s more than fair. But you ignored us, didn’t you?

MR. PERKINS: It”s like thousads of tiny dwarves with little knives inside my heart!

LIFEALERT GUY: Have a nice day, Mr. Perkins.

(Hangs up)

Cut to MR. PERKINS falling face down in the zinnias.


This is when they cut to the upbeat OLD LADY. She holds up a LifeAlert beeper.

OLD LADY: Life Alert...it’s like my magic wand to summon the police, the fire department, or the paramedics.

You see the old lady in bed. There’s a silhouette of a BAD MAN outside her window, some guy in pullover cap, no doubt The Wrong Sort of Person.

OLD LADY: (on the phone to LifeAlert) There’s someone outside my window!

VOICE ON PHONE: Don’t worry, Mrs. Perkins. The police have been notified. Help is on the way.

And, the instant he says this, the guy in the window reacts. Does this “uh-oh” doubletake and runs away. Now, please explain to me what he’s reacting to. Is his hearing that good? Is he psychic? Carrying a little police radio?

The more obvious explanation is that he’s been hired by Lifealert to scare the shit out of old people — make ‘em feel like they’re getting their money’s worth.


LIFEALERT MANAGER TYPE: Yeah, show up outside her window. When she calls, I’ll page you. Then run.

GUY: Can I steal something?

LIFEALERT MANAGER: No. Just run. And don’t scare her too bad. If she fucking dies we can’t sell this shit...