An Important Medical Announcement

Don't Have a Grandson with a Dog Collar

Another ridiculous and funny string of events that can result when you have regular old cable TV.

They're Back and The Credenza Boys are London Bound

London's calling, and the return of the Credenza Boys finds NASA test pilot Major Mike Adams (aka "Futureman") training the boys for their trip to 2011. (Click.)

This is the 33rd Credenza Boys comic. The rest have been archived over here.

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.

Time Out (Because Growing Up Is For Stupids)

We interrupt this blog for a brief juvenile diversion. Sure, it's full of corn, but if you don't find anything amusing here, you're wound too tight.

A Little Less Vitriolic

I don't have much to add to the conversation on the events of this weekend, other than crazy people will find a way to be crazy, with or without "vitriolic political discourse" and with or without guns.

I'm no Gadsden Flag waver. I actually prefer the Washington's Cruisers design. But I might fly this new one I made for my countrymen prone to party in the tea way.

Originally posted at Radio Free Babylon, which may soon become the only place I blog.

Jane's Roller Coaster Day - For All To See

Some people need to get a grip. Or take a pill. Or at least stop sharing so much.

(Click for better legibility.)

It's a Good Gig If You Can Get It

Previously in "Everyone knows everything."

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.

Give Thanks

Forward Thinking

Click for the bigness.

Make Him Stop!

Sorry, I'm such a sucker for 4th grade humor. (And I love dogs.)

Available at the store.

Quit Bothering Jesus

Jennifer's been stalking Jesus with her Flip Video camera. He's getting tired of it.

I suppose I could write a lengthy essay on what this might mean, but I'll save that for another time and place.

Original image from the inspirational collection of the talented Roger Loveless.

The Thirty Second Spot is Very Much Alive

Alive on good old-fashioned TV, alive on YouTube, alive as an embed in TweetDeck. It's going nowhere, never went anywhere. Sorry, Joe. We will watch a good ad even on our DVRs. Or at least I will.

Ally Bank, formerly GMAC, does some nice spots via BBH New York, most famously its series featuring the cruel man playing tricks on little kids to illustrate the unfair practices of the banking industry.

This one, called "Interview" has great writing, casting and acting.



What does the spot do, other than make you laugh? It sticks the term "raise your rate CD" in your head, for one, through the hilarious (if totally inexplicable) interviewer's inability to hear the statement, thus necessitating its repetition.

It also positions Ally as "on your level," not talking down to you; the bank doing humor instead of the other two templates available to banks: feel-good-happy-life-remodel-your-home-get-a-college-loan...or... will-you-have-enough-money-when-it's-time-to-retire-you-should-be-scared.

The tag, "Do you love your bank?" has an obvious answer. Who does? It's a nice little seed of doubt to plant in the heads of all of us who hate our banks.

Hans of Heidelberg: Seasonal Work

I need to get this guy back on track. He is Hans, an unemployed musician who is a stay-at-home Dad raising his two kids Torch and Scorch. His wife, Britte, is a corporate attorney. Hand-drawn and then scanned and colored crudely in Photoshop. But my scanner died, so this is a rework of the original.

Clicken die image macht grossencomicfurkinder.

Social Medium

I'm Late for Soccer Rehearsal

Genius in a :30 is hard to find, but FedEx is on a roll. This one  is titled "Exchange Student." Writing, casting, storyline - all perfect.



By BBDO New York.

I'm Yawning Some More

Love this spot for FedEx. "Kickin' off with sales figures!" says it well, all you PowerPoint Rangers, and the portrayal of TSA employees as knowledgeable haters of the standard, sleep-inducing presentation is a nice touch. The guy playing the supervisor role finally has something for his acting resume that eclipses whatever he was doing previously, which was probably "Thug #4."

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.

Facebook Pulp No. 4

OK, I think this little series can be retired now. Shark jumped.