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Archive for the ‘Funny (ha ha)’ Category

Dav Pilkey–Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 2: The Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers (2003)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Adventure, Berlin, Boredom, Children's Books, Dav Pilkey, Deep Purple, Devo, Foreigner, Funny (ha ha), Iron Butterfly, Jimi Hendrix, Mad Scientists, Talking Heads, The B-52's, The Beatles, The Clash, The Doors, The Police, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Yuck! on March 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »

booger1SOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC in 3-D (1984).

in3dAfter Al’s debut he came roaring back the next year with In 3-D a disc which opens with his first Michael Jackson parody “Eat It.”  The song was leaps and bounds above anything on the debut (even if there are still hand farts in it).  The song actually sounds like the original (if a little less “full” and a little goofier and on the whoo hoos).  But the solo by Rick Derringer rocks and the whole song works very well.  The rest of the album is a solid mix of originals and parodies

I didn’t really understand that “Midnight Star” was meant to parody the Weekly World News and such (I didn’t really know those papers at the time) but I thought the headlines were funny.  And yes its a lot of fun to sing a long to.  It’s always funny when Al parodies a song that is already rather stupid (My Sharona, or in this case Safety Dance), and “The Brady Bunch” opens with a general overview of stupid TV shows and then morphs into the The Bunch’s theme song to the music of “Safety Dance.”  “Gonna Buy Me  A Condo” is a reggae song which I never really got the joke of as a kid.  I mean, I knew it was reggae but I didn’t know enough about reggae to know that this song is kinda funny, about selling out for the mainstream life.  It’s not genius or anything but it’s kinda funny–in fact I think it’s funnier now than I ever did as a kid.

“Jeopardy” works perfectly as a parody.  It retains all of the weird sounds and “drama” of the original and yet it works entirely unto itself.  It’s definitely an early highlight.  This disc also introduces what would be come a staple on all his later albums:  “Polkas on 45” where he mashes together a string of songs into a polka beat.  They are always fun and clever.  This one is a mix of new wave and classic rock bands Devo, Deep Purple,  Berlin, The Beatles,  The Doors,  Iron Butterfly, Jimi Hendrix, Talking Heads, Foreigner, The Police,  The Clash,  The Rolling Stones,  and The Who.

“Mr Popeil” is another one that I didn’t full get until later (why did i like Al if I didn’t get any of the jokes?).  Ron Popeil is the king of the As Seen on TV  product (as listed in the song).  The thing that I really didn’t get was that this is was a parody of the B-52s–one of the first parodies he’d done that’s a parody of band but not really a song.  This is not a parody of Rock Lobster exactly, but it sounds quite a lot like it–and that’s a neat trick.

“King of Suede” is a parody of The Police–I never really liked it even though it does work as a parody–perhaps the original isn’t a very string song.    “That Boy Could Dance” is instantly forgettable, so much so that I had forgotten all about it.  “Theme from Rocky XIII” is a pretty funny parody of “The Eye of the Tiger.”  But it doesn’t prepare you for the genius that is “Nature Trail to Hell.”  An epic song about horror movies with the great line “if you lie the 6 o clock news you’ll love Nature Trail to Hell (in 3D).”  It’s over the top and very silly–the music escalates  with screams and strings and several different sections (although the solo section is a little anemic).  I can’t imagine what he would do with it today if he rerecorded it.

So In 3-D was a big jump in quality for “Weird Al” and was actually a pretty big hit (charting at #17).

[READ: February 22, 2013] Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 2

Since it is 2013 and not 2003, I don’t have to wait several months for Part 2.  Huzzah!

The opening comic in this book not only gives all of the Captain Underpants background that it usually does, it also includes what happened in Part 1.  At the end of the book, the robotic booger monsters (Carl, Trixie and Frankenbooger) were on the attack.  They destroyed the Combine-O-Tron 2000 so it would not reverse the effects of the machine on Captain and Melvin.  But Sulu the hamster rescued them by hurling the boogers into space (with his mouth, ew).

The boys want to get things back to normal.  But Professor Krupp (who is in Melvin’s body) is going about his business getting everyone in trouble.  Except that since he looks like Melvin people are getting angry at him rather than listening to him.  This book features a wonderful letter swap from “Check out our school’s big internet website at http://www.jhes.com” to “We shake our big butts when we swim in the toilet.”

The boys give up on trying to fix the Combine-O-Tron and decide to use the Purple Potty Time Machine that is in the library and go back in time.  There’s a great sequence in which the librarian has banned every book but one and I love the posters that are up encouraging the banning of books–it’s another awesome dig at those who censor.  And the librarian is named Miss Singerbrains. (more…)

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Dav Pilkey–Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets (2003)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Adventure, Boredom, Children's Books, Dav Pilkey, Funny (ha ha), Mad Scientists, Yuck! on March 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

boogerpt1SOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-“Weird Al Yankovic” (1983).

wayI have evidently always loved parody.  When “Weird Al” first came out I heard about “Another One Rides the Bus” (from where?  where could I have heard about this in like 1981 or 1982, I didn’t know about Dr. Demento), and really wanted to hear it.  I knew (and loved) “Another One Bites the Dust” but I had no information about the “Weird Al” song.  And there was really no way to learn about it in 1982 or 1983.  My only source of record buying was Pathmark.  And asking the clerks for “Another One Rides the Bus” inevitably brought me to the Queen album.  I’m somehow astonished that even at the tender age of 13, I was more hip and indie than “mainstream records stores” (or at least Pathmark).

I’d be lying if I were to say that “Another One Rides the Bus ” has stood the test of time (although really, hand farts never go out of style).  Indeed, no matter how much I love  “Weird Al” (and I have seen him on every tour  for the last several tours), that first album just doesn’t really do it for me anymore (although I know I loved it when I got it).  It may have something to do with the song parody choices or just the fact that I’ve heard them so many times.  But I think part of it is that Al has matured into a really consummate recording artist–his songs are as full and complex as the originals he parodies (and his originals are comparably full).  By contrast, this first album is very sparse–focusing on the accordion and sound effects more than trying to recreate the song.  And hey, I know he had no budget, it’s totally understandable.  It’s just that now all these years later, it sounds more like a demo than anything else.

I also have to wonder if I ever thought these songs were actually funny–at this point Ricky seems just as preposterous a song as Mickey (And, yes, Ricky is better).  “I Love Rocky Road” holds up better than “Ricky” (hand farts you see) and is actually better than the original too.  “Stop Dragging My Car Around” is a pretty funny parody in theory–I like the idea of deflating the original, although I’m not sure that the new lyrics actually work.  There’s some funny car jokes, but I’m not sure that the chorus is actually right.  I do love the way Al plays with his voice (and the backing hey hey heys are great).  Somehow “My Bologna” still holds up surprisingly well–certainly as good as the original.

Al’s originals are a mixed bag.  I’ve always loved “Gotta Boogie” even if I didn’t quite get the double meaning until a few years after hearing it.  “Buckingham Blues” is a weird topic choice, although I guess the Charles and Diane wedding was a big enough deal to mock it.  “Happy Birthday” is a pretty funny song and it could easily stand up to a re-recording.  (Lyrically the song is very dark and not really kid-friendly (birth and death and all that).  “The Check’s in the Mail” is another song I didn’t “get” until many years later–why would I know these business cliches?  Nevertheless, I knew the words quite well and think of it whenever I hear someone spouting a cliche.  “I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead” is a fun song that mocks the “self-help” scene.  This was probably funnier for older people who might actually know what he’s talking about (Like wow, man can you relate).  But even if you don’t get all the references, the chorus is sure fun to sing along.  The lyric, “I don’t want no part of that vegetarian scene” is a funny line since he is a vegetarian (although I don’t know when he became one).  Musically it’s interesting though because he throws different styles of music into the one song, something he would definitely play with later.  “Such a Groovy Guy”  tries a little too hard.  And the final song “Mr Frump  in The Iron Lung” is just bizarre (and something I didn’t get for many many years–did they even still use iron lungs in 1983?)

In retrospect this isn’t a great indication of what Weird Al would eventually achieve, but there’s a lot of fun stuff and songs that I still remember the lyrics to thirty years later–not a bad thing at all.

[READ: February 22, 2013] Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1

Every Captain Underpants book ends with “Here we Go Again” and an assumed next book.  But this is the first book in the series that ends with an actual stated next part (see title).  This is also the first book where events of the previous book impact this one.  Ms Ribble is still nice!  And she is still making cookies every day.

Two things struck me in this book: the language that Pilkey uses is a little more difficult.  He’s using bigger words and some harder ideas and I wondered if the audience was getting older with Pilkey or if he just wanted to stretch his audience a bit.  Conversely, George and Harold’s spelling is getting worse.  It initially bothered me that their spelling was so bad (I don’t want kids to learn bad habits), but now Pilkey points out how bad their spelling is and it is so bad (they spell “once” wrong), that I guess it’s more funny than anything else.

This book also introduced me to squishies.  I don’t know of this prank ever took off in schools  but of all the things that this series had done that might get parents upset, squishies has to be the worst.  Basically you put packs of ketchup under the toilet seat so when someone sits on it–splat.  I could see that catching on and causing a lot of trouble.

The bad guy in this book proves to be uber-geek Melvin Sneedly.  Melvin has a appeared before.  He is a rule-follower and a tattle-tale.  He’s also really smart and makes cool inventions like the Combine-O-Tron 2000 (it cracks me up that every thing is still “2000” even though the books were written in 2003).  The Combine-O-Tron in this case combines a hamster and a robot to make a cyborg hamster.  But the kids in class are too interested in squishies to care about this cool cyborg.  Which really angers Melvin. (more…)

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Dav Pilkey–Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman (2001)

Posted in Adventure, Captain Sensible, Children's Books, Dav Pilkey, Funny (ha ha), The Damned, Yuck! on February 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

wedgie

SOUNDTRACK: CAPTAIN SENSIBLE-“Wot” (1982).

wotCaptain Sensible was a founder of The Damned.  And then sometime in the 1980s he had a solo career.  And, inexplicably, this song was a hit.  Well, I assume it was a hit, it was included on a New Wave Hits collection.

I never actually realized that there were verses as the whole song seems to consist of: “He said Captain, I said Wot.”  But there are indeed verses (the video explains the lyrics rather well) and they seem to be about the Captain being awoken by a noisy street repairman.   I assume that this was a hit because it was oddly funny, but the bass line is really quite infectious.  There are no real guitars to speak of and the drums are simple (probably a drum  machine), but the bass is big and bouncy with a cool slinky line.  I won’t say that the bass line sold the song, but it’s still pretty interesting.

Novelty hits are a fascinating genre of music and I often wonder what makes a whole nation of people like the same goofy thing.

[READ: February 26, 2013] Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman

As the fifth book opens Ms Ribble (the lady with the beehive hairdo) says that she is retiring.  The kids cheer.  But not today  Aw maaaan.  She insists that the class all write her a goodbye card (and she composes the lines herself).  George and Harold decide to make her a comic book instead (what could go wrong?).

So they create Captain Underpants and the Wrath of  the Wicked Wedgie Woman.  In it Ms Ribble (who is evil) gets crushed under a stack of book reports.  The doctors rebuild her bionically.  Now she is evil and she has super powers (like claws that come out of her hair).  This comic is important because it reveals Captain Underpants’  one weakness–starch!  And once Wedgie Woman sprays the Captain with starch, he is helpless.  A little fabric softener saves the day though.

Naturally Ms Ribble is not amused.  And she sends them to the office.  The most unbelievable things about these stories are the preposterous things that the teachers allow George and Harold to do (that’s right, more preposterous than Captain Underpants himself).  As if Miss Anthrope would let George and Harold photocopy the weekly schedule (which they rearrange when they see her computer is left open).  But even more crazy is that Mr Krupp would sign a “card” for Ms Ribble that George and Harold have not written yet.

What I loved about this story was the huge surprise of what George and Harold write in the card that Mr Krupp has signed.  Nothing bad,  Indeed, it is quite nice–Mr Krupp proposes marriage!  (and then spends the rest of the week saying nothing but “B-b-bbubba bobba hob-hobba-hobba Wah-wah.”)  Ms Ribble doesn’t seem too happy either, but the teachers set about making the wedding plans for that Saturday. (more…)

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Tony Abbott–Goofballs #1 The Crazy Case of Missing Thunder (2012)

Posted in Adventure, C., Cat Doorman, Children's Books, Funny (ha ha), Mystery, Short Books, T., The Decemberists, Tony Abbott on February 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

goof1SOUNDTRACK: CAT DOORMAN-“So Many Words” (2012).

CatDoormancover1-500x500This is a fun folkie kids song about unexpected ABC words.  There’s a line about “flipping through my OED” and indeed the list of words for A is impressive : archipelago, allosaurus, abacus.  I actually thought she might do all As, in the song but then she moves through the alphabet (bandicoot, eavesdrop, yarmulke).

The song has some big fiddles, which sound fun, and Cat’s voice is lilting and fun too.  I’m led to understand that Cat has a number of alt rockers on the album (Chris Funk from the Decemberists, for example) although I can’t find too many details about the album.

You can hear the track here.

[READ: February 11, 2013] Goofballs #1 The Crazy Case of Missing Thunder

As faithful readers know, I love Tony Abbott and so does C.  We’re still waiting on another series to come in from the library, but in the meantime I found this book on the shelf: Goofballs #1.  It appears to be a brand new series from Mr Abbott and it is aimed at a slightly younger audience than Droon and the other series.  The print is bigger, there are lots of pictures and there’s only 8 chapters.  So I decided to read it to both kids at bedtime.

I fear that they just weren’t quite as into it as I thought they might be.  And I fear I wasn’t really that into it either.  It feels a little forced.

The story is about Jeff, Mara, Brian and Kelly, four kids who are silly and who get called goofballs all the time.  So they decided to join together and become a detective agency.  Well, first they had solved some mysteries around town together–like the mysterious pizza problem (which got them their own pizza named after them, The Goofball Pizza: cheese garlic pineapple and peanut butter).

Then the kids get a call for a real mystery–Randall Crandall has lost his thunder.  Turns out that Thunder is the beloved pony of Randall Crandall and he has gone missing from his stable. (more…)

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Dav Pilkey–Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants (2000)

Posted in Boredom, Children's Books, Dav Pilkey, Funny (ha ha), Mad Scientists, The Diggity Dudes, Yuck! on February 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

poopySOUNDTRACK: THE DIGGITY DUDES-“Grover Cleveland” (2012).

groverIn honor of Presidents’ Day, I offer you this song by The Diggity Dudes.

This song talks about some of the less famous presidents (Grover Cleveland, James K. Polk (doesn’t get any credit at all), William Henry Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes (actually I feel like he’s pretty well known, no?)).

But what I like best is how they say there are so many Presidents, they can’t get through them in a three minute song.  Or can they?  Yes indeed.

So there’s a fun and fast list of all of the Presidents (mostly last names).  The song is recent enough that Barack Obama is included as well.  Although their list is not terribly catchy, it does get all of the Presidents in.  And the “take your time, check the list and remember them all” section is certainly catchy.

Do you remember them all?

[READ: February 16, 2013] Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants

The books keep getting bigger and the cast of characters keeps getting larger (like Mr Rected and Miss Labelled).  This book also introduces us to Professor Pippy P (which stands for Pee-Pee) Poopypants who hails from New Swissland.  Professor Poopypants’ name is not unusual in New Swissland–everyone’s name is preposterous there (like Jiggles T. Chunkyskunks, for example).  But when Professor Poopypants tries to show off his amazing new shrink ray and enlarging ray, he is laughed at constantly for his name.

This makes him mad.  And he will seek revenge.

Like the other Captain books, this one opens with a comic by George and Harold which recaps the other books (their comic is also longer than the others).  And unsurprisingly, the story opens with the boys getting in trouble.  This time they switch the school sign to read Don’t Fart in a Diaper. But they are nabbed red-handed by Professor Krupp.  Their punishment is to clean the teacher’s lounge while the rest of the school goes on an awesome field trip.

So they do what they do best–a very very funny take on tarring and feathering (totally justified, those teachers are MEAN!).  But after the prank, their science teacher Mr. Fyde (ha!) quits.

Mr Krupp doesn’t know how he will replace the science teacher.  But when Professor Poopypants reads about the open Poisson  he imagines it as a way to get respect from the scientific community.  And, he knows it’s a good place to start because he can get respect in the school–little kids are so sweet and understanding. (more…)

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Roddy Doyle–The Meanwhile Adventures (2004)

Posted in Adventure, Babies, Children's Books, Dustin the Turkey, Funny (ha ha), Irish Writer, Poo, Roddy Doyle, Short Books, Yuck! on February 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

meanwhileSOUNDTRACK:  DUSTIN THE TURKEY-“Funky Ford Cortina” (1994).

dustinDustin is a turkey.  Dustin has had hit singles.  Dustin has even run for President of Ireland.

If you recall pop hits from a bygone era you may be able to tell exactly what this song is a parody of.

And it is a straight up parody of the song.  Perhaps the funniest thing about it is Dustin’s heavy Dublin accent rapping these words.  And, of course, thinking of a Ford Cortina as being funky.

This song will never, ever get old.

[READ: February 3, 2013] The Meanwhile Adventures

The final book in this silly trilogy throws out all the stops.  And at 174 pages it’s considerably larger than the previous two.

Once again, I can’t help but feel that Doyle must have had so much fun writing this anarchic absurdity.  Especially after his far more serious books–this must have felt like a breath of fresh (poo filled) air.

This story is cheeky right from the start with an italicized reader interrupting the story constantly to say that it is boring.

Once upon a  time there was a little girl who lived in a house made of gingerbread–
Boring

But eventually it gets going.  Mister Mack, the head of household for all three books was laid off from his job as a biscuit tester (remember kids, biscuit means cookie in Ireland).  People in Ireland were dieting so they were only going to be selling the dry boring cream crackers (which Mister Mack hated) from now on.  So he decides to become an inventor.  And he invents a saw that looks just like a machine gun.  (Why?  Why not).  But when he brings the saw to the bank to apply for a loan, he is arrested because everyone thinks it’s a gun. (more…)

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Roddy Doyle–Rover Saves Christmas (2001)

Posted in Babies, Children's Books, Dustin the Turkey, Funny (ha ha), Irish Writer, Poo, Roddy Doyle, Short Books, Trilogy, Yuck! on February 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

roverSOUNDTRACK:  DUSTIN THE TURKEY-“Irelande Douze Pointe” (2008).

irelandeIn 2008, Ireland nominated this song to the Eurovision contest.  Dustin, for those not in Europe, is a turkey puppet from a kids show (with a number of hit singles, apparently).

The title is a misspelling of the French for Ireland and Douze Pointe translates as 12 Points (because 12 is the highest result you can get in the contest).  The song begins as a wobbly sorta traditional-sounding Irish ballad about how he comes from a nation of great songwriters (Ireland has won Eurovision 7 times, although interestingly had not been doing so well in the years leading up to 2008).

Then it turns into a more suitably Eurovision song–a rollicking high energy dance, with flashing lights, sparkly costumes and a chorus that goes G-O-double B-L-E.

The reaction is pretty funny with lots of boos in the audience.  Shockingly, it did not come last that year, although it failed to make it into the finals.

Check it out in all of its absurd glory:

[READ: February 3, 2013] Rover Saves Christmas

The Giggler Treatment proved to be Part One of a trilogy (Doyle really has a thing for trilogies).  Rover Saves Christmas is the second in the series.  It doesn’t really follow as a part two or anything although the characters are all the same.

The title pretty much gives away the action here.  Rover, the dog from Giggler who sells his poo, is called upon by a Christmas elf to help save Christmas because Rudolph is under the weather (he’s taking his day off on the one day of the year when he works).  And so, they strap Rover into the sleigh and off they go.

And really that’s pretty much all of the book.  But the humor (and there’s a lot of humor) comes in the details.

Like that the book opens with a description of Dublin at Christmastime: “the lizards were wearing flip-flops and the cacti that line the streets of the city were gasping.”  Irish kids will find this hilarious.  American kids may not know that that’s not what Dublin is like, but that’s their own fault.  There’s also the funny repeated joke of the two toddlers knowing how to say only one thing “Who are you?” and “bum bum,” but those who know them well know what they mean each time they say it.  Which leads to very funny results.  And also leads the reader to be confused until he or she remembers that the baby saying “Who are you” means something else. (more…)

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Dav Pilkey–The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby: The First Graphic Novel By George Beard and Harold Hutchins (2002)

Posted in Babies, Children's Books, Dav Pilkey, Funny (ha ha), Poo, Short Books, The Doubleclicks, Yuck! on February 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

sdbSOUNDTRACK: THE DOUBLECLICKS “Worst Superpower Ever” (2012).

worst

A simple strummed acoustic guitar plays slowly as the singer lists a series of Super Powers you may or may not want.  The cello comes in on the second verse  where the actual superpowers aren’t that great either.

The strange thing is that the worst super power options really aren’t that bad–not great super powers I agree, but being able to predict what someone else will wear is certainly not worse than a lot of other powers one could have.

I really want to love this band, but I fear that they’re always not quite but almost awesome.  Still, there are worse things you could be than that.

[READ: January 22, 2013] The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby

I am disappointed in myself for having read this out of sequence (Super Diaper Baby comes after Captain Underpants book 5).

The premise behind this graphic novel is that George and Harold, co-creators of Captain Underpants are being punished (yet again).  They must write a 100 page paper about being a good citizen.  But, and this is the important part, Principal Krupp says they can’t make a Captain Underpants comic (which they can’t understand as the Captain is a great citizen!).

But Krupp never said they couldn’t make a  new comic.  And lo, the birth of Super Diaper Baby.  There’s some wonderful funny jokes in the beginning like when the nurse says “name” and they say they haven’t picked one yet, but she means their name (that misunderstanding kind of joke gets reused a few times for more hilarious results).

Just as normal baby Billy is being born (and there’s a very funny “Billy Don’t be a Hero” joke that no kids will ever get), Deputy Dangerous and Danger Dog are up to no good.  They trap Captain Underpants and get ready to drink a formula that gives them super powers.  First Danger Dog takes some and is able to fly.  But before Deputy Dangerous can take any, the police chase him and he rides off on Danger Dog.

When the doctor goes to spank Billy for the first time, he launches the baby right out the window (a crazy joke that really made me laugh) and into the magic potion that Deputy Dangerous was carrying.  And in glorious Flip-O-Rama (which is all over this book!) Super Diaper Baby is realized (and beats up the Deputy).

The Deputy seeks revenge and in a sequence that had me laughing for easily five minutes (because I am clearly eight years old), the plans go horribly wrong and involve a dirty diaper.  It was a fairly obvious joke and yet something about the fact that he actually did it (and the subsequent name calling) was just too funny. (more…)

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J. Torres & J. Bone–The Collected Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures 2 (2005)

Posted in Adventure, Boredom, Children's Books, Egyptology, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, J. Bone, J. Torres, Marriage Trouble, Nazis, Pirates, Portlandia, Religion, Short Books on February 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

alsion1SOUNDTRACK: THE DOUBLECLICKS-Pirates!  The PPDXYAR EP (2012).

pdxyarI wanted to explore more of The Doubleclicks’ music, and their site showed off this EP.  It was made for Talk Like a Pirate Day (you’re already sold, right?) and EP is a tribute to the Portland Pirate crew of PDXYAR (whatever that is).  The first song is “The Pirates of PDXYAR highlights what I’ve come to understand is the real Doubleclicks sound: ukulele and cello.  But this one also has a host of backing vocals (make and female).  The song is all about the pirates of PDXYAR and how they came to be and how the represent Portland.

The second song “How Not to Touch a Pirate” is a simpler song which insists that, tempting as it may seem, you should NOT be touching any of the pirates (this seems like a real inside joke).  Its amusing and would probably be funnier if I knew more about PDXYAR.  And oops, this song even has an F-bomb at the end–watch out!

The final track is a remix of “The Pirates of PDXYAR, ”  And mostly it allows more funny backing vocals.  It’s a better, funnier track because of it.

I’m not sold on The Doubleclicks yet.  I like them, but I think more in small doses.

So it turns out that PDXYAR is a Portland-based pirate crew, which you can read about on their website.  The lyrics to the song seem to explain  the origins of the pirates (kickstarter).  Frankly, I don’t know why the pirates (and the Doubleclicks) haven’t appeared on Portlandia yet.

[READ: February 7, 2013] Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures 2

Volume 2 of Alison Dare is just as fun as Volume 1.  Although I admit the first story was a little confusing (I was never really sure exactly how these books were published originally, so it wasn’t clear that the first few stories were connected.  Although in retrospect it seems obvious enough.

In the first story, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” it’s obvious that Alison doesn’t have much in the way of the excitement that girls expect from her.  So she makes up an elaborate story which all of the girls (except her two close friends) find wonderful   In “The Unbelievable Truth” we see what really happened (and we see that Alison’s story wasn’t far off, but that details make all the difference).

In “The Perfect Gift” the Blue Scarab (aka Alison’s dad) searches for the perfect gift for his daughter.  But that proves harder than he thought, especially when she accidentally takes a precious jewel that he has recovered in a mission.  In “A Day at the Museum” the girls open something they shouldn’t and unleash a plague.  This ties to the previous story in an unexpected way.  And in “The Gift Exchange” the previous two stories come together for a satisfying conclusion. (more…)

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Hergé–Tintin: The Blue Lotus (1936) [translated 1983]

Posted in Adventure, Children's Books, Culture Shock, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gangsters, Hergé, Kids Corner, Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, Michael Turner, Racism, The Doubleclicks, Translation, Travel on February 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

TintinLotusSOUNDTRACK: THE DOUBLECLICKS-“The Internet National Anthem” (2012).

inatThe Doubleclicks are a sister duo from Portland, Oregon.  They are nerdy and fun (perhaps we can think of them as non-accordion, female They Might be Giants?).  Take “The Internet National Anthem”,” a song  with a steady four/four beat, cellos and  a suitably anthemic chorus, that’s all about the internet.

I was introduced to this band from Kid’s Corner, although I feel that perhaps their songs aren’t really for kids (not that they’re inappropriate but they seem more sophisticated than a typical kids song.  Like this song has big words and it is quite funny.  Although in all honesty it’s not laugh out loud funny, just mildly funny.  It’s got the vibe of Garfunkel and Oates, but not the big guffaws.

Check out their albums here .

[READ: February 8, 2013] The Blue Lotus

This third (technically fifth) Tintin book is the continuation of Cigars of the Pharaoh.  One of the characters from Pharaoh returns in this book, despite the fact that it is set in China.  This book also continues with Hergé’s having it both way in terms of other races.  His drawings are caricaturey and depending on your sensibilities/appreciation for drawing skills/tolerance are either really racist or simply in poor taste (although it does seem to be that the bad characters of other races are the most offensive–the good people are less crazy).

But despite the visual insensitivity, there are several section where Hergé explicitly talks about tolerance and understanding between races.  Like when Tintin saves the young Chinese boy, Chang, who says he thought all white devils were wicked.  Tintin explains that white people believe stupid things about Chinese people too  (eating rotten eggs, tons of unwanted babies in their rivers, etc.).  Chang says “They must be crazy people in your country).  As it turns out (quoting Wikipedia ), “The Blue Lotus is a pivotal work in Hergé’s career, moving away from the stereotype and loosely connected stories and marking a new-found commitment to geographical and cultural accuracy. The book is also amongst the most highly regarded of the entire Tintin series, and was the 18th greatest book on Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century list.”  It’s quite progressive for the 1930s.

The plotlines from the previous book are continued: there is the poison that makes you crazy, the Pharaoh’s logo shows up and there are Indian characters returning as well.  And by the end Thompson and Thompson, the twin policeman who complicate each others sentences and prove to be more bumbling than we originally thought arrive to capture Tintin (although they believe in Tintin’s goodness–they’re only following orders, you see). (more…)

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