Genesis finally makes sense

Writer/performer/artist Merrill Markoe visited the Creation Museum in Kentucky last year and absorbed all the “proof” there that the world was created just 6,000 years ago and that dinosaurs walked among humans. As if through divine intervention, it suddenly, recently dawned on Markoe how to help the museum make their case. So she created this [...]

Bed Intruder costume

A few weeks ago we fondly wrote about the Know Your Meme podcast, and specifically highlighted their coverage of the loveable Antoine Dodson of “Bed Intruder” fame. Well, now he’s got what he (at least) is calling the # 1 Halloween get-up of 2010: The official Bed Intruder Costume! And good for him — why [...]

Emergency Bras at the 20th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

The 20th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, which honors achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think,” was held Harvard University last Thursday. On hand to help honor the 2010 prize laureates was Dr. Elana Bodnar, last year’s winner of the Ig Nobel Public Health Prize for her Emergency Bra, a [...]

Know Your Meme

We’ve been long-time fans (well, long-time in terms of Internet years) of the website and podcast “Know Your Meme,” a “web series and online database dedicated to documenting Internet culture, one scientismic investigation at a time.” They give you information on the back-story, viral development and spin-offs of every crazy contemporary meme out there, from [...]

Ad agency makes XXX-ray commercial for medical supply company

The German ad agency Butter recently released a series of award-winning print ads — “Pin-Up Calendar 2010″ — for Eizo, a medical supply company which apparently specializes in medical imaging. While it effectively shows the quality of their radiographs, it also entertainingly pokes fun at the whole porn genre: You can see everything! Check out [...]

Chat Roulette piano improv

Last week, fellow SUNfiltered blogger Matthew Rodriguez found a compilation Chat Roulette video that he called “the best…and most safe-for-work item I’ve seen yet of the Chat Roulette experience” (one faceless user has a handwritten sign that’s turned on its side which reads — once you turn your head to read it — “If you [...]

We always knew modern design was bad for your love life

The things that once so defined him — shag carpeting, Room & Board sofas, monogamy — now suffocated him. — via UnhappyHipsters.com

If you’ve ever browsed the pages of, say, Dwell magazine and wondered how the hell anyone could even fart in such an antiseptic environment, let alone have an orgasm, then you’ll love UnhappyHipsters.com as much as we do. The site is genius in its simplicity: photos from the pages of Dwell magazine and, okay, mostly just Dwell, with one-liner captions guessing at the inner life of the dwellers in question. Sure, we’ve always been proponents of clearing clutter — especially in your bedroom — in order to focus on the task at hand, whether that task is dinner, email, romance, or an orgasm. But there’s lack of clutter and then there’s austere design and architecture that seems to scream, “I DARE you to have fun in here!” A sampling from a world in which “wet spot” is a dirty word after the jump.

Unhappy Hipsters

There are some things that can’t be learned from a book. Unhappy Hipsters is hilarious. And while I take issue with its title (it should be called Unhappy Modernists) I can only chuckle and giggle when I read the captioned pictures pulled from the pages of Dwell and DWR’s catalog. The images are clean, simple, [...]

ThingsThatAreDoingIt.com

If you like your humor cheap and juvenile but find PeopleOfWalmart.com just a bit too mean and depressing, then check out ThingsThatAreDoingIt.com — a collection of inadvertently sexually-charged inanimate objects. Many of the coolest ones seem to have dubious origins (no way is that naked tree goddess not Photoshopped) but the ones that look genuine (like the friendly trees above) will lift your spirits and put a smile on your face that you can feel good about in a way that People of Walmart’s “Front to Back” cannot. Here’s a sample:

From the Nothing’s-Sacred Department: Shocker gloves

There’s the enjoi knit version (above), which POW claims is an infringement on their style copyright for the finger colors of pink and brown (they have a freaking copyright on that?). But then there’s the Shocker Glove Company too, which a guy from POW told us uses a different “shocker” reference (i.e. not sexual), but [...]

