Saturday, February 28

Taylor Swift's "Style" Music Video Is Full Of Mirrors


This video has little to do with its subject matter--it might be more fitting for, say, "Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake. Oh well, I still kinda like it. Not sure if I like the song, mind you, but the video is pretty entertaining. Well done, T-Swizzle.

Friday, February 27

Conan and Billy Eichner Join Grindr


Last summer, Conan O'Brien and Dave Franco joined Tinder. As you may have guessed, it was pretty fantastic. So much so that Conan wanted to test out another dating app. This time, he's giving Grindr a try. He's joined by very loud yeller and actor Billy Eichner for some shenanigans. And believe me, there are plenty of 'em. Enjoy!

Thursday, February 26

Never-Spin Bow Ties With Weird Al Yankovic And Mireille Enos


Does your bow tie start spinning wildly every time a woman walks by? If so, then Funny or Die has just the product for you. Mireille Enos introduces the "Never-Spin Bow Tie," the perfect antidote to neckwear that seems to have a mind of its own. Weird Al Yankovic demonstrates just how easy it is. Now you can go ahead and order that milk with no problems at all!

Wednesday, February 25

Christina Aguilera Impersonates Britney Spears and Cher with Shocking Accuracy


The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon has a "Wheel of Musical Impressions" feature, where Fallon and the guest get a random artist paired with a random song. For instance, Fallon gets to do a David Bowie impression whilst singing "You're a Grand Old Flag."

Christina Aguilera, meanwhile, gets her Mickey Mouse Club co-star Britney Spears (among others), and even though there are some "oohs" from the crowd, she pulls off the imitation flawlessly. Well done.

Tuesday, February 24

Kobe Bryant Is Unamused By His Teammates' Celebration



Kobe Bryant is currently missing the entire NBA season thanks to an injury. His teammates, unfortunately, still have to play games. They just won their first contest in nine tries to improve in the standings, and now sit at 14-41. That's terrible, and is even five games behind the SACRAMENTO KINGS, of all teams.

Bryant went on Jimmy Kimmel Live to talk about all things basketball, and he was shown a clip of his teammates celebrating after said victory, an overtime thriller against the Celtics. Granted, the two teams are rivals, but they're also both just awful this year. So was this an overreaction?

We'll let Kobe's face answer.


Lunchmoney Lewis' New Song "Bills" Is A JAM


I heard this song on SiriusXM today, and apparently one of the OneDirection boys also tweeted about it, or something. Either way, Lunchmoney Lewis has a chuckleworthy video with his debut single "Bills." It is an absolute jam and will get the toes tapping. Enjoy!

Monday, February 23

Richard Jefferson's Best Dunk Ever Got Ruined By An Official


This video description is perfect: Richard Jefferson dunks on MKG's soul, gets called for offensive foul. RJ is 34 years old and clearly on the downward swing of his career, but he mustered up an absurd amount of hops for this posterization of Charlotte's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Alas, an official thought Jefferson pushed off, and he was called for an offensive foul. UNACCEPTABLE.

Neil Patrick Harris Ends Up In His Underwear During The Oscars


The 2015 Academy Awards came and went, and while the show didn't have too many terrific moments, a nod to Birdman, the eventual winner of Best Picture, was certainly a highlight. Neil Patrick Harris got his robe caught in his dressing room, and was forced to come out to announce the next category in just his tighty whities. As an added touch, he passed by Miles Teller, the drummer from Whiplash. And scolded him. Well done, NPH. Well done.

Friday, February 20

Wheel Of Fortune Dude Solves Puzzle With One Letter


One of the long-time features of Wheel of Fortune is the final puzzle round, also known as the "we're running out of time so let's speed this up" segment. Pat spins the wheel for a certain amount of money, and then players do their darndest to solve the puzzle after guessing a letter. In this case, it took just one letter for Rufus to snag a cool $1,700. Not bad, good sir. Not bad at all.

Thursday, February 19

Jimmy Kimmel Asks Pedestrians If They're Kinky


The movie adaption of Fifty Shades Of Grey has been out for a week now, to mostly mixed reviews. I'd venture the biggest complaint is that real people are actually much more kinky than in the movie. Jimmy Kimmel tries to prove this theory by simply asking people "are you kinky?" It's simple, yet effective. Enjoy.

Tuesday, February 17

Pokémon Art Academy Competition to Award Promotional Pokémon TCG Cards



Starting tomorrow, aspiring artists can enter a Pokemon Art Academy competition using the Pokemon Art Academy games on the 3DS family of systems. The game offers 40 lessons on how to paint, sketch and draw popular Pokemon. And through March 29, they can share their digital masterpieces via Miiverse, which allows them to showcase their talents as graduates of Pokemon Art Academy. There'll be six winners in total, to be announced in May. The prize is pretty cool, too: 100 cards featuring his or her winning image. Not a bad collectible!

There are two different contests to enter, Dress-Up Pikachu or Your Favorite Pokemon. Here's the official way to make sure your drawing counts, coming from Nintendo itself:

How to Enter the Pokémon Art Academy Competition
- Create and save an image in Pokémon Art Academy using Free Paint mode.
- Select the “Share” option from Pokémon Art Academy’s main menu and connect to Miiverse.
- Select the “Post to Competition” option and select “I Agree” if you agree to the Official Rules.
- Highlight the category you’d like to enter (Dress-Up Pikachu or Your Favorite Pokémon) and then choose “Select Competition”. Only the first post you make will be recognized as your entry. 
- Slide over the image and select it and then choose “Share Selected”.
- Enter a title to accompany your artwork in the comment field and then select “Post”. The image will be posted to Miiverse and entered into the competition.
- The only way to enter the competition directly is from the Pokémon Art Academy game, available exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. 

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited.  Must be a legal resident of the United States (including D.C.), Canada or Mexico. 6 prizes total, ARV $40 each. Additional terms and conditions apply. For a full set of rules visit: www.pokemon.com/artrules.  Sponsors: The Pokémon Company International, Inc. and Nintendo of America Inc.

Monday, February 16

Cascade Ice Mixes Sparkling Water With Juice For A Refreshing Drink


Have you ever wanted to combine sparkling water with juice, but keep up the whole "zero calorie" thing? Well, Cascade Ice has heard your wishes, and has a variety of drinks to keep your palate satisfied.

Cascade Ice waters are free of things found in other flavored waters and sodas, like calories, sodium, caffeine, gluten and sugar. They've also got 21 flavors, ranging from McIntosh Apple to Coconut Mango. They were cool enough to send me a few samples to try--I'm partial to Mixed Berry, myself.

They also make for quality mixers for any cocktails you're throwing together. For example, mixing two ounces of Cascade Ice's Pomegranate Berry with one ounce of vodka, then garnishing with cherries will give you a delightfully decadent cocktail that's not too fruity. Feel free to up the amounts of both alcohol and mixer (or maybe just the alcohol) if you like your drinks excessively strong. Check out the Cascade Ice website to see where you can pick some up for your next shindig.

SNL's 40th Anniversary Brought Back Celebrity Jeopardy, And It Was Glorious


Celebrity Jeopardy has always been one of SNL's strong suits, and its revival during the 40th Anniversary special was no exception. Darrell Hammond reprises his role as Sean Connery, but Kate McKinnon's Justin Bieber is the real scene-stealer, here. Alec Baldwin as Tony Bennett, and Will Ferrell as Alec Trebek himself round out the rest of the cast. Of course, there are a few hidden surprises, as well. Because it wouldn't be Celebrity Jeopardy without 'em. Enjoy!

Saturday, February 14

Zach LaVine Wins Slam Dunk Contest In Style


Minnesota Timberwolves forward Zach LaVine--all 19 years of him--put on quite the show at this year's Slam Dunk Contest. He finished with two perfect 50 scores, which is a pretty rare feat nowadays. Coming in second was Victor Oladipo, who did have one nifty dunk (see below), but obviously it was not enough to win. Keep the good stuff coming next year, Zach!

Friday, February 13

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon Brings Back #WhyImSingle


As we near Valentine's Day, people all over the world want to either make you sick with how in love they are, or make you sick with how single they are. We're going to focus on the latter, in this case.

Jimmy Fallon brought back his #WhyImSingle hashtaggery (last seen in 2013), and there are some chuckleworthy moments here. My best advice is to just eat all of the chocolate. Chocolate always loves you.

Wednesday, February 11

Frozen and Breaking Bad Mashup Is Wonderful


Kudos to my buddy Roqstar for pointing me to this. It's a superb mashup of Frozen's "Do You Want To Build A Snowman" and Breaking Bad. In this remake, Walt is asking Jesse if he wants to build a meth lab. It's just very spot on, and the animations are quite well done. Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 10

Fifty Shades Of Buscemi


I have no intention to see Fifty Shades of Grey the movie. But I think my curiosity might be piqued if it was, in fact, 50 Shades of Buscemi, as imagined by Boo Ya Pictures. It's a very simple premise: the movie trailer is recut with Steve Buscemi taking the place of lead actor Jamie Dornan. And it's quite glorious.

Monday, February 9

Hubble Telescope Spots Smiley Face Amongst The Stars


There are few things in life more entertaining than a face in otherwise inanimate objects. Particularly if said objects are in outer space. In this case, galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 (that's a mouthful) is quite happy. The image was spotted by Julie Schmidt, and...well, that's a smile if I ever saw one.

Of course, the "face" is caused by a galactic phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Large galaxy clusters can produce such a strong gravitational pull that they actually warp the time and space around them--this makes the clusters more visible to space telescopes, but it also warps the objects. The ring making up the "face" in this case is called an Einstein Ring; another line of warping makes the smile. The eyes are made up of two bright galaxies. And they twinkle like a big pizza pie.

Sunday, February 8

Ranking the Pokemon: #1- Zapdos


We're here. We're finally here. It's taken an uncomfortably long amount of time--1302 days, in fact, or three years, six months, and 22 days--to get to the number one Pokemon on the list, but now we're here. That's remarkable. I honestly cannot believe it. What a clinic on the art of procrastination.

Anyway, Zapdos is a legendary that I absolutely love. It's the second of the three legendary birds, and by far the best one. Not only is Electric a better type than Ice or Fire, the #2 is the easiest of the Spanish trio to catch. While Articuno requires you to Surf out to some faraway islands, and Moltres is found at the end of a tiring long cave just before you battle the Elite Four, Zapdos is just chilling in the Power Plant. It's probably powering said plant via its lightning wings. The Power Plant is mostly just filled with Poke Balls and Voltorbs that are posing as Poke Balls, so it doesn't take much effort to power through it. YES, THE PUNS ARE STILL ALIVE AND WELL.

Of course, you don't reach #1 without being a terrific battler, as well. Or, perhaps, if you're Nelly. In any case, Zapdos is proficient in battling, though the jury is still out in its propensity for wearing a bandana whilst sporting a band-aid under one eye. Zappy's got TREMENDOUS Special, tied for fourth-best. Actually, as a whole, Zapdos has the fifth-highest total base stat power. And while Mew and Mewtwo are more powerful, they're also absurdly cheap to use and, as I've mentioned before, they're often banned from tournaments. I'm not sure if any Generation I tournaments are still happening, but hey, if they were...

...you most likely couldn't use Mew or Mewtwo, is what I'm saying.

As far as moves go, you absolutely must have Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave and Drill Peck on your Zap-pi-di-doo-dos. Thunderbolt will take care of Water and Flying-types (including other Zapdoses...Zapdi?), while Drill Peck will put a hole in Grass and Fighting-types, as well as any Bugs your opponent is dumb enough to throw out.

Other Pokemon are able to deal damage to a wider variety of types, but both Thunderbolt and Drill Peck are already strong moves, and you're getting STAB with each of them, so they'll get a bonus. And when you Thunder Wave them into paralysis, that's just cruel. But quite enjoyable.

For the fourth move, I'm partial to Reflect, but Light Screen and Agility are also good options. Reflect and Light Screen will double your Defense and Special, respectively, whenever your opponent uses a physical move (for the former) or a special move (for the latter). Agility ups Zapdos's already pretty solid Speed, but it's nice to have in case you're facing a true speedster. Either way, you should be set to take on most comers.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for reading this. Whether you stuck by me throughout the full 1,302 days, or you just read one tiny entry, I truly appreciate it. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you ever have a suggestion for another list, I'm all ears.

Battling Grade: A 

Saturday, February 7

Jimmy Fallon Returns With More Lip Syncing, Joined By Will Ferrell And Kevin Hart


The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon has a lot of recurring segments, but one of the more popular ones is the lip-syncing battles he has with guests on the show. To celebrate the Super Bowl, he tried to go "epic" with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. There are some good moments in here, and if you're a fan of the previous lip syncs, you won't be let down.

Thursday, February 5

Marshawn Lynch And Rob Gronkowski Play Mortal Kombat X With Conan O'Brien


A terrific Conan O'Brien segment is his "Clueless Gamer" series, in which he plays a video game. Often very poorly. But hilarity always ensues, and this time, he's brought Marshawn Lynch and Rob Gronkowski along for the ride. This aired before the Super Bowl, so, you know, the players had a lot of downtime. And it's a good enough of a fix of football until the draft in April. Enjoy.

Tuesday, February 3

Mean Tweets Is Back With Another Music Edition, And It's Glorious


The newest edition of "Mean Tweets," really the best segment from Jimmy Kimmel Live, features more musicians from all walks of life and annoyances. You've got Ariana Grande, 5 Seconds of Summer, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Sia (randomly facing backwards and eating a jar of peanut butter with her hand), and many others being insulted by tweeters.

The last couple of episodes of this were not super funny, making me think it had finally stopped being a good idea. But this one is hysterical, and all is right with the world again.

Was Super Bowl XLIX the best Ever? Who Cares...What A Finish!


If you somehow missed the Super Bowl, you're a) nuts, and b) someone I don't want to be talking to. But I do want you to read this blog, so keep reading!

The highlights above sadly do not include Katy Perry standing on a big mechanical tiger, nor do they feature her riding the "The More You Know" star. But they do include a few plays we may forget as this Super Bowl goes on. Most notably: Dont'a Hightower's incredible shoestring tackle on Marshawn Lynch. Forget about taking down one of the best backs in football by himself. Hightower sheds a block from Russell Okung, one of the top linemen in the NFL, then lunges at a full-speed Lynch to trip him up before Akeem Ayers completes the tackle. Simply amazing. Can it be next season already?

Sunday, February 1

Key & Peele's East/West Bowl Is Back, This Time With Help From Professional NFL Players


The East/West Bowl is one of the best sketches from Key and Peele. It's litchrally just a bunch of funny names (and sometimes accompanying universities), but it's so, so good. And the duo has released a new edition, just in time for the Super Bowl. It features a few actual NFL players, too, to show the juxtaposition between these names, which, in some cases, is not far off. I won't spoil all the appearances, but of course, D'Brickashaw Ferguson makes an appearance. After all, he was the inspiration for the original sketch. Enjoy!