There are certain celebrities that can get away with just about anything and still keep their street cred.  Alec Baldwin is one of those stars who can turn lemons in to lemon spritzers.  2007 was a year Alec would soon like to forget.  His well-publicized battle with his ex-wife and daughter made news world-wide.  The threatening voicemail he left for his 12-year-old daughter became thing of legend.  Even Pat O’Brien was jealous how much poor judgement Alec could use on the phone.  The difference is that Alec has the seductive voice to pull it off.  Listening to his call sorta made me want to buy an expensive foreign car.  It was unintentional but his voice is just that commanding.

   2008 was another story for Alec, with 30 Rock skyrocketing and his first Emmy win.  It’s a brave new world for Alec where he will have his pick of roles and money to burn. You can deny that Alec is a “great actor” but you can’t deny his vocal chords are made of spun gold.  PURE, Rumpelstiltskin spun gold!  How good is he?  He was able to take a script of ordinary plumbing references and cause massive eargasms around the world for his performance in the Liquid Plumber Foaming Pipe Snake commercial(A reason not to fast forward through commercial breaks!).  Few people on this earth have enough presence to command total awe over something so gross.  He had me daydreaming about riding on the back of the mystical foaming pipe snake as we whirled around my plugged up toilet bowl.  Alec Baldwin is that good.

   Because Alec was able to make Liquid Plumber “hip” (essentially a fluid based turd-buster) I wonder if other advertisers will take those hard to market items and utilize other fascinating celebrities.  Christopher Walken could surely make Cream of Wheat sexy?  I could probably be convinced that I needed a new cheese shredder if Clint Howard said so.  Especially if his brother directed the commercial!  It terrifies me to think of what most of us wouldn’t do for a David Archuleta endorsed ziplock bag?

I’m proud to say that I’m a survivor.  I’ve seen a lot in my 86 years but yesterdays visit to Wallsave was a terrifying experience.  I live in an assisted thriving community now called the Eternityshire Estates.  Our shuttle takes residents in to the city twice a week.  I decided it was time to stock up on Dinty Moore beef stew and such so I packed my hip wallet with my money and meds. 

   When we arrived at our drop off I was a bit confused to see that my old trustee Pay-n-Prosper had been torn down and replaced with a new gigantic building called “Wallsave: Santa Fe”  Apparently it’s like the other Wallsaves around the country with a bit of Santa Fe flare.  I noticed the food court was painted like the desert.  Even the security fellow had an embroidered badge patch in the shape of a cactus.  It seemed like a pleasant enough store but the sheer size of it overwhelmed me a bit.  I wouldn’t have worn my nylon socks if I knew I would be doing this much walking.

    After wandering for a half hour or so I made it through the greeting area and headed for the sign marked “beauty care.”  I was in need of some cold cream and deodorant.  I have never been to reliant on perfumes or anti-perspirants in the past but our resident advisor issued a notice that all resident need to use scented under arm care products as of the first of the month.  I am on my 3rd notice so I decided that I would just buy something that smelled nice and be done with it. 

   The deodorant section wasn’t easy to find at first but a young many in a burnt amber vest directed me to a long isle that was as colorful as my favorite holiday sweater.  Every color imaginable and almost as many brand names.  I was alarmed to discover that all of them appeared to have different smells too.  I called over the young fella to help me out and that’s when the horror began. 

   He began to read of names like “Arctic Ice Crystal Blast, Powder Blast with Molten Lava Fusion Crystals, Titanium Clean Extreme Raw, Magma Fresh With AmourPiercing Floral Bullets, Mercury Scent Insanity 2, Scent Of Leather Berry With Almond Roca Gel, Atomic Blast Boquet and Original Scent”  Then he noticed they were out of original scent.  Although there was nearly 700 scents to choose from I was more intimidated by the idea that people had apparently evolved to become extremely stinky.   What happened to Powder?  Fresh? Clean?  Unscented?  They have all been transformed and blended with the forces of nature to become Frankendeodorants. 

   It seems to me that if our scientists spent half as much time on cures for disease as they do on new antiperspirants we would be living in a better world.  A healthier world.  One that already smells like fresh powder.  With normal scented people fusion.  At least that’s what I plan on telling my resident advisor.  I may have walked away without deodorant but I feel lucky have escapedwith my life and arm pits in tact.  Besides, I hate to break a 2 dollar bill on meaningless purchases like Ocean Burst Advanced with Barnacle Mist Crystals.

