Mike Tyson, “The Girl From Ipanema”

Boxing legend Mike Tyson recently appeared on the Brazilian television variety show Huck’s Cauldron and for some reason was asked to sing. So, because it’s Brazil, Tyson performed a rendition of the legendary Brazilian songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim’s classic song “The Girl From Ipanema.” Now the strange part of all this is that it’s not half bad. I mean, Tyson’s fairly breathy but he does a serviceable job of performing the jazz standard. It’s worth mentioning that Jobim’s son, Daniel Jobim is backing Tyson up on the piano. Anyway, check this clip out, if only to see a man with a face tattoo wearing an ice cream suit.

Fashions of the Future

Ladies and gentlemen, if there’s one thing I know, it’s that we should not try to predict what the future will look like. For proof, check out this this clip from the 1930s that sought to predict what people would be wearing in the year 2000! As you may guess, the makers of this clip got their predictions quite wrong. This wonderful clip features such electric belts, literal headlights and a utility belt. Now, although the artists responsible for these fashion prediction faux pas were wrong about us wearing these things in daily life, I’m fairly certain Lady Gaga has worn something similar to the top seen at the 45-second mark.

Princeton Law School’s Rejection Letter

In 1957, Harvey Wax of Ann Arbor, Michigan applied to Princeton Law School and was rejected due to one major error on his application. The rejection letter became a recurring family joke, but now it’s been enshrined in a new book called Other People’s Rejection Letters. The book, edited by Bill Shapiro, is a collection of humorous and sometimes historic rejection letters and would probably make a good gift for someone on your holiday shopping list. Read more about the book at the American Bar Association Journal. Now, without further ado here’s Princeton’s rejection letter to Mr. Wax.

What the Muppets Were Up To Between Movies

It’s been a dozen years since the last Muppet movie, so Jim Henson’s band of merry weirdos have had a lot of time off. Cartoonist Steve Murray likes to think that the Muppets used this break to audition for some of the more iconic roles of the last decade. In a cartoon for Canada’s National Post, Murray has created a collage of photos of the Muppets auditioning for some of these roles. Personally, my favorites are Statler and Waldorf trying out for X-Men, Skeeter as Harry Potter and the Swedish Chef in what would surely be an Oscar winning performance.

Check out Murray’s Muppets drawing here.

Community Summons Beetlejuice

In the world of comedy there’s a technique known as a “brick joke.” As TV Tropes describes it, a brick joke is two seemingly unrelated jokes that actually form one larger gag. “At the end of the first joke, a brick is tossed away, leaving the confused listener without a punchline. At the end of the second joke, the brick returns and the listener falls on the floor laughing. ”

Well, it should come as no surprise that our friends at Community hid an ongoing brick joke throughout the series’ first three seasons. According to Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, saying the title bio-exorcist’s name three times will summon him. Now, observe as over the course of the three seasons the characters of Community makes three unrelated references to Beetlejuice…and nothing happens. Oh, wait, what was that in the window behind Annie in the last clip?

This Week’s New Yorker Cover

For this week’s issue of the New Yorker, artist Christoph Niemann created this Thanksgiving themed cover. This cover depicts stereotypical pilgrims crossing over the border in to America, drawing a parallel between the illegal immigrants of 1620 and the Mexican migrants of today. Click the thumbnail at right for a bigger image.

The Best Bear Commercials

Stephen Colbert may believe that bears are “godless killing machines,” but bears also make great commercial pitchmen. So, in the spirit of Friday, let’s watch some commercials with bears.

Our first is a recent ad for the French premium cable channel Canal+. This clever clip features a director working on a medieval epic who takes a break from filming to discuss his love for cinema.

 

This second clip is from British salmon company John West which shows all the hard work that goes in to getting the best salmon for John West products. This clip is so old, I actually remember it going viral online in the pre-Youtube age.

 

Finally, here’s a great fake beer ad from the excellent movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. This goofy bear themed spot is almost indistinguishable from a real beer ad. This weekend, why not try to convince a friend that this is a real ad?

The Enterprise Watches Star Wars

The Star Trek vs Star Wars argument is one that nerds have been having for decades and let’s be honest, does it really matter? However, what does matter is what the cast of the USS Enterprise would think of Star Wars if they were to watch it. That’s the premise of this amusing little video by Youtube user ColbyCornish in which the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation encounter the original Star Wars film. Highlights of the film include Counselor Troi analyzing Han Solo and Lt. Worf describing the Death Star as something out of Klingon legend.

The World’s Most Honest Politician?

We have here a campaign ad for Mr. Jun-Jun Sotto, a man running for office in the Philippines. With his refreshingly hyperbole-free message, Sotto might just strike a chord with Filipino voters.

(via Politico)

8-Bit TV Shows

Fox Retro is an Italian cable channel that airs reruns of primarily 70s tv shows. So, how would the network promote their line up of classic prime time favorites? By transporting those show’s characters in to a retro video game style. This cute ad features characters from such shows as Happy Days, The A-Team and Charlie’s Angels appearing in scenes inspired by games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. Check it out.