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Manqueman's avatar

Even more than normal, a work of staggering genius even if a mockery of someone who, despite being a Big Media-certified genius, is actually a nasty moron. (I mean, when one's sole, true innovation is historic meme stocks, come on.)

But as a chaser, I gift y'all not a humor piece but a piece of depressing lucidity:

https://hartmannreport.com/p/trump-and-the-odyssey-the-ancient-495

Which I'd like many or most of us here have read, but...

Rick White's avatar

Very good linked article. I haven't thought much about the sacred guest/host relationship since my grad school days. Thanks!

Manqueman's avatar

As an Old Testament guy, it resonated. (OGJC was just referencing the prior text.)

Mark Morey's avatar

Re-posting today to accompany Mr. Edroso’s parody of the TrUsk mentality. I had not put these ancient truths together in the context of the Republican decimation of the American experiment. My Christ, I hate these motherfuckers. The Hartmann Report’s reminder is epic, the Edroso satire a Zeus-like lightning strike. These pieces make life worth living in these awful times.

Manqueman's avatar

As a not-Xian, I’m regularly amazed how the politically influential Xians are the one’s shitting on their god’s teachings while claiming to be godly. They’re anything but.

Mark Morey's avatar

I’m a Xian, largely because it makes my wife happy. My parents told me (in essence) just to pay attention to the “red letters”—the the things that Jesus is actually presumed to have said, printed in red in the old great big fancy bibles—there’s a word for it but I forget what it is —the Xians to whom you refer never seem to look at those red letter parts.

Manqueman's avatar

Whatever. What they say and how they act contradicts their god’s teachings as I understand them.

But one of the great things about Xianity is the breadth — the extreme liberalism as it were — of it where a prosperity gospel is any sort of thing. And so on and so forth. And BTW, I don’t know how I mean that “great” there, whether qualitatively or quantitatively.

I could go on…

Worriedman's avatar

Sword and Sandals movies just don't work for me without Steve Reeves.

henry sholar's avatar

and his one major talent, vasoline.

Worriedman's avatar

There is nothing like this - The whole film is subtext. How is that possible?

Mario Bava was amazing btw. There are some scenes shot in the moonlight that are breathtaking

https://youtu.be/QOEqBRcjeOo?is=9oDK9bCE9LYPwSPG

Rick White's avatar

OK, I watched the first minute of that, and I have some thoughts...!

SteveB's avatar

The marble balls... er, I mean marble halls of ancient Greece

henry sholar's avatar

hafta say, first 5 mins are genius.

SteveB's avatar

I like it for the UFC fight staged in the new White House ballroom:

https://youtu.be/QOEqBRcjeOo?t=843

Rick White's avatar

Holy fuck! I thought I was watching an episode of Star Trek TOS for a minute!

SteveB's avatar

When there's a pool in the middle of your living room you know someone's gonna get tossed into it by the end of the dinner party.

Rick White's avatar

Yeah... like that "gun on the wall" or something

Pink Collar (retd.)'s avatar

The fight scene might happen.

But I'm certain you've got the location wrong. Though I saw a brass goblet, there was not a single speck of gold in the joint.

Mark Morey's avatar

It’s Gordon Scott for me. He was also the best Tarzan after Weissmuller, eschewing the baby talk for gritty jungle melodrama with good British villains like Anthony Quayle and Sean Connery. Don’t get me wrong though—it’s pert, enormous titties all the way for this gazebo.

Mark Morey's avatar

Facebook “fixed” it for me, but that was supposed to be “gazabo.” I don’t even know what it means, but I swiped it from one of S.J. Perelman’s wonderful expositions on a bit of pop pulp culture treasured in my youth.

Worriedman's avatar

Gazebo is a funny word!

Gordon Scott was great as Tarzan. I'm pretty fond of Lex Barker too. There was a late '60s film with Mike Henry called Tarzan in the Valley of Gold that was one of my great matinee experiences. In the end the villain gets buried in a huge pile of gold dust. Greatest thing ever!

SteveB's avatar
2dEdited

"buried in a huge pile of gold dust"

The Department of Ironic Punishment is intrigued by your idea and would like to arrange a Zoom meeting. We have a long list malefactors who we think would be a perfect fit for this treatment.

hot silhouette's avatar

The word "gazebo" inspired a classic Knights of the Dinner Table strip. (It's a comic book about a group of adult friends who play a D&D-like game, and their social lives.) Every KotDT fan knows of it.

In game, the party enters a cavern. The Dungeon Master says there's a gazebo in the center of the room. He tries to continue describing the area, but it's too late: the players don't know what a gazebo is, and they don't ask.

