February 23, 2009

Pulling John: Like The Wrestler But Real, And About Arm-Wrestling

Okay, documentarians, we get your formula: two old guys who used to be good at a game or contest of some kind meet up for one last challenge. I'll admit that I'm not tired of it yet, but I'm SERIOUSLY CLOSE to being tired of it. The latest addition to this King Of Kong-esque formula is Pulling John, the story of some guys who used to be good at arm wrestling, who want to be good again, and fight each other. It premieres at SXSW and this is the hysterical blurb on the movie's website:

"Michael Brzenk is better at arm wrestling than Michael Jordan ever thought about being at basketball!!" -- Playboy

Hmmm. No, I'm pretty sure Michael Jordan thought about being the very best basketball player in the entire world times a million plus one, Playboy. Here's the Pulling John trailer. I wonder if these guys have ever used steroids?:

Continue reading Pulling John: Like The Wrestler But Real, And About Arm-Wrestling...

Posted by Lindsay at 3:45 PM in Documentaries, Train Wreck Documentaries, Trend Alert!
Tags: Arm-Wrestling | Pulling John | The King Of Kong | The Wrestler

Comments (7) latest by Josh

January 8, 2009

New Slang: Valkyrie

I was telling my friend Andrew about something I had to do the other day, and without going into specifics it was very clear that where I was going would be filled with the kind of ridiculous people who make people like us (you and me and Andrew) feel like we're back in high school confronting a sad, strange world we don't understand. Sorry to be vague. Imagine that I had to go to the frattiest sports bar in Date Rape Town to win a sour apple shooters contest. To which Andrew replied:

"Good luck. This could be your Valkyrie."

Incredible. Without even having seen the movie I totally understood what he meant. We all confront situations in which a noble assassination not only seems justified but necessary. So, in the spirit of 2008's "nuke the fridge," and 2007's "I drink your milkshake," I'd like to enter "Valkyrie," as in "this could be your Valkyrie" into the pop culture catch-phrase canon. Perfect.

Well played, Andrew.

Posted by Gabe at 11:00 AM in Trend Alert!
Tags: New Slang | Valkyrie

Comments (8) latest by Calliwell

December 30, 2008

Best of 2008

Trend Alert: All Network Comedies Now Required To Make At Least One "Cleanse" Joke

(This week, we're highlighting some of our favorite Videogum posts / video-related moments of 2008. So that's why things look different, and are old, this week. And Happy Almost New Year!)

Originally posted on Videogum on October 2, 2008:

On last week's premiere of The Office, Kelly Kapor hilariously talked about her "cleanse" -- one of those fasts where you consume only lemon juice, water, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup in an attempt to lose weight, gain "focus," destroy your closest personal relationships and annoy the shit out of everyone unlucky enough to encounter you. It was funny because the word "cleanse" makes a perfect zeitgeist-based punchline, and a character saying "I'm on a cleanse" will always get a laugh right now the way a character mentioning his or her blog would always get a laugh in 2005 (someone forgot to tell the writers of 90210 that it's no longer 2005.) Mindy Kaling's portrayal of a cleanse-addled shell of her former self was funny and original (to me) enough to merit its own post here last Friday. But then something funny happened: the cleanse joke reared its head in not one, but two other major network comedies in the next three days!

Continue reading Trend Alert: All Network Comedies Now Required To Make At Least One "Cleanse" Joke...