The Flaming Lips Have Already Won The Super Bowl

Here's an extended version of the Hyundai Santa Fe ad featuring The Flaming Lips that will air during the Super Bowl.

Is American Idol Fake?

Sean Klitzner thinks the judges are merely puppets. Here's his rationale:



What do you think? Is he right? Are they receiving off-screen instructions? Or are they merely bored and glancing off-screen?

[Cue the conspiracy theory music]

Ranked!: Top 20 Television Neighbors

For this week's Ranked!, we decided to take a look at our favorite television neighbors!

20. Lewis & Oswald, The Drew Carey Show

The Drew Carey Show is one of the great comedies of the '90s. I loved the show's sensibilities, goofy and good-natured without devolving into treacle. So much of what made the show work came from Lewis & Oswald, the enthusiastic dimwit and the indolent genius. I'm not even sure where they lived, but they were always there, as they had nothing else to do but be the kind of buffoonery normally relegated to cartoons. But unlike so many TV neighbors they seemed genuine, never falling back on tag lines and feeling somehow recognizable and relatable, the type of guys you could totally see yourself having a beer with. They had a spark of improvisational energy that was unique among TV neighbors, and we could use more of their goofy charm on TV today.--CroutonBoy

19. Rhoda Morgenstern, The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Oh, Rhoda. Life must've been hard for you. What was it like being friends with a luminous Prom Queen like Mary Richards? Despite the fact that you were her BFF, there must've have been nights when you sat in your own dingy studio, thinking about Little Miss Perfect with her beautiful apartment, her exciting job in television, her svelteness, her carefully crafted awkwardness designed to draw in all those charming sideburned suitors... Meanwhile, you were the quirky, abrasive pal with the irritating mother and the string of laughable boyfriends who went out with you because of your "great personality" only to dump you before episode's end.

I like to imagine you in your dark apartment, one floor above your best friend, sitting at your vanity with black candles burning around you, slowly poking needles into your Mary Richards voodoo doll. Sure, you got your own show later. Sure, you eventually got a better job, going from a window dresser to a photographer. You even married a lovable roughneck named Joe. But let's face the truth, Rhoda. Always a bridesmaid, am I right?--Didactic Pirate

18. Mr. Feeny, Boy Meets World

Mr. Feeny: "Do good."

Topanga: "Don't you mean do well?"

Mr. Feeny: "No. I mean do *good.*"

That is one of many favorite quotes from this show (from the finale), and regularly among my list of moments of television that are sure to make me cry every time. Mr. Feeny will forever go down as the greatest teacher television has ever seen. He's literally watched these kids grow up, having taught them throughout their lives and straight in to college. While he remains stoic and proper as much as he can (and we respect him for that), we see his love for these kids as more than students - as his friends. It's rare to see this in a student-teacher relationship, and fi you have it (as I do) hold on tight. We should all be so lucky as to have a Fee-he-heeny in our lives!--J-Hawke

17. Skippy, Family Ties

I know I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating that I was kind of a geeky loser in high school. I was also someone who was (for whatever sick reason) unable to learn the lesson that trying to get a date with a girl who was way out of my league (and, in many cases, in a completely different sport) was a recipe for constant misery.

That being the case, how could the hapless Skippy Handleman not be one of my favorite TV neighbors of all time? Skippy was, for all intents and purposes, me. And Mallory Keaton was every hot girl I ever tried to get a date with who was happy to unload her problems on the poor geeky guy who would do anything in the world for her but was, alas, destined to fall head-over-heels for some idiot with two brain cells and a motorcycle.

Sigh.

But Skippy... or, at least, Marc Price... got his revenge on the cool kids a few years later in the hilarious horror movie Trick Or Treat. (Good stuff... you should check it out if you can find it.) Me? I just gave up on being cool and embraced the geeky. Sometimes that works out.--Dave

16. Fred and Ethel Mertz, I Love Lucy

If anybody sets the gold standard for lovable TV neighbors, it's Fred and Ethel Mertz. Were they appropriately nosy? Check. Did they enter the Ricardos' home without knocking, under the pretense of borrowing a cup of sugar? Frequently. Take part in wacky schemes and capers? Indubitably. Go with the Ricardos on family trips? All the time. (Hollywood, Europe, Japan...) Some say the funny foursome had a co-dependent group dynamic. Well, sure. It was a little weird when the Mertzes followed the Ricardos all the way to Connecticut when Lucy and Ricky decided to move out of the city. But the fact is, this frumpy couple in all their vitriolic glory rounded out one of the greatest comedy families in television. You don't have Ricky and Lucy without Fred and Ethel. And you wouldn't want to.--Didactic Pirate

Curtis Armstrong & Robert Carradine: The Culture Brats Interview

I was a huge fan of Revenge Of The Nerds. I must've seen it a million times on HBO back in the day. Two of the movie's stars, Curtis Armstrong and Robert Carradine, have had huge careers in Hollywood, working with noted directors like John Carpenter, Taylor Hackford, Savage Steve Holland, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino. Armstrong and Carradine have teamed up again to create and star in King Of The Nerds, a reality competition about nerd culture airing on TBS beginning January 17th. The guys spoke with us about what we can expect from the show and Revenge Of The Nerds.

You guys aren't only the hosts of the show, but you're also the creators. How hard was it to convince TBS that America needs a competition show starring nerds?
Carradine: Boy. That is a great question. They held their cards pretty close to their chest, but when they reacted with eight episodes, we figured they didn't take that much convincing.
Armstrong: I would say that's probably true. We first had to convince our producing partners when we got involved with Five By Five Media and Electus. They were the ones who we had the initial meetings with. We had actually gone to a couple of places, but TBS was the one we really wanted. The reaction was pretty much the same as it's been from almost everyone who first heard about it, which was "How was it that this never happened before?" It seems like such a no-brainer, if you can say that about a show about nerds. I think TBS definitely saw the potential in it.

Did either of you find hosting the show any harder or easier than your normal acting roles?
Carradine: The thing that seemed to be challenging to me was last-minute script changes. But other than that, it was just a matter of being in the present.
Armstrong: It's physically not that dissimilar. You come in the morning and you put your wardrobe on and you go and you do it. That much is like any acting job. The difficulty is because we have to be really specific. The only thing that's written down in this set-up is when we're describing challenges and we have to be really word perfect on the challenges because we have to make sure that all of the contestants understand what is happening completely. The rest of the time that we interact with the nerds, that's pretty much improvised on the spot.

The Donna Martin Fashion Retrospective

Did you ever notice how, in the later seasons of Friends, the clothes (unless you looked down at the shoes) didn't date? I mean, I'd still kill for Rachel's wardrobe. I guess it's because the show's wardrobe department chose classic styles - pieces that have always been in fashion.

Not so for Beverly Hills 90210. Like Sex And The City, this was a show that both followed and started trends: think bangs, blazers worn with jeans, baby-doll dresses, and long-sleeved leotard tops with wide-scooped necklines. As such, Beverly Hills 90210 represents both a timeline and time capsule of fashion from 1990-2000, of which Donna Martin is the embodiment. Any clothes historian wanting to research '90s fashion year by year should look no further than the evolution of Donna's wardrobe season by season. In other words, name a trend of the '90s and Donna Martin wore it.

However, she was not a total slave to fashion. Sure, she wore items that everybody wore, but she also wore outfits that nobody dared to wear. The character made famous by Tori Spelling and a graduation chant didn't, by the ninth season, become a designer with her own label and clothing store for nothing, you know.

So hold onto your chokers, because we're taking a look back at some of Donna's finest fashion moments that reflected and defined the design of a decade.

Judging A Book By Its Cover: The Carrie Diaries

The CW is wiping away the lipstick mark left behind by Gossip Girl's XOXO sign-off and replacing it with orange eyeshadow and blonde curls. The Carrie Diaries is set to be unlocked in January, with 19-year-old AnnaSophia Robb stepping into Sarah Jessica Parker's Manolo Blahniks to play Carrie Bradshaw, falling in love with her first Mr. Big--Manhattan--in 1984.

With nothing to go on but a couple of glossy teaser trailers and some press pics, let's pre-emptively judge The Carrie Diaries by its proverbial designer cover, shall we?



So, this is supposed to be Carrie Bradshaw circa 1984, is it? I don't think so. Even the abysmal Sex And The City 2 got Carrie's '80s look about right, managing to capture how an SATC fan might imagine she'd look back then: a little like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and not Serena Van Der Woodsen in Gossip Girl.


With the possible exception of editor Larissa Loughton, who promisingly sports hot pink earrings and glittered lapels in the trailer, anyone hoping for some well-researched, meticulously constructed, larger-than-life fashion don'ts will probably be more disappointed than Samantha Jones when she met that hot priest. I mean, I wore more embarrassing and dated outfits back in 2000 than what the CW's version of Carrie wore in 1984. A metallic hanky top with beaded fringing and Spice Girls platforms immediately come to mind--yep, I was a slave to fashion at the turn of the millennium and, incidentally, Sarah Jessica Parker was one of my idols.

A Very Special Walking Dead Christmas

From the funny folks at Jawiin comes The Walking Dead spoof I wish actually existed.



[source]

"Gangnam Style" Parodies Must Be Stopped

To the surprise of no one, the Glee club from Glee covered "Gangnam Style", officially the most watched video on YouTube ever. It's an understatement that this show has jumped the shark, but this is like finding that shark, strapping him down, and jumping over him another eighteen times. It's one thing to do a tongue-in-cheek version of Rebecca Black's "Friday," but this is just too much. It also seems to take it way to seriously. And, if I am to understand it, they perform this at the finals of a SINGING competition. This isn't exactly the most melodically pleasing song. And finally: was it absolutely necessary to have the Asian character sing this one? Try to watch the whole clip without cringing.

Think you are okay with that one? Now watch this parody from a high school in Pennsylvania and then decide if you think "Gangnam Style" has ruined music forever.

Culture Consumption: Sapient, Leogun, And LOLwork

Hello and welcome to Culture Consumption, my weekly look at the best of pop culture!

Song Of The Week: Sapient, "Shotgun In My Spaceship"

Album Of The Week: Leogun, Leogun EP

Do you remember rock 'n' roll? Sure, there are still indie bands that strum a guitar or two, but do you remember balls-to-the-wall, in-your-face rock 'n' roll? Leogun does! On their debut EP, they showcase the talent that spurred Yamaha to sign Leogun as the very first act to their new record label. You'll hear nods to Zeppelin sprinkled throughout the EP, but make no mistake: Leogun has a sound all their own that kicks you in the mouth and demands your attention, led by Tommy Smith's killer vocals. This EP has me eagerly anticipating their full LP in 2013.
Consume Now: All four tracks, but "Let's Be Friends" and "End Of The World" rock the hardest.

TV Show Of The Week: LOLwork

I know it's probably premature to gush about a reality television show that's only aired one episode, but I love Bravo's LOLwork. The show is about the staff that runs the I Can Has Cheezburger? website. While the website itself does absolutely nothing for me, the staff certainly does.

Now I realize that the devil is in the editing and these people might not be portrayed onscreen the way they are in real life, but my two favorite people on the show are Sarah, who I think has a crush on fancy-haired Forest and may also be a real-life version of April Ludgate, and Will, who appears to be a misanthrope that not-so-secretly drives the rest of the staff crazy.
Here are some of Will's best lines from the debut episode:

• Sleeping is cute. Dead? Not cute.
• The less hair a cat has, the more likely you are to see its genitals.
• Dogs hump your leg. Do I have to give any other reason why cats are better?
• Oftentimes people tell me, "Wow. Your cat's like a dog." I tell them to shut up.

Here's the first part of the debut episode:



LOLwork airs on Bravo on Wednesdays at 11:00 PM and is repeated throughout the week.

Why Doesn't MTV Play Music Videos Any More?

Finally, an honest (and hilarious) answer to the MTV question. (Some of the language is NSFW so you've been warned!)