The Body Snatcher Hand's Collection

While I had to refer to the legend several times I was still amazed at how many of the hands I could easily identify. What an awesome idea! (The Body Snatcher Hand's Collection by Nicolas Fong, via Geek-Art)

Previously on Popped Culture...

Hand Prosthetics In Film

Darlin' Don't You Go And Cut Your Hair

Rock Beats Scissors

An A To Z 2010 Encyclopitcionary

National Post cartoonist Gary Clement wraps up the year that was. Look it up in yer encyclopitcionary! Happy New Year, everyone!

Previously on Popped Culture...

Schoolhouse Rock: I'm Kind Of A Big F*cking Deal

Have You Tried Throwing Rocks At Her?

A Bad Month for Cartoon Characters

Scent Of A Politician

This will only make sense to Canadians or those who are disturbingly well informed about our political party leaders. Of course some of these scents might be easily applicable to any politician and not just those who suggest they "can smell the whiff of sulphur" on the other. (Graphic via Steve Murray)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Fantastic Forefathers
Star Trek: Smells Like Certain Death
Private Eyes, They're Watching You...

A Bad Month for Cartoon Characters

I already knew about SpongeBob, but it's a tough break for Dora — she won't like where she'll be exploring next. I don't have much sympathy for Richie Rich — at least he hasn't gone the Casper route yet. As for Little Orphan Annie, she had since 1924. It was time. (Joe Heller from The Green Bay Press-Gazette via Gfest)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Who Died In An Oil Spill Because Of BP?
First You Get The Money, Then You Get The Mountain
The Death Of Aquaman

Fantastic Forefathers

It's time for a little Manifest Destiny. Abraham Lincoln as The Thing, George Washington as Mr. Fantastic, Teddy Roosevelt as The Human Torch and Thomas Jefferson as The Invisible Man.

It's funny, I was rolling through my favourite sites when I came across this and I wanted to find out who drew it. After a little searching it turns out it was Dean Fraser of Springfield Punx but from a couple of years ago. Ain't the internet a small place? (Link via Unreality)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Sweet, Sweet Candy!
The Evolution of Satire

Schoolhouse Rock: I'm Kind Of A Big F*cking Deal

I'm just a bill.
Yes, I'm only a bill.
And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill.
Well, it's a long, long journey
To the capital city.
It's a long, long wait
While I'm sitting in committee,
But I know I'll be a law someday
At least I hope and pray that I will,
But today I am still just a bill.

Joe Biden: He signed you, Bill! Now you're a law!
Bill: Oh yes!!! (South Pol via BuzzFeed)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Sweet, Sweet Candy!
Help Me Obama-Wan Kenobi...
The Evolution of Satire

Help Me Obama-Wan Kenobi...

You're our only hope. I love how Barack Obama is shoring up his title of Nerd-In-Chief with this display of Jedi skill on the White House Lawn.

It's not just Star Wars that this president knows. Witness John Hodgman at the Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner, administering a nerd purity test on Star Trek, Conan the Barbarian and Dune (it's about eight minutes in).


This poster, of course, was inevitable. (Johnny Toxic via Buzzfeed)


Previously on Popped Culture...
Sweet, Sweet Candy!
The Evolution Of Satire
Han Solo, P.I.

Sweet, Sweet Candy!

U.S. President Barack Obama, attending the G8 summit in Italy yesterday, was caught checking out the posterior of a young delegate. Or so it appears.

Upon further investigation by the fine folks at Fark, it turns out to be a Homer-esque sized misunderstanding. Seems the president has spotted the rare gummi Venus de Milo, carved by gummi artisans who work exclusively in the medium of gummi. He was just thinking about that sweet, sweet candy... (Link via The Daily What)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Anatomy Of A Gummi Bear
The Evolution of Satire
Popaganda: The Pop Culture Revolution

Tank Man of Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Simpsons

One of the most powerful images of the the twentieth century, the image of the anonymous man who stood in front of a line of Chinese tanks during the protests at Beijing's Tiananmen Square still resonate 20 years later. Inevitably, they have made their way into pop culture, such as Selma Bouvier's trip to China. In tribute, Listicles has collected several homages to the Unknown Rebel.

Tiananmen Lego

Previously on Popped Culture
Have You Tried Throwing Rocks At Her?
If the Shoe-icide Bomber Fits...
The Evolution of Satire

Have You Tried Throwing Rocks At Her?

A purposed Afghanistan law could allows marital rape by stopping a wife from refusing sex and could prevent women from leaving their home without her husband's permission except on urgent business. A group of women protesting this law were driven away by a mob of men yesterday.

Sometimes an incident is so enraging that it even cuts through to the confines of my pop culture world as it obviously did for the National Post's editorial cartoonist Gary Clement, top, and the Globe and Mail's Brian Gable, bottom. What, exactly, are we doing there?

Ok, back to the funny...

Previously on Popped Culture...
Ice Ice Baby
S Is For Somalian Pirates
Arts Cuts Rise From the Crypt

This Is So Weekend At Bernie's...

Breaking News! Cheney to attend Inauguration in wheelchair! Apparently the poor bastard pulled a muscle moving his crap outta the Whitehouse and is all laid up. Man's gotta be a capital 'P' Pack Rat to do that kinda damage. Still, it's good to hear he's still alive. If he is in fact still alive.

Finally

I can't think of anything to say that hasn't been covered by every single other blog and media outlet known to man. Except that it's about time. And finally. Finally it's over. We can now all breathe a sigh of relief now that the Bush's have vacated 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. You rock Obama - can't wait to see what you do over the next four [eight] years. Happy Inaugural Day!

If the Shoe-icide Bomber Fits...

Before the first shoe hit the floor, netizens began work on parodies of George W. Bush's dodging of an Iraqi journalist's footwear. The raw footage itself has been viewed millions of times on YouTube alone and on countless other news sites worldwide.

Several web-based games have already appeared, where you can either toss shoes at President Bush — who pops up and down like a Wack-A-Mole (Sock and Awe), take the role of the shoe-dodging Dubya and see how long you can avoid getting smacked in the noggin (Flying Babush), or play one of his beleaguered Secret Service detail and try and shoot the shoes before they reach their target (Bush's Boot Camp).

Would-be humorists have been hard at work mashing up the footage into their own videos, the most popular subjects being Dodgeball, the Three Stooges, the Matrix and Austin Powers — the last time anyone can recall a shoe being used as a projectile weapon.


While TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi has became an instant sensation in the Arab world as well, Iraqi officials have not taken the incident lightly. Zaidi appeared before a judge on Tuesday and admitted “aggression against a president”, a judicial spokesman told Agence France-Presse, and he could be facing up to 15 years in jail.

Zaidi’s brother said on Tuesday that the reporter was hit on the head with a rifle butt and had an arm broken in the chaos that broke out after he threw his shoes at Bush and was leapt on by Iraqi security officers and U.S. secret service agents.

Zaidi is in a hospital in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, his brother Maitham al-Zaidi said.

“All that we know is we were contacted yesterday by a person — we know him — and he told us that Muntazer was taken on Sunday to Ibn-Sina hospital,” Maitham al-Zaidi said. “He was wounded in the head because he was hit by a rifle butt, and one of his arms was broken."

From National Post's Posted blog, where I got to pass this off as work today. I love my job.

'It's Not Fair, It's My Turn To Be In Charge'

Rick Mercer captured the inner children of all our Canadian leadership hopefuls. I can't believe the CBC didn't rush his show back on air the moment it became clear the election was inevitable. The Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes offer up some of the best political comedy in the country (even if they could be a little sharper sometimes) and to have them back only with two weeks left in the campaign is a travesty. Still, if this is what we get in the short time left, all is forgiven.

Arts Cuts Rise From the Crypt

With federal elections unspooling in both Canada and the U.S. (ours is much, much shorter) there was bound to be some similar issues. It's no surprise to see economic woes topping agendas, but I never would have thought pop culture issues would have had any sort of resonance.

But it seems Sarah Palin, she of the much-mocked Republican vice-presidency, has at least mused about banning books, which has got some people justifiably worried. One of those is Cathy Gaines Mifsud, whose father William Gaines was publisher of Mad Magazine and the original Tales From the Crypt. He was subjected to a Senate hearing in the '50s which aimed to clamp down on comics, so it's a sensitive subject for the family.

So she wrote an editorial. "What usually seems to be behind banning books is an attempt to repress ideas that may offer alternative political views. This is not only un-American -- blatantly violating the very concept of free speech -- but it is assuming that people are unable to come to their own informed conclusions." Who knew comics had editorials?

On our side of the border, our Prime Minister Stephen Harper has stirred up a culture war, lambasting artists as culturally elite whiners. Wether or not the programs cut were worthy is hardly the point — it is the atmosphere that it creates, that anyone in a creative field is a lazy drag on society.

The issue is gaining traction, but there isn't much time for anyone to get much of a response going in a campaign which is already more than halfway over. Quebec artists are up in arms, but I've not seen much response from big names in entertainment.

Rick Mercer, as a producer of his own show, told a radio station he's hired employed more electricians and carpenters than Harper ever has — a good line, but we need more to change the idea that the arts - let's call it pop culture - isn't for everyone. It's no book banning, but it comes from the same place.

Crypt -Keeper via underwire

The Evolution of Satire

Barack and Michelle Obama: The fist bump heard 'round the world, June 3.


The New Yorker's July issue satirizes rumours about the Obama's, including suggestions that he's Muslim and anti-American. The Obama's don't find the humour in it.


Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart's Mock the Vote cover satirizes the satire, creating a perfect piece of comedy. The recreation is perfect even though they chickened out on burning the flag. Entertainment Weekly wins!