Tag: comedy
Private Snafu – Coming!!
An evening pause: This was the first of a World War II cartoon series directed by Chuck Jones, voiced by Mel Blanc, and written by Theodor Geisel aka Dr. Seuss and designed to with humor raise the work ethic of soldiers and officers.
Hat tip Lazurus Long, who adds that “it was a bit racy and [thus] popular with the servicemen.”
Today our military authorities probably consider our servicemen and women to be too fragile for such stuff. And hopefully this evening pause will air before Google’s YouTube decides it must be banned.
Military band joke
An evening pause: One marching band from Britain is performing to an Italian audience when a band representing the Italian Bersaglieri (mobile light infantry who traditionally run at a trot instead of march) arrives to upstage them.
Silly and staged, but fun nonetheless.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Steve Harvey – Foolproof Excuses When Late for Work
An evening pause: As I am late in posting tonight’s evening pause, I thought this short comedy monologue entirely appropriate.
Biden fires Boeing on SLS; gives job to Acme
In an interesting announcement today, the Biden administration fired Boeing as the prime contractor for SLS and gave the job to a well-known southwest company dubbed Acme.
Anticipating critical comment, White House spokesmen pointed out that Acme had a long history of use of solid-fuel rockets for crewed applications, “without loss of human life or serious injury” despite some less-than-fatal mishaps.
…The spokesperson also added, “It should be noted that Acme’s products have never killed anybody. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Boeing.”
Before you comment, make sure you read the article at the link closely, and also click on the two links in the article to get some detailed background on Acme, from some original sources.
In an interesting announcement today, the Biden administration fired Boeing as the prime contractor for SLS and gave the job to a well-known southwest company dubbed Acme.
Anticipating critical comment, White House spokesmen pointed out that Acme had a long history of use of solid-fuel rockets for crewed applications, “without loss of human life or serious injury” despite some less-than-fatal mishaps.
…The spokesperson also added, “It should be noted that Acme’s products have never killed anybody. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Boeing.”
Before you comment, make sure you read the article at the link closely, and also click on the two links in the article to get some detailed background on Acme, from some original sources.
Carol Burnett Show – Rancid Harvest
An evening pause: This will be especially funny to those who are familiar with John Hilton’s Random Harvest.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Optical Illusion Dance
An evening pause: It is almost impossible to see this as it really is.
The song, Tanz, was written by a German named Hiss. Though the music sounds Cajun, its roots are German.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
FlippinDingDong – Trailer Annie
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who rightly added, “No clue what this means, but I’m certain the student animators had fun making it.”
Fun to watch too. They might have done it on a computer, but it sure has the feel of hand-drawn animation.
The Muppets – Bohemian Rhapsody
An evening pause: I know I’ve posted this song more than a few times previously, but this version is truly unique. I had even posted it previously, back in 2012. More than enough time however has passed, so I think it okay to show it again. As I noted then, “A very talented actor once told me that a great deal of all comedy is based on contrast, on juxtaposing extreme opposites in unexpected ways.”
This does that quite well I think.
Hat tip Frank Kelly.
The Carol Burnett Show – Star Trip
Margaret Thatcher does “Yes Minister” skit
An evening pause: Yes Minister was a British comedy show set within the halls of Parliament. In the past year I have posted a number of clips from the show (here, here, here and here) that illustrate how truthfully it skewed the political class.
Today we have a skit with two of the show’s stars performing with the actual prime minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher. She clearly understood the truthful humor of the show, as she explained once during an interview.
Hat tip Andrew Worth.
Simpals Animation Studio – Dji Death Sails
James Doohan’s ashes have been on ISS for the past dozen years
Video game developer Richard Garriott admitted in an interview this week that when he flew to ISS as a space tourist in 2008 he smuggled some of the ashes of the late James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek, to hide there.
[Garriott] printed three cards with Doohan’s photo on them, sprinkling ashes inside and then laminating them. He then hid the cards within the flight data file, which was cleared for the flight (the cards were not). “Everything that officially goes on board is logged, inspected and bagged — there’s a process, but there was no time to put it through that process,” he said.
…According to Garriott, one of the cards is on display in Chris Doohan’s home, while another was sent floating in space, where it would have inevitably burned up when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
The third card, however, remains in the ISS, hidden beneath the cladding on the floor of the space station’s Columbus module, where Garriott hid it. “As far as I know, no one has ever seen it there and no one has moved it,” he said. “James Doohan got his resting place among the stars.” Since being hidden in the ISS, Doohan’s ashes have travelled nearly 1.7 billion miles through space, orbiting Earth more than 70,000 times.
