Adolf Hitler's Birthday Ruined

Poor little three-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell: not only did Shoprite refuse to put his name on his birthday cake, but, more importantly, he has to deal with having that name all his life. His parents, the more normally named Heath and Deborah Campbell, got the cake made at a Wal-Mart instead. Heath says it's just a name and people have to get over it.

But if you think the Campbell parents are making a statement about how we need to move on, think again. Poor Adolf has a sister named 'JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell', who is nearly two, and a one-year-old brother named 'Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell'.

Honestly, you have to wonder why we put people through 8 years of school to become a doctor. Even to drive a car, you have to practice, then pass a practical and a written test. But to be a parent (perhaps the job with the highest responsibility of all) you only need to know how to do the horizontal bop.

Read the full story here

Imminent Dam Disaster (Onion Style)

Preemptive Memorial Honors Future Victims Of Imminent Dam Disaster
Here's another great example of how The Onion can take a fairly mundane parody idea and make it a gem, by carefully constructing and skewing the cliched language used in these situations (in this case, by changing it to future tense).

Click here if you cannot see the video above

You're the Abstract Artist

Explore your abstract artistic talents with this free online tool at bomono.com. Use a variety of painting tools to quickly create an abstract painting, then it's up to you to assign a deep spiritual or contextual meaning to the shapes and lines.

Click here to go to bomono.com

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

At the Elf Yourself website, you can make an elf music video with you and your friends as the stars! And it's all free! Just upload anywhere from one to five images, do some fairly simple rotating, resizing, and cropping, and you're ready to go! Then email or embed it for free (free registration is required). Downloading the video will cost a little bit of money.

Bye Bye Bratz?

In a stunning, far-reaching decision, U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson has ruled that the entire Bratz doll line has to be removed from shelves and never sold again. Mattel (makers of Barbie) have been claiming for years that MGA (the makers of Bratz) are illegal because Bratz designer Carter Bryant developed the concept for the dolls while working for Mattel. In the last seven years, MGA has developed over 40 different doll designs, including the decidedly creepy Baby Bratz (pictured left). Exactly why are these babies wearing eye makeup?

If you think the dolls look like prostitutes and that their animated counterparts present an anti-image to young girls that they should grow up to be over-made up, fashion-obsessed airheads, calm down. What will happen here is that if MGA's appeals fail, Mattel will probably begin manufacturing the Bratz line instead. It's still up to individual moms and dads to keep these things away from their kids. They're fine for adult fetishists to collect, however.

Click here to read the full story

In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

click here if you cannot view the above video
Need cheering up again? Do you like parody? Do you like news parody? Then you must watch the Masters of it - The Onion - as they the format of a news discussion panel to create an entire comic universe.

MST3K Lives On at RiffTrax

Back in the 90s, a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K) aired for about 10 seasons. The format consisted of a man and his robots stranded in space, forced to watch a bad movie by an evil scientist. To maintain their sanity, they took to making funny comments while watching the movie. So each week on the show, we the viewer not only get to watch a bad movie (usually a sci-fi or horror film from the 1950s), but we get to hear it trashed by these three silhouettes in the front row of the movie theater.

MST3K reached the end of its run in 1999, but it lives on at RiffTrax (http://www.rifftrax.com/). RiffTrax features three of the original riffers, including Mike Nelson, MST3K's head writer and host from 1993 to 1999. The silhouettes are gone, but you still get to download and watch a bad movie, while getting the funny comments.

Samples are available of their extensive catalog, so you can get an idea of how funny these guys are. All movies and other items are available for purchase and download in DRM-free format (yours to keep forever, with no digital rights limitations.

One of the funniest series of subjects that they riff are short instructional films from the 1940s. These shorts deal with broad subjects like buying food, teaching children, and selling insurance. They are often funny and dated in their own right, and they benefit from topical commentary from the RiffTrax gang. The cost is only 99 cents to download one of the shorts.

There's lot of other things to do on the RiffTrax site; you can even make and upload your own RiffTrax!

Today is National Men Cook Dinner Day

I wonder what Jerry Seinfeld thinks about National Men Cook Dinner Day, the once a year event meant to ensure that the non-cooking man of the house serves up one meal a year. In some households, including one that belong to a couple of good friends of mine, the man cooks the vast majority of meals, and virtually all the dinners. They are boring, often burned, and not very tasty, but they do provide the sustenance required for the human bodies who partake of it while making faces and complaining.

