Funnies

Some things to make you laugh:

• The Shining, Redux - a spoof trailer for The Shining, making it look like a heartwarming, father-son bonding film. It won a re-cut comptetition last year, and since then folks have made a bunch of these for other films - if you do a Google search for “trailer recut” you can find them.
• How to make an Easter turducken. “Many children wonder around Easter how it is that bunnies lay eggs. As a side benefit, Easter turducken illustrates clearly that this ‘theory’ is wrong. Obviously bunnies lay chickens, which then lay the eggs.”
• A Dr. Seuss interpretation of Bush’s defense of Rumsfeld, inspired by the actual Bush statement, “I’m the decider, and I decide what is best…” …All my decisions, they come Jesus-blessed.
• A History of US/Iranian Relations Since 9/11, in the form of a conversation between the US and Iran. For something written as humor, it actually sums up the real situation surprisingly well.
• The Senate Ethics Committee Mansion
• This is from last month, when Republican Howard Kaloogian was running to replace Duke Cunningham in San Diego (who was convicted of bribery). Kaloogian participiated in the up-is-down “Truth Tour” of Iraq, which tried to demonstrate how great things really are in Iraq. To help make this point, Kaloogian posted a photo on his web site, which he claimed he took himself, of a peaceful and bustling street in downtown Baghdad. But the photo didn’t pass the sniff test, and the blogosphere soon revealed that it was actually a photo of a street in a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey. Kaloogian then claimed it was a simple photo mix-up, and replaced the photo on his site with this aerial shot of Baghdad, where you can see that Baghdad clearly has buildings and trees (but he still kept the original caption, claiming this showed how great things are). All that may be sad rather than funny, but what I found very funny - as a former fanatical player of the game Civilization - was this take on the story.
• This SNL cartoon on John McCain is very funny, particularly the Apocalypse Now moment at the end. It first ran, I think, in 2003. It was inspired by McCain’s decision to make nice with Bush after the vicious personal attacks he suffered at the hands of Bush supporters in the 2000 primary race. As McCain is gearing up to run again for 2008, he’s cozying up to Jerry Falwell and others he once denounced as “agents of intolerance,” making this cartoon all too relevant again now.