John Scott Martin, the actor in the can who played the role of the chief Dalek in over 100 Doctor Who episodes starting in 1965, has died. Doctors Who came and went, but Martin stayed on to torment them all. Once, when asked about his process, Martin once famously compared his performance to playing a pantomime cow:
“There was potential to put some personality into it. We had to believe that the Dalek was not a human being, yet it was still a being. That’s not to say it wasn’t really nasty.”
A little more here, a little more here, and yet a little more here.
I will miss MAD as a monthly, but honestly, I haven't bought an issue in ten years or more. That's because it is almost never funny. Constant reprints of Dave Berg-era hippie jokes and Nixon humor have hardly helped MAD keep up with the times. Indeed, I'm always surprised when I see an issue of MAD on the stands. It's like seeing a celebrity alive that you were sure was long ago dead.
Cracked.com, a destination humor website, is an internet phenomenon. God is mysterious. Who would have thought that Cracked Magazine would outlive its inspiration? Cracked enjoys a powerful online profile today, having worked hard to connect to the new times and the young people. Sure, it's unrecognizable as your father's Cracked, but isn't that a good thing? Cracked.com is able to find a use for reader-created content, and can virally travel the world of bored cubicles with current events-inspired content every single day. For their part, MAD's website is little more than a placeholder, with only magazine ads and subscription offers to show as their web presence.
MAD used to be a powerhouse of creative, insightful social satire, but recently its targets have become slower, more obvious, and easier to tag; "Way to stick it to Britney Spears, MAD! Zing!" When a monthly publication tries to be topical, more often than not the subjects it references feel tired and picked over. That probably isn't going to get any easier with the new quarterly schedule.
Will MAD survive? (Shakes Magic 8-Ball): Outlook Not So Good
This poignant and hilarious animated film perfectly captures the intersection of a domestic quarrel and a global nuclear war. An Oscar nominee enjoyed by millions of fans, this film is a classic example of Richard Condie's off-the-wall humour.
This cartoon is excellent. I've loved it since I saw it at an animation festival back in the mid-eighties. This video is courtesy the National Film Board of Canada, an organization now offering hundreds of films for free online. Check out the NFB of Canada's website and do some digging for yourself.
This link will lead you to a great little desktop alarm clock (for PCs) that you can program to play any song or sound you have stored on your hard drive instead of the preloaded buzzer and klaxon sounds that come with it. Believe me, you're going to want to change the default sound- a fire alarm sound effect that is just horrible. Mine now plays The Rutles' "Joe Public".
It's easy to program and customize, it's easy to use, and it's free. I recommend it.
This guy does indeed look a lot like our Savior-in-Chief, but check out this little quote. Compliments don't come more back-handed than this: Click on this link for an article and a video.
We can all watch the Watchmen, now that the pissing match between Warner Brothers and Fox has been settled. Warner gave Fox a ton of money and a piece of the action, so we all get to watch Walter Kovacs' journey into history on the big screen.
The celebration continues with one of my favorites. You're pretty much never going to be making a mistake posting a Marvin Gaye song. I chose something a little more special, a little less common.
Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" started on the YouTube playlist I was listening to and it is every bit as amazing and wonderful as "Right On", so I had to post it too.
Another great one that never fails to get me rolling. Lyrics:
You Can't, You Won't And You Don't Stop Mike D Come On And Rock The Sure Shot
I've Got The Brand New Doo-Doo Guaranteed Like Yoo Hoo I'm On Like Dr John, Yea Mr Zu Zu I'm A Newlywed, Not A Divorcee And Everything I Do Is Funky Like Lee Dorsey Well, It's The Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Three If You Want A Doodoo Rhyme Then Come See Me I've Got The Savoir Faire With The Unique Rhyme And I Keep It On And On, It's Never Quitting Time And Strictly Hand Held Is The Style I Go Never Rock The Mic With The Panty Hose I Strap On My Ear Goggles And I'm Ready To Go 'Cause At The Boards Is The Man They Call The Mario Pull Up At The Function And You Know I Kojak To All The Party People That Are On My Bozak I've Got More Action Than My Man John Woo And I've Got Mad Hits Like I Was Rod Carew
You Can't, You Won't And You Don't Stop Ad Rock Come And Rock The Sure Shot
Hurricane Will Cross Fade On Your Ass And Bust Your Ear Drums Listen Everybody 'Cause I'm Shifting Gears I'm Fresh Like Dougie When I Set My Specs And On The Microphone I Come Correct Timing Like A Clock When I Rock The Hip Hop Top Notch Is My Stock On The Soap Box I've Got More Rhymes Than I've Got Grey Hairs And That's A Lot Because I've Got My Share I've Got A Hole In My Head And There's No One To Fix It Got To Straighten My Thoughts, I'm Thinking Too Much Sick Shit Everyone Just Takes and Takes, Takes, Takes, Takes I've Got To Step Back, I've Got To Contemplate I'm Like Lee Perry, I'm Very On Rock The Microphone And Then I'm Gone I'm Like Vaughn bode, I'm a Cheech Wizard Never Quitting, So Won't You Listen
