Showing posts with label Humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Humor. Show all posts

Friday, January 13, 2012

Boycott Game of Thrones??




Boycott Game of Thrones!? 

Did that get your attention?  It sure grabbed mine.

I don’t believe I’ve ever been so impressed.  As I read this incredible article—and there’s simply no other word for it—I couldn’t help but answer some of the outstanding questions it posed.  

Yes, the article is on a satirical website.  But I’ve heard too many arguments just like this, and once I got going, I couldn’t shut myself off.  And—frankly—I’d already written it.  

It’s not that far off the mark from what so many crazies out there really do believe, so I decided to put it up anyway, with the disclaimer that this is a satire of a satire.  I got a whole “Inception” thing going on.

Enjoy.

 12 Reasons to Boycott Game of Thrones in 2012


“1. Sexual abnormality, including incest and lesbianism, appears in graphic detail.
From casual rape to group orgies, each episode of Game of Thrones has something astonishing for viewers. For many children, this will be the first time they are introduced to wanton fornication. Will they choose to experiment like this in real life?”


You just ignore that MA rating on a premium cable channel.  Turn off those parental controls so the children don’t miss out on this early morning preschool adventure. Because even though Mom & Dad encourage the kids to watch any old HBO original series, this is surely the first time they’ve been exposed to “wanton fornication.”  And kids never experiment without gratuitous and explicit prompting.  And if HBO is going to market this show as a sexier "Dora the Explorer," who am I to prevent the children from watching it?

Also, I never knew that the words “appear” and “glorify” were synonyms. Thanks for clearing this up.

“2. Witchcraft is presented as empowering while Christian values are utterly insulted.
Deadly potions and menacing spirits dominate the storyline, but there is no mention of Jesus despite the fact that His love was the backbone of wisdom in the Middle Ages.”


At first I, too, thought this show was set in Europe.  I can suspend my disbelief and accept that zombies, dragons, giant wolves, decade-long-summers/winters, fictional countries, and even the thousand-foot-tall wall of ice were (and are) a part of everyday European life.  But the idea that any overland travel through one country in Europe could take a month?  Please.  I wasn’t born yesterday.

“3. There is far too much violence and this prevents the overall plot from ever becoming compelling. Do we really need to see all these bloody close-ups of beheadings and elaborate jousts? It just doesn’t contribute anything educational to the viewing experience.”

If you’re watching HBO for educational reasons, you’re doing it wrong.  Although I’ve always found jousting obscene.  If the Lord wanted us to ride horses, why did He invent spaceships?

“4. Emilia Clarke is such an untalented actress that her only role in the show is to be eye candy for pedophiles.  This pretty young girl unfortunately lacks the intellect or the sophistication to appear on prime time television. The producers seem to know this and require her to disrobe in every scene. Her gentle, undeveloped teenage body does not evoke womanhood, but the innocence of a lost child, alone on the side of a highway and ripe for the picking.
”

Daenarys?  An innocent child ripe for the picking?  Ridiculous.  Every legal-age young woman longs for the day when her abusive older brother will force her to marry a foreign warlord in exchange for a chance to reclaim the home she cares nothing about.  And those two or three scenes where she was topless totally turned me into a lesbian for a full three weeks.  I was halfway through the divorce proceedings before its demonic effects wore off.

“5. By depicting the traditional heterosexual family unit as dysfunctional and a socialistic revolutionary army as an ideal alternative, the show reveals its underlying communist bias.
Should it come as any surprise that author George R. R. Martin, a power broker in liberal Hollywood, named the dominating spirit of these soldiers “The Red God”?”


Yes, all those homosexual families were WAY too happy and loving—TOTALLY unbelievable—and those Starks were absolute monsters.  I mean, come on…what cheated-on wife HASN’T welcomed her husband’s bastard into her home with open arms?  And are we really supposed to believe that heterosexual marriages—especially politically-arranged ones—don’t result in deliriously happy families every single time? 

“6. Actor Peter Dinklage, who plays a dwarf on the show, has become the poster child for sodomy amongst America’s youths.  Children identify with Dinklage because of his small size and comical accent, but his obsession with anal penetration crosses the boundaries into pure propaganda. How many children will watch the little man and want to try his grunty thrusts at home?”

This poses an interesting argument about whether he really is a dwarf, or if he just plays one on TV.  And I, too, share these concerns that several seconds of iffy, soft-core, maybe-sodomy-but-probably-just-doggy-style dwarf lovin’ will transform an entire generation of America’s youth into orgy-starved catamites. 

