I Always Drink to World Peace

I can watch this movie over and over and over again.



Funny how innocent movie trailer narration was back then. The guy sounds like he's advertising a Disney animation for toddlers.

And with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, you're basically just being an idiot if you don't like this movie. Sometimes it's OK to go along with the crowd.

Ricky Gervais is The King of Comedy

Who else could get Patrick Stewart, David Bowie and now Liam Neeson to do these deadpan skits? The man is a flat-out genius. If you disagree, you're just wrong and that's all there is to it.

Geico Rarely Misses

Writing and casting perfection. It doesn't make me want to go to the hassle of switching from my current insurance, but I love it. Is Geico still a Martin client?

What Kenny Powers Means for The Future of Advertising

By now you've seen him, the brash, arrogant and hilarious Kenny Powers, new spokesman for K-Swiss athletic footwear. Kenny berates, cajoles, swears a blue streak and promotes K-Swiss "Tubes" like they were the most innovative product since canned ham. Kenny is of course the creation of Danny McBride and the main character on McBride's HBO series Eastbound and Down.

Brash and arrogant spokesmen are nothing new. There is in fact a glut of them at present. They are over-the-top confident, beyond macho to the point of wink-wink caricatures. Most Interesting Man, Old Spice Guy, Keith Stone, the smug asshole who does the stand-ups for another shaving cream, the name of which escapes me. Even DQ is in on the act. The Fabio vs. Old Spice Guy manufactured "war" commencing today on behalf of Old Spice is an example of taking it way too far. The fact that I'm aware of this stunt shames me. Full disclosure: I myself created a character about a year ago named Ronnie Reed, a redneck landscaper with no shortage of confidence, and also multiple children by various women. (He's still looking for a gig, so call me, John Deere.)

K-Swiss is taking it beyond over-the-top to a different place, a place where we all live. In short, they allow swearing. And not just swearing of the mild variety. This is Kenny Powers type swearing; prolific, masterful and again, hilarious. The TV commercials for McBride's K-Swiss videos are toned down, but what makes this campaign so different is the willingness on the part of K-Swiss to embrace the full power of the Powers character, as seen in this "uncensored" video.



I think this represents a major shift in the culture of advertising. I can't think of another brand that has gone to this length to embrace and reflect the current comedic trend. Not that cussing is new in comedy, but surely you've noticed that the network censors are a little less stringent these days with what gets bleeped and what remains. (I think I heard the word "dick" on a network show not long ago.)

If a brand tried this approach a decade ago there would be boycotts, backlash and instant resignations, followed by a rapid descent in sales. Today, I think the opposite is true. I don't have sales figures to back that claim up, but maybe a commenter can come along with some data. If nothing else, the videos are a hit. K-Swiss has broken ground here and allowed itself to be associated with the strange and funny cultural phenomenon that is Kenny Powers. I hope other brands don't see this success and try to copy it. They will though. A decade from now this approach will be mainstream.

A Thousand People Freezing Their Butts Off Waiting to Worship a Rat

I suppose one of the reasons this movie is such a classic is that in it, The King of Smug Insincerity has to come to terms with the shortcomings of that very personality. It never gets old to me. I could watch it over and over and over and over.



For fans of the CW show "Supernatural," (which I will confess I enjoy) they did an episode based on the movie.

The Onion - Not Trying to Be Viral - Just Doing It

Consistently better comedy than you'll find on TV - and now it's coming to TV January 21st on IFC, the Independent Film Channel. Hope that doesn't kill the mojo.

It's like Mad Magazine for adults, The Onion almost always does great humor, the kind you pass around to friends, making it....oh what's that word everyone wants to be...ah yes, VIRAL! But too many marketers don't understand that you can't just "make" a viral item, be it a video, cartoon, image or whatever. It has to have a reason to be viral, like humor or thought or intrigue. And all too often someone's idea of what should be viral is not the public's idea. If you try too hard you won't succeed. Remember that old phrase they tried to kick to the curb, "Content is King?" It's true.

There are agencies out there that will claim they can create viral buzz for your brand. Most of the time, they can get all their employees to tweet and blog about something they did for your brand, and they might bump you up the Digg rankings, but in the end a media push gets sniffed out and people don't fall for it. Here's a guy writing a column about how to create a viral buzz. The first commenter comes along and nails it: viral just happens, you don't create it. Yeah, that's what I said.

See below for a good example of what could be viral, at least for a two-day stretch in late November in the US.

Blind Taste Tests Don't Lie

Landscaper Ronnie Reed, hard-partying father of six and Coca-Cola connoisseur, went to Wendy's and tried a Coke Zero. He was not impressed.

