Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

And in some ways we were not disappointed by the collection of ads from Sunday. In others, we were profoundly let down (i.e. any Go Daddy commercial and the endless promos for that new singing show Smash that’s being crammed down our throats). But which ones were the best? I subjectively decided on a few to show you that were clearly a cut above the rest, so that we can all vote on whose marketing department spent their millions wisely.

Our first entry’s level of creativity was made completely off the Darkness still riding the high off of “A Thing Called Love,” in Samsung’s ad for what amounts to a glorified Palm Pilot.

Next we have Wego the Rescue Dog, with the ability to fetch beers on command. Oh men and their beer and the crazy hijinks that ensue when they want it!

Jerry Seinfeld made his triumphant return to television (after his ad was on YouTube the entire week leading up to Sunday) only to be foiled by Jay Leno in a squirrel-suit jetpack.

Following the enormous success of “Kid Vader” last year, Volkswagon went ahead and made a sequel, going all sorts of meta on themselves and having it be a commercial within a commercial.

Of course there’s a good chance your favorite didn’t make it onto my completely biased list of things I personally found entertaining. As such, you’re welcomed to point it out in the comments (there’s a poll option just for you!).

Deciding to take advantage of this whole “internet” thing may not have been the best idea for business when your company is notorious for poor working conditions and less than exemplary food. Minimum wage labor, greasy flash-frozen food, and a billion served a day is a cocktail for disaster to say the least.

So why not ask customers to share their favorite McDonald’s-related tales via the Twitter hashtag #McDstories? Because the Twitter world decided to take this opportunity to share their horror stories, making for some awesome backlash and even better fodder for comedy.

#McDstories When I was 16 with only a couple of GCSE exams under my belt, I was turned down for a job at McD because I was "overqualified"!

—
Damon Lord (@DamonLord) January 24, 2012

I use to eat McDonalds every day for lunch and gained 45 pounds, I stopped and have lost 30 thus far! Damn Fries!! #mcdstories

—
Josh Bruner (@cyberjob) January 24, 2012

#mcdstories My dad ate there, pulled off the road, puked violently in empty cooler.Hasn't been back since. I was 7. Thanks for that memory

—
Jody Mason (@JodyRaeMason) January 24, 2012

#McDStories Working drive-thru shift as a teenager. Arch Deluxe fell off the conveyor belt onto the floor. Re-wrapped it and sent it out.

—
Curtis Townson (@ctownson) January 24, 2012

The hashtag lasted all of two hours before corporate pulled it, but not before the damage was ostensibly done.

Hey you. Yeah, you. If you’ll stop sobbing long enough to let me talk, maybe I can console you just a little about why you can’t look at illicit images of women today (or men if that’s your thing, no judgement here). You’ve probably heard of these things called SOPA and PIPA the last couple of months. It’s why you can’t go on Reddit to put off doing those TPS reports today, and if either bill passes it could get much, much worse for all of us.

Part of the beauty of the internet (and the reason why you’re probably 99% less productive than you could be at work on a daily basis) is that for the most part it’s a safe-haven for creative, original content. SOPA/PIPA would make it frighteningly easy for the federal government to go into your precious internets with a buzzsaw and cut out whatever they saw fit.

In a representative democracy like our own, the fact that this law is supported primarily by higher-ups in the entertainment industry should raise red flags. The groundswell of opposition across the country tells us that there’s a good chance that the people of America don’t want this, and as such we need to express our malcontent.

Need more information?

Try this:

And this:

You can also make the journey over to Failbook where there’s a handy summary of the Wikipedia Blackout. Ok, so now that you’re ten shades of informed, make your voice heard by signing this petition and contacting your local representative.

TV has long been a place for workplace comedy. As we’ve discussed here at Monday Thru Friday before, there’s a long history of office humor invading your TV that dates back to some of the very first sitcoms. Nowadays, shows like Parks & Recreation, 30 Rock, and even Futurama portray women in the workplace as independent, empowered, and generally awesome. ABC’s newest (and critically maligned) cross-dressing comedy, Work It doesn’t quite agree with this assessment.

The thesis on the show centers around the idea that men are no longer welcome in the workplace and by some form of frayed logic women are taking over the corporate world (this is of course in a bizarro corporate world that isn’t predominantly controlled by old white guys). In response to this, our two protagonists, in order to find employment in this new fictional and oppressive matriarchy, must dress as women in order to be hired. All the while they’re ignoring their wives and struggling with all manner of hilarious cross-dressing things as supposed hilarity ensues. Needless to say, early reviews aren’t positive.

AV Club:

“Let’s just get this out of the way first: Work It is awful. But it’s fascinatingly awful, in that way where you wonder how the hell something like this got on TV in the year 2012. It’s a bad show, but it really, really wants you to love it, like an animal that’s been run over and dragged itself on your doorstep to look up at you with sad, pleading eyes before dying.”

TV Guide:

“Work It is insulting to anyone of any gender with half a brain and a lick of taste. Ignoring it is the best revenge.”

Gawker:

“Work It is just a sad, embarrassing mess. It has used up every joke that is conceivable from this set up—people thinking Lee is a real woman, the “girls” doing really macho things, their outfits falling apart in front of the crowd, their identities being blown at home, Lee learning a lesson on how to treat his wife by being a real woman. It’s spent. It’s all used up. ABC, do yourself and the world a favor and cancel this thing before it gets any worse. Just kidding. It couldn’t possibly be worse.”

