Discourse Chronicle

“We are excited to celebrate The Simpsons on postage stamps,” said U.S. Postal Service Executive Director of Stamp Services David Failor. “Eyebrow-raising to say the least, this witty, well-written pop icon continues to irreverently satire its parody of a middle-class family as it lampoons American culture. The Simpsons stamps, which includes known philatelists Bart Simpson, will serve as a great opportunity to interest youngsters into stamp collecting.” –USPS

category: Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Television    

[A hilarious video for people familiar with the classic Mega Man video game series. From Nick. BK]

category: Gaming, Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

[Best. Musical. Ever. Neil Patrick Harris stars. Written by Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon, and Zack Whedon. Available free until November. BK]

category: Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics    

Microsoft is finally admitting that those “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ads have had some impact on Vista’s reputation and performance in the market. The software giant is planning to respond with a huge advertising campaign of its own — which will not involve admitting that Vista is a bad OS. –Naomi Grossman

[I am a Mac and PC user, but my leanings are now more toward Apple. I admit that I love Mac’s current campaign and my favorite commercials are 2008’s Pep Rally and 2007’s Boxer. BK]

category: Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology, Television    

“I remember when I started here,” said Jim Hawes, who has taught math at Bishop Kelly for 11 years. “I thought I could get the kids to appreciate the symmetry of math and the intrinsic beauty of a balanced equation. That got beaten out of me midway through my second year, when my car was keyed, my house was TP’ed, I got 12 magazine subscriptions I never ordered, and someone phoned me at 1:30 in the morning and called me a faggot. Now, I’m just happy if they can parrot back the quadratic formula and don’t put soap in my coffee.” –The Onion

[Amen! I honestly love teaching English in college, particularly composition, but bad students ruin everything for everybody. BK]

category: Humor, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics    

[From Jim Gaffigan’s Beyond the Pale comedy special. Hilarious! BK]

category: Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Television    

[I found this webcomic hilarious because I know Elizabeth’s research is on cookbooks and cooking. However, I imagine from a feminist perspective, many things are going wrong in these three panels. BK]

category: Comics, Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics    

[Here is a hilarious ad for Mountain Dew featuring Chuck Norris and a You Tube-ish site. BK]

category: Humor    

[Our Introduction to Composition professor watches a lot of Sesame Street with his young daughter and constantly references this version of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”. A good adaptation intended to teach kids about triangles, but nowhere near as hilarious as the “My Cubicle” parody. BK]

category: Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Television    

[Here is something Elizabeth and I imagined as a product: Mr. Kuechenmeister as an action figure! How awesome might I be as a talking 6″ toy? We pictured a figure wearing dress clothes with a pull string that said one of three authentic sarcastic phrases such as: “Suck it up!” (motivational for 8:00am sections), “Deal with it!” (counters complaints), and “Quit yer bitchin’!” (effective against whining). Fortunately, my students understand my dry sense of humor because I could never say those things in a classroom and actually mean them. However, a Mr. Kuechenmeister action figure is still a hilarious concept. BK]

category: Humor, Life