I Was Wrong About This Guy

A long time ago I gave Dennis Miller a hard time. I still believe that the "Just For Men" thing in the beard was bad and made him look like a Saudi royal walking through a flowerbed holding hands with George W. Bush, but I have adjusted my views on his talents. I thought of Miller in the same way you think of a washed-up rock act that turns to country music because it's easy money; kind of like what Skynyrd is doing hanging around with Hannity. I thought, "Oh, failed comedian turns to the right wing for an audience that will lap up some easy jokes and give him a paycheck."

He didn't work out on Monday Night Football, where his obscure cultural references and intellectually-tinged asides were lost on his co-hosts and most of the audience. He didn't work out in his own late-night TV talk show. So it seemed like Dennis was grabbing for whatever he could when he showed up as a right-leaning talk-radio host.

But I've been listening to him every day during "exercise time" on the Blowflex out in the garage, and the guy - as he himself might say - "has some chops." He still has that funny habit of referring to men as "cats" and addressing women as "doll-face," but those idiosyncrasies are as endearing as they are goofy and they're part of the Miller shtick. What makes his show unique is that he (for the most part) refuses to tow the party line. He still comes from a conservative POV and is as critical as any pundit on the right of the administration and its allies in Congress, but he won't do the knee-jerk thing, and more importantly, he doesn't stoop to the demonizing rhetoric so popular among his right-side cohorts like Hannity, Crowley, Levin, Ingraham, Savage, Beck, Bortz or Limbaugh. I think that's because he's smarter than them and can actually think through an issue or the daily talking point issued by the spin firm of Gingrich, Rove & Associates. What's more, he hasn't lost the cutting-edge humor that made him popular years ago on SNL. He's almost like a Jon Stewart for the right, where politics and entertainment meet at that great intersection called comedy. 

There need to be more Dennis Millers. He can make you think, and he will engage someone with an opposing viewpoint without calling them names or labeling them insane. It's a shame his show isn't more popular. It sure should be.

Delusions of Courtroom and Senate Victories

In addition to running for Senate, Ronnie is fighting a bitter custody battle against Nikkii, the mother of his youngest children, the twins Dakota and Dillon. He is convinced that the creation embedded below, using some of his niece's toys, will win the day in court. In Ronnie's words:

"This dude from Hotlanta made some badass music that I put on my custody video for the judge that will majorly seal my case solid as a airtight rock. No judge will be able to resist this it is so powerful now. It is very moving and will bring you to tears so watch out. Damn this is badass. If you want him to make music to put on your stuff just send him a note his name is fred leo and his site is fredleo.com"

The character develops. How far I haven't a clue. I may drop him like a rock tomorrow, deeming him too similar to Kenny Powers. One friend on Twitter suggested Ronnie had come out of character by playing with Barbies. But Ronnie will do anything to beat Nikkii, as evidenced by his heroically distorted retelling of that horrible Sunday morning.





Ronnie will be releasing some Senate campaign commercials outlining his positions, "As soon as these losers decide whos out and whos in so I can whip some ass and not mess around with the third string punks who will lose in round one."

Ravioli on The Grill

Ronnie the landscaper reveals that's it not all party-time, firecrackers and chasing chicks in his latest video. The character is getting dark, but you'd be too if one of the exes you're in a custody battle with showed up at the last minute with two of your six kids so she could go out with her new man in his "gay-ass, punked-out Monte Carlo."

Ronnie doesn't care much about production values, making his videos pretty simple to produce, but I may have to break down and buy the poor bastard a wireless mic.



Ronnie would like you to be his friend on Facebook. You may also follow him on Twitter. He will only stalk you if you're hot. Ronnie's definition of "hot" is pretty much defined by what he would do to get to know you. For instance, if you heard him say, "I'd suck the dick of the dog that pissed on the tire of the car that took her dirty underwear to the laundromat," you probably qualify as Super-Hot. And of course Ronnie has a blog where he expounds on subjects such as polygamy, tattoos, church, and tries to get Will Ferrell to co-star in his movie.

Ronnie says he is available for brand/product endorsements or for speaking to groups of students about "the importance of education or some shit."

Ronnie owes his existence to Humongo.

Hey, Will Ferrell - A Little Shout Out Next Time?

In a recent Wired spread called "The Future That Never Happened," Will Ferrell does everything except shout "Where's My Jetpack?" proving how much he loves and appreciates my blog.

Mr. Ferrell, I know a guy named Ronnie who has a movie proposal for you.




Thanks to MMMMMMMMcDermott for the heads-up.

I Will Be a Schizophrenic Before This Is Over

As the Humongo Agency tour neared my locale, I debated going out to ambush them. I needed a good ruse, and at the last minute I came up with Ronnie, a character who is likely near to my heart. I did a summer on a landscaping crew, and Ronnie is probably a subconscious amalgamation of some of the guys I worked with. He means well, but he's, well, for lack of a better term, a little fucked up.