“7. At times, the series appears to be little more than an excuse to display illicit homosexual scenarios. Flamboyant costumes, effeminate longhaired men, boys shaving each other’s armpits… Add to this the voluptuous, swarmy acting style of gay porn star Kit Harington (who plays sycophant Jon Snow) and you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to a San Francisco bathhouse full of the apes from Star Trek.
”

From dictionary.com:  Syc·o·phant: noun: a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.

I didn’t know that “sycophant” describes someone who forswears ever having a family so he can commit himself to a lifetime of service defending his country. Although I’m sure no one in Middle Age Europe (where this story totally takes place) ever had long hair or flamboyant costumes. Codpieces, shimmering suits of armor, lacy cravats, and jester’s motley were only invented to humiliate the red man. I’m pretty sure that’s right.

Although that comment about being “transported to a San Francisco bathhouse full of the apes from Star Trek” is exquisite.  And absolutely correct. The entire Game of Thrones series is, scene-for-scene, no different than watching gay orangutans in Star Trek costumes have drunken orgies in a San Francisco bathhouse.

“8. The Irish actors willfully glamorize severe alcoholism.  The ignominy of Ireland has always been the weakness of its people when it comes to alcohol indulgence. Why must Games of Thrones attempt to find humor in such a national disgrace?”


First, I shouldn’t be surprised that someone who feels comfortable making fun of dwarves in a public forum would also be a racist.  Second, I’m getting sick of saying that this show did not take place in Europe, so there are no Irish characters in Game of Thrones.  Third, you’re right.  Every alcoholic in the show was a paragon of morality and virtue.  Drinking was never once portrayed as a vice, and it never EVER came back to bite them later.  King Robert’s death could in no way be attributed to the fact that he was stumbling-down drunk during a boar hunt. 

“9. Pet wolves and dragons mirror demonic spirit guides in pagan cosmology.
When you pair up children with conduits of divination, you are inviting them to experiment in spiritually reckless ways. Sadly, atheism and Satanism await them down this path.”


Look, you have to start teaching kids early on that pets are only to be used in Satanic rituals.  How else will they become the world’s youngest and most powerful atheist warlocks?  I can’t do this alone, people. 

“10. The show is incredibly difficult for adults to understand.  Most parents will find the thick European accents of the actors confusing. The story, vamped up from the original book, is frustrating for its leaps of logic and implausible romantic scenes. The producers of Games seem to understand this and have crafted the series so that it intentionally turns away older viewers. Should we be suspicious that they have worked so hard to have some private alone time with America’s children?”

It’s all so clear to me now.  This show must be aimed at children, because it’s just too smart and challenging for adults.  No adult wants to think.  No adult believes in implausible romance (there’s nothing more realistic than a Harlequin novel or the first few minutes of a porno).  And the British accent is harder to understand than ancient Egyptian calculus.

But you show me a child who says he doesn’t enjoy multiple convoluted plotlines, dozens of characters, hours of dialogue, and beautiful scenery, and I’ll show you a liar.  Game of Thrones might as well be a Spongebob Christmas special.

“11. There are no positive role models.  It may sound a bit old fashioned, but what ever happened to the strong male figures we had on shows like Little House on the Prairie and Touched by an Angel? Instead we have Littlefinger and androgynous Joffrey Baratheon prancing about as heroes for today’s confused young men who appear to be insanely obsessed with this outrageous series.”

And why isn’t watching “Dexter” more like grocery shopping?  Why isn’t the song “Get Low” more like washing my hair?  Why do twelve-year-old-boys look like twelve-year-old boys, instead of like Sean Connery?  Why isn’t my child learning more life lessons from pizza boxes?


“12. The moody, dark cinematography will make teens depressed.  Many youth subculture groups, including Goths and Skinheads, prefer to inhabit the world of the night. In darkness they find convenient cover to master their addiction to drugs and sexual violence. Does Games of Thrones actively promote marijuana usage and rape? Should parents really sit idly by as we await the answer to this important question?”

That’s right, because teenagers have to find excuses for being depressed and smoking weed.  Most of them were super happy and not at all rebellious until this show came along—a show clearly better aimed at preteens than Twilight—and none of them knew what rape was until Game of Thrones made it look so darn fun.  But you couldn’t swing a direwolf familiar at a gay family orgy/birthday party without hitting a Satanist who's sodomizing a pre-teen while toking up some Hawaii Skunk.  They call it Hawaii Skunk, too, because this show is totally set in Europe.



For the record, I am a devout Christian and there are things on the show I could do without.  I don’t enjoy looking at women’s breasts or watching simulated sex of any kind, gay or otherwise.  And I would never let my children watch this show.  But that’s the difference between being a child and being an adult, now isn’t it?  Grown-ups can do things that kids can’t. You don’t want your kids to see you having sex with your spouse, but that doesn’t mean you should stop doing it.  I can enjoy a movie, TV show, or book series without insisting they be Bible stories.  And if I was going to talk about how horrible a television show is, I’d at least watch it first.