It’s super annoying when parents and other old people mistake our hair styles for “just rolling out of bed.” Yeah, it looks this rad by just sleeping on it…NOT! Try several cans of Mega Hold Hair Spray! Not to mention a regular trip to the drug store for some green dye. Or whatever color is currently the most shocking. On any given day we have nearly a dozen products in our hair and we’re tired of the old fart generation refusing to get it.

We don’t want them to accept us. Just don’t confuse our intentionally messy hair for not having combed it at all. It’s NOT BEDHEAD! Although we use that too. The art of getting you hair to look like you didn’t even touch it is getting tougher all the time. The slighted misplaced cowlick can blow the entire statement. Retro can mistaken for Lazy if you’re not careful. Celebrities often get it all wrong.

Because we are in a band we know that image is everything. We don’t just play songs, we scream them. We haven’t ever played our guitars. We WAIL THEM!!! If we had some $9.99 Super Craftmaster Plus cuts we would confuse our audience. Our messages would be lost. Although we don’t have any written lyrics our statement is always clear. “We are rebelling!” At least two weekends a month. None of us have cars so we need to bum rides to gigs or borrow Larry’s step-dads van. He is super paranoid that we will get eyeliner on his seats so sometimes we don’t even bother asking him and just take the bus. Just because our parents live in one of the richest areas in town doesn’t mean we don’t roll public transit. It’s one of the only places where we feel truly at home. You’ll find our gum on most of the back seats. it’s a point of pride.

The important thing is that when we show up at a show ready to thrash, our hair looks like we’re headliners. It’s so perfectly manicured that you would assume we’re either homeless or supernatural. Or somewhere in between. The crowd notices the effort and they respect it. They bob their head to our distorted tunes while our elders shake their head in disappointment. Our parents and other lame old people think we are leaving the house “looking like wrecks.” Yeah, a twisted wreck of GothRock, Rad Hair and and Rebellion! The good news is that Summer is winding down and the windy Fall weather is really great for inspiring new in your face hair trends.

We’ll try to write again soon but we’re all leaving on a family trip to Orlando. We’ve agreed to go to Disney world but I guarantee we’ll get kicked off the Tea Cups.

Posted By:

Goth For Gigs

(If you are interested in booking us, go to H-E double hockey sticks! We don’t deal with fascist capitalists!)

I am sure everyone has heard the phrase, “that is older than dirt.” Well today I present you a few jokes that while not truly older than dirt, were being shared at the water bucket nearly three thousand years ago.

The worlds oldest joke has been traced back to 1900BC. 

According to a 1900BC Sumerian knee-slapper “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.”

*crickets*

Now with the advent of modern technology we can hear how audio jokes are showing those Pharaohs how to bring it.  “Silent farts that don’t stink” told by ralong is the modern ancestor. (Who knew that fart jokes had such a long tradition.)

Here’s another oldie from 1600BC (or 2600BC depending which source you trust):

“How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish.”

Now listen to my audio adaptation on Comicwonder. “Pharaoh goes fishing” If you can tell it better, feel free! your great great great great great great grandchildren may get a chuckle out of it.

Via Reuters : Worlds oldest Joke traced back to 1900 BC

By Billy Rubin

Comic Wonder Regional Director of Family Relations.

Comic Wonder asked me to write an occasional blog about my experiences as a new dad. They have sorta made me the Regional Director of Family Relations or something like that. My daughter Hemi is around 14 months old now. I would say she’s a year and 2 months but my wife says that’s not how your describe a babies age. It needs to be in months until they reach around 24 months. Seems like 2 years to me but I’m just along for the ride so 14 months it is.

I was always on Varsity growing up so it’s nearly impossible for me to not bring my “A Game” every time I grab a ball. That’s why it’s tough to spend time with my daughter. Don’t get me wrong, I like hanging out with my baby but she has a hard time keeping up. (Plus, I was working on a 16 beer hangover.) Sports? Forget it, she didn’t even catch a single toss. I even used a larger softball and threw it underhand a couple dozen times. She also has a very low threshold for pain. I’ve pretty much given up on sports with her. That leaves Television.

My wife left me at home to watch her the other day and said “Noggin” is hemi’s favorite channel to watch. I am a Cinemax or SportsCenter guy so this channel was new to me. Noggin was mainly low brow stuff like cartoons and shows with lots of singing or overly excited guys in neon colored clothes. I was excited to see occasional trivia segments and brain teasers. I’m pretty awesome at being smart and stuff. Maybe too smart. This cartoon Moose came on the screen and asked something like “can you tell me which of these cats is orange?” There were only 3 cats on the screen. One was blue, one was green and one was clearly orange. Clearly. It hardly took me any time to answer. My daughter just stared blankly. I don’t even think she tried. Then she stuck most of her foot in her mouth. It could be the beginning of great hurdling form but my gut tells me she’s just lazy. We watched some pointless show with a bunch of buck tooth puppets dancing around and then another trivia segment came on again. 3 cats appeared on the screen and that same Moose said “can you tell me which of these cats has stripes?” I studied all 3 cats carefully and quickly yelled “the one on the f-ing left!” I was right on the money. Too easy. I was sad that my daughter didn’t even venture a guess but I took pride in knowing she could look up to me and be proud of how kick butt her dad is at trivia. Sports, engines, cards and now trivia.

I’m new at this dad stuff but I know my job is to teach and inspire her. That’s why I offered to put all of my division champ trophies in her nursery. My wife didn’t like that idea so I kept them on the mantle. Which is right next to the TV so it’s a great place to show them off. Speaking of which, my godlike abilities grew as we continued watching this Noggin channel for our 3rd straight hour. Trivia and matching games popped up about every half hour and it was like shooting fish in a barrel. I only missed a couple answers and I still think the Moose could have been more clear. I celebrated my impressive run of wits with a tall boy and a shot of Black Velvet. I also think that my girl is impressed by my ability to put away such a large beer in the same time an average guy could chug a 12 ouncer. A tall boy (16 ouncer!) must look massive to her. I pretty much just switched it in to autopilot as hour number 5 watching Noggin came and went. The standings? Baby: ZERO…Daddy: 34 for 40!!!

It occurred to me that perhaps this was counterproductive for my daughter. To be honest…these questions seemed to be aimed at a really dumb audience. When that Moose asked, “which of these can we use to cross the lake? a car…a motorcycle…or a boat?”, I was stunned. “This sh*% is for morons!” I didn’t even want my little girl to learn from idiots like this Moose. It’s not just the cartoon characters either. There was this feminine looking guy with a blue dog who struck me as dim too. He would stare at the screen as ask stuff like “hey, can you help me find the door?” It took him like 30 seconds and the help of that dog to realize he was standing directly in front of it! I can’t believe this clueless wuss is a role model.

By 5:00 that night I realized my daughter and I had watched than channel for around 7 straight hours. We combined efforts for 9 16-ounce tall boys too. I drank em and she watched with admiration…and her foot in her mouth. Although I have more to learn about being a dad I do know that I am already influencing her and teaching her that I am smarter than most of those boobs on TV. Maybe next time we’ll trust my fatherly instincts and watch something a bit more sophisticated and educational. I’m thinking ESPN because it will also help her to finally catch one of my tight spirals.

I nearly lost my teeth laughing at this week’s winning joke, “Breakfast at the White House,” as told by Skez63. Ironically, I don’t even wear dentures. I laughed that hard. Once again Skez63 is the big man on campus and will live out another week knowing that he is the best. He’s the kind of guy I would want to take the Sadie Hawkins dance. There’s a saying “make a woman laugh and you’re halfway in to her heart.” I would like to add “if you make a woman laugh so hard she pee’s a little…well…then she’s marriage material.”

Skez63 seems to be a genuine charmer and he’s clearly in the running for Comic Wonder of the Year. In addition to the cash and other prizes, I’m in discussion with the Comic Wonder International Prize Patrol to possibly include an assortment of things from my basement. I’ve got tons of old shoes that the kids hardly ever wore and a great deal of old vases that I don’t have much use for. I’ll work on my prize pack and all of you continue working on your jokes.

