comedy blog 385 items | updated Aug 26 2010

A new fast food delight is hitting the Arab world. It's a middle eastern take on the hamburger. CNN reports that diners in Dubai are snacking on camel burgers. The manager of Local House, the chain behind the burgers says: "Everyone's bored of beef and chicken. So, as soon as the word got out, we had queues of customers eager to give it a try."

Though they've become popular in Dubai, people have been eating similar versions where ever camels roam.

This is a camel burger in Manama, Bahrain.

This is the camel burger in Fes, Morocco.

This is a camel burger in Mauritania.

This is a camel burger in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Now I will take lunch. Though unfortunately I probably won't find a camel burger

The Snooki meme gained popularity through the weekend. It was blogged about by Urlesque, Tosh.0, and us (obviously.) The photoshop meme spawned two image macro mills. Even though new images are being produced hourly, the popularity seems to have slowed down.

People are becoming disinterested in photoshopping Snooki places she doesn't belong. Plus she's actually appearing places she doesn't belong IN REAL LIFE. No photoshop necessary.

She knows the fastest way to kill her meme, is to party with the star of How To Be A Player.

But as the saying goes: "If you party with Bill Bellamy, your meme will die."

I'm sorry to say this, but meme-over Snooki.

MediaMemo is reporting that NBC has removed every episode of Conan's "The Tonight Show" from NBC.com and Hulu.

He's even been scrubbed from a mural at 30 Rock.



Someday we'll forget that he was ever on NBC.

infoMania brought us another very funny episode last night. This here is a recap.

The Super Bowl may be the biggest game of the year, but Ben Hoffman wants no part of it. He explains why in this week's infoMania Editorial. Sergio Cilli counts down some lessons he learned at this year's Grammy Awards in a special edition of 'The White Hot Top 5.'

Brett Erlich's Viral Video Film School looks at YouTube's best tips to fake your way to looking hot. infoMania pays tribute to the many people who died on TV this week.

Just one of the topics that made it onto the cover of a magazine and into "We've Got You Covered, 'Conor Knighton's weekly roundup of magazines. Also includes Game, antidepressants, Oprah's big gay lie, the Duggars, celebrity trash, and wood.

Also the team found some weird stuff on Ben Hoffman's computer.

Watch infoMania and the Thursday Night Block Party, every week at 10 PM on Current TV.

Yesterday around 3 PM PST we were talking about Snooki in Places She Shouldn't Be. It had broken out across several tumblrs, we weren't sure if it was going to replicate itself virally. By day 2 it's clear that the Snooki photoshop is a meme.

Several tumblr pages have been set up to deal with the massive overflow Snooki photoshops. SnookieShop and the similarly titled FuckYeahSnookiShop are reblogging the meme.

These are some more examples of this meme, which still seems to be growing rapidly.



(via jetronic)



(via tobyflenderson)





(via freeride)



(via stelam)



(via cineoctoboo)

I suspect the meme will grow at a steady rate through the weekend and into early next week. By next Friday, I suspect nobody will remember this meme.

This Snooki Crasher meme is starting to take off. These are some places that I've recently spooted Snooki:

In yesterday's very popular Die Antwoord video.



On top of my desk.





On the plane with Jack?!



@yayponies saw her inside a creepy video chat



@myepictweets saw her in India.



Do you have more? Tweet them my way, and I'll post them.

We're about thirty minutes into what might become a new meme.

Since Snooki has left MTV's Jersey Shore, she seems to be everywhere. She went to the Grammys to interview Phoenix. She'll appear on Leno in March. She's supposed to appear at a chicken wing in Philadelphia.

But at this very moment, she's appearing across the tumblr-net. Urlesque says that people are photoshopping her into places she shouldn't be. I present you with Snooki Crasher.




(Best Roof Talk Ever)





(Urlesque)



(uncannie)

Will this become the meme of the week? If you support it, make your own Snooki Crasher with this transparency.

Burgeoning fascists look no further, a developer in Italy has put Mussolini's greatest hits in the palm of your hand. Many are outraged over iMussolini, an iPhone app featuring the dictator's speeches. The creator says asserts that "this history-related application does not celebrate fascism."

Whether those were his intentions or not this item has become a top seller. Since January 21st, it has become the second most popular app on Italian iTunes.

Der Spiegel reports that the creator is thinking about developing new apps "but to avoid any scandals, perhaps they will be about people like Gandhi."

It's scary that people are buying this app. I wouldn't buy this app, because I am thoroughly anti-fascist. And I don't have an iPhone.

Hey Thursday Night Block Partiers, we've got an all new episode of infoMania for your viewing pleasure this evening.

Conor Knighton catches us up on all the big stories and things you might’ve missed. Ben Hoffman, is not looking forward to the Super Bowl. Professor Brett Erlich takes a look at the fake fitness regime that is spreading all over the web: Synthol. The team looks at National Geographic's new show that looks into taboo’s like obesity, misfits and outcasts. Sergio Cilli counts down the top 5 most annoying moments on the 2010 Grammy Awards.

infoMania always has the funniest commentary and finds the best clips from the week. Last week for example, they discovered that soap-operas have daddy issues.

