Entries Tagged 'TV' ↓

Bet she kept this clip off of her reel: Ayds diet candy commercial

What do you do when the name of your number one product, under which you’ve been selling your goods for decades, becomes a homonym for a deadly scourge?

That’s the foul question the makers of Ayds, an appetite suppressant, found themselves having to address 20 years ago. By that point, it had become clear that acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, was not going to be a flash in the pan—a temporary blip that the company could just ride out—but would be, in fact, the disease of the century, if not the millennium.

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Most parents, no doubt, were shocked by this outrageous moment on May 20th’s The Dr. Phil Show, above. It takes place at “The Dr. Phil House,” during their “Brat Camp” episode, when an agitated and frustrated 10-year-old, Noah, unexpectedly slaps his mom, Wendy, loudly, across her face.

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I find the exaggerated vocal stylings of news reporters contemptible. Particularly, I dislike the stretchy vowels and odd pitch changes through which African-Americans tend to report TV and radio news. It’s aurally inauthentic, and, I believe, it disarms Black people. It keeps us from utilizing a wide range and sophisticated set of rhythmic and tonal apparatuses by which we comment on information—signify—in real time, as we relate it.

So, it’s fascinating to see, in this clip, how quickly the reporter goes from Standard American Newsman to NSFW Black Vernacular when a chewy, protein-rich insect flies into his mouth.

With Father’s Day on Sunday, this much-beloved gem-of-an-ad for Hallmark’s “Cards with Sound” line will, no doubt, disappear into the vaults by Monday. Thankfully, on YouTube, these joints live forever.

My favorite part? As with you, every single moment of the dancing, and the actor’s perfect sync of the M.C.’s closing, “Stop! Hammer Time!” line, above.

But running a really close second? That glare his wife gives him at the 0:21 mark, right, after their youngest calls him out of reverie.

What’s the problem, Mom? Can’t Dad do a little dancin’ on his Very Special Day?

This looks very familiar: C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) in The Clone Wars

Please: I want someone to tell me, and I want you to be honest:

Am I a bad person because, after looking at the trailer for Lucasfilm Animation’s upcoming CGI series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I feel almost nothing, except, perhaps, the loss of animation director Genndy Tartakovsky?

Tartakovsky (b. 1970) helmed the similarly-titled, Emmy Award-winning Star Wars: Clone Wars. The microseries aired on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005, much as the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars will run there this fall. (Tartakovsky first became known for the long-running Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory on that animation channel.)

I saw Clone Wars when it was released on DVD in 2005.

I’m still reeling from it.

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It takes one to know one: Hillary counts on her peeps

I never get tired of news footage that documents blatant racism. Also, when it’s coming from Al-Jazeera English, you know it’s got to be good. It’s going in some direction that the self-congratulatory, corporate U.S. media, still suckling the dry, cracked teat of American exceptionalism, is completely unwilling to go.

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Liz Trotta, the FOX News contributor who joked, yesterday morning, that it would be good if “we” “knock off” Barack Obama, apologized for her comments, today, at the end (2:45 in) of a bit about Clinton’s RFK assassination statement clarification.

“I am so sorry about what happened yesterday and the lame attempt at humor,” said Trotta, in the patronizing tones of the E. 66th St. matron that she is. “I really just fell all over myself in making it appear that I wished Barack Obama harm, or any other candidate, for that matter. I sincerely regret it and apologize to anybody I have offended. It’s a very colorful political season, and many of us are making mistakes and saying things that we wish we hadn’t said.”

Thanks, Liz. We accept your apology, and perhaps the family of Barack Obama will, too.

Now, FOX, fire her.

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Absolutely hilarious: So, is FOX’s Liz Trotta cracking up?

“… and now we have what … uh … some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama … um … uh … Obama …. Well, both, if we could (laughs).”

I expect anything from white people, particularly the ones I most suspect get some kind of ego boost, whether directly or indirectly, from racism.

So, I’m not outraged in the least by FOX News contributor Liz Trotta’s statement to co-host Eric Shawn, on Sunday, just before noon ET, that it would be good if “we” “knock off” both Osama bin Laden, alleged 9/11 mastermind, and Barack Obama, U.S. senator and candidate for President.

She was speaking about Hillary Clinton’s reference to Robert Kennedy’s assassination, last week, and the charge many made against Clinton that it was a veiled reference to Barack Obama. (That’s Trotta, former New York bureau chief of The Washington Times, above, laughing after she made her crack.)

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I can see Gayle King from here: New York’s Hearst Building (57th St. and 8th Ave.), home to O Magazine and others, and its GTA IV twin

With the April 29 release of Rockstar Games’ (and, full disclosure, my former employer’s) Grand Theft Auto IV now nearly a month behind us, many are raving over the game’s raucus gameplay and sophisticated storyline. Still others are flabbergasted by the company’s reported game sales of over 6 million copies sold in the first week, including 3.6 million the first day, for a gross of half a billion dollars the first seven days of release, beating analyst projections widely. (These also beat Microsoft’s Halo 3 numbers, ’til now the biggest release. Little-known fact: In 2004, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas also beat Halo 2‘s sales with, much the same, little fanfare.)

But whether you love video games, like I do, detest them, like my wife does, or are a voice actor for the GTA IV who doesn’t believe Take 2, Rockstar’s parent company, paid you enough, like Michael Hollick, if you’re New Yorkers playing GTA IV, there’s one thing you can all agree upon: The striking sense of verisimilitude with which the game overwhelms the player.

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Dem bones, dem bones: Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) poke around in America’s dark underbelly

In “Keeping Up with the Jones: White Supremacy on BET,” Bro. Tony Muhammad both regards the promotion of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which opened yesterday, and captures that distinct, tacky awkwardness one feels when white people, especially ones who’ve never been to Harlem, try to act like they’re used to being surrounded by Black people, especially when it’s being done for marketing purposes.

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