Here's what Seinfeld had to say about a similar once-a-year event:

"The one movie ad I don’t get is this one: 'If you see only one movie this year...' If you see only one movie this year, why go at all? You’re not going to enjoy it. There’s too much pressure. You’re sitting there, 'All right, this is it for 51 more weekends, this better be good.'
- Jerry Seinfeld

Makeover Online

At iVillage, you can upload a photo of yourself (or, perversely, of anyone) and do a full makeover. Apply a hairstyle, lipstick, eyeliner, blush contact lenses, earwear, and more. It is geared toward women.

I did one of myself (and was not willing to publish it here) and I looked like a rapidly aging effeminate writer who lives in Greenwish Village. It wasn't altogether unpleasant, so, I thought: who is one of the most macho guys around and would benefit from showing a bit of his feminine side? Well, only one name came to mind: Chuck Norris. Mr Norris is not only an accomplished martial arts practitioner; he is also a talented actor, writer, and exercise equipment salesperson. I've decided to go for a kind of 'Jane Fonda' look for Mr Norris (although, to be honest, his hair is off of Heidi Klum).

Click here to visit iVillage and do your makeover

Life Expectancy Calculator

Do you want to find out how much longer you've got to live? Use the Life Expectancy Calculator (click here for the Eons calculator website) to get an eery estimate of your life expectancy. You'll have to answer 40 multiple-choice questions, and sign up (which is free, but requires that you enter your name, date of birth, and email address). Supposedly, I'm going to be blogging until I'm 87.

The creepy part is, after I finished, a link said, "Find out how to live to be 94". The page of hints shows how changing one's behavior can increase life expectancy. For example, if I stop drinking coffee, I'll add a year to my life. I'll have to think about that. One more year in exchange for no more coffee? For now, I'll stick with the coffee.

Amy Poehler and Will Arnett Welcome Baby Archie

Comedian Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live, Blades of Glory, Baby Mama) and comedian husband Will Arnett (Arrested Development, Blades of Glory) welcomed new baby boy Archie Arnett into the world on Saturday, Oct 25, 2008. Set an Outlook Calendar appointment for around October 25, 2028: if Archie chooses to go into comedy, he has the genes to be perhaps the funniest person ever created! Amy Poehler is highly funny and talented, as is Will Arnett, whose work on Arrested Development often left me hurting from laughing so much. Together, they play a hilarious brother and sister ice-skating couple in Blades of Glory.

Read the full story here

Read the Movie Review Zoo review of Blades of Glory

Read the Movie Review Zoo review of Baby Mama

Glow-in-the-dark cat a transgenic success

Scientists at the Audobon Center for Research of Endangered Species have created the first glow-in-the-dark cat in the United States.

Unlike normal cats, the eyes, gums, and tongue of 'Mr Green Genes' glow lime green under a black light, the result of a gene sequencing change. Mr Green Genes is now 6 months old. The successful experiment was performed as a test, in hopes that this kind of gene sequencing can be used to substitute or remove genes that cause diseases that are fatal to various species.

With Halloween only a few days away, Mr Green Genes has perhaps the best 'costume' ever.
Click here to read the full article

George Takei and William Shatner Feud

William Shatner has released a video where he complains of not being invited to George Takei's (gay) wedding a few months ago. Shatner really goes off here, calling Takei sick, psychotic, and 'poor man' for not coming out until he was 70. My perception was that Takei was out long before that, but that he chose not to announce it to the press until then, and Takei confirms that in an ET video interview in the link below. Takei also says that he invited Shatner to the wedding, and that Shatner never shows up for anything related to the other cast members and people associated with the show (including creator Gene Roddenberry) when they got their stars on Hollywood Boulevard. Most surprising was how many posters at the Trek BBS jumped onto the Shatner bandwagon, ignoring the fact that it has long been established that Shatner has an ego the size of a brontosaurus and that he routinely played that card with everyone on the original series, including his co-star, Leonard Nimoy (Spock). Watch the videos, know the history...and then you decide.



click to watch Shatner's video

click here for Takei's response

John, McCain, Letterman, and G. Gordon Liddy

John McCain made sure that he was on time for his 'appointment' on the David Letterman show this time. He didn't want another two weeks of lambasting by Letterman like he got last time he cancelled his scheduled appearance on the show, especially now that it is close to the election. I know...any publicity is good publicity - but maybe not when you are already the #2 public figure and you are running for president of the USA.

