More Brilliance From Current InfoMania: Cougar Convention

I laughed. Then thought about the fact that most of these people are able to vote in our national elections.

Kickball - Wish We Had This in '94

Triggered some good memories of Communications League softball in D.C., back in the day.

Target Women - Cleaning

"Now remember, your giving your bathtub spout a handjob doesn't add to your number."

Girls Gone Grabbling - Can't Get Enough of This

First saw this a couple months ago, but it resurfaced during Current's Pod Bless America, so I figured I'd capture it again (last time was on Facebook.)

Another Briliant Satire from Target Women: Fairytale Advertising For Women

"I ate string cheese and then I got invited to the bus boy's RV"

brilliant



"Milk will also bring sunshine to the land devastated by your period tears".

Another Good Target Women - "Skin Care"

"If you'll notice it passes through the epidermis, dermis, seven layers of non-existent skin, and right down to the marbles."

Lonely Island's "I'm On a Boat" / Sergio's "White Hot Top 5"

Since I gave up on mainstream hip-hop / R&B years ago, my days of watching videos on BET are behind me. In other words, I wasn't really up to speed on the whole 'on a boat' thing that served as the central gag for this week's digital short on SNL.

What is a strange coincidence though (at least in my opinion), is that the Lonely Island thing showed up on air the same week that Sergio Cilli mocked Akon in the White Hot Top 5.

White Hot Top 5 R&B Tunes


Lonely Island - I'm On a Boat



But seriously, everyone knows Wreckx-n-Effect pioneered the on-a-boat territory in like '92. And if you're being honest, you know this looks more fun than what Akon is pushing.

You Should Be Watching Current's "Target Women" - More Great Deconstruction & Mockery of Marketing B.S.

Screenshot of Nuva Ring ecard
Image Source: Current.

Another great recurring segment on Info Mania is
Target Women. This week's is particularly sharp. Really does make you wonder what people who conceive and approve these commercials were thinking (similar to the Viagra nonsense).

More Good Comedy from Current, Plus a Lookalike

Sergio's White Hot Top 5 makes me laugh again. This time with their top 5 patriotic songs edition:



Also, it has finally dawned on me who Sergio looks like. He's kind of the modern day hipster version of Jim Croce.


Image Source: MusicbyMark


Image Source: MusicbyMark


Image Source: Oldies.com

More Solid Observational Comedy from Current's Info Mania

This one starts a little slow but finishes decently. The Southern Living joke is in 'no they didn't' territory, but funny (at least it made me laugh).



This one speaks for itself



"That's a lot of popcorn, Magic"



Plus, they showed some of these, from ManBabies.com

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

Lamenting the Fact that Hip-Hop Sucks Now

Just saw this on current and hearing 5 awful hip hop songs in a row made me sad. I guess it's like most everything else in society - the most popular stuff is lowest common denominator crap. But it seems to me like hip hop just continues to devolve into lower quality sh*t year after year. Will we one day look back at the past 15 years of hip hop and wonder, WTF? It's like when rock music went into the abyss in the 80s? (See exhibits A, B and C below if you forgot how bad that sucked).

Aside from that, 'Sergio' has a couple of nice lines in this Current clip

- "she appreciative when he buys her a luxury car"

- "this thing is like the Mulholland Drive of rap videos: no idea what's goin' on"

- "attention Sergio, parentheses: burp jurp"



Exhibit A: While Lion - Wait



Exhibit B: Stryper - Calling on You



Exhibit C: Huey Lewis and the News - I Want a New Drug

More Current: Viral Video Film School - Campaign Videos

"You're welcome, bitches". Brilliant.

Toyota Yaris VCAM on Current

Amusing - "Not my kinda space" on Current

The "orgy of ill-advised vanity" line is nice. As is the "OMG. That one's from Jesus."

Giving Cougars a Bad Name

Some observations about this pod:


1. Nothing wrong with the whole Cougar lifestyle -- if that's what you're into --- but these d-bags and the unfortunate women they roped into the clip give it a bad name.

