Angel smells something bad in the office. She communicates this to me, via Skype:
[1:53:04 PM] Angel says: OMG PONG
[1:53:08 PM] Angel says: DIES
[1:53:27 PM] Angel says: PONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
[1:53:49 PM] Angel says: omgggggggggggggggg
[1:54:47 PM] Angel says: HOLY RAVIOLI BATMAN
[1:54:52 PM] Angel says: THIS IS MADNESS
[1:56:51 PM] Angel says: oh shit
[1:56:52 PM] Angel says: i started laughing
[1:57:00 PM] Angel says: so i had to inhale hard
[1:57:07 PM] Angel says: AND THEN I STARTED COUGHING
[1:57:11 PM] Angel says: from the smellllllllllllllllllllllll
[1:59:51 PM] Angel says: i had a sandwich
[1:59:55 PM] Angel says: which i can’t eat anymore
[2:00:01 PM] Angel says: OMG I NEED TO PUT IT IN MY BAG
[2:00:12 PM] Angel says: in case it catches the smelly atoms
[2:01:01 PM] Angel says: MAN IT’S ONE HELLUVA PONG
It seems the naked man exists as a recurring motif most significantly in Japanese humour. In no other cultures have I found comedians to fall back so faithfully on nudity as a stock humour device.
Even funnier is when the naked man is caught in an inopportune moment. Nothing screams ‘funny’ more than a guy wearing a deer in the headlights look—and only that.
I’m embedding several that come to mind. Better catch them before YouTube pulls them off.
The oily movers
It seems a lady with hardwood floors needs furniture moved. But the movers who arrive need to be doused in baby oil…and inexplicably strip off. Naturally, the temptation to pull each other’s shorts off uh, crops up—pun intended. Of course, nothing this funny is complete without a screaming girl, because all self-respecting Japanese girls must scream at the sight of a naked man.
The oily movers II
They’re back! Only this time, there’s a big staircase involved. Ouch.
Sangaria ad
No nudity here, but a dancing man in briefs comes close, if you ask me. I just wonder how many takes he had to make for the first two seconds of the ad.
D-1 Grandprix
Nothing to do with F1, think of this hidden camera prank show as Candid Camera’s cruel cousin which snuck up behind it, gave it an atomic wedgie, snapped a picture and pasted copies all over school.
First, the show sets up a fake sauna facility for men in the middle of a ski resort. Cue men relaxing in massage chairs before suddenly getting tossed out in the snow, naked as the day they were born. If this happened anywhere else in the world, lawsuits would fly. In Japan, this is solid gold humour.
Next, the show sets up a bunch of porta-loos which have raising floors, activated as soon as the user has his pants around his ankles. It’s hard for passers-by to miss the sight of a shiny bum perched atop a 6-ft high porta-loo. Or zooming by on water skis.
Naked in 7 seconds
A man shows you how to get undressed in 7 seconds. Simple as that!
TypeRacer: Race against others in this online typing game. So addicted to this right now.
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The Impossible Art of Li Wei: Death and gravity-defying photography stunts from a Chinese artist who claims no camera trickery or photoshopping was done. Eye-popping stuff. (via I.Z. Reloaded)
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I love the Smooth E Baby Face ads from Thailand. Watch the Love Story series. I also particularly like “Materialism“.
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My mother, whose TV-watching taste is dictated by the schedule programmers at our local TV station, has recently been into Martha Stewart, thanks to her show’s placement at the crucial noon slot that accompanies lunchtime for Mum.
Nevermind that we have cable. Noon is now Martha Stewart time, and along with that many a random nugget of home/wellness wisdom.
In a rare bout of the flu, I was home ill today and a captive audience to the five-minute life lesson.
“You know how some girls have those spider veins on their face? It’s because they eat spicy food,” said Mum at lunch, while I was reading the paper.
“Really? A lot more people in Singapore should have spider veins, then,” I said.
“Well, maybe it happens more to ang mohs, you know? ‘Cos I saw it on Martha,” Mum said.
Two minutes later, she returned. “Oh, I think we also need to stop drinking Diet Coke. You know artificial sweeteners give you dull skin.”
“How?” I asked.
“They’re bad for the liver. So…you know…bad skin,” Mum replied, knowingly. “And you know when you make fish soup, you shouldn’t boil the hell out of the fish. That makes the soup fishy.”
Given I’d never made fish soup before, that information was lost on me. I began absentmindedly separating the mushrooms and gingko nuts from the chawan mushi in front of me.
“Oh, I forgot you hate anti-cancer stuff,” she observed wryly, raising an eyebrow in disapproval.
