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18 Nov 2011 00:50

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Culture: BuzzFeed: Trendsetters or plain ol’ geniuses?

  • Surprisingly, this isn’t an Occupy post: Do you think Ryan Gosling was robbed of People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” title this year? Well, these protesters do, too. Our pals at BuzzFeed started a whole petition to promote Gosling to his rightful place. Today, protesters met outside of People’s NY HQ with chants, signs and masks. We are the 99%, indeed. source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2011 15:44

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Offbeat: The Onion’s parenting joke flies over the heads of some real parents

  • I’m totally aware that it’s satire. But it’s spreading through the Internet and people’s blogs and where it’s coming from is getting left off and it’s looking like a news story.
  • Robin Bowen of the California Parenting Institute • Discussing how an Onion story, “Study Finds Every Style of Parenting Produces Disturbed, Miserable Adults,” has created a hilarious side effect where many people think the story is true, and are sharing it without attribution. It got so bad that the institute had to put out a press release denying the story. “The falsified study quoted in The Onion states that all parenting styles lead to the same outcome–unhappy, miserable adults,” the release said. “We have been around a long time because we know that parent education does work.” This isn’t the first time an Onion joke has gone over poorly, and it won’t be the last, but at least this time, it’s relatively innocuous. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Sep 2011 23:15

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Offbeat: Ig Nobel prize: From bladders to wasabi, dubious science celebrated

  • When people reach a point when they are in so much pain they just can’t stand it anymore, it was like being drunk. The ability to hold information was really impaired.
  • Ig Nobel Prize-winning scientist Peter Snyder • Describing his team’s findings — that really having to use the bathroom creates an effect on drivers similar to driving drunk or on limited sleep — at the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize awards ceremony Thursday. Snyder’s bladder-busting team (who won for medicine) was only one of many to get awarded for their weird or dubious honors, including that crazy Lithuanian mayor who used a tank to prove his point about illegal parking (he won the Ig Nobel Peace Prize), a Norwegian group that produced a useless study on sighing (psychology), and a group of Japanese researchers who created a fire alarm that uses the smell of wasabi as its key alarm agent (chemistry). All in all, a pretty Ig Nobel night. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 May 2011 17:13

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Offbeat: “Go the F**k to Sleep”: A kid’s book parody with a killer title

  • Know how this book hit No. 1 on Amazon? A great title. Also, a pirated PDF. Really.  source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Dec 2010 23:25

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Culture: Loser AND winner in ultra-dark “Yogi Bear” parody case? Warner Bros.

  • Credit where credit’s due: Warner Bros. could’ve totally ripped apart Edmund Earle for creating this spot-on (and very dark) parody of the much-derided “Yogi Bear” film that’s coming out this week. But instead, the company’s letting Earle keep it up. There might be some back-end benefit for the Warners, anyway – the parody (which looks like the “Yogi Bear” film, almost too closely) riffs on “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” That film, an Oscar-nominated flick from 2007, only made back half of its budget, so it could stand to benefit from the fresh notoriety. And guess who distributed that flick? That’s right. Warner Bros. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Oct 2010 11:24

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Culture: Sesame Street: What worked for Old Spice didn’t work for Katy Perry

  • Sesame Street has always used spoofs of popular culture to draw in and connect with its audience. We use spoofs and celebrity appearances to draw in the adult, because research shows that a child learns best when co-viewing with an adult.
  • Sesame Workshop vice president and executive producer of Digital Media Miles Ludwig • Explaining the quick success of last week’s Grover “Old Spice” parody, which has earned millions of views in just a few days. You know what’s funny, though? That’s exactly what another Sesame Workshop employee said about the Katy Perry thing on Good Morning America not so long ago. It seems to us that when they hit it, they hit it out of the park, but when they miss, something like Katy Perry happens. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

08 Oct 2010 19:52

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Culture: Posted without comment: Grover as the Old Spice dude

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

08 Oct 2010 12:45

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Offbeat: “I’m You” parody: “America is a 300-pound bearded diabetic man”

  • OH GOD. WE LOVE THIS MAN. Could we get your autograph or something, dude? This is a viral video classic in the making, friends. (via villagevoice)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Aug 2010 21:02

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Tech: Posted without comment: Apple’s new iPad ad (and its parody)

Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
 
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