Silly Sunday is back! - Shit [blank]s Say

Can you believe it's been almost a year since I last did a Silly Sunday?! Yikes! Time to get back in the game. Life is too funny to go without giggles.

Today I'm caving to the Shit ___ Say meme, but only because I find it really, really funny. Frankly, I'm glad that @ShitGirlsSay spawned an internet craze of hilarious (and not-so-hilarious) knock-offs. The more the merrier.

If you haven't seen the original, behold:

Shit Girls Say



"TWINSIES!"

There are two more episodes on YouTube, but the third one is not so great. I highly recommend Episode 2, though. "That poor dog needs water!"

As a book blogger, I can hardly ignore my own group's contribution to the meme:

Sh*t Book Bloggers Say



Finally, in what I deem to be the most hilarious of them all, I give you:

Sh*t Nobody Says



If anyone needs help with that Papyrus problem, I can take care of that for you.

Silly Sunday - Laser Cats

I admit it. I am a huge Saturday Night Live fan. I've watched it fairly regularly over the course of my life, but the Digital Short era is fast becoming my favorite.

Of all the digital shorts, however, Laser Cats is la creme de la creme. Every time they air a new one I howl with glee. They keep getting better - more extravagant, more guest stars, and more funny shots of Lorne pretending to be mad.



This next video is a later installment:


And finally, Laser Cats jumped on the musical bandwagon with guest host Elton John last week:


If you're interested in seeing the entire saga, Hulu has a playlist with all six Laser Cats videos.

Silly Sunday - Vampire Diaries Parody

I have three confessions to make: 1) I love The Vampire Diaries TV show more than life itself; 2) I want Ian Somerhalder to be my best friend; and 3) I don't plan to ever read the L.J. Smith books.

I know you're probably thinking "Best friend? Get real. I want Ian to be my luvah." Don't get me wrong. The man is smoking hot. I've loved him since his Young Americans days when he cavorted with Kate Bosworth and Katherine Moennig before they became famous. The fact is, though, that I have a beautiful husband already. Ian Somerhalder is not just a hottie actor, either. He's an altruistic soul who tweets endlessly about ethical treatment of animals and the planet. He's into saving the world in all of my favorite ways, and for that I want him to be my BFF.

But enough about arm candy. Let's talk TVD. I'll admit that my primary motivation for watching was one Mr. Somerhalder, but you know...also that whole hot vampire thing. This show, while mainly marketed to the teenaged set, also happens to be plain old effing good television. As much as my husband and family make fun of me, I can't get enough of it. Plot twists nearly every week that - GASP! - get resolved. It moves quickly, has plenty of humor, lots of heart, and more beautiful people than should legally be allowed on the same show.

I'm team Jerefelboncartymon. (Which is to say, JERemy, stEFan, ELena, BONnie, CARoline, TYler and daMON.)

You'd think, being the voracious reader that I am, that this would also mean I'd devour the L.J. Smith series on which the show is based. You'd be wrong. I'm such a huge fan of the show now that I'm afraid the books will never live up to my expectations. Have any of you read them? Tell me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, this was all a very big lead-in to a video I found via an Ian Somerhalder tweet (@iansomerhalder). It's a parody of TVD by The Hillywood Show. It's not quite as funny as I hoped for, since most of it is just one long music video, but the opening bit with the brothers is clever, complete with Stefan's endless rolling up of his shirtsleeves. They have the mannerisms down pat.



I like the outtakes at the end, too.

Silly Sunday - Sleepiest Cat Ever

This week was full-on crazy town. I was up well after midnight every night, either doing homework, or going out with friends. Finals are over, I have a week off to relax a little and gear up for my last quarter, and I am so happy to have two full weeks off from work.

That said, this weekend I was the sleep monster. Yesterday I could have stayed in bed all day and been fine, but hubs made me get up at noon. LAME. Today he actually made me get up at 8:00 a.m. to go to a SPINNING CLASS. I was literally dragging my feet around the house while preparing for that little gem. Afterwards I rewarded myself with a giant fatty omelet that had bacon AND ham in it. Goooo cholesterol!

This cat video pretty much sums up how I went to sleep every night. I'm going, I'm going, I'm going...crash.



Ugh. I'm still sleepy.

Silly Sunday - Bronte Sisters Power Dolls

I'm hard at work on a couple of papers this week, so I'm keeping things simple today. I started reading Jane Eyre on Friday, so I can try to finish it before I see the movie. In honor of Charlotte Bronte and all of the other 19th century female writers who did what they loved despite a culture that did everything to keep them from it, I give you the Bronte Sisters Power Dolls.



