Everybody loves animals. Even if you don’t have a pet, you can’t help but ooh and aw over a dancing squirrel, a skateboarding dog or a cute cat.
Is our collective fascination over animals a genuine interest in them, or part of a larger desire to see our own human qualities in the world around us?
Disney built his entertainment company on this desire to see human qualities in mice, dogs and ducks. But equally we’re just as attracted to singing teapots, desk lamps or even a candelabra.
Cuteness is irresistible. Shows like ours depend on stories of animals doing extraordinary things, acting like people or even learning to speak their own names.
But there is a another edgier, wilder category of animal based culture, and that is online viral phenomena.
Like Disney cartoons, these videos, moving graphics or pictures pull us in with animals doing human activitiy, but unlike Disney, they also tap into our darker psyche. Like a tune that gets into your head, these online nuggets haunt your dreams until you spread them to someone else.
Who can forget The Hamster Dance, Tyson the Skateboarding dog, Badger Badger Badger, the dramatic hamster, Crazy Frog (a.k.a. Annoying Thing) or the whole LOLcat phenomenon?
Their repetitive, insane quality both unnerve and entertain us in exciting new ways. It gives you that feeling that the internet is like no other medium that’s come before it. And you, your boss and your mom can both enjoy and talk about it.
We owe a great deal to these artistic creations, some of them anonymous, who helped extend the functionality of the internet from just a information sharing network into a fully fledged entertainment medium.
On today’s show Amanda Steinstein looking like a fierce panther herself, joins us to talk about viral animals, freaky over the top sexual fetishes, the Phoenix Mars Lander’s first-ever touchdown near Mars’ north pole, Steven Speilberg’s new social networking website is out of this world, virtual Ouija boards and a follow up on the high school student who asked us if watching Desperate Housewives means you’re gay.
Does it? Listen and find out.
The greatest story ever told- Feast of Fools.
Check out today’s sponsor:
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Saturday, July 19th at the Hyatt Regency
with special celebrity guests actress and comedian Jane Lynch
and hunky performers from Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity.
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See you then!
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FOF #832 – In a World With Hope – 09.03.08
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7 Comments
Comments
My ex always wanted me to call him Sir. Which was hot. I believe in chosts. Ive seen two in my life, one was of my friend the night she died. I saw her in the middle of the night after I had found out about her terrible car wreck only a few hours efore. So I was lieing in bed in the dark crying when I heard her laugh and then her voice saying “Dont cry for me Matty I’m fine honey. You get some rest easty-boy dont worry about your Cali-gal” and as I turned to look where the voice was coming from and all I saw was a shimmer of colorful light then nothing. I knew it was her because that is what we called each other because we were the only two kids in our school who had moved to Advance from super huge cities. Me from the east coast city of Virginia Beach and she from Hollywood. The second was when my grandfather died. As I layed in bed crying over his death I felt a warm hand on my shoulder as I laid there thinking of him and all of a sudden I felt like he was ok. And the hand I felt, felt like his large, strong muscular hands he had because he was a mechanic. So yeah I love ghosts and stuff. And when I die I actually want to be a ghost. So I can look on at humanity even after I’m gone.
Make sure you stop by and say “hi.”
I will. I’ll haunt ya. What do you want your safe word to be? Oh by the way, I love the Badger Badger Badger song. I even found it and bought it. I’ve been listening to it for about an hour straight in a loop fromat. Love it.
great show except now il have the badger song stuck in my head for days. Thanks a lot : (
Loving the show!!!! Love the entertainment tidbits, Amanda is a goldmine! A big coup for you 2, today was my first day of listening to her, i def need to catch up on the podcast. I’m a new but devout listener. and btw u2 fucking rocks
2 hotasses
Penvy
Ghost, aliens, the Holy trinity, bigfoot, Loch Ness monster…these will all be explained in the final episode of Lost in about 3 years. So hold on.
Amanda – maybe the Ouiji board meant GOOD BUY instead of goodbye.
The worst viral video is leekspin.com…. And teh more I listen and teh more I see, The harder it is for me to believe that Amanda is a biological female….
Weren’t those things in the Quiznos ads called Spongemonkeys or something? No idea how I know that, I just did.
Best pic ever.
*looks at the broken code above*
Poor, poor code. It never had a chance…
Amanda, you had me howlin’ like a coyote… but not a badger, ‘cuz I don’t think badgers howl. I remember the first time I saw Badger Badger Badger… to me it is the epitome of the viral video phenomenon. Not only does is spread like wildfire upon discovery, it stays with you not for hours… not for minutes… but WEEKS at a time. Plus it’s so doggone cute you just can’t stand it.
Amanda sure was on fire tonight, and Fausto and Marc were right there along for the ride. Maybe this is why I love when my gal Amanda is on the show so much
By the way, I made my very first ever LOLCAT yesterday. Of course it features my very own LOL Cats, Pippin and Screech:
moar funny pictures
Don’t worry Felix- we’ll fix it!
It was so clever of God to give fags magic wands. Thank you, Fausto.
Loved the show! By the way, as you can see from the watermark on the video, the badgerbadgerbadger song is from weebls-stuff.com. It’s a comedy website that got its start several years ago. They have alot of great, truly bizarre flash videos, including several that have become internet phenomena.
Love that Amanda had to start singing this.
By the way, Badger, Badger, Badger, is rivaled by Weebl’s other works, the next famous being Kenya!
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/
Which had such a response, they had a fan made live version submitted!
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya+live/
Being from North Carolina I have to plug this one though:
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Pork/
Oh, my! I nearly wet my pants from laughing so hard at Amanda singing the badger song!