Watch all the infoMania fun at 10pm, on Current TV.

Hard Ticket to Hawaii is a ridiculously bad-ass mid-eighties action movie. Dustin, Brian and Rebecca, from SuperNews! remade the movie's pivotal scene.

Whoa.

Today’s edition of Current Virals!

Die Anterwoord - Enter the Ninja



Worker looking at nude photos in background (Miranda Kerr) - Seven News Update





Old people dancing to Billie Jean



Fantasia on 'Oprah': Too Broke to Buy Pizza (VIDEO)



Sonic and Mario's Awkward Reunion



Go to Current.com/virals to submit yours latest virals.

Dr. Knox Wellington of The Science Institute has done thorough research to determine that bartenders are "total dicks." The results of his study can be seen in this SuperNews! cartoon.

Watch SuperNews! on Current TV.

Stephanie pointed me to Urban Dictionary Week on Facebook.

You're supposed to go to Urban Dictionary and see what it says about your name. At first I thought this was a stupid idea, until I searched my name: Josh

"He is a fun loving guy really funny and can make anyone laugh. He is very quiet at first and seems shy but when you get to know him you will fall in love. He has very good style and always looks handsome. He also always smells really good :) "

How on earth can Urban Dictionary be so accurate? Each sentence was true, except I don't smell good. (I ran out of deodorant last week.)

Urban Dictionary week comes at the end of Doppleganger week. I was going to join, but I haven't found anyone else who looks like a Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Zach Galifinakis mash-up.

I haven't participated yet, but the emergence of internet themed weeks is really exciting. In college I was a proponent of the themed party, because arbitrary rules make things a lot more fun. If every week on the internet has an arbitrary theme, spending time here will be more enjoyable. It'll be a fun easy way to be creative, with online peers.

Internet themed weeks can also ground the internet. It's hard to remember what date memes became popular. If it was during a themed week, we can remember. "Oh Mini Daddy became popular just before Doppleganger week 2010."

It'll be interesting to see how internet themed weeks formulate. Will it be influential bloggers who think of them? Will it be websites? Will it be messageboards? Only time will tell.

I never understood why people love watching television. When someone would tell me about the previous night's Law & Order, I'd wonder why they wasted so much time with television. Wouldn't they rather do something creative instead?

In college that thought became "why would you waste your time in front of a television, when you could waste your time in front of a beer bong, getting wasted."

My mind has been inundated with 75 years of academic scholarship, which attempted to convince me that popular culture's only purpose is to hegemonize the proletariat. It was easy for me to believe, because I'd never been a TV fan.

This changed when I was cold lampin' around my parent's house. I'd just returned from a trip to South America, when a friend came over with LOST season 1 DVDs. I was skeptical. I told him I had better things to do. He knew that I didn't. He turned on the DVD. I watched 25 hours in three days.

LOST had won me over.

By the time 815's survivors from the front of the plane met the survivors from the back, I'd moved back to my old college town. I didn't have a TV, but a friend gave me his key so I could watch episodes while he was at class. I'd invite people over to have LOST parties in his living room.

Around the time the Others watched 815 crash, I was living in Mexico. I had one fear before moving to Mexico, and it was that I might not be able to watch LOST. To my luck, I was able to buy an iTunes season pass. Watching abroad, helped me keep up on gossip with friends in the United States. LOST helped cure homesickness.

I left Mexico before the season ended. I took a trip up the Pacific coast. I watched episodes in Portland and Kelowna. I screeched at the top of my lungs from a motel room in Yreka, when I realized the last episode was a flash-forward.

I watched the helicopter crash with friends in North Hollywood. By the time we met Kevin Johnson, I was living in Brooklyn.

I watched the first episode of the fifth season at my parent's house, after returning from another trip to South America. I watched episodes in San Francisco, Seattle, London, Heidelberg and Lower Manhattan. Season five ended 2 days before I signed a lease for an apartment in Los Angeles.

I've moved around a lot, the past five seasons. I guess you could say that LOST has been my constant. And now, I truly understand what it means to love watching television.

--
Now I can't get enough television. I love it all, but specifically LOST, infoMania, SuperNews!, Vanguard, and The Rotten Tomatoes Show.

My editor made me add that.

Happy Groundhog's day!

Just kidding, this is the dumbest holiday on the American calendar. It is perpetrated by the Robber Barons of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, population: 6,271. Their only goal is to make money by convincing us that they can tell the future.

This is completely ludicrous! There are only two people who can tell the future, this fortune teller next to the freeway, and a  shaman I met at Machu Picchu (he was visiting from Toronto.)  The people of Punxsutawney try to convince the American public that they know when winter will happen, by parading around a "groundhog."