Jonathan Littell beats off stiff competition at Bad Sex Awards

Turns out we were wrong in our Roth prediction — this year’s Bad Sex Award ended up going to Jonathan Littell for his novel The Kindly Ones. Other fancy-pants runners up included Paul Theroux, Nick Cave, Amos Oz, and John Banville. The judges said very nice things about Littell’s novel — which was originally published in French — calling it “in part a work of genius.” However, lines such as “I came suddenly, a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg” clinched the award for The Kindly Ones. Perhaps it came off better in the original French? The award was presented at the — chortle chortle — In & Out (Naval & Military) Club in St James’s Square, London, where 400 guests congratulated themselves on being both highbrow and hilarious on the topic of sex.

In the winning passage (below), Littell is inspired by ancient mythology, to somewhat disastrous results.

Britain’s Bad Sex Award pits Philip Roth against Nick Cave

photo via the Los Angeles Times

If there’s one thing the Brits are good at, it’s laughing about sex, whether it’s lowbrow, bum-pinching humor — paging Benny Hill — or the highbrow upper echelons of London’s literary society. The cool kids in the latter category are definitely at the Literary Review magazine, with their annual Bad Sex Awards. The announcement of the selections each year leads to a flurry of bad-pun headlines in the British press — “stiff competition” being a favorite phrase (Benny Hill would be proud!). Past nominees have included such heavy hitters as Gabriel García Márquez, Norman Mailer and Salman Rushdie. This year’s shortlist is no different, including John Banville, Paul Theroux, singer-turned-writer Nick Cave, and Philip Roth. The only surprise with Roth is that it took him this long to make the cut.

SpatSolver, the ultimate argument resolution device

Infomercial parodies are a fine art that only a few have mastered. But we think YourTango has just joined the ranks of elite spoofers with their “SpatSolver.” We guarantee you’ll be wishing this thing was real in seconds! Yeah, the commercial goes on a little too long, and the free “Apologizer” is pretty unfunny, but [...]

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis from Between Two Ferns Zach Galifianakis is one of those weirdo comedians you either love or you hate. We love him, mostly for his entirely inappropriate sexual humor. So if you haven’t checked out his Funny or Die series, “Between Two Ferns”, we recommend you blow off work for [...]

Why we’ll never complain again about not peeing upright

photo by AwkwardBoners.com

AwkwardBoners is one of those genius sites that appeals equally to 13-year-old boys and, well, us. While awkward boners in public can be kind of creepy (like when the guy across from you on the subway has morning wood — one of many reasons why men should close their legs on public transportation), the image gallery on this site mostly just makes us glad we’re not dudes.

Mike Birbiglia’s “Porno for Parents”

We mentioned comedian Mike Birbiglia in passing the other day, but failed to convey just how awesome he is. Someone who can appeal to both the audiences of Comedy Central and This American Life possesses a rare gift. He  covers crass topics without ever crossing the line. He’s the boyfriend you love so much, but [...]

FAILblog can help mend a broken heart

We were once fond of telling people who’ve been dumped to buy a box of red wine and watch some good mindless action movies. But we’ve now got a better idea: buy a box of rose (it is summer, after all) and spend a few hours scrolling through the archives of FAIL Blog. (If you [...]

A rare glimpse of Stephen Colbert out of character

Josh Marshall of the great Talking Points Memo just posted this excellent behind-the-scenes video, which was filmed as he accompanied John Kerry to a taping of The Colbert Report in April 2007. As Josh points out, it’s a rare and fascinating thing to see Colbert break character, because he almost never does:

10 things a grown woman should never have

A poster of Robert Doisneau’s “Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville” from Art.com

The Men’s Health article 18 Things a Grown Man Should Never Have made us think we should have dated more Men’s Health readers back in our single days. (“10. A name for his penis. Even if it’s a really clever name. … 13. A futon. Sure, beds are for sleeping. But such a meager, slouchy spread has never, in the history of sex, inspired a woman to say, ‘Take me on your futon.’ … 14. Code words for ugly women. Actually, code words for anything.”) It also got us thinking about the sort of things a grown woman should never have…

And you thought your family was bad

“Happy Mother’s Day!” photo from Awkward Family Photos

Just in case one of your friends hasn’t forwarded you this new website yet, check out AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. In the awesome tradition of FAILblog and The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks, Awkward Family Photos aims to “spread the awkwardness,” in their case by collecting some of the most horrendous displays of familial unity — and hilariously captioning them.