Music Showcase: Upidee by the Muppets

An amusing skit from the Muppet Show involving several odd creatures, including Fozzie Bear and the Great Gonzo, singing an odd nonsense-lyric filled polka. Please enjoy!

You can see it here!

Classic Cartoon Showcase: Happy Valley

Third cartoon in the Rainbow Brite special feature, this charming film concerns a happy little place in the country, full of friendly folks and prosperous crops. A little boy's grandfather tells him of the time that the village once almost(GASP!) lost its happiness, inspiring them to rediscover what's really important. A very sweet, feel-good story with a wonderful message. Please enjoy!

Music Showcase: That Old Black Magic by Spike Jones

Spike Jones murders yet another classic with his rendition of "That Old Black Magic," set to an episode of The Raccoons, which somehow makes the song even more ridiculous! Please enjoy!

Classic Cartoon Showcase: Before They Were Stars: Donald Duck in The Wise Little Hen

Here, in the spirit of the previous post, is Donald Duck's first-ever cartoon! In this classic rendition of the tale of the Little Red Hen, the titular hen finds a kernel of corn which she plans to plant and harvest. The only problem is, she can't convince lazy Donald Duck and Peter Pig to help her with any of the work! What will she do? Please enjoy!

 

 

Fun Fact: Donald's buddy Peter Pig was voiced, like Donald himself, by Clarence "Ducky" Nash; apparently, according to Walt Disney, the reason Peter disappeared after this cartoon was that his voice was even more unintelligible than Donald's. Peter did, however, eventually migrate to the comics, where this wasn't a problem. 

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Bookstore:The Armpit of Doom by Kenn Nesbitt

Proceed with extreme caution.

 

 

A very humorous book of poems with very nifty anime style artwork, with such profundities as the titular poem, concerning the boy with the world's stankyest armpit*, "Gilman Glum", about the boy who not only loves sucking his thumb, but claims that his thumb is the tastiest ever, "Pansy P. Petunia", regarding a girl who smells like flowers, and thus never needs to bathe, "Rudy Tude" which concerns the world's rudest guy, "Our Teacher Sings the Beatles", regarding a teacher who sings a bevy of popular songs, "Happy Birthday," in which the narrator gives the birthday boy or girl such very "generous" gifts as smelly gym socks, used pens, old batteries, dust balls et al.**, "When Frankenstein Was Just a Kid", telling of the time in the famous monster's younger days when he ate so many green vegetables he ended up with his signature green color, "Auntie Gravity", concerning the aunt who bakes levitating baked goods with her "Secret X" ingedient***, and "My Pig Won't Let Me Watch TV", told from the POV of a kid whose pet pig hogs the remote. If you like funny poems and you like anime, this is the book for you!

 

 

Here are a couple of my faves:

 

 

Advice to the guy in the picture:Get help immediately!!

 

 

Gotta love stupid criminals. You know, one wonders if Bertie might have been one of Tubbs' ancestors...(Honestly, he missed a good bet if he wasn't!)

 

 

 

 

Buy it on Amazon!

 

 

 

 

*This should qualify him for Ripley's or something.

 

**The birthday boy or girl is probably thinking, in words of the ever-quotable Charlie Brown, "How can you stand being so nice to me?"

 

***Hmm, perhaps she's Professor Utonium's aunt?

 







Christmas Music Showcase:Barnyard Christmas by Spike Jones

A cute and amusing ditty by the legendary novelty singer Spike Jones, complete with many cute and funny visuals. Please enjoy!

If you like farm animals and you like Christmas music, this is the song for you!

Book Review:George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl

Something's cookin' in the kitchen!

Here's a review of yet another Roald Dahl classic.

George is a little boy who lives on a farm with his parents, and has a kinda'...sorta'...(VERY!) huge problem:his grandma. You see, she isn't your typical kind of grandma, the sweet, kind, loves-her grandkids-like-crazy, gives-plenty-of-hugs-and-kisses, takes-her-grandkids-out-for-ice-cream-and/or-to-the-zoo kind. No, she's the meanest, nastiest, most hygeine-deficient old lady you'd ever care to meet, and constantly bullies poor little George.(George even wonders if she might be a witch...Honestly, she missed a good bet if she wasn't!)

George is in charge of giving Granny her medicine; he notes to himself that it never seems to her any good, because it never improves her demeanor at all. So, George decides then and there that he'll cook up a medicine that hopefully will change her attitude. He then sets about roaming around the house, gathering up various household items(shaving cream, floor wax, birdseed, hairspray, antifreeze et al.) and mixing them up in a large cooking pot.

