Archive for the ‘twisted reality’ category

Adam Sandler and the Space Spider of “Spaceman”

March 4, 2024

Valentine’s Day, and the Insulting Kiss…

February 14, 2024

“Disenchantment;” the Middle Ages as Buddy Comedy

January 30, 2024

NJM’s “Snowman” Commercial…

December 6, 2023

Mountain Dew…”Your Soul Needs Dew” Commercial

November 6, 2023

The Halloween Spirit Off-Season…

November 4, 2023

“Stranger Things” a Multidimensional Delight!

October 16, 2023

The Tail of the Richmond Rat Boy!

May 29, 2023

It looks like Mickey Mouse got char-broiled, and has certainly seen better days…I’m referring, of course to the Richmond Rat Boy, a small, seemingly-mummified object anonymously donated to the Wayne County Historical Museum in Indiana. The Rat Boy appears to sport a rodent’s head atop a humanoid body that boasts details such as claws and teeth…

Now sadly, Rat Boy was never alive, but has been determined to have been crafted of plaster of Paris and clay over an armature. Animal claws, pointed teeth, and hair were added to lend a touch of realism to the figure. A note was left with the figure saying that it was found long ago in the basement of a local hospital, and once belonged to a circus-worker friend of the donor’s late grandfather…

Now Rat Boy is thought by museum staff to have been a gaff, a cryptid fabricated as a sideshow attraction in circuses that toured America in the 1910’s to the 1930’s. A more memorable example was the notorious Fiji Mermaid once exhibited by P.T. Barnum. They might have charged you a dime to a quarter to see such draws back in the day. Nowadays we can laugh at those gullible people of an earlier time, having reality television and conspiracy theories today…

So while Rat Boy may not be real, you can still buy your very own Rat Boy T-shirt to remember him by. Be the first one on your block, every cat in the neighborhood will be in shock,” to recall the late great Soupy Sales in his song, Do the Mouse!

NJM’s “Therapy” Commercial…

March 11, 2023

Being a mascot therapist must be a highly specialized niche within psychotherapy, and a sweet gig if you can get it. The clients are all quite remarkable, like the green catfish mascot who’s questioning his whole existence, and having anxiety over the fact that NJM has no mascots. “Identity crisis,” writes the therapist dutifully in her note pad…

Prompted to tell her more, the giant catfish comments almost tearfully that he also can’t seem to blink. I meant more about NJM,” redirects the therapist.– –Ohh, the angst, the suffering here! We hear a muffled wailing sound, and the scene shifts to the waiting room, where we see a penguin and a robot mascot on the couch, awaiting their turn with the doctor. They are all good mascots with their tales of woe, no doubt, but unfortunately NJM doesn’t use mascots. Pity that, because these all look like good mascots…

Now if these fellows can’t find employment as mascots, surely they could fit into the Otherkin community… 🦊

National Comic Book Day!

September 25, 2022

I would be remiss if I failed to remind you that September 25th is National Comic Book Day! ‘Fess up now…how many of you grew up lingering over the pages of a comic book, and fantasizing about how great your life would be if you had a superpower…like, any one of them!

I had the rare kind of father who would actually bring me home a comic book or Mad Magazine occasionally when he came home from the store with the Sunday paper. It wasn’t just any comic book, either. Nope, it had to be a superhero one! My early years were spent paging through DC comics icons like Superman and The Green Lantern. Later, I would learn of the backstories of more obscure comic heroes like The Phantom and even Mandrake the Magician! “The Phantom is rough on roughnecks,” old jungle saying…

This led me down the rabbit hole in adulthood of discovering even more notable precursors such as The Shadow. When special effects reached a level where superhero movies were better than laughable, we were really off to the races with DC and Marvel characters, some more memorable than others, and renewing or finding new fan bases in the adult population…

And it all started with comic books, so remember this holy day. And I still have my Green Lantern ring, folks, two actually. If only the darn things worked, if only! Well, hope springs eternal, so they say…gotta keep trying! “In brightest day, in blackest night…”