2. The 'director' looks like the runt cousin of David Faustino

3. What do you call the dudes who acquiesce or succumb to cougars? In this particular clip, I think Wikipedia gets part of it right:

"it hunts species as small as insects and rodents"

Extreme Sustainability - as seen on Current

This is ridiculous.



Maybe it was edited out of the clip that aired, but why aren't these two processing their own urine into drinking water? Or using their own feces as garden fertilizer? And they claim to be pursuing sustainability? Hah.

Criticism: Incredibly Awful & Insulting Infomercial for 'Presto'

While watching some Current on TiVo (see this post for full review of Current), I was stopped in my tracks by the worst commercial I have seen in quite some time.

The spot was for Presto, which lets you "send email and photos to people who don't have a computer". I haven't been able to find it on YouTube yet, but the 'view demo' link on the Presto site provides a good approximation for it.

The net message is 'Do you have a weak, feeble minded, lazy moron that you know couldn't possibly understand something as complicated as a computer? Would you like to send pictures to that moron every now and then? Of course you would. Lucky for you that we are selling this ugly grey box for only $150 plus $10/month for 'service'. Nevermind that you could FedEx pictures to your moron twice a month for the same amount of money, Presto is a great deal."

Here are some key frames from the online 'dramatization' of the commercial:

Frame 1: Mom is an easily flustered dullard



Frame 2: Mom is such a moron it would be a crazy time suck to have to try and teach her how to use a computer



Frame 3: Everything could be so much better if Mom had a magic photo box in her parlor



Frame 4: Mom almost has a heart attack because the magic machine from the future is trying to show her something



Frame 5: Mom and Dad chuckle together in relief once they realize the magic box is friendly and doesn't mean them any harm

You Should Be Watching Googlecurrent

The Google Current segments are consistently solid, but recently I saw one that was extra brilliant. Subjects of their satire this time: national advertising campaigns and promotional efforts of Georgia and Israel.

A couple of quotes that will come off much better if you watch the full video at Current.tv [annoying that their embeddable videos aren't full clip]:

"Coming to Israel based upon a few pictures I saw in Maxim was the best decision of my life."

"The women are so hot here things just blow up when they walk by. Which is all the time. I'm going to retire here as soon as my Georgia investment money pays off."

But clip below gives you good sense of the primary comedy value.

USA 2.0 Mashup - Laotian Rap

Image Source: MySpace.com/asianriders

Another tip from Current TV, and [of course] YouTube. Actually, it's not bad, either. Move Some'm, by Lao Crimino.

Originally posted 3/23/07

You Should Check Out Current TV

I've grazed a bit of Current TV in the past and been intrigued, but recently have been watching blocks of it at a time and am deeming it worthy of my viewing effort. However, I primarily watch it 'time shifted' via TiVo. I find it can be frustrating trying to watch live, b/c it is truly random and you can get caught with the occasional crap pod or a re-airing of something you've already seen.
If you haven't heard anything about it, I'd describe it as an amalgamation of MTV News, NPR/BBC, and Punk'd/The Tom Green Show - and it shifts deftly between these poles from pod to pod. Some of the content might be a bit earnest for many people's liking [if so, by all means flip the channel back to your According to Jim rerun]. And I'll grant that a few feel like the self-indulgent senior project of affluent-but-serious Sally the communications major. But the variety of topics they cover and the on-the-ground-level style in which they cover them are a refreshing break from the absolute garbage you find on many other channels. The range of clips moves from the National Italian Greyhound dog show to an Egyptian-American's take on Wuhan, China [sidenote stat: China has more than 150+ cities with pop. >1MM; US has 8], to the art of Kehinde Wiley [another sidenote: his art is kind of gimmicky, but it's an interesting gimmick, so give him credit for that]. So, if you've had enough of crap like this, this or this, look for Current on your cable lineup. Better yet, TiVo a couple hours at a clip and see what you think. Learn something. Think.

Originally posted 12/16/06