Letterman questioned the possible hypocrisy of McCain's attacks on Obama for ties to 60s terrorist William Ayers, asking McCain about his ties to Watergate member G. Gordon Liddy.

I'm also wondering if McCain is a hypocrite. After all, first he said he wouldn't sit down and talk with terrorists, and then he shows up for the debate. :)

Lipness Test for potential Supreme Court judges

During the presential debate tonight, both candidates were asked if they would impose a 'litmus test' for potential Supreme Court judges. They said no but answered yes, if you get my drift. More interesting was the fact that a whole slew of people heard the phrase as lipness test, and rushed up to Google to find out exactly what this is. Kind of cute, actually, but scary, too, since litmus test should be a well-known phrase to most people.

Who knows...maybe both candidates also heard it as lipness test, which is why they said no, they wouldn't impose that, but then said that they wouldn't pick a judge who didn't share their views on Roe v Wade.

Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady) Tells All

Maureen McCormick (who starred as Marcia Brady on TVs The Brady Bunch) has joined the ranks of troubled child actors, as she reveals in her new book, Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice. Ms McCormick tells all about her abusive father, string of affairs (which included Michael Jackson, Steve Martin, and co-star Barry Williams), and her problems with drugs (namely, cocaine and Quaaludes). The drug use started after her run on the show, and were coupled with a lack of confidence that saw her fail in an interview with Steven Speilberg and seriously curtail what she probably could have parlayed into a very successful career.

McCormick, now 52, has emerged from all that now, and is once again a successful actress, as well as being on Celebrity Fit Club and, of course, a writer.

I had a big crush on her, as did 99.9% of other boys who watched The Brady Bunch, so I'm glad to hear she's doing all right and still looking good. I also once saw her in person in New York, in about 1980. She would have been about 25). I was walking down the street, around 57th St and 6th Avenue, and was admiring, in as respectful a way as possible, an anonymous woman who was walking with her 'back' to me, about 15 feet in front of me. Suddenly (I don't know why) she turned around and looked straight at me - and it was Marcia Brady! I just kind of half-smiled at her, and that was that. Those kinds of things happen in New York a lot.

I wished she asked me to do some drugs with her (hypothetically, of course).

Read the full story here

Ethology: Seeing Human or Animal Faces on Cars

According to a new study released by researchers in Vienna, people associate human or animal faces with at least 90% of car fronts.

As humans have evolved, they have learned to use the human face to gather information on age, sex, intentions, threats, and more. It now appears that what many scientists believed could be true IS true: that humans apply these same face-reading rules when making judgements on inanimate objects. This study is the first time that the theory has been tested.

The results are that one-third of the subjects associated a human or animal face with 90 percent of the cars they were shown.

You might think that this would lead designers to make a car with a happy or sexy face, but the study suggests that people (men and women) place higher values on cars with powerful faces.

Read the full story here

Igloo Room

When you are next in Iowa, you deserve to pamper yourself. Why stay in a normal motel when you can stay (time and money permitting) in a luxury igloo room at the Designer Inn and Suites (located in Toledo, Iowa). The white ceiling is 'cut' to resemble snow bricks. The room includes a whirlpool with submerged lights, a sauna, and a six-jet shower. If you have time, you can watch the 42 inch TV (a must for any igloo). One bad point - no mirror above the bed, but then, you can always opt for one of the other luxury suites that do have one.

Click here for the full story

Blossom Goodchild's Federation of Light

The Night Googler is getting an itchy wallet finger. I'm thinking about plunking down a wad of cash behind psychic Blossom Goodchild's prediction that a huge intergalactic spaceship will appear in the sky for 3 days, starting on Tuesday, 14th October.

The current bookie odds on this event have been cut down to 100/1, and include the proviso that either George Bush or Gordon Brown will confirm the existence of intelligent alien life with the next year.

The fully prediction tells that the spaceship will be attacked by governments around the world (I agree with that part) but the ship will not respond because they come in peace. In truth, George Bush does not strike me as the type of president who would be reaching out with an olive branch if an alien spaceship kept hovering. It would also seem rather provocative if this spaceship continued to hover after it was fired at. This would simply confirm to most people that it was a threat.

Also hard to believe is the idea that aliens are going to travel here just for the purpose of getting fired on by these primitives, for the sole purpose of helping us out and teaching us about peace. I mean, I want to believe it. It would be great if it did happen. I just find it a bit, well, unrealistically optomistic.

Read the news story here and more here

National Debt Clock runs out of digits

The National Debt Clock, an up to the minute LED readout of the US National Debt, was until recently robust enough the display the current debt amount. However, when the national debt flipped from 9 to above 10 trillion dollars, the clock no longer had enough digits to display the full amount (they had to lose the dollar sign to account for the extra digit). The clock's owners say they will add 2more digits to account for the growing amount.

Dr Horrible and Joss Whedon

The Night Googler is a card-carrying Joss Whedon fan. Although the Googler never got into Buffy...it was Firefly that made the Googler have respect for Whedon's ability to create and write strong, believable, fully realized male and female characters in an ensemble cast.

But sometimes even the Googler finds he is living under a rock, as he just discovered that Whedon has released an Internet movie called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. You can watch Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog here for free. And please buy the DVD when it becomes available; it is important that we nurture the forum of original Internet content. If talented writer/directors like Whedon can make a living producing content directly for the Internet, it will allow them to fully realize their creative expression without having to shape their product for often-misguided corporate executives with small (or large) private parts (depending on their gender - we must choose the appropriate insult).

Read my full review of Dr Horrible here

Additional info:

Karaoke:
I am grateful to Moses Lei, a talented musician who has painstakingly created karaoke tracks for many of the Dr Horrible songs. I was in heaven tonight, singing along to Brand New Day, Freeze Ray, and On the Rise! Click here to visit the Moses Lei karaoke page

Felicia Day (Penny)
I was not aware of Felicia Day's work until seeing her in this video. She has been around for awhile. The connection is that she has already created a successful internet series called The Guild (which, unfortunately, I haven't been able to find). She also starred in Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer series a few years back. Recently, she guest-starred on House. Felicia has a wonderful naturalistic way about her that makes her seem like a real person, not an actor - but she still has a captivating on-screen presence. Click here for Felicia Day's blog

UPDATE: More good news about Dr. Horrible! Michael Hinman at SyFyPortal.com reports that a sequel is in the works! Other good news is that the DVD release of Dr. Horrible will include the 10 best fan video submissions of possible entrants in the Evil League of Evil. If you know a little bit about Whedon/Firefly fans, they are funny, witty, clever, talented...much like the guy they idolize. It's weird that way Read the full article here

If you like everything about porn except the sex...

Now, there's a small demographic. If you like everything about porn (the cheap sets, shoddy acting, and actors with bad teeth, poor diction, and shameless regional accents) but you can't stand the sex, James Gunn (director of the cult classic Slither) has created a new free Internet short film series called, aptly, PG Porn. The first in what will hopefully be a long run is called Nailing Your Wife, and stars Nathan Fillion and real porn star and Penthouse Pet Aria Giovanni.

The film itself is just a small trifle and only mildly amusing, but the concept is great. So is the greater concept, that of bypassing the big networks and producing high-quality film directly for the Internet. Here's looking forward to much more of that, too.

click here to view Nailing Your Wife

Evel Knievel was suspect in string of violent assaults

Over in the USA, the FBI has a policy I have just become aware of that is ill-advised from a cultural standpoint. When someone dies, their secret files are released to the public. Of course, they are highly redacted (i.e.: lots of black marker used to cross out names and places), but they still are consistently going to place the deceased in a bad light by presenting outdated, often unsubstantiated evidence. It's too late for the family of the accused to prove their innocence, and, in many cases, the general public will make assumptions about guilt. This has just happened with famed motorcycle stunt rider Evel Knievel.

Knievel, it turns out, was the subject of an ongoing investigation into violent incidents that he either was personally involved in or was alleged to have orchestrated. Working off the limited information available in the article, there is no doubt that on at least a couple of occasions, Knievel did react violently and personally (once with promoter Shelly Saltman, and once with fellow stunt rider Bob Gill). Other incidents were never proven and were denied.

True or false? We will never know, but perhaps this is not the time to be accusing him of these crimes again. However, they should consider throwing the book at him for being involved in the so-bad-it-is-funny movie Viva Knievel!, a film that critic Rob Gonsalves summed up nicely with the phrase, "jaw-droppingly stupid".

Click here for a link to the full article

OJ Simpson Verdict

OJ Simpson has been found guity of armed robbery in Las Vegas. He faces a minimum of 15 year for the kidnapping charge, plus additional time for the other 11 charges of which he was convicted. The verdict helps to portray Simpson as a morality-free thug who doesn't mind using a gun to get what he wants (in this case, he says he was merely 'retrieving' stolen sports memorabilia that was rightfully his).

Some people will use this conviction as an indicator that Simpson did kill his wife Nicole. (Simpson was cleared of that charge in criminal court, but convicted of the same charge in civil court).

Strangely enough, despite all that has happened, when the Night Googler hears the name OJ Simpson, the Googler still gets a pleasing visual image of an freakish athlete with unique lateral mobility weaving through would-be tacklers on the way to another long run for the Buffalo Bills. It seems it is hard to separate the beauty of an elite athlete's movements with that same athlete's flawed personality.

morse code

Let's not forget our old, outmoded, outdated, yet elegantly simple technologies like Morse Code. Fortunately, Robert Williams of Bozeman, Montana didn't. On a Sunday night in September, 2008, he was testing out his ham radio when he picked up a signal from a hiker stranded on Glacier Peak, over 600 miles away in the neighboring state of Washington. Williams called 911 and spent the day relaying messages and GPS coordinates from the hiker to rescuers, all via Morse Code. The next day, rescue crews reached the hiker and carried him to safety on horseback.

When I was a kid, I had this cool Morse Code flashlight with a big opening and sort of venetian blinds covering the lens. There was a trigger that opened and closed the blinds, and a basic Morse Code 'glossary' on the side for easy reference.

Wish I'd kept it!

joe sixpack

The Night Googler isn't really a typical Joe Sixpack. If anything, in my drinking days I might have been known as a Joe SixCarafe. But it's over now, and the question is, 'Who won the vice presidential debate?'

At this point in the election, most of the undecided/likely to change voters are lower middle to middle class. So both parties are trying to appeal to those groups. When Palin talks about tax cuts for business, she talks about how it's going to help 'our families'. Biden mentions meeting a friend in line for gas who doesn't know how much it costs to fill up his tank because he can't afford to fill it up anymore. Palin says that Joe Sixpack and Hockey moms need to ban together and just say 'never again' by managing their investments and not over-borrowing.

The Night Googler IS decided but would rather not bring politics into this forum, preferring to simply say, "I wish the election was over and the party I want to get in gets in." I'm sure you agree.

OK Go and their Happy Treadmill Dance

Need cheering up? Don't mind listening to a bit of rock music? Watch this coordinated treadmill dance by the group OK Go. It never fails to put a smile on my face.

Then, if you really loved it and can appreciate the work that went into it, imagine, for a moment, that you are in high school (say, for example, Granbury High School, Granbury, Texas, USA) and it's the talent show, and you are able to increase your popularity by doing this:

click here if you cannot view the above video

Fringe

The Night Googler has limited time and energy, and must make the tough decisions when it comes to choosing what to watch. J. J. Abrams new show Fringe made it onto the radar. I'm interested in all things J. J., especially in the leadup to his upcoming Star Trek movie. My greatest fear is that his star will drop due to shoddy projects, and Fringe is the start of that possible decline.

First off, the Night Googler is not a big fan of the X Files, although I have enjoyed those few episodes I watched. Fringe appears to be a copy of this format, with lots of wisecracks, gray area science, and illogic. It's like they took all the bits of Lost I don't like and spun off a new show from those dregs. Granted, I am making a snap judgement after watching 25 minutes of the first episode. But sometimes the Night Googler has to be ruthless.

So I'm not going to watch any more. Goodbye, Anna Torv, and good luck to you. I'll miss your confused and worried expressions.

B&B Benedetto Diotti

(The Night Googler reserves the right to blog about anything the Googler wants to blog about, hence this entry).

Recently, we had a hankering to see the Duomo in Milan (Italy), but did not want to pay the exhorbitant Euro prices for hotel rooms. While looking for a B&B (Bed and Breakfast) in or near Milan, I found some, but there were no reviews. We chose B&B Benedetto Diotti. Located a short bus and train ride from the city centre, the friendly and obliging host of this B&B will make you feel at home. The two dogs in the garden are friendly and will help to make you feel secure, as will the locked gate.

The B&B is located in suburban Milan; there are some shops within walking distance, but the larger shops are a very short bus ride away. Fortunately, your culinary needs for lunch and dinner can be sated completely by the talented people at Acqua Azzurra, a family-run restaurant just a couple of doors away. The pasta dishes are amazing!

This B&B's host has very limited English, so if you really want to force yourself to learn enough Italian to communicate, this is the place to go.

I highly recommend this B&B as a budget way of disovering Milan and Italy.

Teach yourself to speak with a British accent

This woman thinks that if you can say been, again, and garage, you are well on your way to sounding British.
Click here to view the YouTube video

Trust, Evolution, and Survival

I'm originally from New York, and like most New Yorkers, I trust no one. It takes me about 4 years of knowing someone before I will, say, lend them a utensil or believe them when they tell me the 5-day weather forecast. So it is with some shaking of my head from side to side that I react to stories like "Scams originating from Nigeria and other West African countries have been deceiving Queenslanders out of hundreds of thousands of dollars per month for many years." as reported by the Queensland (Australia) police department.

Like they say on the excellent, stylish, and fun British show Hustle, it's easy to scam people. All you do is "...offer them something for nothing, then give them nothing for something." (As an aside, Hustle ran for 4 glorious seasons before being discontinued; you can read my Hustle reviews here).

Which brings me to the real point of this post: Bigfoot. The ultimate urban legend has been back in the news recently, with 2 self-proclaimed Georgia (USA) Bigfoot trackers claiming to have found a Bigfoot corpse. (full story here). It turns out that the corpse was a Bigfoot suit stuffed with road kill and discards from an abbatoir. The two men, one of whom was a cop on leave (he has since been fired) claim that the story was blown out of proportion by a promoter (Tom Biscardi) who paid them $50,000 for the story and told them to make the fake. Before the story was fully revealed to be a scam, the guys had leaked the corpse photos to the internet, claimed to be having a press conference, and shown another fake video of a supposed primate researcher who had examined and authenticated the corpse (the primate researcher turned out to be the cop's brother - the resemblance was easy to spot).



What amazed me about this story was how many commenters to it were willing to believe in it, despite many red flags pointing to a scam. Perhaps with Bigfoot, 'scammability' is magnified. Bigfoot is an enduring urban legend, and our natural fear of forests and other unvisited places means that we often populate these places with imaginary beasts like unicorns, Loch Ness Monsters, dragons, extinct Tasmanian Tigers, mountain lions well out of range, and dinosaurs well past their extinct-by date.

I scoured the internet to find more proof that this scam was indeed a scam, but instead I found myself deeply buried in polished pro-Bigfoot websites (like The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy). Here's a tip - don't stay at the site for too long, or you will soon find yourself beginning to believe, too - or at least you will slide a little bit towards the 'undecided' category - especially when you read this transcript of noted primate expert Jane Goodall from a radio show in 2002. Yes, Jane Goodall said that she thinks that Bigfoot exists. Of course, a little later on, she does say she wishes they exist. So even Jane may be capable of getting gathered up in the hype.

The Simpsons Want You

If you would like to step into the world of The Simpsons, you can create your own Simpsons avatar by visiting the Simpsons movie website. Choose your gender, hairstyle, eyes, shirt, etc, and then create an MSN icon or download the image. Be sure to register and login first. You're looking at the Simpson approximation of me, or at least how I view myself in the cartoon world.

This is a cool little program for fans, although the rest of the site is a little weak. Click here to visit the Simpsons Movie site

Retarded Policeman

click here if you cannot view the above video
The Retarded Policeman series ended up holding more than a passing interest to me. It's the first time I have seen an actor (Josh Perry) who actually has Down Syndrome. He follows in the footsteps of Chris Burke, perhaps the most famous Down Syndrome actor (he played Corky on the American television series Life Goes On).

The Retarded Policeman videos are tasteless on many levels, and they have offended many. For his part, Perry has made a couple of other YouTube videos just to publicly explain that he is a professional actor who is aware of his actions and knows what he is doing. I'm not sure where I stand on this topic. Is it alright for a black man to call another black man a nigger? Is it racist for Greek comedian Nick Giannopoulos to star in a movie called Wog Boy? All I know is, in this particular instance, the series is funny, has good comic timing, and is truly empowering Josh Perry, while in effect making fun of the LA Police stereotypes. You decide...and let me know what you think.

Chad Vader, Night Manager

What a concept. Chad Vader, who could be Darth's twin, is trying to survive in the normal world. He works as a manager in a supermarket, and has a crush on one of the checkout girls. But when the Day Manager steals his girl, he goes off the deep end. His temper doesn't always serve him well, either.

I originally caught this youtube video series a couple of years ago. Since that time, the guys at http://www.blamesociety.net/ have been churning out episodes, and they are still funny (and have some special surprise guests).

Click this direct link to the youtube video