(Once again, I must reiterate that this is a satirical reply to a satirical article, but it’s so realistic that I couldn’t resist answering it as though it were real!)

Friday, November 11, 2011

Creativity Exercise




It's been awhile since I did one of these.  Enjoy! And happy 11-11-11!!!




1. How can someone tell if you’re lying?
They run and tattle like a little girl

2. What was the last thing you stole?
A man’s heart. See? It’s right here, in a jar on my desk.

3. How many kids do you want?
I don’t like goats

4. What is something you CANNOT wait to do?
Breathe

5. Do you believe everything happens for a reason?
No. Nothing is ever caused by anything.

6. Where is the person who stole your heart?
In prison. Organ trafficking is illegal, yo. And it stings.

7. It’s 4 AM and your phone rings who is it?
A dead person. They just don’t know it yet.

8. Anything good happening tomorrow?
What did I say about my psychic abilities? I said they only work from 7:00-7:02AM every third Tuesday, and only during leap years that end in odd numbers. You don’t listen.

9. Relationships or one night stands?
I keep my nightstands for one night and one night only. Disposable furniture is the wave of the future, people. Be there or be square.

10. What are you sitting on right now?
My fat @$

11. What is the last non-alcoholic beverage you had?
Blood. Unfermented, of course. See? I pay attention to the questions.

12. What is one thing you need more than anything?
My internal organs, neatly arranged and functioning properly.

13. Who was the last person to wear your clothes, other than you?
Don’t be creepy.

14. What were you doing at 4AM?
Performing Macbeth in its entirety with the pink & blue unicorns who stole Charlie’s kidney and the other Charlie, who bit his brother’s finger. Disastrous, by the way.

15. Tell me about the shirt you’re wearing.
It’s simply encrusted with gemstones, pencil shavings, and gemstones fashioned to look like pencil shavings. Its name is James Mortimer Gerard Susan Mortimer Mortimer Mortimer, and cost me two hams and one of my outdated cell phones.

16. What’s the last thing you put in your mouth?
Me shiv, since it’s too hard to board a ship one-handed.

17. I bet you miss someone today?
I’m Ron Burgundy?

18. Chicken or steak?
It depends on who has the gun.

19. Are you an alcoholic?
There’s no good way to answer that question.

20. Are you an aunt/uncle?
I know it’s “in” to be transgender these days, but, sadly, I don’t feel compelled to have my genitalia altered, surgically or otherwise. So no. Not an aunt/uncle.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Creativity Exercise

1. Can you make a dollar change right now?
I can make it change into confetti.

2. Are you afraid of falling in love?
Yeah, it messes up my shoes. Love is notoriously hard to get out. It’s like grape juice or blood.

3. What feature do you find least attractive in the opposite sex
A vagina

4. If you were to wake up from an extended coma, who would you call?
The doctor

5. Ever been in a fight with your pet?
Yeah, but she’s not very smart, so I totally won.

6. Do you like ducklings?
No!!  The ducklings were a distraction!!  I had been robbed!!

7. Who would you least like to be stuck in an elevator with?
The devil and his screaming babies after they've eaten Indian food

8. What article of clothing do you like your significant other to wear?
Underwear

9. What is your full name?
That thing my Mother calls me when she’s angry

10. Have you ever gambled at a casino?
No, I only gamble in beauty parlors or elementary schools

11. Are you watching TV right now?
Yes, I am, because it is my job to watch Sesame Street while working on the Outlook schedule and blogging. Wait…

12. What are two fruits that you really like?
Elton John and Lafayette from True Blood

13. What’s your favorite fancy restaurant?
Long John Silver’s

14. Doggies or kitties?
Both tasty. Why choose?

15. House or apartment?
Igloo

16. DVD player or VCR?
Pop tarts

17. Lipstick or lip gloss?
Flying monkeys

18. Do you like your name?
Only as a friend

19. When do you shower?
Every spring, whether I need it or not

20. Do you cry a lot?
If I hold off long enough, I’m pretty sure my tears will cure sleep apnea and eczema. I just have to let the potency build up.  Another 10, maybe 15 years and we're golden.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

If you are (or want to be) an Evil Overlord...

Too good not to share!!


Being an Evil Overlord seems to be a good career choice. It pays well, there are all sorts of perks and you can set your own hours. However every Evil Overlord I've read about in books or seen in movies invariably gets overthrown and destroyed in the end. I've noticed that no matter whether they are barbarian lords, deranged wizards, mad scientists or alien invaders, they always seem to make the same basic mistakes every single time. With that in mind, allow me to present...