I hope that now that Garriott has revealed the location of that third card, the petty dictators at NASA and Roscosmos won’t insist that it be removed. For ISS having the ashes of the world’s best space engineer on board can only be good luck.
And it might encourage the government workers at NASA and Roscomos to follow Scotty’s most sage advice, which to paraphrase is “Always under-predict and over-perform. It keeps their expectations low.”
Video game developer Richard Garriott admitted in an interview this week that when he flew to ISS as a space tourist in 2008 he smuggled some of the ashes of the late James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek, to hide there.
[Garriott] printed three cards with Doohan’s photo on them, sprinkling ashes inside and then laminating them. He then hid the cards within the flight data file, which was cleared for the flight (the cards were not). “Everything that officially goes on board is logged, inspected and bagged — there’s a process, but there was no time to put it through that process,” he said.
…According to Garriott, one of the cards is on display in Chris Doohan’s home, while another was sent floating in space, where it would have inevitably burned up when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
The third card, however, remains in the ISS, hidden beneath the cladding on the floor of the space station’s Columbus module, where Garriott hid it. “As far as I know, no one has ever seen it there and no one has moved it,” he said. “James Doohan got his resting place among the stars.” Since being hidden in the ISS, Doohan’s ashes have travelled nearly 1.7 billion miles through space, orbiting Earth more than 70,000 times.
I hope that now that Garriott has revealed the location of that third card, the petty dictators at NASA and Roscosmos won’t insist that it be removed. For ISS having the ashes of the world’s best space engineer on board can only be good luck.
And it might encourage the government workers at NASA and Roscomos to follow Scotty’s most sage advice, which to paraphrase is “Always under-predict and over-perform. It keeps their expectations low.”
Ambosspolka
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Malamace, who correctly notes that “The ‘electric cords’ on the hammers are hilarious and fitting because the hammer impacts actually caused sparks.”
Buster Keaton – Elevator chase
An evening pause: Some funny silliness from the silent movie era. And if you don’t know who Buster Keaton was, it is time you found out.
Hat tip Cotour.
Chiquita Banana – The original commercial
An evening pause: This will not mean anything to my younger readers, but this song and commercial seared itself into the brains of everyone who went to the movies or watched television in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. The first version, shown here, was produced by Disney for the United Fruit Company.
I can think of no reason not to sear this song into some new generations.
Hat tip David Nudelman.
Amin Toufani – Gratitude
An evening pause: From a time in the distant past when people could socialize and entertain each other as normal human beings. And according to the youtube website, the fire was real.
Hat tip lazarus long.
An evening pause: From a time in the distant past when people could socialize and entertain each other as normal human beings. And according to the youtube website, the fire was real.
Hat tip lazarus long.
Yes, Prime Minister – If the right people don’t have power…
MadTV – Windstorm 97
An evening pause: We find this funny because it so accurately documents the inanity and stupidity of almost all television news. And yet, so many people who would laugh at this take with complete faith the reporting on COVID-19, all of which has been as absurd and as untrustworthy.
Hat tip lazarus long.
Mnozil Brass – lonley boy
Irene “Granny” Ryan – I’m a woman
An evening pause: For the younger audiences, Ryan played Granny Clampett on the silly 1960s TV show, The Beverly Hillbillies.
The song is fun, but I just can’t get that vision of her incompatibility with her boyfriend out of my head.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
John Branyan – The Three Little Pigs
Andy Kaufman does Elvis Presley
Funny or Die – This Is Why Eating Healthy Is Hard
Umbilical Brothers – The Flat
Puddles Pity Party – Stairway To Gilligan’s Island
An evening pause: A very silly but quite entertaining cross-breed between the opening theme to Gilligan’s Island and Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Foster Brooks Roasts Don Rickles
An evening pause: For my younger readers, Foster Brooks’s comedy was based on his amazing ability to play a funny drunk. And he did it when Americans still could laugh at this stuff and knew there was no reason to get outraged.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
The Mash Report – Northerner terrifies Londoners by saying “Hello”
An evening pause: Nice comedy piece, based on far more truth than it could possibly imagine, performed as it were in I think 2017.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman – Simba
Black Rifle Coffee – The Star Spangled Banner
An evening pause: This seems a very appropriate evening pause to end my 10th anniversary July fund-raiser for Behind the Black.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann, who though not American truly appreciates the American concepts of freedom.