Instead, they each in turn announce how they're attacking it. Brian launches a fireball, Bob fires a poisoned crossbow bolt, etc. Only Sarah (who is both the woman and the sensible one) holds back.

This goes on for several rounds of combat. Is it dead yet? No. What does it do? Nothing. More spells etc. are wasted. The DM, initially amused, finally clues them in as to the harmless nature of a gazebo.

This could only happen in a game that relies on verbal description. There is also the issue of whether a group of Midwestern adults would really be ignorant of gazebos.

SteveB's avatar

Earlier research at REBID Labs confirmed that any three-syllable word with an emphasis on the middle syllable is a workable euphemism for "tits." Good to keep in mind the next time you're at the Garden Center at Lowes and you hear "Just take a gander at those gazebos!"

Bern's avatar

I KNEW it would come to this. And I knew who would proffer it. Maybe I should get out more...

SteveB's avatar

I think we have already established they're called "Kenoshas", please consult REBID Stylebook.

Richard Von Busack's avatar

Tarzan's Greatest Adventure. First Tarzan filmed in Africa, and the title is not a lie.

Rand Careaga's avatar

“No, that’s Agnes Moorehead.”

Richard Von Busack's avatar

Aw, you got there first!

Roy Edroso's avatar

There has to be a law about readers of a certain age and Firesign references.

Worriedman's avatar

Face it Roy, we're all Bozos on this bus, friendly and perhaps a tad over-educated, but Bozo's nonetheless

Rand Careaga's avatar

It’s true that understanding today’s complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head.

ohsopolite's avatar

It's hard to avoid those references when so many of them apply even now, in the future.

Pere Ubu's avatar

Don't look at me, it wasn't my fault this time!

Nigel Tufnel's avatar

He's got muscles...in his ear.

Pere Ubu's avatar

I only know of him through MST3K episodes

Derelict's avatar

Elon Musk was probably unaware that Homer's epic poems even existed until this movie started getting made. Musk thought their title was "The Idiot and the Ostrich" or something like that.

But now that a Black woman appears on screen for a few minutes and she's not playing a Nubian slave, well, time to save Western Civilization! By creating a culturally, historically, and functionally illiterate version!

Mark Mellon's avatar

Musk could be relied upon to create the Cybertruck of the Odyssey, beyond ugly and almost unrecognizable.

SundayStyle's avatar

If it's like his trucks and spaceships, everyone will have eleven fingers and the Trojan Horse will explode.

Although I can readily see why someone like Musk would be appalled at the idea any soldier could be emotionally tortured by his regret over committing war crimes.

SteveB's avatar

This is Tilly Norwood's BIG BREAK!

ssdd's avatar

Also the cgi lead here looks like a cross between musk and handsome-faced squidward, and is named OdysseX.

Roy Edroso's avatar

The Odysseus in the Musk "dialogue scene" clip looks strangely like the late Arthur Hunnicut.

Bern's avatar

C'mon boys – time ta get grizzled!

SteveB's avatar

This time Hunnicut gets a BJ

henry sholar's avatar

yep, by 2033, available in every high school media center, and required curriculum material for tenth grade.

SteveB's avatar

In Oklahoma

henry sholar's avatar

and mebbe a Odyssey/Elon Musk theme park next to the biggest of the 37 data centers in the state.

ohsopolite's avatar

Which, by 2033, will be a loosely defined territory governed by Warlord Markwayne.

SteveB's avatar

Mar-KWAN-Yeh as it's pronounced in this household.

ohsopolite's avatar

Mar-Kanye is preferred pronunciation here. A shining example of two men separated by race bonded by similar (subterranean) levels of lucidity.

SteveB's avatar

If he was from Arkansas it would be Wal-Mar-Kanye

Howlin Wolfe's avatar

“helmet with a big brush on it” lol - a paint brush?

SteveB's avatar

Grok stole it from Marvin the Martian

Howlin Wolfe's avatar

That dovetails nicely with it’s provenance.

Richard Von Busack's avatar

That was a good one!

Howlin Wolfe's avatar

“Stavros! Crocka!”

Pat Fitzgerald's avatar

lol you had me at George Savalas.

SteveB's avatar

At first I thought it was a typo, "You mean the bald guy with the lollypop, whatsisname?" But no, there really is (or was) a George Savalas.

Richard Von Busack's avatar

when Telly wouldn't answer the phone--

Bern's avatar

Phony answered the telly!

SteveB's avatar

I talk back to my telly all the time.

SteveB's avatar

"Go, Telly on the mountain" barked Lassie, when Savalas made a guest appearance and got trapped in a rockslide.

Fluttbucker's avatar

Musk winds up in Hell.