The Top 100 Things I'd Do
If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord





1.  My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.

2.  My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.

3.  My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.

4.  Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

5.  The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness.

6.  I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

7.  When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No."

8.  After I kidnap the beautiful princess, we will be married immediately in a quiet civil ceremony, not a lavish spectacle in three weeks' time during which the final phase of my plan will be carried out.

9.  I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a large red button labelled "Danger: Do Not Push". The big red button marked "Do Not Push" will instead trigger a spray of bullets on anyone stupid enough to disregard it. Similarly, the ON/OFF switch will not clearly be labelled as such.

10.  I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.

11.  I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.

12.  One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

13.  All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.

14.  The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any other form of last request.

15.  I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.

16.  I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

17.  When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.

18.  I will not have a son. Although his laughably under-planned attempt to usurp power would easily fail, it would provide a fatal distraction at a crucial point in time.

19.  I will not have a daughter. She would be as beautiful as she was evil, but one look at the hero's rugged countenance and she'd betray her own father.

20.  Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.

21.  I will hire a talented fashion designer to create original uniforms for my Legions of Terror, as opposed to some cheap knock-offs that make them look like Nazi stormtroopers, Roman footsoldiers, or savage Mongol hordes. All were eventually defeated and I want my troops to have a more positive mind-set.

22.  No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.

23.  I will keep a special cache of low-tech weapons and train my troops in their use. That way -- even if the heroes manage to neutralize my power generator and/or render the standard-issue energy weapons useless -- my troops will not be overrun by a handful of savages armed with spears and rocks.

24.  I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" (After that, death is usually instantaneous.)

25.  No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any sort of machinery which is completely indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible vulnerable spot.

26.  No matter how attractive certain members of the rebellion are, there is probably someone just as attractive who is not desperate to kill me. Therefore, I will think twice before ordering a prisoner sent to my bedchamber.

27.  I will never build only one of anything important. All important systems will have redundant control panels and power supplies. For the same reason I will always carry at least two fully loaded weapons at all times.

28.  My pet monster will be kept in a secure cage from which it cannot escape and into which I could not accidentally stumble.

29.  I will dress in bright and cheery colors, and so throw my enemies into confusion.

30.  All bumbling conjurers, clumsy squires, no-talent bards, and cowardly thieves in the land will be preemptively put to death. My foes will surely give up and abandon their quest if they have no source of comic relief.

31.  All naive, busty tavern wenches in my realm will be replaced with surly, world-weary waitresses who will provide no unexpected reinforcement and/or romantic subplot for the hero or his sidekick.

32.  I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard to come by.

33.  I won't require high-ranking female members of my organization to wear a stainless-steel bustier. Morale is better with a more casual dress-code. Similarly, outfits made entirely from black leather will be reserved for formal occasions.

34.  I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.

35.  I will not grow a goatee. In the old days they made you look diabolic. Now they just make you look like a disaffected member of Generation X.

36.  I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cell block, let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing out copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.

37.  If my trusted lieutenant tells me my Legions of Terror are losing a battle, I will believe him. After all, he's my trusted lieutenant.

38.  If an enemy I have just killed has a younger sibling or offspring anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately, instead of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of vengeance towards me in my old age.

39.  If I absolutely must ride into battle, I will certainly not ride at the forefront of my Legions of Terror, nor will I seek out my opposite number among his army.

40.  I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.

41.  Once my power is secure, I will destroy all those pesky time-travel devices.

42.  When I capture the hero, I will make sure I also get his dog, monkey, ferret, or whatever sickeningly cute little animal capable of untying ropes and filching keys happens to follow him around.

43.  I will maintain a healthy amount of skepticism when I capture the beautiful rebel and she claims she is attracted to my power and good looks and will gladly betray her companions if I just let her in on my plans.

44.  I will only employ bounty hunters who work for money. Those who work for the pleasure of the hunt tend to do dumb things like even the odds to give the other guy a sporting chance.

45.  I will make sure I have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what in my organization. For example, if my general screws up I will not draw my weapon, point it at him, say "And here is the price for failure," then suddenly turn and kill some random underling.

46.  If an advisor says to me "My liege, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?", I will reply "This." and kill the advisor.

47.  If I learn that a callow youth has begun a quest to destroy me, I will slay him while he is still a callow youth instead of waiting for him to mature.

48.  I will treat any beast which I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is ever broken, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.

49.  If I learn the whereabouts of the one artifact which can destroy me, I will not send all my troops out to seize it. Instead I will send them out to seize something else and quietly put a Want-Ad in the local paper.

50.  My main computers will have their own special operating system that will be completely incompatible with standard IBM and Macintosh powerbooks.

51.  If one of my dungeon guards begins expressing concern over the conditions in the beautiful princess' cell, I will immediately transfer him to a less people-oriented position.