Take that, boys' club! We women are here to stay!

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While you're here, I've got a poll on my left sidebar about commenting. I'd like to know if you would prefer I email you with my responses to your comments. The poll will be up until the end of the week. I would love it if you'd weigh in with your opinion. Thanks guys!

Silly Sunday - Medieval Times

Yesterday was a glorious, majestic day. Due to a 2-for-1 special, we booked tickets to that apex of classiness, the Medieval Times....restaurant? Dinner theater? I'm not sure how to classify it. I guess their website refers to it as "Dinner and Tournament."

So, yeah. It's dinner theater. For the SCA and Renaissance Fair crowds. And children. What I can tell you is that it is most definitely not geared toward a thirtyish childless couple. Still, we were in the mood for some cheesy entertainment, and for a total of $70, came out about the same or cheaper than dinner and a movie.

My husband is not particularly a fan of the Medieval Times commercial enterprise. He also doesn't enjoy RenFaires. I am often openly mocked for my love of both. What can I say? I dig the pageantry. I love horses. I love swords. I enjoy giggling at men who have hair longer than I could ever hope to grow my own coarse, curly frizznest. It's just plain fun.

In anticipation of the silliness we were about to take part in, I decided to spend some of yesterday afternoon putting together some illustrations for you all. You see, Missie over at The Unread Reader posted a hilarious diagram in her Flap Off post about elevator etiquette, and rekindled my love for crude Paint pictures. They are the BEST. I love Paints! I feel like they even the playing field for illustration capabilities. There's only so much you can do with a Paint program.

So, without further ado...

If you don't know much about Medieval Times, here's the gist: Dudes with long hair on horses are knights who fight each other in elaborate staged sequences. There are also some dressage displays and hand to hand combat, but the most exciting bit is always the joust.

In the joust section, the knights take turns pretending to knock each other off their horses. They are very good at taking dives. They violently fling their shields and gracefully swoop their legs over the horse's back and leap into a beautiful tuck-and-roll. Ooooh. Ahhhh. The horses always looked a bit freaked, though.

The meal is part of what justifies the high price of admission. You aren't allowed silverware, but you do get quite the haul: soup, garlic bread, half a roasted chicken, a spare rib, half a roasted potato, dessert, and two glasses of Pepsi (it's "Medieval" Pepsi, as our server jokingly pointed out). You can also get a cup of coffee at the end. Let me tell you, that food is good. They bring it around in courses as the show progresses.

We were so hungry by the time that chicken came around that we gobbled it all. And though they don't actually serve your beverage in goblets, they were much easier to draw, and my husband thinks I'm weird because I prefer to drink out of, and use the word, "goblet." Sometimes a girl just likes to feel fancy, okay?

We ended up having a lot of fun. We cheered for our knight while wearing our stupid paper crowns. We booed the other knights when they beat our knight. We admired the horses and ate good food and let ourselves be kids again. Or as they might say at Medieval Times, "A most glorious time was had by all."

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Don't forget to enter my Huntress/Hunted by the Others/Waterfall giveaway! Open internationally and ends tonight!

Silly Sunday - Psych

On Friday I wrote a little bit about one of my favorite shows, Psych on USA Network. I was actually a bit of a latecomer to this show. When it first started airing, I was a regular watcher of Monk, and thought the premise of Psych seemed kind of dull. A show about a psychic detective who's not really psychic? What's the point?

During its second season, my husband and I had the TV on after Monk and got swept up in the Halloween episode, where the female detective, Juliet, goes undercover in a sorority house. It was hilarious and full of physical comedy, cultural references, and just plain silliness. From then on, we were hooked.



Shawn and Gus, the two main characters, are BFFs who grew up together. Shawn's father is a retired Santa Barbara Police detective, and most episodes start with flashbacks of Shawn (usually with Gus or his dad) getting into trouble or setting up a personality flaw to be exploited in the episode. Shawn is a fake psychic, who uses his above average observational skills to pretend he is a psychic detective in order to make money as a consultant with the SBPD.

Gus is a pharmaceutical rep and also a business partner in Psych, Shawn's detective service. They are like brothers, constantly bagging on each other with an undercurrent of love. This is bromance at its finest. A long-running gag on the show is that Shawn rarely introduces Gus by his full name, Burton Guster. Instead, he makes up silly names for him like Ovaltine Jones and Methuselah Honeysuckle.

