The comedy thread

[Stephen Morgan]

Comedic treatment of the philosophical question of Theseus' ship:

[Jeff]

Though I fear anyone unfamiliar with the source material won't appreciate just how perfect this is.

[norton ash]

^^^^^^ Watch the vid and read the link as Canadian studies!

Thanks, I've long wanted to post that one, Jeff. SCTV aired it simultaneous with my first university course in Canadian Film. I videotaped it, showed it to many of my classmates, and offered it to the professor ... who watched it, and thought it was mean and useless, just more Canadian self-mockery and disrespect for our film industry.

He was a dying breed-- overly reverent Canadian WASP who worshiped McLuhan and Northrop Frye and 'Survival' by Atwood but was so lacking in verve and humour that if he'd ever had the chance to have a drink with his idols, they'd have found a reason to leave early.

I love Goin' Down the Road, the old CBC, the NFB, and the SCTV parodies of all of them. Something was happening here but Professor Jones didn't know what it was.

[Jeff]

I can't get over how good Candy's Doug McGrath is. He didn't need to work that hard to get it right, but he did.

McGrath and Paul Bradley were so tragically Canadian together. (McGrath may have just been acting, but I don't believe Bradley was.) Ever see Wedding in White? They were both in that as well, playing dissolute wartime buddies. I guess I was 12 or 13. Took a bus downtown to see it alone. My mother didn't know anything about it, but I think the title alone, and my interest in seeing it, triggered a lifelong dread of my sexual identity. She marked my two weddings, one divorce and first child with "Well at least everyone now knows you aren't gay." I don't know why a divorce would mean that. I guess she was just trying to look on her bright side.

And BTW, you know Shebib's currently shooting Down the Road Again? And it's not a parody?



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/art ... le1784660/

[norton ash]

Yes, saw 'Wedding in White' on Winnipeg TV late at night when I was a teen. Pretty bleak!

I hope the 'Road' sequel gets made.

One of my favourite lines about youth in Canadian film (they always get punished) ... I believe it was Piers Handling or Peter Harcourt... maybe Jay Scott, I'll have a look ... "If Ferris Bueller had his day off in a Canadian movie, it would have ended with Ferris in reform school."

[gnosticheresy_2]

[Jeff]

[Belligerent Savant]

.

[Cosmic Cowbell]

For Immediate Distribution
Press Release
February 6th, 2011

Anonymous Concedes Defeat

A recent article in the Financial Times cites a certain Aaron Barr of the "security services" firm HBGay Federal (amirite?) as claiming to have discovered the identities of Anonymous' operating leadership and founder, with this having been accomplished in large part by an infiltration of our entirely secret IRC server anonops.ru and in particular our ultra-clasified channels #opegypt, #optunisia, and, of course, #reporters, which itself is the most secret of all.

The following message was relayed to all Anons possessing at least 30 degrees of initiate status (17 in Scotland) or their equivalent in reddit karma, and is being leaked to the laity in an effort to gain their useless sympathy:

URGENT WARNING TO ALL ANONYMOUS HACKTIVISTS:

Mr. Barr has successfully broken through our over 9000 proxy field and into our entirely non-public and secret insurgent IRC lair, where he then smashed through our fire labyrinth with vigor, collected all the gold rings on the way, opened a 50 silver key chest to find Anon's legendary hackers on steroids password.

As Mr. Barr has discovered in spite of our best efforts, Anonymous was founded by Q last Thursday at the guilded Bilderberg Hotel after a tense meeting with one Morrowind mod collection, which itself includes the essential Morrowind Comes Alive 5.2 as well as several retexturing packs, all of which seem to lower one's FPS unless one has also installed the latest Risc Architecture framework and thus obtained the killer refresh rate that is the right of all world citizens, except for noted heterosexual Tom Cruise.

In addition to the sudden disappearance of Anonymous leader Q, Anonymous co-founder Justin Bieber also disappeared just before his top-secret mission to Eritrea to offer physical succour to the rebels, suggesting that Mubarak is in our base, eating our Cheetos, likely with military support authorized by Hill Dawg. All of this comes at a low point for the Official Anonymous Organization, Inc. and its valued shareholders; several Anons had already lost their Fallout New Vegas saved games in the unwarranted and faggy raids perpetrated by the U.S. federales.

At this point, it is safe to assume that the underground server sites at the North Pole have been compromised as well. Back up all porn drives now, because the super secret P2P centralized distribution server of Backdoor Sluts 9 is presumed to be immediately threatened. Male Anons have been commanded to switch back to traditional tentacle porn while femanons, or "Rei Ayanami wannabes," continue to be shared among the Echelon Nine Working Group that has since replaced Owen as sky marshall.

However, David Davidson (who might also be the legendary Ceiling Cat, as rumors have it) so far eludes custody, so all is not lost. Mr Davidson skyped the anonymous leaders from his hideout in Philadelphia to remind them that he was "Never gonna give them up, never gonna let them down". Meanwhile, the board of directors remains little more than a gin-addled menagerie of puppets.

Despite these setbacks, the planned conference in Vienna is not slated for cancellation, although the buffet may be altered to include fewer Cheetos. The scheduled appearence of Boxxy is a subject of much contention within Anonymous ranks, being an event of considerably greater importance than the 4th return of Raptor Jesus, which itself is older than the internet.

We shall note in conclusion that we like the guy and want to believe him, but we still have to ask: Did Aaron Barr shave and murder Alexander Hamilton in 1993? We're just asking questions here, people. At any rate, the Pink Horse prophecy will soon be fulfilled.

All Hail Xenu,

-Anonymous

ANONYMOUS PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Distribution
February 7th, 2011

Recently, the head of internet security firm HBGary Federal, Aaron Barr, sought to elevate his investigation of the Anonymous movement by providing the Financial Times with what he claimed to be accurate and useful information about those who allegedly drive our activities.

In yesterday's release we inferred that the information presented was easy to undermine by any of the millions of people around the world with a cursory understanding of internet culture. Not only was the information provided by HBGary Federal woefully inaccurate, it provided no incriminating evidence against any of the persons named.

Today, Anonymous learned that HBGary Federal intended to sell to the FBI a large document (it can be found at http://hizost.com/... ) that allegedly detailed the identities of dozens of our participants.

Within hours of learning this, Anonymous infiltrated HBGary Federal's network and websites. Anonymous acquired the document with supposed personal details of anons, along with more than 50,000 company e-mails (~4.71GB) - all of which have now been distributed on the internet. Additionally, his associated websites and social media accounts were hijacked and manipulated to stress how poorly this 'security expert' handles matters of his own security ( http://imagebin.org/... ). Woe to his clients and others who invested in his confidence.

The lack of quality in Aaron Barr's undertaken research is worth noting. Aaron Barr missed a great deal of information that has been available online, and in fact failed to identify some of those whose identities were never intended to be hidden. People such as DailyKos' diarist blogger Barrett Brown, and the administrator for anonnews.org joepie91, whose identities could have been found with a simple Google search.

It is also worth noting that Aaron Barr was also providing this documentation as an example of investigation protocol. This would introduce a systemic flaw to the FBI's investigative woodwork. The risk of institutionalising a flawed procedure exponentiates a problem, and it does so at the taxpayers expense in every sense. Had the FBI indeed bought this information from HBGary Federal, it would have been paid for by taxpayers money. Many innocent people would have been marked as leaders in actions they may not even have been associated with.

Unlike you, Aaron, we did our research, we know who you are, and now, so will everyone else. Although you have managed to ruin your credibility in an attempt to further it, you did provide us with entertainment, albeit very briefly.

Anonymous does not have leaders. We are not a group, we are not an organization. We are just an idea. What we have done today will appear harsh. It is harsh. We will respond to those who see threats to Anonymous. We understand that our participants have been concerned about recent FBI raids and companies such as HBGary lurking in our chats, so we’ve given all of Anonymous a message: we will fight back.

We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us - always.

Yours faithfully,

Anonymous.

[Jeff]

[Stephen Morgan]

She's right about the gold standard, though. In fact, considering that the premature return to the gold standard by Chancellor Churchill was largely responsible for the general strike of 1926, I don't think this is an appropriate subject for levity.

[barracuda]

Stephen, I fear you've gone and embarrassed the company at dinner again.

[Jeff]

David Cameron is like a chameleon. Watch as he blends seamlessly into his new urban surroundings.

David Cameron Pretending to be Common

[Jeff]

via dlisted

[AhabsOtherLeg]

She's right.

Fuckin' 'ell. Talk about High Weirdness!

Harry Enfield once did a good sketch about Tory electoral campaigns. Very accurate for the times it was set in, and not much less accurate now (except that Labour now do the same).