52.  I will hire a team of board-certified architects and surveyors to examine my castle and inform me of any secret passages and abandoned tunnels that I might not know about.

53.  If the beautiful princess that I capture says "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!", I will say "Oh well" and kill her.

54.  I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.

55.  The deformed mutants and odd-ball psychotics will have their place in my Legions of Terror. However before I send them out on important covert missions that require tact and subtlety, I will first see if there is anyone else equally qualified who would attract less attention.

56.  My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Any who cannot learn to hit a man-sized target at 10 meters will be used for target practice.

57.  Before employing any captured artifacts or machinery, I will carefully read the owner's manual.

58.  If it becomes necessary to escape, I will never stop to pose dramatically and toss off a one-liner.

59.  I will never build a sentient computer smarter than I am.

60.  My five-year-old child advisor will also be asked to decipher any code I am thinking of using. If he breaks the code in under 30 seconds, it will not be used. Note: this also applies to passwords.

61.  If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.

62.  I will design fortress hallways with no alcoves or protruding structural supports which intruders could use for cover in a firefight.

63.  Bulk trash will be disposed of in incinerators, not compactors. And they will be kept hot, with none of that nonsense about flames going through accessible tunnels at predictable intervals.

64.  I will see a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits which could prove to be a disadvantage.

65.  If I must have computer systems with publically available terminals, the maps they display of my complex will have a room clearly marked as the Main Control Room. That room will be the Execution Chamber. The actual main control room will be marked as Sewage Overflow Containment.

66.  My security keypad will actually be a fingerprint scanner. Anyone who watches someone press a sequence of buttons or dusts the pad for fingerprints then subsequently tries to enter by repeating that sequence will trigger the alarm system.

67.  No matter how many shorts we have in the system, my guards will be instructed to treat every surveillance camera malfunction as a full-scale emergency.

68.  I will spare someone who saved my life sometime in the past. This is only reasonable as it encourages others to do so. However, the offer is good one time only. If they want me to spare them again, they'd better save my life again.

69.  All midwives will be banned from the realm. All babies will be delivered at state-approved hospitals. Orphans will be placed in foster-homes, not abandoned in the woods to be raised by creatures of the wild.

70.  When my guards split up to search for intruders, they will always travel in groups of at least two. They will be trained so that if one of them disappears mysteriously while on patrol, the other will immediately initiate an alert and call for backup, instead of quizzically peering around a corner.

71.  If I decide to test a lieutenant's loyalty and see if he/she should be made a trusted lieutenant, I will have a crack squad of marksmen standing by in case the answer is no.

72.  If all the heroes are standing together around a strange device and begin to taunt me, I will pull out a conventional weapon instead of using my unstoppable superweapon on them.

73.  I will not agree to let the heroes go free if they win a rigged contest, even though my advisors assure me it is impossible for them to win.

74.  When I create a multimedia presentation of my plan designed so that my five-year-old advisor can easily understand the details, I will not label the disk "Project Overlord" and leave it lying on top of my desk.

75.  I will instruct my Legions of Terror to attack the hero en masse, instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack one or two at a time.

76.  If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridge over a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)

77.  If I have a fit of temporary insanity and decide to give the hero the chance to reject a job as my trusted lieutentant, I will retain enough sanity to wait until my current trusted lieutenant is out of earshot before making the offer.

78.  I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."

79.  If my doomsday device happens to come with a reverse switch, as soon as it has been employed it will be melted down and made into limited-edition commemorative coins.

80.  If my weakest troops fail to eliminate a hero, I will send out my best troops instead of wasting time with progressively stronger ones as he gets closer and closer to my fortress.

81.  If I am fighting with the hero atop a moving platform, have disarmed him, and am about to finish him off and he glances behind me and drops flat, I too will drop flat instead of quizzically turning around to find out what he saw.

82.  I will not shoot at any of my enemies if they are standing in front of the crucial support beam to a heavy, dangerous, unbalanced structure.

83.  If I'm eating dinner with the hero, put poison in his goblet, then have to leave the table for any reason, I will order new drinks for both of us instead of trying to decide whether or not to switch with him.

84.  I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex.

85.  I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the button."

86.  I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.

87.  My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use. Also, I will not construct walkways above them.

88.  If a group of henchmen fail miserably at a task, I will not berate them for incompetence then send the same group out to try the task again.

89.  After I captures the hero's superweapon, I will not immediately disband my legions and relax my guard because I believe whoever holds the weapon is unstoppable. After all, the hero held the weapon and I took it from him.

90.  I will not design my Main Control Room so that every workstation is facing away from the door.

91.  I will not ignore the messenger that stumbles in exhausted and obviously agitated until my personal grooming or current entertainment is finished. It might actually be important.

92.  If I ever talk to the hero on the phone, I will not taunt him. Instead I will say this his dogged perseverance has given me new insight on the futility of my evil ways and that if he leaves me alone for a few months of quiet contemplation I will likely return to the path of righteousness. (Heroes are incredibly gullible in this regard.)

93.  If I decide to hold a double execution of the hero and an underling who failed or betrayed me, I will see to it that the hero is scheduled to go first.

94.  When arresting prisoners, my guards will not allow them to stop and grab a useless trinket of purely sentimental value.

95.  My dungeon will have its own qualified medical staff complete with bodyguards. That way if a prisoner becomes sick and his cellmate tells the guard it's an emergency, the guard will fetch a trauma team instead of opening up the cell for a look.

96.  My door mechanisms will be designed so that blasting the control panel on the outside seals the door and blasting the control panel on the inside opens the door, not vice versa.

97.  My dungeon cells will not be furnished with objects that contain reflective surfaces or anything that can be unravelled.

98.  If an attractive young couple enters my realm, I will carefully monitor their activities. If I find they are happy and affectionate, I will ignore them. However if circumstance have forced them together against their will and they spend all their time bickering and criticizing each other except during the intermittent occasions when they are saving each others' lives at which point there are hints of sexual tension, I will immediately order their execution.

99.  Any data file of crucial importance will be padded to 1.45Mb in size.

100.  Finally, to keep my subjects permanently locked in a mindless trance, I will provide each of them with free unlimited Internet access.




This Evil Overlord List is Copyright 1996-1997 by Peter Anspach. If you enjoy it, feel free to pass it along or post it anywhere, provided that (1) it is not altered in any way, and (2) this copyright notice is attached.  

Link:  Peter's Evil Overlord List

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The Hoke, the Poke...and How to be an Evil Overlord

First of all, I want to thank Lexcade for bringing this awesome website to my attention:  Top 100 Evil Overlord Activities.  It's all about how to become (and, more importantly, how to REMAIN) a successful Evil Overlord, and it's just fantastic.  I remember seeing this years and years ago, but I'd almost forgotten about it.  I may actually just copy & paste the whole darn thing up on my blog tomorrow, because it's Just. That. Awesome.

Ok, I found this little gem online a while back, and I just had to share it with everyone.  I'm not sure who wrote it, but he or she is a genius:


O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.

Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.

To spin! A wilde release from Heaven's yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.

The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt!
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.

Friday, May 13, 2011

A day of Paraprosdokians

A “Paraprosdokian” is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part.

This is just for fun, because someone on the forums started a thread of these, and sarcasm makes me happy.  Feel free to add your own in the comments.  The first one is my favorite. 



· “I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk.” – Stephen King

· “I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my father, not screaming and terrified like his passengers.” — Bob Monkhouse

· "I like going to the park and watching the children run around because they don't know I'm using blanks." —Emo Phillips

· “I only know two tunes: one of them is ‘Yankee Doodle,’ and the other one isn’t.” –Ulysses S. Grant

· "If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised." —Dorothy Parker

· "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." —Groucho Marx

· "A modest man, who has much to be modest about." —Winston Churchill

· “She looks as though she's been poured into her clothes, and forgot to say 'when'." —P. G. Wodehouse

· "If I could say a few words, I'd be a better public speaker." —Homer Simpson

· "I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long." —Mitch Hedberg

· "I sleep eight hours a day and at least ten at night." —Bill Hicks

· Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.

· I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

· Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car

· The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

· The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list.

· When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the fire department usually uses water.

· Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

· If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

· Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

· Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

· To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

· If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of payments.

· Some people are like slinkies ... not really good for anything, but you can't help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.

· Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.

· A bank is a place that will lend you money, if you can prove that you don't need it.

· Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut and still think they are sexy.

· I discovered that I scream the same way whether I'm about to be devoured
by a great white shark or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Creativity Exercise #4



1. What is your blood type?
Red & hemoglobin-ey

2. Have you ever had phone sex?
I’m pretty sure that would void the warrantee on my phone, so…no.

3. Do you bite your nails?
Only when they deserve it.

4. Can you hula hoop?
A hula hoop is a noun. Can you apple? Can you diabetes?  Then yes, I can hula hoop.

5. Why do you write?
There are these little worms in my head that won’t shut up unless I write down what they say.  Annoying.

6. Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness?
Me?  No.  But personalities #2-#1,876…they’re another matter entirely.  (They're crazy)

7. Do you use chap stick?
Only in self-defense

8. What makes you laugh?
Neurons firing in my brain telling my diaphragm to jump …wait…maybe that’s the hiccoughs…

9. Can you use chop sticks?
I can use them to irritate people.

10. Do you use a shower cap?
Only as fake jellyfish in the swimming pool

11. Tell us what your greatest fear is.
Don’t tell me what to do. You’re not the boss of me.

12. Brown or white eggs?
Both make the paint peel nicely off my enemies’ cars

13. Are you good looking?
I’m good at looking.  I'm looking right now.

14. What states have you lived in?
Disrepair, confusion, chaos, peace, war…we can do this all day.

15. What is your average cell phone bill?
It’s a list of charges, fees, etc. demanded by my cell phone company under threat of disconnecting me from the rest of the universe forever.

16. Spell your name without vowels
R NM.  Wait…or did you mean Y-O-U-R-N-A-M-E-W-I-T-H-O-U-T-V-O-W-E-L-S?

17. Do you have any hidden talents?
How would I know?

18. Are you an only child or do you have siblings?
Yes.

19. Dream job?
Not a.  Complete sentence.  Won’t.  Give you the satisfaction.  Of a response.

20. Do you e-mail yourself?
I am not actually a computer file, program, virus, or any other form of virtual or analog data.  So, try as I might, I can’t seem to cram myself into a USB input and email myself.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Mary Sue's Magical Adventure

This is based on a 'what not to do' piece I wrote for the QueryTracker forum, just zjhoozjhed up a bit. And yes, I totally made that into a word. Zjhoozjh. It happened. Wrap your mind around that, and enjoy Mary Sue's adventure until your head explodes from all the exclamation points.



Dear Agents, Publishers, and Oprah…

Mary Sue is the most beautiful sixteen-year-old girl at her high school. She’s a genius with the voice of an angel who plays ten instruments and speaks seventeen languages! Puppies, kittens, bunnies, and baby birds all follow her around because they can sense how pure and wonderful she is! She sings in her church choir, works at a soup kitchen every Saturday, and babysits her four brothers and sisters while her single mother works three jobs after their abusive father went to prison! She is beloved by all…so why does everyone hate her so much!?

Ashley, the leader of the rich girls’ clique, bullies Mary Sue constantly because she’s soooo totally jealous! She dumps garbage and dog food into Mary Sue’s gorgeous golden hair, steals her scholarship to art school, and calls her names until everyone else hates Mary Sue for being so popular, too! Then Mary Sue’s lost evil twin Julie Sue, separated from her at birth, joins forces with Ashley, and now everyone thinks Mary Sue is a slut! But that's so not true, because she’s totally saving herself for marriage!

Then Ashley’s hunky football-star boyfriend Hunter, who is also a brooding thousand-year-old vampire who never feeds on human blood and is immune to sunlight, falls in love with Mary Sue! With the power of true love on her side, Mary Sue develops magical powers that she only uses for Good! Everyone finally realizes how wrong they were to hate Mary Sue, even Ashley. Then Hunter reveals he is the Prince of the fairies and marries Mary Sue, making her a real-life fairy princess! Also there’s angels and werewolves.

Mary Sue’s Magical Adventure is currently 347,821 words long, but I’m still working on it so it will change. It’s a YA fantasy/adventure/literary/paranormal/regency/mystery/historical fiction novel, and it reads like Harry Potter, the Clique, and Twilight combined, only better!

This book will sell BILLIONS of copies!  I wanted you to get in on the ground floor because I saw on your website that you represent several New York Times bestselling authors, and I knew you wouldn’t want to pass this up! But don’t worry; if there are any mistakes, you can totally catch them in editing. I trust you.

I have at least five more books in mind, because I've had a LOT of bullies and they all need to learn to stop being mean to people. Especially me! So when do you want the manuscript? It's all in Old English Text font, because I want you to really feel how mature the book is.  Even though it's still in its first draft, and I haven't actually finished it yet, you'll be so hooked to Mary Sue you'll want to sell it from chapter two.

Don’t wait too long, though! There are hundreds of agents out there who will snap this series up in a second, if you’re stupid enough to pass. I'll give you 6 hours to request to read the whole thing, and then you’re out of luck.  This is a business, and I’m offering to hire you. Don’t screw this up for yourself, especially in this economy!

Ciao!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Motivational Speakers

This is a satirical piece I wrote back before I learned how to fake an injury to get out of those mind-numbing teambuilding seminars.  Uuugh.  Now I know better.  Now I just think about actually sitting through it, and the nausea moves through me until I'm actually too sick to attend.  Crisis averted!  May you enjoy reading this as much as I hated attending it.


Motivational Speakers

Hello, everyone.  Welcome to your Company-sponsored lecture on leadership, productivity, and self-improvement.  I know you're all being forced to attend this seminar, and most of you are rolling your eyes and glancing at your watches, just waiting for me to say we’re all going to have a super-fun time.  Well, we’re probably not.  I mean, this is the same brainwashing, behavior-modifying, pop-psychological, propaganda-based waste of time we’ve been regurgitating and feeding back to the public every three years since the Hitler’s Youth program.  