None of the cuties are impressed by his shtick.

The only things available for streaming are "Hamilton" and a couple of Angela Basset movies.

From time to time his kids and their mom's present him with itemized bills.

The Devil enthusiastically agrees to arbitrate, and it never goes well.

And that's it, for all eternity.

ohsopolite's avatar

Tell me you're writing an operetta without telling me you're writing an operetta.

Fluttbucker's avatar

I have a proposal for a TV Series called, The Husk Of Elon Musk.

The decaying Husk Of Elon Musk is forced to walk the Earth, doing good deeds, hoping for redemption and release. A spectral Roy Cohn acts as his Jiminy Cricket, offering advice and caging cigarettes. Musk does his best, but absolution is always out of reach. At the conclusion of each episode, The Demonic Spectral Waifs appear, gazing upon Elon with naked hatred and chanting, "THE HUSK, THE HUSK, THE HUSK OF ELON MUSK!" Sometimes Elon begs for mercy. Other times he is defiant. No matter what, the background fades as the chanting increases in volume and abruptly stops. When the world comes back into focus, Elon finds himself in a new location, unrecognized and forced to start over. This is actually the tease for next week's episode.

For example, Elon arrives at a military field hospital. Heavy detonations can be heard in the distance. A doctor asks him to help with a stretcher. When he pitches in she says, "You must be an angel sent from Heaven! We need to hurry. The army is retreating and Putin's boys will be here by nightfall.." To his horror, Elon realizes he has been sent to Ukraine.

To Be Continued...

SteveB's avatar

Quantum Creep

redoubtagain's avatar

Tiresome as this is to point out, L. Ron Musth is product of a "culture" where a White minority oppresses a Black majority; so as a self-appointed guardian of said "culture" this informs how he moves in the world.

SteveB's avatar

Not nearly as tiresome as Musk himself.

Richard Von Busack's avatar

SOME GUY’S VOICE: LAND HO!

Hilarious, and on another workday where I need it.

You get this message in Teams: Meeting, Dwarf Bears 9:30 AM, and sometime I'll tell you how fucking much I fucking hate Teams. It's designed for people who leaned on the email button too hard and now have no faith in any communication system that doesn't INTERRUPT YOU RIGHT NOW.

So you see this and go, "Dwarf Bears"? That's what the meeting is about? Care for a clue, boss? Are there dwarf bears currently on the campus? Am I somehow responsible for the dwarf bears? Did I leave the gate open, though previously warned not to do so in memos? Or is this a hypothetical about the potential of dwarf bears to come into our offices, snuffling and pooping and eating the mother in law's tongue plant on Judy's desk? Would it steal your thunder to hint at what the hell this is about?

As for Skippy the Dipshit's sudden fascination with the classics, I think he needs to know: The Odyssey is gay as fk. It wasn't Helen of Troy, it was MELVIN. Melvin of Troy was really cute and had a butt that wouldn't quit.

But I like their miffedness.

Doctor Faustus:

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships? And burnt the topless towers of Ilium. Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss...HOLD THE PHONE, SHE'S A COLORED!

Ashton Kucher: You've been PUNKED!

Rick White's avatar

"Melvin of Troy was really cute and had a butt that wouldn't quit."

You sure about that? Sounds more like Achilles. You're in the wrong book, man! ;-)

SteveB's avatar

Helen didn't run off with Paris, she ran off with GAY PAHREE

SteveB's avatar

Christopher Nolan went Woke, so right about now he should be going broke... [checks box-office receipts] Uh... FRAUD AT POLLS

Pere Ubu's avatar

One of the stories now is that the studio is buying up all the seats in the theaters to goose the boxoffice numbers. You know, like Angel Studios does with all their films. And the evidence given? Poor turnout on a Monday morning.

SteveB's avatar

What did I say earlier about how they have a very limited playbook?

SteveB's avatar

Also, "This is how WE do it, so they MUST be doin' it too!"

R.Porrofatto's avatar

Hilarious en tout.

"hundreds of oars propelling it across the ocean"

As some sharp-eyed denizen pointed out, if you look closely at the trailer Musk/Grok assembled, the oarsmen in the background are rowing while facing the sides of the boat.

SteveB's avatar

And the people all said siddown, siddown you're grokkin' the boat

ohsopolite's avatar

As The Hughes Corporation sang, "Don't grok the boat, don't tip the boat over!".

Tehanu's avatar

Too bad the Devil hasn't dragged Lone Skum under ... yet.

SteveB's avatar

It's why he never wears a suit jacket, even in the Oval Office, no lapels to grab him by!

Blueb4sunrise's avatar

I bet the AI also uses scenes from 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou''