I don't really care, but anything's better than arguing over Teh Academy.
So, how 'bout them Giants?
(I posted this in the other thread right after the game ended but it got drowned out by all the arguing.)
Grossman is so mind-boggingly inconsistent. It's just maddening to watch.
It's times like this that I like to go to somebody's Wikipedia page to see if people are furiously vandalizing it. And I was not disappointed.
How long has it said "Gross Rexman" in the bio section?
5: you mean "mind-boggingly inconsistent awful", right?
Cubs win! Cubs win! Woo, Cubbies, woo!
From Rexy's wikipedia entry:
The problem is that unlike Favre, Rex throws interception, after interception, after interception.
7: No, but I did mean "bogglingly". Blasted elusive "L" key.
I was just about to paste 10. Sometimes you have to love Wikipedia.
6: I love this part:
Grossman's gunslinger attitude is illustrated in his desire to throw long passes, similar to his youth mentor, Brett Favre.[34][35] The problem is that unlike Favre, Rex throws interception, after interception, after interception.
and the mets have a 2 1/2 game lead. Come on guys, don't blow it.
You have got to be kidding me. He just threw another one.
15: I blame the pick-off on Brock for not previewing before commenting.
So, how 'bout them Giants?
I missed this game, teo. But sounds like it was quite the second half. Now the question for tomorrow is: will my co-workers be more inclined to whine about the Redskins' loss or herald UVA's win? I can't decide which annoys me more.
Wikipedia bugs me sometimes. Does the Rex Grossman entry have to contain embedded links to the articles on "Roller coaster", "bear", "basketball", "museum", and "nickname"? What is this, the New York Times?
All the vandalism we cited is gone already! Along with my own contribution, saying that he was "born Rexford Tugwell"!
Keep an eye open for more as he throws more picks.
"Interception, after interception, after interception" seems as accurate & well-sourced as "gunslinger attitude " to me.
Rex aside, maybe next time, the Bears' defense will man-up, stop getting injured, and score touchdowns like they're supposed to.
Yeah, the defense is really letting Grossman down. He counts on at least two non-offensive touchdowns per game.
Katherine is a Mets fan? Ayyyyyyy, Katherine, I thought so much of you!
Mets fans are all right. They're practically human compared to Braves fans.
23: I can tell you most of the songs on the 1986: A Year to Remember video, even.
Are you a Braves fan, Yankees fan, Red Sox fan who's failed to move on, what?
But who would the Bears replace him with?
I think they should have tried to trade Grossman for McNabb and give the Eagles fans what they deserve. After today, that would be tough though.
Brian Griese.
Gonerill is wrong, it's not Ditka. He backs up the defensive line.
No wonder they didn't put him in the game.
30 was before seeing 29. I thought Griese was a guy not known for throwing interceptions, but otherwise not stellar as a starter.
I think the game would've been improved by a fake marriage proposal.
He's thrown his share. Also, not very good overall.
He'd be a stopgap, at best. Chicago won't make the playoffs with him, barring some revelation. Chicago seems to be hedging w/ Grossman: either he will get his shit straight and let his talent show (he delivers mechanically perfect passes into triple coverage) and they'll make the post-season, or he won't, and they'll have an early draft pick to find his replacement.
Looking at those stats, I must be remembering just that one good year. I'm actually surprised he's still playing. Or "playing."
I'm a Phillies fan from a Phillies and Red Sox family.
We hate the Mets. 1986 - bah! Keith Hernandez, I'm looking at you, you ruiner-of-childhood.
(We also hate the Yankees, but a little less because being owned by George Steinbrenner would make anyone a little crazy.)
33 is awesome, but I'm going to be the doofus who says "Fake!" His reaction to being slapped isn't a natural one (not to mention that her slapping him is just a bit too perfect).
If it is a fake, as the Lur proposes, then it's still a prank on the Yankees. Who's against that?
Is there some way in which Rex Grossman could have been traded for Donovan McNabb that doesn't involve Madden? Not that Eagles fans don't deserve hundreds of years of shitty quarterback play descended upon them.
33 was sofa king awesome. If it turns out to be fake, I resolve to hate Ogged for knowing.
In other sports news, for the first time in NFL history, a game has been graced by my presence (Pats-Bills, '07). Never in my life have I seen such a concentration of white people, and I've been to Danville.
All of the pranks in that series are pretty awesome.
As mentioned before, I support pranking. My roommate thought his bike got stolen last night off his car's bike rack. Upon learning (via phone call) of his concern for the bike, we took if off the car and hid it in the shed. Hilarity!
