Lord of the Rings

That Picture of Christine O’Donnell Dressed as a Stormtrooper Isn’t Real

by Robert Quigley | 2:44 pm, October 13th

Apparently, there’s a photo making its way around the web of Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell dressed up as a midriff-baring Stormtrooper (left). Christine O’Donnell is on the record as being a Lord of the Rings fan (“Tolkien’s portrayal of women in Lord of The Rings is bold and courageous. The bittersweet complexities of true womanhood are daringly depicted in each of the female characters,” she once wrote), and we wouldn’t be surprised if she harbored a fond spot in her heart for Star Wars.

But that picture’s a fake.

Read on...

It’s All Fun and Games Until…

by Robert Quigley | 10:47 am, September 29th

“It’s all fun and games until your ex-girlfriend tells everyone the password to your friends-only LiveJournal account is the first letter in the names of each of the Ring-bearers, listed in the order they held it, including Sauron, Isildur, Smeagol and Tom Bombadil but neither Deagol nor Gandalf.”

–From Greg Ryan‘s excellent McSweeney’s piece “Events, Over A Life Span, That Precipitate The End Of Fun And Games.”

(Thanks, Hannah.)

Seven Super-Geeky Parodies of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme Song

by Robert Quigley | 3:22 pm, March 31st

It’s said that 4chan, for all its horrors, is the Internet’s secret creative nerve center. 4chanarchive recently posted an epic thread from earlier this month that would seem to back that up: “Variations of Bel-Aire,” a machine-gun fire of parodies of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. You can see the full thread here. (Warning: link NSFW.)

4chan being 4chan, a few are offensive, a few are less than inspired, and almost all are probably copypasta. (It should be noted that when the Balloon Boy drama unfolded last October, there was a Fresh Prince parody within hours.) But a lot are great — and geeky. Taken together, they show the creative power harnessed by anonymous thousands with beastly levels of pop culture knowledge.

After the jump, seven of the geekiest Fresh Prince theme parodies, including Lord of the Rings, Pokémon, and Star Trek:

Read on...

Twilight: Eclipse Trailer: Eh.

by Robert Quigley | 9:53 am, March 11th

After a kinda useless ten-second trailer for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse came out yesterday, the folks at Twilight, Inc. (read: Summit Entertainment) released the full trailer for Twilight: Eclipse this morning.

Twilight has a strange power to inspire nerd-rage because it is not Lord of the Rings, or even Harry Potter, and yet it presumes to come up with its own mythology, involving vampires and werewolves. How dare it! Also, Twilight is for girls, and girls are gross.

In truth, we can’t pretend to be huge Twilight fans, but neither is Twilight the scourge of the earth:

Read on...

Why Remaking The Wizard of Oz Is a Really Bad Idea

by Susana Polo | 6:21 pm, March 10th

Fresh on the heels of Alice in Wonderland‘s box office success, rumors are flying about not one, but two feature film remakes of The Wizard of Oz. Now, there’s more than one way to retell a story, and there are a few ways to redo Wizard that would probably work. The odds of Hollywood actually finding those particular ways is unlikely.

More and more often these days, I find myself shouting at movie trailers and announcements: “WHY would you remake that?” Clash of the Titans? The Karate Kid? My Fair Lady?

I’d like to take some time and explain when a remake generally isn’t a good idea, and when it generally is, and whether or not this means that The Wizard of Oz is something we should revisit.

Read on...

Middle Earth in 420,000 Matchsticks

by Robert Quigley | 9:37 am, March 2nd

For nearly three years, matchstick modeler Patrick Acton has been building a painstaking replica of Minas Tirith, Gondor’s “Great White City” in the Lord of the Rings saga; countless hours and 420,000 matchsticks later, he’s done as of mid-last month.

Larger picture after the jump:

Read on...

The Unintentional Hilarity of Twitter Spam Bots

Back Alley Internet is a recurring column in which we explore some of the weirder corners of the Internet and see what we can drudge up for your amusement and education. This week: We study the legions of Twitter bots that trawl the trending topics and spit out some unintentionally hilarious tweets.

Tweetosystem

Eric Limer You have to tew two tutus?! I have to tew two tutus too!
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Max The Pizza and Pasta Foundation supports the federal SAUCE act. Ask your congressman to put some SAUCE on it!
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Eric Limer I like how if you make a mistake typing a popular URL, invariably the site you find is all "YOU'RE WINNER!" It's uplifting for a second.
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Max Spam for work involves a false teeth supplier and someone looking to buy magnetic plates.
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Eric Limer So that improv show was definitely a good idea. Ben Schwartz, Zach Woods, Justin Long, AND Adam Scott. #EverythingWentBetterThanExpected
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Max Got a lot crossed off my to-do list tonight, and I'm starting to feel significantly less freaked about about, well, life.
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Eric Limer I need trephination like I need a hole in the head.
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Max AIM CHAT: I like you, too. *belushis*
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Eric Limer Listening to Call Me Maybe and cropping screengrabs of Twitter bots. It's times like this that I really love my job.
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James Plafke Popular rapper Ladies Love Removed Eyes.
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Eric Limer I am genuinely enjoying using So.cl to make weird picture mash-ups. I just made a collage of becks. http://t.co/ulGbDbwn
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Eric Limer This Facebook IPO coverage needs to stop cuz I'm seriously sick of seeing Zuckerberg staring creepily at me from the top of every story.
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Max Put on your poodle skirts and choose your favorite syrup because we're gonna have a sock-hop at the iHop.
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James Plafke I just threatened my mom to email me something by telling her I'd discuss with her all the lady celebrities I'd have sex with.
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Max New Hallmark Card: "I held an extended conversation with you without being able to remember your name" Inside: "I'm sorry."
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Eric Limer To any of you bros who might like to ice me, I encourage you to act on that urge, bro.
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Eric Limer If anyone is looking for some totally garbled, nigh-incomprehensible ad copy, I'm your man.
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Eric Limer What? None of my Facebook friends are on So.cl? How can this be?!
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Eric Limer "Does this mustache look creepy? Experts are blind; can't tell."
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Rollin Bishop Lin Beifong is suddenly one of the best things about Legend of Korra.
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