With the elections approaching I think it’s a good time to follow Skez63’s lead and try to find the best political jokes you can find. I haven’t voted since Herbert Hoover (1929-33) but I try to keep up on the names. I think that Borat fella has a pretty good chance. So find your best jokes about politics and do your country a great service by sharing them with all of us. The Comic Wonder International Militia is currently signing a petition to impose a joke telling draft. We hate for it to come to that but these tough times and we can’t let the humorless win. Do it for all of the great comics who have made us laugh over the years - Jacky Benny, Red Skelton, George Carlin and Carrot Top. It’s your doodie. And your duty.

Posted by:

Brandy Chuggin
Comic Wonder Regional VP of Senior Humor Relations & Author of “Crochet: The cognitive revolution and historical perspective!”

Comic Wonder, together with McVay Media and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), is searching for the funniest personality on the planet. If you’re trying to get noticed in the radio industry this contest is for you!

The process is easy - if you’re a radio personality and you think you’re funny - simply visit www.radioscomicwonder.com before August 31, 2008 and tell your best joke. Visitors to the site vote on who they deem radio’s funniest.

“The best radio shows are the ones that make people laugh,” notes Daniel Anstandig, President of McVay New Media. “Finding and identifying top radio talent continues to be a top priority. We believe that this contest can help some great talent get the attention they deserve.”

Comic Wonder will announce the winner at the NAB Radio Show in Austin, Texas on September 18th where a spotlight video of the winner’s radio background and comedic talent will be featured to a room of radio executives and fellow radio personalities. Beyond recognition, Radio’s Comic Wonder will walk away with:

• A giant, mantle worthy trophy
• $1,000 cold, hard cash
• Airfare and accomodations to the NAB Radio Show

Visit www.radioscomicwonder.com to begin!

I’m taking a break from working out to award “benroach90” as the Comic Wonder of the Week. His joke “MD Penis Theft” was a hit at the gym where I work out. 7 days a week.

In addition to the cash prize and fame that comes with being this week’s winner, Benro (I don’t have time to write out his full name - although I realize that typing out this disclaimer probably took up more time) is also in the running to become Comic Wonder of the Year! Think of the fame that comes with a title like that!

It’s like when I won the Southern Regional Intermediate Peck Deck Power lifting title at Shrugfest 97′. I couldn’t walk into a supplement store without some tight shirted employee falling all over themselves to get my technique tips. I haven’t paid for my stretch mark body butter ever since. Just helping you to understand what winning the Comic Wonder title could be like.

Keep the jokes coming and remember to stay hydrated. I don’t want any of you cramping up during a punch line.

Hughe Mongis
Comic Wonder Fitness Consultant & author of “The spiritual guide to effective bar bouncing.”

This week’s The New Yorker magazine cover depicting Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, has caused quite the stir. Regardless of your stance on the satirical cartoon, the question has been raised…are there any good jokes out there about Barack Obama that we can all deem funny?

Today’s New York Times article by Bill Carter posed reasons why we’re not making fun of the Democratic presidential nominee, “The reason cited by most of those involved in the shows [late night talk shows] is that a fundamental factor is so far missing in Mr. Obama: There is no comedic “take” on him, nothing easy to turn to for an easy laugh, like allegations of Bill Clinton’s womanizing, or President Bush’s goofy bumbling or Al Gore’s robotic persona.”

And, of course, there are jokes about John McCain, which are about as old as his age.

So, we know why. The question remains what are we going to do about this lack of Obama humor?

Comic Wonder would like to challenge you to perform your best Obama joke on our site. It is the perfect forum to try out your Obama jokes and see how they land. If our audience doesn’t like them - they will tell you!

Who knows, perhaps Obama will jump online and tell a joke about himself - thus, not only proving his sense of humor, but beating all the timid comedians to the punch.

Comic Wonder crossed the pond!

Jeff Fitzsimmons, the Co-founder and Creative Director of Comic Wonder, along with Captainhilariousness, the 2007 Comic Wonder of the Year winner, joined the UK radio giant Graham Mack for a little chat and a lot of laughs.

Check it out under the July 9th “Mack Nuggets” or click here to have a listen. The interview is about 7 minutes into the audio, but it’s funny material while you wait - guaranteed!