It is my guess that you had absolutely
NO IDEA WHATSOEVER that next week is TV Turnoff Week.
Why is it that you don’t know that? Probably because the videos available here at the always controversial, oft-funny
adbusters.org never made it to air. And besides, you’re just too dam caught up
in who’s going to win this season’s Survivor to pay attention to some squealing activist group. But yes, dear readers,
next week IS TV Turn Off week, and we offer as our Friday Funny a couple of entertaining videos that may, or may not,
get you to Kill Your Television.
Friday Funny: Digital Photo Names
Digital picture fans will love this. Nuf said.
Friday Funny: McSweeneys
Ah, McSweeney’s. Always good for a Friday chuckle. This piece by John Hallman takes a somewhat Python-esque look at the travelogue. Entitled Traveling Europe In Style With Auckland Dingiroo, Dark-Age Tourist And Critic Of Food And Drink, the hilarious satire pokes fun at food critics, travel writers and plague sufferers alike.
My favorite graph (among several):
Whether it be from the wrath of God, fleas, or the stagnant, foul-smelling water emanating from the city’s wells, nearly half the population has disappeared since I visited last. In spite of the smell of death, which has yet to entirely recede from the air, it did not take me long to appreciate what it was that keeps me coming back again and again to this little Frankish gem along the Seine.
Thank god for Friday, and McSweeney’s.
Friday Funny (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on Chinese New Year)
Today’s Friday Funny takes us down to Chinatown in New York City, where Triumph lets loose on many poor Chinese food sellers, luxury goods knock-off merchants and, um, sexual enhancement shops.
It’s so funny, it’s almost tragic. Of course, he visits the Chinese New Year parade…to much bawdy amusement (yes, he humps a dragon). And what story about Chinese New Year would be complete without a reference to eating dogs…yes, it’s here.
A very good way to end this fine (and damn cold) Friday.
Friday Funny: Cruise Ships
For about a year now, I’ve been working out of an office in the city that has afforded me my own quiet little space to contemplate work, the universe and the fuzz in my navel. The space it is one of those fascinating by-products of the modern, Web-connected era. It is a freelancer’s utopia where various writers, illustrators, producers and creative-folk come to ply their trades and intermingle.
One of the guys here is a wonderfully talented comedy writer and a former speech-writer for Bill Clinton named Mark Katz who has got a site featuring some of his other humor writings, and when I took a look at some of the peices, I came across this one that made me guffaw out loud (much to the consternation of my neighbor who is busily writing an article about food). While not nearly as long or engaging as David Foster Wallace’s classic essay A Supposedly Fun Thing (probably the best travel piece I’ve EVER read), his article for the Times on taking a cruise aboard the Crystal Harmony is utterly worthy of our Friday Funny.