Hi there! It’s nearly Halloween, which is when humans beg for treats! Why do humans only beg for treats one night out of the week? Me, I get treats every time I come inside, go out, wake up from a nap, or sit in the kitchen and go, “Meh.” That’s the power of being a cute kitty!
Anyway, I wanted to remind everyone that not all humans are nice on Halloween night so be sure to keep your pets — your dogs, your possums, your cats, and especially your black cats! — inside tomorrow night! The flame-haired one and the nice one both say that there’s no way they’re letting me outside tonight, no matter how much I beg! Meh!
As a reward for keeping your pets safe on Halloween, here are two horror movies recreated by kittens and our friends at the Pet Collective!
Today is the birthday of one of the most influential directors of all time — the one and only Alfred Hitchcock!
In honor of this day, here’s a video that I found on YouTube. This video, which was put together by Will Erickson so please give all credit to him, claims to feature every single cameo appearance that Hitchcock ever made!
Today is the 100th birthday of the great filmmaker and showman Orson Welles! And what better way to celebrate than listening to the famous 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds? Reportedly, this caused mass panic when it was originally aired as people tuned in late and were convinced that the Earth actually had been invaded by Martians!
(Like Martians would want this dump! Seriously….)
Enjoy and join us all in wishing Orson Welles a happy 100th!
I have a birthday this weekend so I won’t be around much for the next three days but before I left, I simply had to share this with you! Apparently, this aired on Adult Swim at 4 in the morning and it’s all anyone is talking about today.
Too Many Cooks! It starts out as funny. Then it gets disturbing. Then it’s funny. Then it’s disturbing. And then it’s funny again. Ultimately, it’s funny and disturbing!
Check out Too Many Cooks and see if you can figure out what the Hell is going on.
Incidentally, Smarf was my favorite character on Too Many Cooks. And guess what? He’s on twitter now and, even as I write this article, he is currently tweeting some of his TMC memories.
Too Many Cooks was the worst 6 years of my life. Mrow.
So, what do you think is going on with the opening credits of Too Many Cooks? I’m not sure but I do know that I’m going to have that song stuck in my head forever.
Too many cooks …. too many cooks … too many cooks …. toooooooo maaaaaaany coooooooks….
So, we all know that the Grinch once tried to steal to Christmas and then his heart grew a few sizes but did you know that apparently, the Grinch also tried to steal Halloween?
Until a few days ago, I did not. I was going through YouTube, searching for horror films that I could share here on the Shattered Lens, and guess what I came across?
A TV special from 1977 entitled Halloween is Grinch Night!
Unlike How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Halloween is Grinch Night apparently never became a holiday classic. Perhaps that’s because Halloween is Grinch Night is not exactly the most heart-warming of holiday specials. Whereas How The Grinch Stole Christmas tells us about how the Grinch learned the true meaning of Christmas, Halloween is Grinch Night gives us a Grinch who has no redeeming features. There is no hope for this Grinch. This Grinch will steal your soul and probably drink your blood. This Grinch is pure Grinchy evil.
This is the Grinch of our nightmares.
Check out Halloween is Grinch Night below and hope the Grinch doesn’t capture you this Halloween…
Let’s take just a small break from horror and instead, let’s watch something that’s really cute. And kinda horrific. Here’s is the Pet Collective’s version of Gone Girl!
The Internet is truly a terrible place that is full of terrible people.
You already knew that but occasionally, it’s good to be reminded that the Internet actually is a hundred times worse than the real world. Case in point: The sad story of Hooray for Ames.
In the real world, Hooray For Ames is a cute little song that was written to promote the town of Ames, Iowa. The video that was made to go with it is deliberately cheesy and certainly silly but, at the same time, it’s undeniably sincere and it’s hard not to be charmed by the fact that the people who made it appear to truly love living in the city of Ames.
On the Internet, both the song and the video were quickly declared to be the most terrible thing on the planet. Hateful comments were left on YouTube. Snarky articles appeared on Gawker. Across twitter, trolls on both the left and the right encouraged other trolls to spread the word that Hooray for Ames was the greatest crime against humanity ever. Left-wing moonbats complained about the fact that, with the exception of one black woman who has a prominent role in the video, almost everyone in Ames appears to be white and middle class. Right-wing nut jobs attacked the video for highlighting the fact that one of the men in the video was also a member of the Des Moines Gay Men’s Choir. A few idiots speculated that Hooray for Ames would actually harm the recruiting efforts of the Iowa State athletic department.
In short, the Internet reacted the way that the Internet always reacts and, as a result, Hooray for Ames was taken down from YouTube.
And that’s a shame because there was nothing wrong or offensive about Hooray for Ames. It was a heartfelt and cheerfully silly video that was probably mostly meant to amuse the friends and family of the people who made it. As opposed to something like Rebecca Black’s Friday, Hooray for Ames was the complete opposite of cynicism.
It was exactly the sort of thing that deserves to be, if not celebrated, at least left in peace.
But that’s not the way the Internet works, is it? The Internet — and this is especially true of YouTube — is a world where, far too often, a minority of trolls and hipster douchebags get to control the conversation. They saw Hooray for Ames and they decided to club it into submission and drag it back to the troll cave.
Well, you know what? I say Hooray for Hooray for Ames! And if anyone who was involved with the song or the video is currently reading this, I say don’t feed the trolls and don’t listen to the haters. Just be proud of what you’ve done.
Now, a few other YouTubers have posted the Hooray for Ames video. Who knows how long these videos will stay up before YouTube yanks them down? But until then, enjoy the most sincere video ever posted on YouTube.
(By the way, I think the guitar player looks like he could pass for Community‘s Danny Pudi but my friends Evelyn and Amy think I’m crazy. What do you think?)
Through the Shattered Lens 