– – I like dark humor and black comedy, but they’re not everyone’s cup of tea. For this reason, the recent Snickers great white shark commercial has rubbed some shark conservationists and shark attack victims and their families the wrong way, plus done little to dispel the erroneous notion that humans are the preferred food source for sharks.
In the commercial, a group of well-animated and voiced-over CG great white sharks are participating in a focus group where they are questioned about a “blind taste test” of people that they have just eaten. The preferred victim is revealed to have eaten Snickers Peanut Butter Squared, while the less tasty victim had consumed peanut butter cups.
Now the commercial is intended to be comical, harmless, and light-hearted rather than educational and sensitive, and is a vehicle intended to entertain and linger in the mind so as to sell more Snickers products. Some contend, however, that the ad was released too close on the heels of actual shark attacks in Egypt and elsewhere, and has accordingly gone too far.- -Sick or slick? You decide!
– – I don’t know a lot about progressive and house dance music, but I know what I like, and Toronto-based electro sensation Deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”) often performs in costume that includes a giant stylized mouse head , usually red in color and with strobing eyes, although I prefer the black variant, evil maus (shown above left).–Someday, perhaps more icons will be furry!
His album, For Lack of a Better Name (2009) is a personal fave, with “Moar Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff” playfully creepy and hauntingly memorable with a repeating funereal theme! It’s great stuff for those of us who like Halloween year-’round!–Rock on!
– – Short of Peter Parker, you aren’t going to find an arachnid as breathtaking as the Mentos Rainbow pack spider! The commercial introduces us to a young couple sitting in their living room when suddenly the female goes ballistic, shrieking and recoiling on their couch. The view shifts to the carpet, where we are shown…a spider!- –What is it with chicks and spiders, anyhow?!
Anyways, the guy responds by dutifully going to deal with the spider, extending a finger, possibly to crush the inoffensive creature. The extended digit is all our eight-legged hero needs, however, to demonstrate his profound mastery of Jujutsu or perhaps Aikido, grasping the human’s finger and throwing him like a rag doll across the room no less than three times! A shelving unit and coffee table are splintered in the fracas! The wrath of the spider is awesome, and the human is hopelessly outclassed!
In the closing images, we see the grounded human’s body dragged forcefully across the floor presumably by the amazing arachnid as the announcer intones, “It’s better to know what’s coming next!” It’s not revealed what fate awaits the human female, but I doubt things will go well for her, either…
…Bravo, I say! Long may this arachnid martial arts master live and prosper!
– – Will bomb-sniffing plants guard the airports of the future?- -One can only hope so!- -Consider the possibilities!
Audrey II:- – Hold it, Towel-head the Terrorist! You ain’t boardin’ that flight, not on my watch, no sir-eee!- -Feed me, Security!- -HAHAHA!
Achmed the Terrorist:- – By the beard of the Prophet, I am undone! –Aieee!
Normally on Foxsylvania, we consider fauna, not flora…but this is too cool to pass up! Researchers at Colorado State University have manipulated a plant so that it turns white when it detects even trace amounts of TNT in the air. The plant has been genetically rewired so that chlorophyll drains off from the plant, leaving it a stark white when specific materials are detected. The redesigned plants are also 100 times more sensitive than a bomb-sniffing dog!
While the plant currently has a response time of several hours, it is hoped that this can be refined to a few minutes over the next several years, and that such plants could serve as sentinels at airports in the future…
– – Those fortunate enough to catch the Syfy Channel’s premiere of Being Human (“There Goes The Neighborhood, Part I”) caught an appealing show with a promising furry character that I’ll most certainly follow.- -Hey, any show featuring a werewolf, vampire, and ghost as the central characters already has me captivated from the onset!
Josh the werewolf is certainly my favorite character, being a nervous, nerdy, and conflicted individual who hasn’t had sex in two years and wakes up naked following one transformation next to a partly-consumed deer. He makes quite an impression in a floral print dress he steals from a clothesline to cover his nakedness following the episode. Josh’s relationship with the vampiric character Aidan is enjoyable and strangely believable. Add a novice ghost called Sally who’s still coming to terms with her status and capabilities, and you have roommates far more interesting than the old Three’s Company trio.
With drama, good characterization, and decent writing, Being Human isn’t just your typical paranormal show…
– – If you enjoy the unexpectedly weird, you might like Regular Show, an offbeat cartoon on The Cartoon Network about a blue jay called Mordecai and a hyperactive raccoon named Rigby who work as groundskeepers at a large park, spending much of their time and effort avoiding work and seeking to entertain themselves. They are essentially slacker-type twenty-somethings bossed by a living gumball machine who have a Yeti coworker.
In spite of these and other surreal characters, the Regular Show while bizarre is a kid’s animated series written for adults, and it works!
– – No, they haven’t found the Dogman of Wisconsin…it’s just some Australian art turning heads and uniting playfulness with an edgy sexual content.
The exhibition titled “Returning to the Animal Within” is by Marc and Gillie Schattner of Sydney, and features 20 paintings and five sculptures of dog-headed humans at play and in repose. The sculpture pictured titled “Good Boy” shows that canine-human chimeras also enjoy a good cup of coffee, but its anatomical correctness resulted in police investigating an obscenity charge.
An upcoming sculpture depicts a dog-man in a suit stooping to pick up his own poop; a good example, and environmentally responsible!- -‘Mutt or smut?–You decide!
– – Talk about guerilla theater! Earlier this month during a live newscast tracking the progress of Hurricane Ike that showed the wave-lashed beach off Galveston, Texasthe on-site weatherman had to cope with the unexpected appearance behind him of…an anthropomorphic bear!
In a surreal moment worthy of the best of Trigger-Happy TV, the bear-costumed figure moved with grace and agility behind the weatherman, seemingly unconcerned about the rough seas and striking a pose or two for the viewing audience. The befuddled newscaster, his thunder utterly stolen, could think of nothing better to do other than to shift the camera to a view of a battered pier…all the while kinda pretending that the bear’s antics were not going on!
…caught by surprise by a furry, it was a moment to live for!
– – We all know that the government does terrible things behind our backs, like the calamitous Plum Island experiment that created yours truly.–Well, it would appear thatthe Navy has engineered a half-shark, half-octopus killing machine as a super-weapon which, of course, gets out of control as genetically-engineered creatures are prone to do…life would be so dreary if they didn’t!
The sharktopus shows a perverse predilection for beautiful blond women in bikinis, dragging them off boats, beaches, and bungee cords…gotta love the big lug! He also is not deterred by machine gun fire, otherwise the movie might be over quickly.
Coming from B-movie king Roger Corman and boasting a cheesy theme song, the absurd, low-budget made-for-tv movie Sharktopus may be a real hoot! –Witness the glory that is Syfy this Saturday night!
– – A regular furry character appears, in all places, on The Cleveland Show, a spin-off of Family Guy. This character is Tim the Bear, who is a telemarketer working at the local cable company with Cleveland. Voiced by Seth MacFarlane, Tim speaks with a Slavic or Eastern-European accent, and is the son of a black bear and a kangaroo!
Tim tends to be a bit naive about American culture, and is partially a psychological derivative of Steve Martin’s Wild and Crazy Guy persona. Tim has an ursine wife, Arianna, and a son, Raymond. Tim has deep religious convictions, and considers it racist when someone screams because he is a bear. He often accidentally slashes things with his claws, something that he’s quite ashamed of.
While I’m not a great fan of The Cleveland Show, it’s nice to see the infiltration of furry characters here, who seem to fit in rather well as bears in human society…and yes, he has a Facebook page!
– – I like dark humor and black comedy, but they’re not everyone’s cup of tea. For this reason, the recent Snickers great white shark commercial has rubbed some shark conservationists and shark attack victims and their families the wrong way, plus done little to dispel the erroneous notion that humans are the preferred food source for sharks.
FOXSYLVANIA 
You must be logged in to post a comment.