The character went over a little better than I expected and he has taken on a life of his own at the encouragement of Chris, Darryl and a few others. Ronnie now has a blog, a Twitter account and a YouTube channel. Here's his first video.

Found in Don Draper's Trashcan

An Epic of Epic Epicness

I like that line, but I feel like we're living in a new Studio Age, like the old ones from the olden times, when guys like Jerry Lewis made movie after movie after movie and none of them were any different from the rest. Or Elvis for that matter. Cheap schlock thrown together to make money. And usually quite funny, I must admit. The new stuff. Not Lewis or Elvis.

The new Brat Pack, or Pothead Pack, or Pack of Punks or whatever they've been dubbed is everywhere with a new movie every third Thursday. Apatow, Will Ferrell, that other guy. You know, the one trying to make movies like Apatow or Ferrell? And they have a rotating group of stable boys. And in this one, Jason Schwartzman will play a dick, like he does in every movie he's in. And Steve Carrell will play a schmuck. And Paul Rudd will play a weasel who wants to be good. And that tall goofy guy from "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" will play a tall goofy guy.

Now here comes Michael Cera in another role that only Michael Cera could play, because the two chubby Apotow staples were busy,  you know, the two fat cutesy pothead boys who say foul things and it's funny, and one of them lost weight and they made fun of that in an inside joke in that one movie that also had Adam Sandler in it? The one about the funny boys? HAHAHAHAHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasplat.

But when you need over-the-top ineptness when it comes to being a confident lady's man, you need Michael Cera, who will execute his duties in this film with stunning accuracy to his previously similar roles.

Swan Dive! (Into the Best Night of Your Life)

Bill says, "I’m not sure if the formula where you plug different scenarios in is going to get old too fast." Well, it might, but not yet, as this brilliant production proves.

What I love about how Old Spice is treating the tired old "Guys get laid when they wear this" formula is that they're doing it completely and unashamedly tongue-in-cheek, without showing a guy involved in a random threesome, a la Axe Body Wash. Just a smug and super-confident lady's man who could easily be an SNL character.

Stereotype: The Irish Are Witty and Insightful

One of my favorite bits of Ed Byrne's is his deconstruction of Alanis Morrisette's song "Ironic," but studies have shown that a good many of you won't devote five minutes to a YouTube video embedded in a blog, so maybe you'll watch this two-minute Byrne clip in which the comedian deconstructs Back to the Future.

He Designed The Template Shatner Ran With

That of an actor mocking his own gravitas...



Met him once in San Diego. I was a room service waiter at the Hilton. He was in town to do some commercials for a Mercedes dealership. He had a giant bottle of vodka in his fridge. As I recall, it was Smirnoff.

Hug The Mountain - Brand Shatner

Why am always late to the game on these things that have been seen 500,000 times already since May?

To put this clip in its proper setting: William Shatner is doing a promo here for some sort of schlock show like "Entertainment Tonight," shilling an upcoming Star Trek movie, probably in the '80s. And someone has set it to music. Brilliantly.

In this post-Ironic age, when you are your own brand, or an amalgamation of rotating logos, clothing trends, hairstyles, gadgets and apps that define you, look to the Canadian King of Self-Mockery for a little lesson in consistency.

Does he know he's mocking himself? We, his fans, hope so, but we still can't be quite sure, which makes it that much better.

This is So Very, Very Wrong

And so funny because it's so wrong. Taking religious satire to a whole new level is Pastor Shepherd of "The Prayer Hour." When I first saw this guy, I thought he was for real. Said a friend on Facebook: "He's so close to the read deal, it's scary."



You can view all of Pastor Shepherd's videos here, including a (typically psychotic) Gary Busey interview.

All Your Cameo Roles Are Belonging to Will Ferrell

If, like me, you like your comedy wrong, rude, over-the-top, disgusting, completely inappropriate and yet surprisingly subtle at times, then you will enjoy HBO's new show Eastbound & Down, starring the mulleted special effects guy from Tropic Thunder, Danny McBride, and produced by Will Ferrell. It's the sort of material that makes you cringe and laugh at the same time, with McBride playing a washed up baseball star with no shortage of ego. It's not for everyone. Says one commenter at Entertainment Weekly:

ya always funny to see two idiots snorting coke, and what about the way he treats females & children? If you all think this is the funniest thing you've seen, then this world is really sad..

Why so serious?

Here's a non-broadcast bit featuring Ferrell as a Shelby, NC BMW dealer, mocking the local car dealer commercials we all know too well.