– – It’s short, sweet, and effective: Geico’s Buck commercial. Asking whether switching to Geico can save us 15% or more on auto insurance, our announcer poses whether the buck stops here…then out on cue advances a magnificent buck, who stops precisely on the plain, unadorned stage; the buck turns his fully-racked head towards us, and the announcer, who expected nothing less, shrugs slightly. There’s not a lot of special effects artistry here as in some of its others, but with its play on the familiar expression, Geico again makes it work…
Geico’s Stopping Buck…
Posted May 12, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: absurdities, furry commercials, television
Tags: Geico buck
Hail the Mighty Thor!
Posted May 10, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: absurdities, Brilliant but twisted, cool things, humor, movies, strange, strange happenings, weird
Tags: Dining Vikings, Norse Hollywood Dining Vikings, Thor
– – There’s something strangely cool about dressing up in Viking gear and then going to dine in a fine restaurant or attending the opening of Thor so attired; besides, who am I to judge, since I am, after all, a furry…whatever floats your boat!
Anyways, the Norse Hollywood Dining Vikings did exactly that, attending a screening of the movie in Glendale, California in a variety of chain mail and horned helmet regalia. They usually do a restaurant gig, but a little change kinda keeps things fresh, and besides, what could be more appropriate? Tony Swatton, de facto leader of the Dining Vikings, is a master blacksmith who designs custom-made weapons, armor, and props for television and film, including Thor.
So what if they look like they just made a Capital One credit card commercial?–I say may their cup of mead be always full!
“Mongo-D” for Short…
Posted May 8, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: anomalies, creature features, cryptozoology, unexplained, unidentified, weird
Tags: Mongo-D, Mongolian Death Worms, the intestine worm
– – I, for one, find it easy to obsess over Mongolian Death Worms; they are reputedly large, homicidal red worms that spew fiery acid, burrow in one of the world’s largest and coldest deserts, can reportedly electrocute unlucky things like camels and goat-herders from a distance, and for a finale, explode when they get angry! –What’s not to like, Mongo-D has it all!
Certain aspects of the biology of the Mongolian Death Worm are not unfamiliar; big worms are not uncommon, with Australia hosting earthworms that can reach five foot lengths. Spitting acid is also fairly common among arthropods, to say nothing of my former supervisors. Intestinal worms can also bring down an animal, although they need to be inside it to perform that feat. It’s when you combine all of these attributes that you get a really cool, otherworldly-type of cryptid!
The subject of investigations by Destination Truth and even National Geographic, the Mongolian Death Worm has never been found, leaving us only with eyewitness testimonies about them and at least one really bad movie…
Advance Auto Parts Speed Training…
Posted May 6, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: absurdities, animals, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: Advance Auto speed training, pursued by lions while wearing meat
– – Failure is not an option for those participating in Advance Auto Parts Speed Training, at least not if you value your backside! Imagine sprinting briskly across the African plain while hoisting a muffler to your shoulder…no picnic that, but it gets worse when you’re wearing a meat suit of raw steaks around your waist, and being pursued by a pack of at least five lions very interested in a luncheon! That ought to get the employees to beat feet! The performance of the guy first depicted is apparently at least adequate; he lives to draw salary another day, and earns a “not bad” comment from his boss waiting to pick him up in a jeep. We are not shown the fate of the girl who follows next, a garland of meat around her neck…hope she ran track and field!
In a related commercial, we are shown battery installations practiced while free-falling from a plane; it’s almost as brutal as the performance reviews I used to undergo. One suspects that Advance has a really interesting retirement plan…
Language Applied to Animals…
Posted May 4, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: animal rights, animals, controversial, furry causes, psychology, science
Tags: animal relationships, language pertaining to animals, psycholinguistics
– – I most resent the word “varmint” when applied to foxes and other animals; it’s degrading and disrespectful, and dates back to a time when animals were treated unkindly as little better than things; sadly, some still hold this viewpoint. Language is a curious and powerful thing, and the label that we apply to a living creature shapes how it is permissible to treat them. As a tool of classification, language then also becomes a device of control.
Researchers from the Oxford Center for Animal Ethics along with the University of Illinois and Penn State University suggests that using such words as “varmints,” “critters,” and “beasts” to describe animals degrades the relationship that can exist between them and humans by contributing to a mindset of animals being trivial, unfeeling, and inconsequential. Instead, a language should be cultivated that shows mutually respectful relationships between humans and the animals which live among them. I’m fully on board with all of this…
…where we separate the sheep from the goats (so to speak) is in the beliefs of some animal rights academics that pets should be renamed “companions,” and that rats are just “free-living;” pigeons are simply “free-roaming.” While I do consider my co-habiting animals as companions, this is my personal choice, and I happen to be an animal myself (this is not necessarily a bad thing)! When political correctness kicks in, however, it’s often time to take a holiday before things get silly and I’m expected to garb my animal companions in clothing, which they would hate anyways.