When George gives this concoction to Granny, however, it ends up having an effect he hadn't reckoned on...it causes her to grow to a GINORMOUS size!(Unfortunately, however, it doesn't improve upon her mood at all.) :-(

Granny doesn't believe that George's medicine caused this, so George endeavors to prove it to her by feeding the medicine to a nearby chicken, which also not only grows huge, but lays a massive egg.

George's father is very intrigued by this, and asks George to dose several other farm animals(chickens, cows, pigs, sheep et al.) as well. George's father wants to market the medicine...but can George remember the formula? And what about Grandma?


My thoughts:Honestly, this is one of Dahl's funnier books, with animals(as well as Granny!) jittering around, flying into the air, and screaming "OWEE!", and many weird, wacky things happening. (Triple LOL with whipped cream and a strawberry on top!)
:-D :-D :-D

My only beef about this book is:

-Like a few other people that have reviewed this book, I didn't much go for what ended up happening to the grandma.(To embellish upon a quote from this Littlest Pet Shop episode, "The old lady was creepy, but even she didn't deserve that!)

All in all, a good, humorous, well-written book that any Roald Dahl aficionado is sure to enjoy.

Buy it on Amazon!

U.S. Acres:Jim Davis' Lesser-Known Comic Strip

U.S. Acres was a newspaper comic written by Jim Davis, creator of Garfield, in 1986. The strip(which was known as Orson's Farm outside America) followed the wacky hijinks of several kooky farm animals. The cast consisted of the polite, intellectual pig Orson who was the strip's main character, the bossy, loudmouthed rooster Roy, the cowardly but lovable duck Wade, the feisty little chick Booker who would often try(and fail) to catch a worm, his easygoing little brother Sheldon(no relation) who lived inside an egg shell which had similar properties to Snoopy's doghouse, the friendly but not-too-bright sheep Bo(he was more of a surfer dude type in Garfield and Friends), and his grumpy sister Lanolin who would often spar with Roy.

In Garfield and Friends, the group was often antagonized by Orson's three big, nasty brothers Gort, Mort, and Wart(who had appeared in the strip previously, albeit for only the first few weeks). Orson's brothers lived on the farm next door and would often come over to Orson's farm to steal food or cause some sort of trouble.(Which they fortunately were never successful at!) Further antagonists were a weasel, a fox, and a wolf, all of whom had the same goal:to steal chickens. (Honestly, IMHO, it would've made more sense for the wolf to be stealing sheep, but there it is.)

A pair of temporary additions to the cast were Cody the dog and Blue the cat(The latter being of obvious coloration). This may be just IMHO, but it seems that part of the reason for these characters' short-lived career(although they did appear in the various kids' books) seemed to be the fact that they didn't have quite as much personality as the rest of the cast(Cody in particular didn't seem to have any personality at all other than chasing and attacking the other animals). On a related note, for unknown reasons, Cody and Blue also never appeared on Garfield and Friends. (One could possibly call them "The Lymans of U.S. Acres.")

The comic had a small fanbase, though it never became quite as popular as Davis' more famous strip, Garfield, and only ran for three years.(Although the franchise had a much longer lifespan on Garfield and Friends.)

Overall, U.S. Acres was a fun, humorous, and very nifty comic with a good, likeable cast. Despite it never having quite the popularity Garfield did, it's definetly worth a read! (Or, "worth a watch" in the case of Garfield and Friends.)

Here are a couple of my favorite strips below(although, honestly, it was hard to pick just two!):

The entire comic series has been released in book form; the books are available at the links below(some, regrettably, are a little pricey, but well worth it for any U.S. Acres fan):

U.S. Acres Goes Half Hog

U.S. Acres Counts its Chickens

U.S. Acres Rules the Roost

U.S. Acres Runs Amuck

U.S. Acres Hams it Up

Orson's Farm Cuts the Corn

For younger fans, there were also several kids' books made, which are available at the links below*:

Wade Dives In!

Happy Birthday, Sheldon!

The Big Camp-Out

Beware! Rooster at Work!

Wade's Haunted Halloween

Sir Orson to the Rescue!

Let's Play Ball!

Booker Meets the Easter Bunny

*There are also two other books in this series entitled "The Great Christmas Contest" and "A Most Special Easter Egg" which, regrettably aren't currently available on Amazon, but they do occasionally show up on Ebay.

There were also plushies made of the characters, which show up on Ebay from time to time.

Hmm...the animals in the last panel of this comic look...familiar, somehow.