It would be so much easier to dismiss The Guardian if it didn’t employ some excellent writers. Its television critics, for example, are usually more entertaining than the programmes they review. The reason I still buy the paper on Fridays is because the “music” part of the film and music supplement actually covers popular music […]
Those of you who didn’t know it already will not be surprised to learn that there is a Finnish symphonic rock outfit called Nightwish. They have recently sacked their soprano lead, so, if that’s your bag, now’s your chance to put on your horned helmet and boob-armour and record a demo for them. This YouTube […]
PooterGeek brings you more linkiness with this report from John Pilger, writing for The Sports Offensive, ed. Jim Campbell. John Pilger travels to a Galaxy Far Far Away and discovers the reality behind the media distortions I am in Coruscant, capital of the “evil” and “corrupt” Galactic Empire. According to the propagandists of the Rebel Alliance this is […]
I haven’t had time for a proper post for the past few days and I still don’t, but Leasey recommends that you explore the platypus genome by hovering your mouse pointer over the little image of a platypus on this page and reading the pop-up that appears. Genomics: an unrecognized mine of comedy gold.
I’m planning a technical how-to about writing lyrics so I’ve been doing some background research. During meals I’ve been swotting up on my villanelles and my anadiplosis and my recurrence from a copy of Jeffrey Wainwright’s Poetry: The Basics that I picked up at the library. It’s informative and an excellent read. At the start of […]
The current lead story on The Onion’s online radio station is: “Mel Gibson Launches Rockets Into Israel”.
Remember Chris Applegate’s giant KitKat? His original playful culinary experiment seems to have given birth to the monster that is “Pimp That Snack”. Booyakasha
Slashdot links to a tale of how a systems administrator scammed a 419 scammer, helped indigenous craftspeople, and obtained two rather nice wooden sculptures. The Age writes: “When he found a willing victim, his anti-scam unfolded in much the same way as a typical 419 scam, promising payment only after a substantial investment had been laid […]
I realise I’m somewhat behind the wave on this, but, for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, thanks to Hot Wheels Helena for “Cats That Look Like Hitler”.
After you’ve read this blog’s harmless and amusing comparison of real college life with co-ed porn movies, check out the comments, where, for no immediately obvious reason, a visitor launches an irrelevant tirade about, well, you can probably fill in the rest if I reproduce the last couple of sentences: “I hope those Iraqis kick […]
The Agnostic Monk manages both the easy task of being funny about the performance of England’s football team yesterday, and the harder task of being funny about a man being shot seven times in the legs, though in this he gets lots of help from The New York Times.
I have been profoundly disappointed with the level of Euston Manifesto satire to date. Things are so bad on the taking-the-piss front that I am probably going to have to do it myself. That’s what it comes to when so many of the people who disagree with you are humourless, witless, or unhinged. For heaven’s sake, […]
As Gary Larson has observed, “cow” is an inherently funny word. Even without the absurdly high production values, the cow abduction site would still be amusing. [requires Flash]
“Hot Wheels” Helena acquired her nickname because, despite being an Advanced Driver who can cadence-brake, control-gear, and turn into skids with the best of them, she used to get about in an ancient Mini Metro Rover 100—and get me about in it when she was my Genome Campus car-sharing partner. She’s ruined the (weak) joke now by buying […]
Further to the ongoing debate in the comments here about street evangelism, Fark links to the anti-preachers.
A while back I linked to Saturday Night Live’s excellent “Narnia Rap”, Lazy Sunday. Via An Englishman In New York, I have now experienced Britain’s response to this online hit: Lazy Sunday UK: We Drink Tea. [Requires Macromedia Flash Player.] Unlike the US original, the rapping is painfully inept, but I think that’s the point. It […]
Before I set about some other duties, I pause to browse the blogs and bitch about them (affectionately of course). On the subject of lazy blogging, if Guido is going to complain about substandard satire on the TV, he needs to get some of his own material or at the very least put me on his […]
One of my toff friends lectures history. She’s been looking for good blogs in her subject area lately and “Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog” is her favourite so far. I can see why. It’s clever and it’s funny. (And even funnier now she has explained some of the jokes to me.) As I am in […]
Was this Guardian letter really a parody by the Harry’s Place mob? Please tell me that Chris Martin supporting the Tories was a spoof. Disillusionment with Labour is bad enough, but to lose respect for Coldplay and their music would exacerbate the situation. Michael Pritchard Watford
After a hard day’s coding [yeah, you thought I’d put that crap behind me too], there’s nothing like settling down in front of your monitor to watch the latest movie trailers online. The one(s) for Basic Instinct in particular is/are gloriously bad. I was going to write a few paragraphs marvelling at David Morrissey’s ability […]
At PooterGeek we love Snakes On A Plane. Thank you to Peter Briffa for drawing my attention to the Snakes On A Plane sequel pitch thread at the Internet Movie Database discussion boards—samples: Jurassic Snake A crazy British entrepeneur brings dinosaurs back to life by extracting genetic material from amber, using snake cells to fill in the […]
Regular readers here know that I had little time for the argument that “we” had to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein had a strategic arsenal trained on Hoxton hidden under his various country homes. It’s been said that I’ve been quite rude about people who signed up too confidently for certain types of WMD-related bollocks, […]
She was funny and seemed nice and I’m not just saying that because she’s dead. I’ll miss listening to her.
“Women chose funny men as relationship partners despite often rating them as less honest and intelligent,” the researchers said in the study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour. In other news: Actor Tom Cruise has branded a story suggesting he is to split from pregnant fiancee Katie Holmes “100% false”. The denial came after US magazine […]
If you frequent the eBay auction site you will be familiar with the capitalist haiku that is the eBay feedback message, the window through which users signal to other users their experience of a seller’s or buyer’s reliability. The majority of feedback messages are boilerplate rendered in txt msg English: Delivrd on time. Goods well pkged. […]
Thanks to Tim’s Britblog Roundup I discovered Ivan The Terrible of Dies Irae today. He’s not very correct, but he is very funny. On Fabien Cousteau, son of Jacques: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson, Fabien, is following in his illustrious forebear’s flippers by building a shark-shaped submarine. By means of this ingenious device he will get closer to […]
Late one evening a burglar breaks into what he thinks is an empty house. As he cracks the safe in the main living room and reaches in to grab the holidaying owners’ jewels, a voice speaks to him from the darkness: “Jesus is watching you.” He turns suddenly and shines his torch around, looking for the source […]
Richard and I have been experimenting a lot with musical rounds and vocal counterpoint lately, but never have we scaled the heights of P D Q Bach, “oddest and least loved of the twenty-odd sons of Johann Sebastian Bach”. How is it that I had never heard of the satirist and pioneer of the classical mash-up (and serious […]
I’ve written before here about how Armando Unfunnucci’s consistent inability to raise a laugh with his “humorous” Guardian column used to bond me with complete strangers on the Tube. Now he’s returned, replacing decaying homophobic bore Richard Ingrams on the back of the main section of The Observer. Today his closing flourish of wit was […]
Sorry about the thin posting so far this week. I’ve been busy. Surprisingly, considering it covers those strange games Americans play, there are items in The Onion’s sports review of 2005 that even Brits can find funny. I missed their “World’s Emotionally Strongest Man” report when it first appeared last September: During the show’s premiere, a two-hour […]