What can perhaps be taken away from all of this is the thought that words are powerful, not because an animal understands the nuances of language or cares what you call them but because words can influence how your mind works, with language choice subsequently affecting human behavior towards animals as well as countless other things. If you doubt this, consider that psycholinguistics has been at the core of every successful political campaign for the last number of decades, with labels determining perceptions and serving as a substitute for independent critical thought for many…
Cartoon Cryptids
Posted May 2, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: animal oddities, anomalies, cartoons, furry, imaginary animals, weird
Tags: cartoon cryptids, Gossamer, Looney Tunes characters
– – Gossamer is a hulking, hairy reddish monster somewhat reminiscent of Bigfoot who is part of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies universe. He wears enormous tennis shoes, and has a heart-shaped face in which may be seen oval eyes and a wide mouth. Beyond these features and dirty clawed fingers, little else may be discerned about Gossamer, whose primary characteristic is the trademark hair; indeed, Gossamer may be made entirely of hair! He is anything but gossamer, a name referring to a delicate type of spider silk.
First appearing in the 1946 film Hair-Raising Hare, Gossamer was the henchman of a mad scientist who bears a strong resemblance to Peter Lorre; if you don’t know who that is, you don’t watch enough old classic films ! Anyways, Bugs Bunny is lured by a mechanical female rabbit to the lair of the mad scientist to be a meal for Gossamer, but makes merry sport of the monster instead (“I’m always interested in meeting interesting people!,” Bugs tells the creature while working on his nails). Gossamer is revealed to be frightened of people, who it must be admitted can be pretty frightening.
Originally nameless, Gossamer was referred to as Rudolph in a 1952 short, and didn’t land the name Gossamer until such was bestowed on him by none less than Marvin the Martian in the 1980 Duck Dodgers feature. Gossamer has enjoyed small roles in a number of Warner Bros. productions since…
New Aflac Duck…
Posted April 30, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: animals, anthropomorphic, controversial, furry commercials, television
Tags: new Aflac duck voice
– – Say it ain’t so…the Aflac duck’s been canned! Or at least the voice of comedian Gilbert Gottfried is following jokes he made on Twitter about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Aflac, incidentally, gets 75% of its revenue from Japan, so Gilbert was history.
The new voice of the Aflac duck is Daniel McKeague, an advertising sales manager from Minnesota. He reportedly will be getting a sum in the low six figures for a one year contract, one which is likely to be renewed…
…maybe I could sing opera for a J.G. Wentworth commercial!
Obscure Cartoon Foxes…
Posted April 28, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: animals, anthropomorphic, cartoons, furry, television
Tags: lesser known foxes, obscure cartoon foxes
– – A character called Sly Fox appeared in a Warner Bros. cartoon produced in 1957 called Fox Terror. Also appearing in this ‘toon and featured in it was Foghorn Leghorn, who thanks to Geico has been enjoying a bit of a renaissance lately. Now Sly Fox was after some chickens for dinner, and sought to bypass the barnyard security system of Barnyard Dog by having Foghorn Leghorn distract and annoy the dog (–Foghorn annoying?–Now that’s a stretch!). Anyhow, the fox never does get the chickens due to the interventions of a hyper little black rooster, and at the end Foghorn and the dog get wise to the fox, and run him out of the yard. He’s shot, which fortunately is seldom fatal in the ‘toon world; the fox does dynamite both Foghorn and the dog, which has no long-term affects, either.
I love the way that Sly Fox is drawn, and you can see hints in the treatment of the figure of Wile E. Coyote. Voiced by the great Mel Blanc, the fox wears several disguises and at times even sounds somewhat like Bugs Bunny. One good lookin’ fox this, Sly regrettably only appeared in a single cartoon but should have been featured in his own show… 
The Urban Woodsman from Honda’s “To Each Their Own”
Posted April 26, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: animals, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: Honda-riding fox
– – Well, actually it’s called “Date With a Woodsman,” and it concerns a bearded lumberjack picking up his date in his new Honda Civic hybrid. As the girl is walking up to the car, he has to tell his pet fox to ride in the back seat so that the girl can ride in the front passenger seat! We then follow the couple as they shop in a general store for hiking boots and outdoor gear before going to a river or lake. Later, we see the fox poking his head out of the car window, apparently enjoying the ride. Last of all, the fox is seen reposing on a rock in the background of the woods (shown) while his master(?) is making a rather impressive wood sculpture for his date.
While the woodsman appears a bit on the err, rugged side (birds nest in his beard, for cripes sake!), anyone who has a fox for a companion is keeping good company…now I wanna see the fox driving the Civic!
(…tip o’ the pen to carycomic for alerting me to this commercial!)
Goldfish Racing…
Posted April 24, 2011 by vulpesffbCategories: absurdities, animal rights, animals, deplorable practices, scalies, strange happenings, things humans do
Tags: goldfish racing
– – Not to be confused with cat juggling, dwarf bowling, or submarine races, goldfish racing is one of those strange pseudo-sports activities that bars seem to be host to, alcohol making such things just that much more amusing.
In goldfish racing, cheap “feeder”-type goldfish normally sold to be fed to other pets are guided and encouraged by bar patrons to swim down water troughs the length and general width of plastic gutters with bottles and water guns. This practice has brought complaints from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who contend that the loud noises and bright lights used during the practice scare the bejesus out of the fish. In addition, some fish have reportedly been impaled with soda straws or even swallowed alive by the same notorious bar patrons.
PETA’s protests have caused one Tacoma, Washington bar to cancel its weekly goldfish races, while other similar establishments are still having fish start their engines…
FOXSYLVANIA 
You must be logged in to post a comment.