Oh Yes Indeed, It's Fun Time 'Cause You Can't, You Won't And You Don't Stop MCA Come And Rock The Sure Shot
I Want To Say a Little Something That's Long Overdue The Disrespect To Women Has Got To Be Through To All The Mothers And Sisters A And The Wives And Friends I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End Well You Say I'm Twenty Something And Should Be Slacking But I'm Working Harder Than Ever And You Could Call It Macking So I'm Supposed To Sit Upon My Couch Watching MyT.V. I'm Still Listening To Wax, I'm Not Using The CD I'm That Kid In The Corner All Fucked Up And I Wanna So I'm Gonna Take A Piece Of The Pie, Why Not, I'm Not Quitting Think I'm Gonna Change Up My Style Just To Fit In I Keep My Underwear Up With A Piece Of Elastic I Use A Bullshit Mic That's Made Out Of Plastic To Send My Rhymes Out To All Nations Like Ma Bell, I've Got The Ill Communications
I feel like celebrating today with a couple of songs. If you're not that familiar with this one, here are the lyrics to sing along at work:
Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller He got hair down to his knee Got to be a joker he just do what he please
He wear no shoeshine he got toe-jam football He got monkey finger he shoot coca-cola He say "I know you, you know me" One thing I can tell you is you got to be free Come together right now over me
He bag production he got walrus gumboot He got Ono sideboard he one spinal cracker He got feet down below his knee Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease Come together right now over me
He roller-coaster he got early warning He got muddy water he one mojo filter He say "One and one and one is three" Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see Come together right now over me
Not as hot as the headline makes it sound. Actress/Comedianess Aubrey Plaza does a note-perfect recreation of Sarah Silverman's whole thing in 90 seconds flat.
She says she really likes Sarah, but after this who knows if the feeling is mutual.
I just slapped this together last night as a goof, but that won't stop me from posting it here as if it means something. Yes, it's Batman-ish, and no, I don't know why I cling to my eight year old self's tastes.
Over at Portraits As Living Deads, cartoonist Frederik Peeters is keeping a blog full of portraits of famous and infamous people of the past drawn as undead zombies. Recently, he's reimagined his blog to include the zombies of famous and infamous people who are still alive; for example, this week's posting of Paris Hilton.
He draws like a house afire, and he has a wicked, dark sense of humor. The dead living-deads are depicted as they died, be it by overdose, gunshot, or by paparazzi running their limos into tunnel walls. The results are intoxicatingly sobering, and often grimly funny.
The Living Dead roster above, from left to right: Judy Garland, Paris Hilton, Christa McCauliffe, Buddy Holly and Peter Sellers. There are so many more. Please click here and check them out. It's well worth your time.
I knew nothing about Frederik until I stumbled across this blog. That's because his amazing work isn't as available in brick and mortar bookstores in the US as it should be. For example, I thought he was French (despite his name) but he is Swiss. Here, read a malnourished wikipedia page about him.
Read here an interview where he speaks about his groundbreaking autobiographical graphic novel Blue Pills. Blue Pills is an unflinching telling of Peeters' girlfriend and her young son's discovery of their HIV positive status, and the way their family deals with this new reality. Here is a generous 90-some page Google books preview of Blue Pills, and this link will take you to more reviews. This is a major, serious graphic novel. I need to get a copy and finish reading what the preview didn't cover.
My little "Bush Be Gone" widget in my Microsoft Widget Dock makes me happy several times a day. I looked at it a bit ago and actually chuckled aloud. This is the 1,000th post on this blog and I could not be happier. I am counting the seconds of the minutes of the hours until George clears out and Michelle Obama can make arrangements to have the White House smudged with sage bundles.
Dubya, I hope we never have to hear your twangy, dopey voice again, but I can already picture you on Leno's 10 O'Clock show humping some awful ghostwritten memoir, sitting next to R. Kelly on the couch, laughing at Dane Cook.
If I knew your new address I'd send you a bag of pretzels.
Bob May, the man in the can that played the physical role of Robot on "Lost in Space" has died.
According to legend, May always said that he got the job on Lost in Space because he could fit in the suit. It was a thankless role, but he was quite a pro when working the robot. June Lockhart, May's costar who played the part of the Robinson matriach on "Lost..." said:
"May wore the suit for hours at a time and learned the lines of every actor in the show so he would know when to respond to their cues. Because it wasn't easy to get in and out of the suit, he kept it on during breaks.
"He was a smoker," Lockhart remembered. "From time to time (when he was on a break), we'd see smoke coming out of the robot. That always amused us."
John Scott Martin, the actor in the can who played the role of the chief Dalek in over 100 Doctor Who episodes starting in 1965, has died. Doctors Who came and went, but Martin stayed on to torment them all. Once, when asked about his process, Martin once famously compared his performance to playing a pantomime cow:
