Fun Stuff
February 9th, 2011
Enlightening Television
Starting at about 1:30 is among the best combinations of humor, crassness and sensitivity you will see on TV.
December 16th, 2010
X Factor Recap: Judges Fail, Democracy Fails, But Show Still Awesome
If you don’t know about X Factor, Wikipedia is your friend.
In another demonstration of my mad wasting time on the internet skills, I discovered X Factor a couple years ago and have watched a number of the songs in each of the last two seasons. It’s not saying much, but it is multiple times better than American Idol in every possible way. But this year, there were two glaring problems with the results. The first involves Gamu Nhengu, an 18-year-old woman who immigrated to Scotland from Zimbabwe five years ago.
In her audition, she sang a version of Walking on Sunshine that she changed a little bit:
That got her to the second round. At the end of the second round, she got even better. She sang her cover of Adele’s cover of Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love.
The woman can freaking sing. But judge Cheryl Cole inexplicably did not let her move on to the main competition. Now, to be fair, Cole had some tough choices to make. But there’s no question Gamu was better than Treyc Cohen:
And she was better than Katie Waisel, who peaked with a great performance of Help:
Fun fact: Katie’s grandmother is a prostitute.
One of the contestants Cole selected over Gamu was 17-year-old Cher Lloyd, who was freaking awesome. Here’s her audition:
She got even better:
And better:
Think she can only do hip hop? Nope. The chick can sing:
Fun fact: Lloyd’s performance led to the original version of the song by Shakespeare’s Sister getting back on the charts in the UK.
Is covering Alicia Keys and Jay-z too much? Nope:
Shockingly, in the greatest failing of democracy since, well, November, the people of Great Britain repeatedly failed to vote for Cher. Fortunately, they hated others, like Katie Waissel, more. But a few times, Cher was inexplicably in the bottom 2. A nice thing about X Factor is there is a check on public stupidity for most of the season as the judges get to save one of the two lowest vote-getters.
So she made it to the semi-finals where she covered Eminem and Rihanna:
I’ve never heard of The Clapping Song and I don’t particularly like it, but in the Finals, Lloyd added some Missy Elliot and was at her best as a performer:
Her other performance in the finals with with that dude who turned the Obama speech into a song:
Sadly, when the judges turned complete authority over to the public, they failed and Cher Lloyd was done. That wouldn’t be the last time they screwed up. When it came down to the final two, they chose Matt Cardle over Rebecca Ferguson. That was just plain wrong.
Here he is:
Ok, so the dude doesn’t suck at all. But he’s not as good as Ferguson. Here’s more:
Ok, so he’s pretty damned good. But still not as good as Ferguson.
Here she is:
Here she is again:
Here she is one more time:
I’ve now said far, far more than I should have about X Factor.
November 24th, 2010
South Park v. Food Network
and South Park v. people who take food too seriously.
In both fights, South Park wins. CLICK HERE.
November 1st, 2010
People With Mad Skills
Sure these people have some impressive skills. But how many of them could eat six burgers in one day?
September 1st, 2010
Full Metal Awesome
In college, I headed to the local video store to rent Full Metal Jacket. I looked for the movie on the shelves and didn’t see it. I went to the dude working there and asked if it was in. He looked it up and assured me it was and asked me where I looked. I told him I looked in comedy.
Dude got pissed in a way I’ve never experienced from a clerk before or since. He didn’t yell, but he asked “Why would you look in comedy” with a degree of disdain that, if he weren’t 20, I would have been sure was born out of his personal experience in Viet Nam.
Almost 15 years later, what do I think about it? Fuck him; that’s a funny movie:
August 25th, 2010
Instant Classic
This song has gone viral for good reason – it’s pretty much the catchiest tune ever.
If the video doesn’t work, which it may not by the time this post shows up, just go to youtube and do a search for cee lo green fuck you. The record company is apparently aggressively getting videos of the song taken down.