Any other good pranks out there?
Prank 4 is utterly vicious and brutal. IS THAT YOUR GENERATION'S VISION OF HUMOR??
Bob Dylan would never have been so mean. But that was a more loving time. Love is alien to the youth of today.
I like to call Homeland Security with made up reports of terrorist activity by the Iranians in the neighborhood.
Holy shit, the prank linked in 33 is even worse.
Shit, I hate myself, but I think prank 4 is fake too, which makes me think they're all fake. The dude says they're real, but I'm skeptical. But I'll shut up now.
Ooh, I've got a good one. Anyone know any lifeguards in San Francisco?
God, ogged, is there any joy you won't suck away?
Way OT, but could we get a Mearsheimer Walt thread sometime this week? I'd be interested in the Mineshaft's opinions, and this must be the only place on the web where such a thread would peter out at twenty-odd comments. Also, will someone lend me Mearshimer Walt?
54: Been done already, to great acclaim.
God, ogged, is there any joy you won't suck away?
You can take the red pill, or you can take the blue pill.
Did anyone read the acknowledgments in Petraeus' dissertation?
Not fake. Amir's reaction to Prank 4 in particular is too whiny and tremulous to be faked unless he's a truly dedicated thespian. And the dude's reaction to being slapped in Prank 5 is perfectly natural; just sort of stand there in shock and try to pretend nothing happened for a while, then kind of casually slink off. Yup.
You can take the red pill, or you can take the blue pill.
Ogged: always already a pill.
I agree with 60. These guys are obviously terrible actors. And the slap is perfect because the set-up is so TV-perfect. She's elated because her life is suddenly following a script, and then he says "I don't fucking wanna marry you" and, damn it, that's the moment for a great slap.
I found Prank 4 unnerving. Teaching sometimes goes that like that, and it makes you want to chew your paw off.
I'm going to be the doofus who says "Fake!"
Typically my job! Of course it's fake.
I finally watched the prank in 33. Nice of them to have been sitting in a section with no one immediately next to them.
Will you marry me, 'Smashy-Smash?
Would that be like taking the blue pill?
No, those pranks were real. You have to watch the full sequence, the escalation between the two of them is totally believable.
I predict within a few months they'll be cutting each other's brake lines and throwing setting fire to each other's apartments.
No impersonations, Stanley. No, the URL doesn't let you off the hook.
66: Read that ol' hovertext there, Smashdog.
You believers should sign up for my visual bullshit detection seminar lest you be taken as a sucker. You just cannot believe that this guy has so many essentially flawless videos of public pranks that are kind of hard to pull off and harder still to record. It's obvious that it's fake just on the face of it. A video series of public pranks with several to many episodes in which everyone plays his part?
I was hoping throwing setting fire was a reference to "Greek fire."
I got bored with prank 4. Anything interesting at the end?
No impersonations, Stanley. No, the URL doesn't let you off the hook.
Sorry, o-man. The pranking spirit got to me.
Smasher, you and ogged need dumber friends.
I do, Stanley. No, the URL doesn't let you off the hook.
Aw, what the hell, I don't know why I'm treating you like a bunch of kids who can't handle the unreality of Santa Claus. Amir is a pretty good actor, but Streeter isn't, so even if you miss the slightly stilted, emotionally mismodulated nature of their interactions, you can see that Streeter's reaction to being slapped, a sort of Three-Stooges-y WTF head-shiver, isn't how people actually react in the moment that they're slapped. No way they're real.
72: "So many" like, six? Pranks in public places sometimes based around performance? And where "existentially flawless" means "adequate"? I'm no Carl Sagan or anything, but it seems feasible.
Of course, Skrulls see fakery everywhere. That's only to be expected.
Okay, then why do you care if it's real or not? Does it make a difference?
Damn, AWB, I didn't realize you'd take this so hard. There are still great things in the world. Pretty birds, laughing squirrels, etc.
Both of them "work" as pranks on the crowds/audiences, even if the two prankers are in on the jokes.
No, I actually was wondering if it makes a difference, because it's still pretty impressive to orchestrate some of these as fiction, like the thing in the club, etc.
... but I don't know what ogged's excuse is; a sort of Three-Stooges-y WTF head-shiver? Wha? I've watched the Zapruder film of The Slap and his head clearly goes back, and to the left. Back, and to the left. Clearly consistent with having been slapped by someone's right hand. Then he says "oh, shit." Maybe that's the tipoff? People never say "oh, shit" after they're slapped?
Both of them "work" as pranks on the crowds/audiences, even if the two prankers are in on the jokes.
Right, they're basically clever skits in the Borat vein, and I get a kick out of them, but they're not one guy putting one over on his friend.
Back, and to the left.
The viewer's left, of course. I was just trying to work the line in, really.
Slackmeister, watch it again. Streeter's head first goes to the left, as it would whether the slap was real or fake, and then he throws it straight back, which is acting. I have now led you to water.
Similarly, that prank with the students singing in the lecture hall is "fake" in the sense that the singers didn't just spontaneously break into song without any planning, but still real as a prank on the professor and the other students.
Sure it makes a difference. On the one level, these are humorous, but on another level they're impressive achievements of planning and coordination. That second level doesn't exist if they aren't real.
I say fake. If you need to explain to your girlfriend that you didn't actually propose to her, you don't gesticulate toward the message with silent-film subtlety: you say yes and lead her to the concession area and explain. And, yes, it does make a difference whether it's real or not. If ogged ever attends a sporting event in mixed company we may be able to demonstrate.
Real pranks are confusing to people when they are revealed—the victim is momentarily dazed. The victim ends up saying something sort of goofy or awkward as he's trying to figure out what's going on. That girl wouldn't go from "Yes!" to slapping him that quickly. I don't think that actually is a situation in which a slack would be likely. Also, note the way that they both stand up slowly and square themselves for the video?
I'll watch it again and see more stuff, I'm sure. You're going to come around to my opinion, DS, and then you can call me Super Skrull.
Or rather it exists, but it requires an at least partially conscious suspension of disbelief to enjoy.
Okay, shit, but now that I've seen more I think it's fake. The world is ugly, and the people are sad.
Okay, what I think might be going on is that these are two guys who work for CollegeHumor.com. They are both trying to be comedians, and their job is to create content for Vimeo. So they create a prank contest, knowing they will be videoing each other, and even when they recognize that they are involved in one another's prank, they play along because good content is good content. I think that might be the tension between "real" and "fake" here. Their whole lives are "fake" and based on the packaging of themselves as "real" within a "job" where workers sitting at computers serves barely as a backdrop to sudden lipsynching, pranks, sketches, etc. Right?
the Zapruder film of The Slap
If you watch closely, there's clearly a second slapper at work.
87: and then he throws it straight back, which is acting
I didn't see any sign of this on three separate viewings, which suggests maybe this supposed tipoff is minute enough that you're smoking crack slightly over-analyzing.
90: you say yes and lead her to the concession area and explain
Uh-huh. Are you really so sure you'd come up with that solution in the moment?
Anyway, hey, whatever. Sure, it's fake! Or not. Unless it is! Or isn't.
96: Nothing else could explain the dude's crazy head-motions!
you're smoking crack slightly over-analyzing
Surprisingly, you don't account the possibility that you're just an unobservant git. Fucking Canadians. My 41 notes my reaction to the video after one viewing. I will now go murder Santa...between the sheets.
... ladies.
(Yes, 94 is right.)
For 'Smasher: "He fooled us all, Your Highness, by showing us those fake movie scenes which we thought were real!"
And to all a good night.
re: 98
His physical reaction on being slapped looked pretty real to me. His head goes back before the slap lands, as it would if someone's hand was moving towards it at speed.
Also, newsflash just in, being slapped hard fucking hurts.
The link in 95 reminds me that I have an interview tomorrow with an editor, a woman with an Iranian name. Thanks to this blog, I will have to suppress the urge to query her about Ogged's thoughts on his countrywomen, or to ask what she would have on underneath if she were wearing a hijab.
We can break this down even further. They planned to argue, but he didn't expect to be slapped. He expected to be slapped, but not that hard. And so on.
2: B, go to "Jumply Old Post". You succeeded in pissing me off.
83, 94: AWB's position is the same as that of many pro wrestling fans.
1986: A Year to Remember
I found a copy of this in my parent's storage unit last December and watched it again and again and again ... and still have Beltran flashbacks.
So the Yankees' loss today means the chances of them playing a meaningful game in the regular season are near zero. It'll be interesting to see the order the other three AL teams finish in though.
Having the first 156 games of the season be meaningful is good enough.
107 -- I don't understand what you mean. Two games behind with six to play? The Sox may yet be able to give the Yanks home field during the playoffs.
106: cool! I don't get the connection to Beltran though.
The chances of the 2007 Yankees winning two more games than the 2007 Red Sox over any given six game span are very low. The chances of them one winning more game are substantially higher.
