What Is The Deal With Adam Sandler?

^{WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST MAY NOT BE IN GOOD TASTE.}
I know today is his birthday and all, so I'll go easy on him. But seriously, what is the deal with Adam Sandler?

It turns out the amount of weed I would have to smoke in order to make him funny may, in fact, be the fabled fatal dose of marijuana American government scientists have been trying to discover since the drug was outlawed in the 1920s.

Wait a minute... What were we talking about?

As you can see, even the amount of medication I needed to do the research for this piece has left me with desert mouth and wicked munchies. These are all technical terms...

Okay, focus. Adam Sandler. Right.

I'm serious; what is his deal? Well, let's see. His comedy comes from anger, which is okay, since when not performing he usually comes off as having the personality of a potato. At least he has a suitable outlet for his anger. Still, is one less serial killer really worth having to watch all those terrible movies he makes?

Of course it is; at least at the Cineplex you can choose not to be raped and left for dead.

At the Pop Culture Institute, a crack team of researchers (as opposed to a team of researchers on crack) are looking into this very matter as we speak, and will be issuing reports from time to time; so at least, like the end of every Adam Sandler movie, you have something to look forward to.

Moroccan Tories Nab Parliament?

Now, normally I would be the last person to celebrate a right-wing victory - especially in a Muslim nation, but in the case of recent elections in Morocco, it would appear to be for the best.

Morocco's king, Mohammed VI, is very much an executive monarch, which means that very little gets done in Rabat (and thus the nation) without his consent. Since His Majesty is allied to the West, it matters little which party controls Parliament since, it would seem, that none of them really do.

The election in question was between a moderate Islamist party and a secular nationalist party, with the usual allegations of vote buying and corruption, some of which has been borne out by international observers. I will be the first to celebrate a secular victory anywhere, especially given the creep of theocracy in the post-9/11 world.

Since His Majesty's accession in 1999 he has introduced various modernizing measures which have angered Muslim fundamentalists, including the extension of greater rights to women.

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Now Showing: Ren and Stimpy by John Kricfalusi

Birthday boy John Kricfalusi is either the most boring person alive or a raving dementoid. I can make such an outrageous claim because in my vast experience with kooks (okay, okay, you got me; all of my experience with crazy people is limited to myself) that's how these things work.

There was a time when Ren & Stimpy was favoured watching material, mainly because it's crazy beyond belief. The above clip contains three mock commercials, including the most famous of them - Log, by Blammo - whose theme song I still sing in order to cheer myself up.

John K.'s blog - All Kinds of Stuff - is available here, and henceforth in my blogroll. It contains his voluminous knowledge of cartoon history and various rants regarding same. Enjoy!

Damien Hirst's $100M Rip-Off?

^{[Roman Heart, taking one for the team,
in Falcon Studio's Heaven and Hell, $69.95.]}

The first thing I thought when I saw Damien Hirst's newest sculpture, a diamond-encrusted skull which recently sold for a hundred million bucks, was "Oh, the decadence!" The next thought, mere minutes later (once I'd been revived), was "Where have I seen that before?"

It turns out that in 2006, the nice people at Falcon - the world's foremost purveyors of all-male erotica - released an epic film called Heaven and Hell, and in a couple of the scenes what should I spy (eventually) but...

A diamond-encrusted skull?

Now, it may be that I missed Art History the day they covered "Bits of Skeleton Covered in Precious Gems Through the Ages" (probably because I've never been to university), but the "coincidence" did seem a little queer. Unlike the rest of it, of course, which is a lot queer.

Methinks maybe Damien Hirst has some 'splainin' to do...

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