That’s right; the only things we change are our catch phrases; like “See it and Be it,” “If you Believe it, You can Achieve it,” “Be Your Own Cheerleader,” and “Have You Hugged your Rainbow Today?”  And yet, some of you here today will still walk away believing that today has forever changed your life for the better.  So let’s get started!

Now, let me first tell you what we’re all about.  We’ve been hired by your Company to steal away precious hours of your life under the pretense of elevating your self-esteem, managing your time more efficiently, and bettering your overall lives.  In truth, however, it’s just much cheaper for your employers to make a meaningless gesture in the form of this tedious seminar to boost profits and productivity than to give you all raises or offer some sort of incentive program.  As a bonus, we make your heartless, money-driven Corporate Machine look like they actually care about its fully-disposable employees.

The same goes for your schools, ladies and gentlemen.  Yes, I can fully guarantee that if your children aren’t already enrolled a class that hammers these mind-controlling precepts into their fragile, impressionable young minds, they soon will be.  There are classes out there in every elementary school, junior high school, high school, and college that are devoted exclusively to these time-wasting exercises, designed to shape the weak-minded, gullible masses into the performance-driven automatons every employer dreams of.

But we’re getting off topic.  Let’s talk about time management.  Now, when I say ‘time-management,’ am I referring to your recreation time, your time at home, away from the office?  Of course not.  How would that help your Company pay my ridiculously overpriced bill?  No, I’m talking about better managing your time here, in the cubicle that will slowly but surely drain from you all life and vitality, leaving you a cold, hollow shell praying daily for a swift and painless death that will not come.

I know most of you are saying, “How?  How can I better manage my time to benefit my Company?”  Well, let’s just think about it for a moment; do you really need to take a lunch break?  Couldn’t you better use that hour by eating at your desk and finishing that paperwork?  Of course you could.  Just don’t choke on that chicken bone.  All the resulting paperwork would really slow down your HR department.  And what’s that, folks?  That’s right:  It’s…bad for The Company!

Today I’ll teach you about the power to “Choose Your Own Attitude.”  What a revolutionary concept, you’re thinking.  And you’re right.  You can decide how to feel today, and every day.  Do you want to be happy?  Then just be happy!  It doesn’t matter that you rear-ended a police car while driving your underage daughter to the hospital after she miscarried her cousin’s unborn child.  Suppress those unhappy, counter-productive emotions; block out those gloomy thoughts until they’re somewhere you’ll never find them until you suffer a psychotic break.

Just put on a happy face, and the rest will fall into place.  Don’t bring your problems to work; nobody cares about them anyway, and it can only decrease your performance level and the effectiveness of your co-workers.  Remember, The Company is everything, folks.

But what about problems at work, you say?  Well, those are your problems, and they’re your fault.  You shouldn’t selfishly lower your colleagues’ productivity by making a big scene when you’re passed over for that promotion in favor of the intern who gave in to your supervisor’s bizarre sexual advances.  Don’t sue over unpaid overtime or complain about working weekends.  Is that good for the Company?  No.  It doesn’t benefit anybody, and frankly, it can only make it that much harder for you to turn that frown upside down.

We all know that The Company is a fine-tuned Machine, and it can only work best and most effectively produce revenues if all the little people—I mean little pieces—are working together as one unified, non-individual-based unit.  Only if you all work your tired fingers to the bone, ridding yourself of every drop of individuality and hope for a better future, can the Company maximize its output.  That means higher profit margins and more money than a printing press.

But not for you, disposable employees.  No, no; that’s what I’m here for.  A meaningless gesture from your superiors to give you that false sense of loyalty and respect you so desperately thirst for, in order to keep you operating at the back-breaking pace they need to improve those bottom lines.  Yes, folks; if you listen and apply everything you hear today to your lives as a whole, I guarantee your Company will hire us to do this at every office they own.  Soon every employee will be volunteering to work weekends, giving up overtime pay, forfeiting vacations and time with friends and family, and feeling great about it!

Over the next four days, you’ll learn all about:

·         How guilt at missing unreachable quotas can be offset by working off the clock
·         Visualizing how the same repetitive, meaningless tasks performed over and over again will somehow make you president of The Company
·         The smug futility of mission statements
·         How to forge a false sense of unity through Company-based sports teams, retreats, and other mindless ‘teambuilding’ exercises
·         The degradation of the points-based ‘reward’ system
·         How competing in non-monetary awards programs for attendance/safety certificates can make you feel ‘special’
·         Better customer service though personal humiliation

And so much more!