July 04, 2009
Good News for the Economy!
(Jimmy Akin)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (12)
June 24, 2009
Political humor
(SDG)
This cartoon reminds me of something from the Team America movie that someone told me about (I didn't see it myself), a satiric pro-American song that I can't even repeat the title of here. (The cartoon below also has an objectionable word in it.)
Or, at least, that's how many Americans would view the rest of the world, if they had even that much geographical awareness.
In reality, I think many Americans see the world through the same sort of lens (though not of course from the same perspective) as Saul Steinberg's famous New Yorker cover map of the world cartoon:
Oh, and JibJab is at it again!
Posted by SDG in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (23)
June 23, 2009
The Great Chain of Being Goes To Heaven
(Jimmy Akin)
CHT to the reader who sent in the following church sign debate. It's currently being circulated around the Internet in the form of an e-mail that suggests it's real, but it's not (note that the leaves of the plants don't move from one picture to another). That doesn't stop it from being hilarious--if you don't take it (or its theology) too seriously.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (12)
April 27, 2009
A While Back . . .
(Jimmy Akin)
. . . I told you about a FEEL-GOOD FILM FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (7)
February 03, 2009
More YouTube Star Wars goofiness
(SDG)
SDG here with another quick post … If you enjoyed the Star Wars John Williams tribute song post, you may appreciate this hilarious take the Star Wars saga, retold by someone who hasn't seen it (and animated by someone who, um, has). Enjoy!
One question that occurs to me watching this: Where did he get that image of Lando in that goofy pose, holding his cape like that?
Posted by SDG in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (12)
December 19, 2008
12 Days of Christmas — Straight No Chaser
(SDG)
EDIT: The YouTube video has been pulled, but you can still catch SNC's 12 Days at AOL Music.
SDG here with a Christmas-related post, if a non-religious humor one. I first saw the video below last year, but it definitely bears re-watching. Enjoy!
Posted by SDG in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (11)
December 15, 2008
A mondedream and a mondegreen
(SDG)
SDG here. Both Jimmy and I have posted in the past about mondegreens, so I won't go into the background about why misheard song lyrics and the like are called that (more at Wikipedia)… but I will tell you why I've been thinking about them lately.
Last week, I had a mondedream.
Here's what happened. Last weekend, while browsing in a bookstore, I heard the song "Run-Around" by the band Blues Traveler, a song I've heard many times before. Like many people (as I've since learned), I've never known exactly how the chorus begins — and, not being big into popular music generally, I've never thought much about it before.
I didn't think of it that evening either, although subconsciously I must have been working on it, because that night I dreamed about the song — and, in my dream, thought I was positive I had figured out the ambiguous line in question.
When I woke up, I realized that my guess had to be wrong — but I also realized that that it was actually phonetically persuasive and narratively cogent — more so, in fact, than other mondegreens on the same line I've since found online.
The real line, I have since found out, is:
"But you / Why you wanna give me the runaround?"
However, that "But-a ya-e-ew..." is polysyllablized (I'm sure there's a musicological term for this) in such a way that many people apparently think it is something more complicated. In fact, I didn't know this at the time, but it turns out that one common mondegreen for this line is "Buddy L…" Makes no sense, but that's what people think he's saying.
I like my dreamed-up version better:
"Bloody hell… why you wanna give me the runaround?"
"Bloody hell" sounds a lot like "Buddy L" (and therefore both must sound a lot like the way the line actually comes out) — but my version actually makes sense… and I came up with it in my sleep.
What's more, I keep singing it that way in my head now — even though I now know the real line.
Now that I'm on the subject, I might as well reveal my lifetime classic mondegreen.
Fair warning: This anecdote will ruin several minutes of Handel's Messiah for you. There. You can't say I didn't tell you. (As added protection, I'll white out the words so you have to swipe them with your mouse to read them.)
The Messiah got a lot of play in our house when I was a kid. My mother sang in it at a local church, and she played it especially around Christmastime. My mondegreen concerns the opening of the segment that begins:
"All we like sheep … All we like sheep / Have gone astray…"
In typical Baroque style, those first four words "All we like sheep" are echoed by four antiphonal beats from the strings section: "All we like sheep [bum bum bum bum]."
As a child, I not only misheard the words "All we like sheep," I glossed an antiphonal response onto the four following beats which, in my brain at the time, seemed somehow fitting.
So during "All we like sheep [bum bum bum bum]," what I heard in my head as a kid was (swipe with your mouse at your own risk!):
"Oh, we like sheep! [And sheep like us!]"
People hate me for telling them that, because it ruins the segment. (Sorry people!)
So those are my mondegreens. (I've got others, but I'll save 'em for later.) In the combox, feel free to share yours! I don't mean your favorite common ones, like "There's a bathroom on the right" or "Excuse me while I kiss this guy" (though you can add those too), but song lyrics you yourself misheard or misinterpreted.
In closing, a seasonal favorite (not mine!): "Now bring us some frigging pudding!" (Real line: "Now bring us some figgy pudding," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas")
Posted by SDG in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (36)
September 04, 2008
Tigh-Roslin '08
(Jimmy Akin)
Many observers were impressed by Col. Saul Tigh's selection of Laura Roslin as his running mate in the upcoming election.
Others found Roslin to be a lightweight compared to Tigh's 40 years of service to the Twelve Colonies and his record as a war hero and former POW.
Originally, Roslin held only a minor post in the Colonial government which--while it showcased her genuine love for children--nevertheless was a small backdrop before an unexpected and lightning rise to executive office, which she has held for only a short time.
On the other hand, her decision to ban abortion in order to keep mankind alive, her gung-ho Cylon-hunting, and her deep religious faith will surely fire up the base.
It is less clear what the effect will be of her statement that Admiral Adama's deeply-unpopular and protracted conflict with the Cylons is a "task that is from the gods."
Some pundits viewed her selection cynically, saying that Tigh needed to choose someone like Roslin in order to shore up his standing in the party.
Many of the party faithful have long had the feeling that the maverick Tigh was not really "one of us," in the words of fighter pilot Lt. Kara Thrace, who once faced disciplinary action for punching then-Col. Tigh in the face. "No matter what his service record has been or what he endured back on New Caprica," she said, "he never really seemed like he was one of us. There was always something that made him different."
These feelings were accentuated when Col. Tigh recently confirmed rumors that he is, in fact a Cylon, though he swears that his allegiance is to mankind.
"After they revealed that, I was thinking about sitting out this election," Lt. Thrace said. "But then he named Roslin as his running mate, and that won me back over. Personally, I'd rather have Roslin at the top of the ticket than a Cylon who says he's on our side, but anything's better than who the other party is putting up."
Tigh's major party rival for the presidency is the charismatic newcomer Gaius Baltar, who despite shady dealings in the past has rocketed to popularlity and achieved almost messianic status with his enthusiastic followers.
"It's really creepy," Laura Roslin said in a recent press conference "watching all those young women treating him like some kind of religious figure who will save us all. He actually has less experience than I do, with his background as a 'computer organizer.'"
Concerned with the effect his relative inexperience could have on voters, Gaius Baltar had nominated as his running mate Tom Zarek, a long-term political figure from the tiny world of Sagittaron who is often perceived as a political attack dog, though with a reputation for being long-winded.
"What a snore-fest he is," Lt. Thrace said.
The effect of the vice presidential selections remains to be seen, but this year's election has already stirred much comment.
Some have marveled at the unusual plot twists the campaign has taken, while others have noted eerie similarities to other races.
Asked for comment, Priestess Elyosha of the Mystical Majority responded, "You know what they say in politics: All of this has happened before; all of this will happen again."
(CHT: Fr. Z and the reader who e-mailed.)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (11)
August 22, 2008
McCain, Obama Camps Embarrassed, Scrambling
(Tim Jones)
Both organizations are racing to make new vice-presidential picks
after it was discovered late last night that they were both about to
name the same running mate. "This is worse than when Laura Bush and
three other ladies wore the same Oscar de La Renta gown to a White
House function" said an anonymous inside source, "The public generally
expects the presidential candidates to have different running mates."
The individual at the center of the controversy won't now be named, and both campaigns are trying to move quickly past the faux pas, while taking measures to make sure it doesn't happen again. "We really need more communication on that level" said a campaign staffer, "though the individual should have said something to alert us weeks ago. They thought it was pretty funny, but the joke was almost on the American people.".
"We've been working hard to show the public all the important differences between our candidate and his opponent, and this kind of thing doesn't make it any easier.".
(Visit Tim Jones' blog Old World Swine)
Posted by Tim Jones in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (21)
April 11, 2008
The Final Cylon . . . Exposed?
(Jimmy Akin)
TWELVE CYLON MODELS.
SEVEN ARE KNOWN.
FOUR LIVE IN SECRET.
ONE WILL BE REVEALED.
.
.
.
Okay, yeah. The evidence is pretty overwhelming.
.
.
.
John McCain is a Cylon.
C
CHT: Chris Palmer (via Tigerhawk (via Instapundit))
BTW, new BSG tonight.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Curios & Humor | Permalink | Comments (18)