The show is crazy clever, well written, and laugh out loud funny. I try to get everyone I know to watch it. It airs on Wednesday nights on USA, with the season premiere usually in July. This year marks its 6th season, and I hope it stays on a few more years at least. I never get tired of these guys.

This clip I think best sums up the tone of the show:

Silly Sunday (7) - Very British Movie

If you missed Saturday Night Live last week, you missed one of the funniest fake videos they've ever created.



A commenter on another site pointed out that around 1:30 or so, during his long speech, he distinctly says "Graham Norton" among the rest of the gibberish. The first time I saw this, I was crying, because seriously, who hasn't been thrown off by really thick British or Australian accents. I know they're speaking English, but it takes a while for my ears to adjust sometimes.

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In other news, I'm being featured today on For What It's Worth's Better Know a Blogger interview series. If you're not already participating in the Ultimate Reviewer's Challenge, you can still sign up. I hope you'll stop by and see my interview!

Silly Sunday (6) - The World's Smallest Horse

I love animals. Especially the cute ones. I particularly love dogs, ponies, and manatees, so when I saw a news piece about a horse the size of a puppy, my heart melted.



This is Thumbelina, who was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's smallest horse at 17" tall. The piece I saw was in April 2010 when 14" Einstein came along.



I seriously cannot handle the cuteness of these two animals.

Silly Sunday (5) - Chicago Blizzard

Last week was exciting in Chicagoland! Before the storm had even finished unleashing its fury on our streets, reporters were already naming it the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2011. I was one of the lucky ones whose bosses decided to close up shop early on Tuesday afternoon, and we stayed closed for all of Wednesday and Thursday. Most of the city was starting to resume operations on Thursday, but pretty much everyone was home on Wednesday as workers tried to clear streets and get people moving again.

Why is this silly? Because weather like this isn't just crazy. It is crazy silly. I dug up some of my favorite clips to share with you: thundersnow, 70 mph wind gusts, and dogs enjoying the aftermath.

Everyone kept asking me: What is thundersnow? It's just what it sounds like. A thunderstorm in freezing conditions so instead of rain, you get snow. It typically results in much heavier snowfall than your average snowstorm. It also feels incredibly creepy to listen to thunder and watch lightning crash while it's snowing.

This first clip is The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore freaking out when caught off guard by a lightning flash.



The wind was the scariest part of this storm, and because it was whipping straight across Lake Michigan, was a major factor in why Lake Shore Drive came to a standstill. With already slick conditions, when the wind started picking up, cars were blown across lanes and the resulting accidents backed up traffic and off-ramps, leaving hundreds of cars and motorists stranded on the Drive for up to 12 hours.

Here's a great clip showing the force of the winds. I saw news footage of pedestrians getting blown across streets. Craziness.



One brave soul went to North Avenue Bridge early on Wednesday morning and captured views of the trapped cars stuck in huge drifts of blowing snow. Cars had snow blown into their interiors and into the engines.



And now for some silliness. In the aftermath, the ones who enjoyed it the most were the dogs. As the streets started to clear, lots of folks had to shovel their own alleys and streets to unbury their cars. My favorite part of this clip is about 45 seconds in, when you can see a guy up the street shoveling snow with a bucket.



All is well at my house. Our dog wasn't a huge fan of our drifts, but once we shoveled a path for her, she got the hang of it. We finally shoveled out the drift behind the garage and were able to get the car out yesterday. Freedom!

Enjoy the day, and stay silly.

Silly Sunday (4) - Charlie the Unicorn

It's time for another Silly Sunday, kids, and this week I've got something really silly. I regret that I cannot be with you to watch it, as this is one of those clips that sometimes is only funny when you can laugh with others. It may annoy you, it may make you snort, it may confuse you, or it may make you so angry you'll want to scoop out my eyes with melon ballers. If it's the latter, I truly apologize.

But my sister showed me this, so if you don't like it, blame her.



"The liopleurodon has spoken! It has shown us the way!"

"We're on a bridge, Charlie!"

Silly Sunday (3) - Jane Austen's Fight Club

Last month, I mentioned my love for Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and the Ang Lee movie in particular. Last week, during a #steampunkchat on Twitter, someone mentioned a video called "Jane Austen's Fight Club." Of course, I immediately went to YouTube and looked it up.



Um. How awesome is that? It takes the Austenian theme of women's societal struggles and turns it on its head with the brilliant Fight Club mashup. I love how you can almost believe that these stuffy women would go out back and start brawling. I wish that this movie really existed.

I mean, there are so many crappy spoof movies that come out every year. Can we please just have one that has some actual intelligence behind it? I get that I'm probably overthinking this funny little video about "proper" women who secretly beat each other up for fun, but I think the Austen reference is what makes this video work. It's funny not just because women in Austen's time wouldn't have a fight club, but because Austenian characters are strong enough and impulsive enough to pull it off, if only the concept of a fight club had occurred to them. Throw a modern sense of women's liberation at Marianne Dashwood and I'd bet you a hundred dollars she'd punch Fanny in the nose. Wouldn't you just love to see her do that?

Fun fact: My husband went to high school with one of the girls in the cast! When I showed him the video, he told me he had already seen it since he knew one of the girls. Well then why hadn't I seen it yet?!?

What do you guys think of this video? What are your favorite parts or lines? Does the mashup work for you?

Silly Sunday (2) - Hand Dancing

Hello friends! Welcome to this week's installment of silliness. Today we're discussing a video I discovered (thanks to a forward from my mom) that has garnered over 5 million views on Youtube.



Surprisingly, the funniest part of this video is not the video itself. Don't get me wrong, the video is funny. Awkward blank stares and a choreographed dance routine, done entirely with their hands, to strange music, with weird decor...I don't think it could get any more weird. And in my mind, weird is funny.

What's really funny, however, is the comments section. This video has earned over 5 million views, and when a totally random video goes that viral, people start drinking the Haterade. Most hilarious of all are the comments from all of the Irish dancers who complain that they do this all of the time to practice their steps. They're very upset that it made these people "famous."

I could go into a long diatribe about whether a viral video truly earns the qualifier "famous" but let's not go there. Instead, let's just collectively agree that taking a niche activity and putting together a quirky video displaying said activity will earn you a bunch of viewers. To me, it seemed fairly obvious that their hands are doing Riverdance. I like that they didn't just call their video "Irish dancing with hands set to funny music." It's much easier to just call it "hand dancing."

I think their video is awesome, and saying that any Irish dancer can do the hand dancing doesn't automatically negate their originality in this video. That's like saying that anyone can write a book and then getting upset when Stephen King gets a lot of press. The duo in this video, Cleary and Harding, didn't earn 5 million hits for shoddy footage of them practicing before a competition. They earned those hits for elevating their practice of Irish dancing to a fun, creative level.

Well done!

Every viral video gets satirized at some point, and this one is no exception. Here is my favorite, but only partially because it has Napoleon Dynamite. I mean, Jon Heder.



Want to hear more about how the original video came to be? Check out this interview with Cleary and Harding where they discuss the making of the video.

Silly Sunday (1) - George Washington

Silly Sunday is a new weekly feature where I talk about videos, pictures or books that make me laugh.

Little known fact about me: I have a slight George Washington obsession. I realize "slight obsession" is an oxymoron, but I don't know how better to describe it. I'm not obsessed full stop, with posters plastered across my room that I kiss every night before bed. I don't gaze lovingly at one dollar bills. I didn't immediately pee myself when I visited Mount Vernon.

However, I probably think about George Washington more than your average American. He's my go-to historical figure when I contemplate technological advances in that sort of "What would our forefathers have thought of this?" way. Haven't you ever gotten in a glass elevator and thought, "Man, if George Washington was in this elevator right now, he would FREAK. OUT."? I have. I imagine myself driving a time-traveling George Washington around town, showing him skyscrapers and cars and electricity and jeans and having a gay old time. He really enjoys my tours. We're old pals now.

I wrote a couple of stories around this concept in a fiction class a few years ago. In one, George was overwhelmed by the Mall of America. In another, he wakes up in a rural Southern town and the locals try to figure out if he's the real George Washington or not.

I don't know why George Washington. I guess he's sort of the epitome of America, being the first president and all. My knowledge of him is rather limited, however, and I keep telling myself that if I ever want to give my GW stories a chance, I should do some research. Maybe when I am done slogging through grad school, I'll be motivated to pick up one of his massive biographies.

The point of all of this Washington blathering is that a few years ago I came across a video about him that I find hysterically funny. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you like weird and awkward humor as much as I do, you'll probably enjoy it. **NOTE** This video contains some foul language. Consider yourself warned.