What's a "groundhog" anyway? I thought they were pork sausage patties. Turns out they are a large rodent. Some people call them woodchucks, whistle-pigs, and land-beavers. All distractions from what they really are: ANNOYING. I have proof...

Why would such a stupid-idiot-jerky-moron, be able to know whether or not winter was over? Did this groundhog study meteorology? Has he a degree in atmospheric science? I trust scientists, not some mystical ground squirrel.



I'm believe that Punxsutawney Phil is literally a puppet of the town's residents. He commits the community's sins, because he is a marionette. They use weather charts to figure out if winter is six weeks away, then they make it seem like a rodent is talking, when in fact it's a deceitful Punxsutawney resident.

I think this conspiracy is far reaching. Isn't it interesting that an actor in the film Groundhog's Day, was also in the only other movie to star a marmot?

I believe that Bill Murray brought the fake gopher from Caddy Shack, to Punxsutawney so they could use it to fool the masses for years to come. The townspeople benefit from a correct answer from the faux-pher, because he brings the community a steady income.

This year the town is exploiting phone bills by asking people to text 'Groundhog' to 247365. They'll supposedly "get a text from Punxsutawney Phil."

Really? A groundhog that can send text messages? This is so fake.

Despite the criminal mastery that goes into this it's actually pretty irrelevant for me. I don't know about seasons, I'm from California. I surf to school, and rollerblade with celebrities. I'm not familiar with this "Winter" you keep talking about. All I know is that some days it's a little too cold for shorts, in the morning.

If we don't stop Punxsutawney, they'll take over the world. You can quote me on that.

---

POSTSCRIPT

I felt bad about dissing your favorite holiday, so I made you an e-card.

More on groundhogs:

• John Lichman and Current Movies are watching Groundhog's Day.


• Urlesque is also celebrating the marmots.

Some cool links for GroundhOscarsnominLOSTpremieresday.

College Humor presents Internet Distractions.

• - Tiger Woods defense back nine game (Atom)


• - Cat versus Mouse... kinda (Urlesque)


• - China's Chuck Taylors (Boing Boing)


• - iPad Ad by Parry Gripp (Gizmodo)


• - 10 sexiest movie posters of all time (Bullz-Eye)


• - Tom Waits shark? (Fuck Yeah Sharks)


• - Banker looking at topless lady caught on TV (Videogum)

This weekend I watched a lot of TV. I have not spent that many consecutive hours in front of a television in years. I'm trying to practice staring at the TV, so I can pay full attention to LOST when it airs tomorrow night.

In this process of mindless engagement, I watched MTV's "My Life as Liz."

It's a scripted reality show about a quirky teenager living in a small-town in Texas. The protagonist is Natalie Portman's character in Garden State, Lindsey Lohan's in Mean Girls, and Ellen Page's in Juno. It's a non-animated version of MTV's Daria.

The New York Times says that My Life as Liz "registers more as a sitcom than a reality show — it’s so stylized and carefully planned and post-produced, it’s the next best thing to scripted, if it isn’t in fact a wholly scripted put-on."



In one episode Liz is planning a talent show performance. This is going to be Liz Lee's first televised performance, but I wouldn't be surprised if she graduates from this show to become a pop sensation. The next Hannah Montana, Katy Perry, Ke$ha... highly marketable.

Most viewers know that this program isn't real, but it's surprising the lengths MTV goes to prevent average internet investigators from finding out information about the show.

When you search for "My Life as Liz" you find that the top hits are from MTV websites.  The top hits include the show's MTV page, Facebook page, an interview on MTV.com, a blog post on MTV Remote Control Blog.

There isn't an IMDB entry. The Wikipedia page looks like it was created by a PR department. It's only sourced by one paragraph in a Washington Post's "TV highlights for January 18, 2009."

I think that MTV is intentionally using SEO spam to control information about their programming...



These hits pull up sites that are only related to the show in the title. Some take me to pages like:



When I click this link a warning reminds me that this a "Reported Attack Site." I had that experience with nearly every link I clicked on.

I'm not sure if those responsible for the SEO spam work with MTV, or if they are spammers looking to exploit  the popularity of this show. Either way, this dead-end makes it seems like the only information about the show is endorsed by MTV, and if I were to keep look further, my computer will crash.

SuperNews! released the sequel to Douchey-Doo!: The Myster of The VIP List. Since there have been two, I'm tempted to call them a duology, one less than a trilogy. While this term has been used, it should be clear that  this word has no Greek equivalent, in the way that "Trilogy" does.

Now that we've overcome the semantics. Who's ready to watch these douchebags seek out sluts... at a pool party!

Douchey-Doo! Pool Party Mystery

Watch more SuperNews! on Current TV.

An incomplete guide to Grammy highlights, provided by the internet...

Artist of the Year: Autotune





Gaga dressed weird.



Beyonce wore cool sunglasses.



Stephen Colbert announced winners from an iPad.