Mental Floss

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter Is On His Knees; Not Unhappy About It

I won't try to pretend otherwise: this post is partly intended to tip you off to one of the funniest dudes on the web, but mostly it's a way for me to publicly kiss up and grovel. (See how I already kissed up? "One of the funniest dudes on the web." That's The Art of War in action, baby.) Anyway, the dude's name is Merlin Mann, and driven desperate, as most of us are, by etiquette-less public cell phone users, he created a character called "That Phone Guy."... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter Gives You Jonathan Glazer

In this the third part of our ongoing 433-part series, Better Know a Director, we'll do a once-over on the work of Jonathan Glazer. The Fightin' Glazer. Undoubtedly, you've seen some of his work before. Sexy Beast was a pretty big deal, although Birth, rightfully, was less of one. He's also directed a bunch of music videos, including Jamiroquai's once ubiquitous "Virtual Insanity." But as I discovered at a not-that-recent Resfest, watching his work in... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: It's Springtime, B*tch

It officially feels like spring in New York, and naturally my mind has filled itself with the standard vernal fare: watching boiling water turn instantly to snow, contemplating the delicious gayness of 300, wishing I could play Nerf basketball more often and rap about why my alma mater sucks. If only I had videos to complement these thoughts... Oh wait, I do? You mean this wasn't just a not-so-clever writing device meant to tweak your expectations? Awesome! Looky here: Looks like I won't... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: Tracy Morgan is our Andy Kaufman

People oftentimes assume Tracy Morgan is drunk or stoned to the bejesus. This is absurd to me, and cruel, too. In insinuating this, these people (let's call them "straw men") devalue a comedian who over the last several years--but particularly since he's literally (both on and off camera) morphed into his character Tracy Jordan from 30 Rock--has become something of a national treasure. Susan B. Anthony is a national treasure. Would you like to cast aspersions on her, too? Honestly. Think about it. Not... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: Coulter Clash

Every six months or so, reliable as clockwork, we're treated to some grotesquely bilious new statement from Ann Coulter. Lefties roar. Some righties run for cover. Others look the other way or bow their heads in half-apology. Cable news stations dive headlong into another easy-to-moralize-on filler topic perfectly suited for the 24 hour news cycle. And round and round we go. This weekend, as you must've seen, and if you haven't click here, Coulter shocked no one with her latest... READ ON

Greg Veis: You Tube Hunter Explores...Humor

Listen, life is short and if you, like me, work next to a skyscraper being put up by drunkards it could be shorter. That's why we have to relish in a little light-hearted fun from time to time, eg. going to the beach or eating popcorn with our toesÂ or seeing a Dave Barry column in your paper, refusing to read it, and then ritualistically burning it using your mother's nail polish remover as igniter fluid. There's really no limit to what we can do if we try, and this clip,... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: Tyra Banks, Not Sane

One of the distinct Â displeasures of full-time employment--and of not having TiVo--is the inability to watch daytime television. Remember the thrill of The Price is Right during a sick day home from school, or for that matter, Tic Tac Dough? There was a feeling of law-breaking, of daring, in watching those shows. You felt as if you were getting away with something, even if the 102-degree fever wasn't lightbulb-enhanced. Well, in the working world, or at least my working world, there are no sick days,... READ ON

Greg Veis: You Tube Hunter Explores the Man Crush

Perhaps the strangest--and certainly the most unwelcome--development of this year's Super Bowl was the reliance on homophobia to move product. Much has already been written on the topic, so I won't cover old ground here, but all the corporate phobing sparked a discussion of the "man-crush" around Hunter HQ. Specifically, who is it acceptable to harbor one for? Jon Stewart seemed to be the #1 answer, with Kris Kristofferson a close two. (That's not a joke. Dude's a serious badass. Plus, he wrote this... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: Free Kobe!

Editor's Note: This YouTube Tuesday post was sent in shortly before game time, but due to computer problems, didn't make it up in time for tipoff. Kobe, in fact, did not play, and the Lakers lost 99-94 to one sorry sack franchise. It hurts. It hurts so bad. If this post changes just one person's life, though, it'll all have been worth it...Â Don't try to talk to me about anything else right now, because you, friend, will be rebuffed. Two months back, I bought tickets to see the Lakers... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: From the Annals of Dumb Criminalia

Along with playing chess and watching my friends have sex, I derive endless enjoyment from Dumb Criminal videos. And based upon all the airtime these grainy surveillance tapes get, I'm guessing you do, too. So let's drop the ado... This one is the most famous of the stupid crook YouTubes. There are many different versions of this video including one that's more than borderline racist --but I like this one the best for its subtitles, which are undoubtedly accurate: And look at this guy who... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: MLK Day Edition

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Martin Luther King, Jr., said that*, but you're going to hear presidential candidate Obama repeat it more than a few times over the next year. You'll also hear him say that it doesn't bend itself. Undeniably true, and the reason why days like yesterday are important. Sure, Martin Luther King Day is a fantastic opportunity to reacquaint yourself with a Nintendo habit--the Hunter watched a dizzying amount of 24--but, at the risk of eye... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: Sportscenter Holiday-tacular!

Tis the holiday season, and the Hunter is swimming in nostalgia. He remembers the fresh snow falling on a Los Angeles Christmas morn. He remembers running downstairs to see what Santa had delivered during his fitful slumber. He also remembers that he was, in fact, Jewish and had received his presents earlier in the month, meaning that Christmas Day would bring little more than a matinee at the AMC followed by some Moo Shoo Pork. (Which, incidentally, never failed to be delicious.) Oh well. As the... READ ON

YouTube Hunter: EPIC 2014 and the Future of Newsprint]

This month's Atlantic includes a fascinating article by Michael Hirschorn on what newspapers have to do to stay relevant in an increasingly diffuse, almost schizophrenic, media environment. We've got blogs and MySpace and YouTube and, shucks Jimmy!, however are newspaper supposed to stay afloat? Certainly, as everyone's been saying for some time now, the future doesn't look bright. Circulation figures are dwindling, younger generations havenÂ¹t developed their parents' taste for broadsheet, blah blah... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: YouTube Turnip

Today's other mental_floss blog column, the delightful Tuesday Turnip, inspired this jet-lagged and sleep-deprived entry. You know the idea: type a word into a search engine and see what "turns up." Well, as you might expect, this leads to some rather strange results in YouTube Land. People be nuts, like Almond Joy. (That was my attempt to write a rapper-like simile. Day job: keeping it.) Anyway, as proof of people's being a wee bit touched, typing in "Harold and Kumar" yields 175 returns. Do we really... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: Are You Ready for Some Parkour?

My first thought, so stereotypically Jewish it's guilt-inducing, is a practical one: that cannot be good for the joints. The resulting arthritis is going to be monumental. And yet, what I'm watching is something I'd never imagined a human body to be capable of. It is exhilarating. It's the first long action sequence of the new Bond film, Casino Royale, and the burnt-faced bad guy is trying to escape 007 in a conveniently located construction site. He's climbing walls, jumping from metal beam to metal... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: The Jobs/Gates War

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Oh, the outrage they incite. So much as mention the name Bill Gates around a Mac-olyte, and you're promised to get 10 minutes of intolerable screeching that will include the words "devil" and "nerdy little goober." Same vitriol goes the other way around, too, except substitute the references to: "pompous prick" and "substance-less prick." Me, I don't have a horse in the race. I prefer Macs and my iPod gives me the tinglies -- but Bill Gates certainly does some nice stuff for... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: 1 Filthy British Kids' Show

YouTube Hunter Quiz! Q: From Transformers to Barney, Sesame Street to Dora the Explorer, what, more than anything, do children's shows aired on American television lack? A: Filthy sexual innuendo. An easy one, I know. But consider Rainbow, a kids' show that ran on British TV for 20 years, from 1972 to 1992. (There have been ill-advised revival attempts, but that's neither here nor there.) By day, this show helped tiny Britons with their English skills while making them laugh. Oh, the laughter! By... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: 4 Triumphs, a Borat, and a Goulet... Oh My!

Sometimes I dig so deep for you. I trawl and I dredge and I scrape to find YouTubes at the far end of the Long Tail, YouTubes so obscure that they're watched only by shut-ins taking rejuvenation breaks during Shannon Tweed movie marathons. But in this deep-sea diving, you can miss the meaty nourishment near the surface. (That may have been the worst metaphor I've ever used.) So, today, I resolve to bring you the best of the obvious: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Borat, and Will Ferrell doing his Robert... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: 4 International Superstars (and 1 Drunk Orson Welles)

Gladsome times here at YouTube Hunter HQ! And how could we be wearing anything but a frown turned upside down after the recent YouTube/Google merger worth $1.65 billion in stock? Think about it: before this column started about three months ago, YouTube was an abandoned internet backwater, barely more influential than this guy's little blog. And now (significant thanks to us) the company's founders could, if land were still worth the same as it was during the Louisiana Purchase, buy the world 893 times... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: 7 booze commercials from the '80s that taste great, are less filling

I'm not going to beat around the bush today, folks. I like beer. I like the '80s. I like commercials. Now let's go YouTubin'... I think I can safely say -- and you can safely agree with me -- that Miller Lite won the macrobrewery commercial wars of the early 1980s. (It took the Bud Bowl later in the decade to narrow the gap.) John Madden and an endless string of cameo appearances (what, Bronko Nagurski was busy? Oh wait, there he is...) catapult this ad to the heights of RAWK: And this Miller... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: Michel Gondry-stravaganza!

This Friday, in the big, coastal cities that are privy to such things, a new film called The Science of Sleep will be released. It's directed by Michel Gondry, whose previous credits include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and a boatload of music videos and advertisements. YouTube Hunter doesn't throw this term around lightly, but the man is a genius. Many nights in Hunter HQs have ended, ceremoniously, with a viewing of his Director's Label DVD. And let it be known... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: 4 Crazy Japanese Game Shows

Like dogs and the novels of Sue Grafton, Japanese game shows are a hit in America. The way the contestants rub their butts against hot vehicular tailpipes, or how one guy agreed to be locked, naked, in an apartment for an indeterminate amount of time left only to subsist on prizes culled from magazine competitions... oh, it's all just so wacky! So, even though I'm more bored by these spectacles than I am schoolmarmish or unapologetically libertine (and after reading a handful of opinion pieces on the... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: 4 Moments in Human Awesomeness

Today, it's gloomy in New York. It's been like this for days now, some queer stretch of the August blues, and there's not much to say about it other than it's only slightly worse than the human clambake that typically occurs on the streets this time of year. Days like these, staring out the window into the gray menace, one feels an acute desire for transcendence, for a reminder of what man is capable of at his best, when he's not busy diddling his fiddle or drinking himself dumb. So I bring to you four... READ ON

One year later

For the anniversary, the most lyrical tribute I could find, from the 1920s. RBK, DR, and JP: may next year be better than the... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: 3 Rock-Star Interviews that Turned into Train Wrecks

As a journalist -- okay, a "journalist" -- I take great schadenfreudic glee in seeing a peer get eaten alive by his interview subject. Whenever you talk to somebody for a story, you're always worried about whether the other person likes you, thinks you're smart enough, feels as if you have a strong enough grasp on the topic, et cetera, et cetera. And a good deal of the time you walk away with absolutely no idea of what the other person thinks of you. (Probably because they rightfully don't care enough to... READ ON

Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: 5 Insane Political Ads

"Jesse Helms is back! And this time he's black." Believe it or not, that's not some deranged Daily Kossian message board rant; it's a campaign slogan. And the candidate who embraced it -- Vernon Robinson, the Republican challenger in North Carolina's 13th District, has released a campaign ad so wildly reactionary that it's hard to believe a bona fide congressional candidate could release something like that and not be run out to the political wilderness and whacked. Anyway, Vern's foray into... READ ON

YouTube Tuesday from Greg Veis: YouTube Hunter

Denizens of the Floss, Welcome to the first ever YouTube Tuesday. Let me just out and say it: this is a milestone. I don't feel as if I have to back that statement up with proof, so I won't. But I will say this: one of the great self-obvious truths of 2006 is that YouTube has grown from a place where amateur film geeks could post videos of their friend's gnarly skateboarding sessions to a massive cultural force. Some would even say a political one. That's not to say it's still not overrun with a... READ ON

TV reporting...dangerous

On The New Republic's blog, The Plank, today, Michael Crowley hits us with this posting: 'A Fox News correspondent just reported from the scene of the latest California wildfire about one unlucky local resident: "He lost everything but his dog, and his wife."' Don't get me wrong, that elicited a guffaw. Maybe even a chuckle. But then I gots to thinking that reporting at a scene of a wildfire or a hurricane or a tsunami or an earthquake (or all of these at once, like Anderson Cooper does) is pretty... READ ON

Leprechauns on the Loose

Â With this telecast spawning its own cottage industryÂ and its own celebrity culture (complete with really sketchy MySpace friends), I've been thinking a lot about how unintentionally hilarious/kinda racist local news segments can be. But I've also been thinking a lot about leprechauns, our wee Irish friends who bring us, among other things, gold and artificially colored marshmallows in breakfast cereal. Did you know, for instance, that until the last 100 years, leprechauns were thought to wear... READ ON