Further emphasizing the not-so-veiled misogyny of Work It is this wonderful gallery of screenshots from the pilot, complete with some choice Susan B. Anthony quotations. I’d put up a clip from the show too, but that would be downright cruel.

Last week I presented to you the first installment of the best office-humor shows Hollywood has ever given us. This week the list closes out with the top 3 (excluding the US/UK Office because frankly it’s just too obvious). So without further ado…

3. The IT Crowd

Originally aired in the UK back in 2006, the IT Crowd shows us the lives of three corporate peons working in the dingiest of basements, answering the calls of the technologically challenged. With the rallying cry of “did you try turning it off and on again,” the IT Crowd got all of 24 episodes (5 seasons) before the creator, Graham Linehan announced that the planned 6th season would only be an extended special.

2. NewsRadio

Back in 1995, when shows with laugh-tracks were actually funny, there was NewsRadio. Starring Phil Hartman, it launched the careers of such talents as Joe Rogan, Andy Dick, and in one episode even a young Jon Stewart. Unlike it’s predecessors on this list, NewsRadio had a long successful run of 97 episodes before it finally came to a satisfying end.

1. Futurama

And finally we get to the top spot, featuring everyone’s favorite delivery service, Planet Express. After lasting just four seasons in its under-appreciated original run, it was resurrected just last year due in no small part to its massive success in syndication. Spawning a number internet memes, Futurama is now safely entrenched in Comedy Central’s late-night lineup as it continues to be one of the most clever cartoons ever on television.

(Honorable Mention: Parks & Recreation, Car Poolers, the Drew Carey Show, Workaholics)

And that rounds out our list! If you feel like your favorite show was passed over unjustly, throw it in the comments so that it gets its due appreciation. If you missed Part I, I encourage you go and check it out as well. –New Guy Nick

Thanks to the great suggestions we’ve gotten in Part I and Part II, we continue on in the “Worst Jobs in History” series, with three equally horrible professions for your review. This of course leads to the logical conclusion that there will never be a time in human history where there are satisfying jobs for everyone. And still, while dealing with idiots who can’t turn on a computer as an IT guy is bad, back in the day there were plenty of jobs that make yours look positively cushy.

7. Fullers

Back in the days of yore (circa the height of the Roman Empire), there was a process known as “fulling,” where someone would submerge clothing in an ammonia agent in a tub, and basically stomp on it while it thickened thanks to science. What made this job particularly awesome for a Fuller was that the cheapest ammonia agent out there was urine. Yes, these people would be ankle-deep in pee for a living.

8. First World War Messengers (also known as Trench Runners)

It pretty much goes without saying that the soldiers who fought in both World Wars were subjected to some of the most horrifying conditions in modern combat. But the messengers that ran between trenches, especially during WWI, had a lot riding on their success and failure. Dodging the shrapnel, bayonets, shells, and mustard gas was bad enough, but your dying could often lead to breakdowns in communications and the possible death of your comrades back in the trenches.

9. Black Plague Dead Collector

Most of you have probably seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and remember the iconic “Bring out your dead!” scene. Well one of the Pythons, Terry Jones, was a medieval historian who may have helped lend a bit of truth to comedy. In the Middle Ages, it really was someone’s job to collect those who had recently succumbed to the Black Death and to summarily dispose of their bodies. Because the corpses were still plague-ridden in death, oftentimes collectors would be subject to the highly contagious Plague on an everyday basis, creating a high turnover rate in the profession.

As always, leave your suggestions for any jobs I may have missed in the comments, and discuss away! If you missed the first installments, feel free to peruse at your leisure:

Worst Jobs in History, Part I
Worst Jobs in History, Part II

–New Guy Nick

People have been on about office-related humor since the beginning of time. Hell, that’s the reason you’re here right now on this site, enjoying the hefty stockpile of water-cooler jokes that we here at Monday Thru Friday pride ourselves on.

But then along came the movie Office Space, and suddenly office humor started appearing on the silver screen. Eventually it made it’s way on to television, spawning a number of TV shows to varying degrees of success. Here are some of the best…

6. Andy Richter Controls the Universe (2003)

Created by Conan O’Brien funnyman Andy Richter back in 2002, this show, although hilarious, lasted all of nineteen episodes, limping its way through two seasons of little to no viewership. Andy Richter went on to make an ill-advised sitcom before reprising his role as Conan’s second banana, never to venture into network comedies again.

5. Better Off Ted (2009)

While Andy Richter may have been scared off of network workplace comedy, the showrunners of Controls the Universe were not. Set in the R&D department of the faceless corporation “Veridian Dynamics,” Better Off Ted made it all of 26 episodes before it too succumbed to the cancellation bug that seems to afflict most clever comedies.

4. Dead Like Me (2003)

This one falls under the guise of a much darker workplace comedy, tackling the business of death. In this reality, Grim Reapers are bound to corporate obligations as much as the living, and answer only to Mandy Patinkin. From the mind of Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, the upcoming Munsters reboot), Dead Like Me managed to put together 29 episodes and a movie before it hit the chopping block.

And that concludes round one. If I’ve left any out that aren’t the British or American versions of the Office, mention them in the comments. –New Guy Nick