humor

Hamburger Helper Wins April Fools

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Yeah yeah yeah, I know, you think April Fools Day on the internet sucks. I get it, most attempts at authentic humor by major brands fall flat, are completely annoying, or even potentially harmful. And Paul Ford is right when he says, “As the number of users (of a service or product) increases, humor opportunities approach zero.” It’s true, laughter does not scale. And most attempts by major brands to appear to be authentically funny on funny day, just end up not being that funny.

However, that doesn’t mean all attempts aren’t funny, or at least enjoyable, even by the most jaded of internet denizens. Comedy is hard. Very hard. But if it’s good it doesn’t matter the size of the audience. This year, General Mill’s Hamburger Helper bucked the trend by dropping a surprisingly great mix on SoundCloud. I love this. Yo Glove, turn up!!

Every Rose Has Its Thorn Played By An Actual Rose Thorn

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Michael Ridge does all sorts of interesting sound experiments. In this video he plays Poison’s classic 7″ vinyl single of ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn‘ through a mic’d up branch of dried rose bush amplified by a contact microphone connected to a Marshall MS-4

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose” – Anne Brontë

via Dangerous Minds

UPDATE: Attempting to play the 7″ vinyl single ‘Ice Cream’ by New Young Pony Club using an ice cream cone and attempting to play track one and two from Side A of the 1966 LP ‘The Band I Heard In Tijuana Volume 3’ by Los Norte Americanos using a lightly salted tortilla chip.

Gravity Is A Mistake

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I typically prefer roller coasters over the dizzy, spinney, types of amusement rides. However, the rides being engineered by the Institute For Centrifugal Research (ICR) look like a barrel of fun. But not only is the IRC trying to create good times, they’re attempting to increase the cognitive function of their riders through centrifugal research. While most of their rides are for adults only, Dr. Nick Laslowicz is hoping that the Centrifuge Brain Project will theoretically improve the passenger’s cognitive abilities through “achievements in the realms of brain manipulation, excessive G-Force and prenatal simulations.”

Blueprints for some of the rides developed by the ICR can be found below:

ICR Spheroton

ICR Dandelion

The IRC has lofty goals of having “These machines provide total freedom by cutting all connection from the world you live in – communication, responsibility, weight.” The amusement park rides are said to have created profound experiences “Which in many people in many people resulted in the readjustment of key goals and life aspirations.” However, as you’ll see from the video below these goals have come at a cost.


All images and videos via Till Nowak

More videos and images about the project can be found at the IRC website.

William Lamson

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Brooklyn based photographer and video artist William Lamson has some downright genius work over at his website. Much of his work involves itself with bb guns, balloons, gigantic paper airplanes, and more often than not, himself. His work is full of humor and surprises and was a joy to spend some time viewing.

My favorites include Work #7 from his Intervention project. It was a blast to watch and reminded me of games found at the local fair mixed with colorado blizzards and “The Christmas Story”. Watch it you’ll see what I mean. If you don’t have the time to sort through all his work (I recommend you find the time) I also recommend watching Bubbles (I need to learn how to do that), Video #8 from his Actions project and Emerge is simply beautiful.

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