Gallows Humor Videos Help With These Tough Times

Sarah Cooper is just one of my gallows humor
lifelines in this terrible pandemic era. 

Sarah Cooper. Julie Nolke. And, of course, Randy Rainbow.

These are people I absolutely rely on as this depressing, awful, horrible pandemic roars on.

LIke everybody else, I get anxious, depressed, angry, frustrated over the way things are, the bad direction the nation is going in, and the so-called leaders who have utterly failed us.

Negative emotions like this are not sustainable. The wear you down, and you become brittle and hostile and standoffish and not somebody you want to be around

So you look for an antidote. The best way to do it, at least for me, is to just embrace the gallows humor the current situation has us in. Which is why these three people are my lifeline.

You can look Cooper, Nolke and Rainbow up on social media. I have featured all three on this here blog thingy before, but it's always good and to highlight them again.  Maybe they can be your lifeline

First, here's Julie Nolke with Anna Akana in "Pandora's Box"  We watch Pandora and Zeus having a Zoom meeting. And it is the ultimate example of a bad, stereotypical mess up of a corpoerate meeting between a boss and underling.

 It turns out, both are culpable here, and it's a parable of how the leaders and their middle managers are incompetendly mucking up our lives.



I know many people will disagree with me, but Donald Trump's voice just grates on me. I clench my teeth every time I hear that idiot spout his word salad.  Sarah Cooper comes to the rescue with her delicious lip syncing of Donald Trump.



And who can forget Randy Rainbow? I've stopped posting every video he puts out, like I used to, because as much as I love Randy, I can't be exclusively a Randy Rainbow fan club. It's so easy to ind his videos anyway.

Between his singing talent, his top rate ability to throw shade, the lyrics, and the ideas, and his pretend participation in news conferences, you can't beat him. He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of songs he can tap to turn into his perfect parodies.

And his naughtiness.  I'll spoil a joke because I love it so much: Rainbow sings that lately all his rallies and events are like his sex life: Nobody comes.

His latest video taps "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from "The Little Mermaid to bring us "Poor Deplorable Troll:

Watch:

A Departure For Randy Rainbow: He Praises His Target, Hilariously, Of Course

Randy Rainbow today offered a video love letter to Andrew Cuomo.

We're all used to the brilliant comedian and satirist Randy Rainbow skewering political nitwits in his videos.  

Today, he dropped a video called "Andy" which is to the tune of "Sandy" from "Grease."

The target in this video is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and the good gov survives the video unscathed.

Rainbow's "Andy" is a love letter to the level-headed, fact driven, compassionate but tough Cuomo, whose daily televised coronovirus updates and briefings are some of the most informative, reassuring information we get about the Corvid-19 pandemic.

I certainly feel myself drawn to Cuomo's briefings. They sure are, ahem, a big contrast from what we're getting from the Trump administration.

Rainbow is so smitten by Cuomo in "Andy" that he sings that he now identifies as a "cuomosexual."  I kinda do, too, frankly.  If only all our leaders could be as good in a crisis as Cuomo.

Here's Rainbow's latest to give you a little levity in this dark week:

Furloughed Sportcaster Gives "Mundane" Sports Play By Play, Hilariously

Which pedestrian will make it across the street first?
Sportscaster Nick Heath has the coronavirus play by play. 

British sportscaster Nick Heath is temporarily out of a job. There's no sporting events on due to the coronavirus, so, he had to come up with a different plan.

You know, to stay in practice, to make sure his skills don't fade during his layoff.

So, Heath has been going around doing his sportscaster thing on people doing mundane things, like walking their dog, or grocery shopping, or sitting outside a cafe.

The results are strange, but pure comic gold

Below are a couple examples of Heath's play by play.

A 1946 PSA Will Make You Laugh While Reminding You To Cover Your Sneezes And Coughs

This old PSA from 1946 is a funny, good reminder of what to do.

For weeks now, we've been told to be very careful about sneezing and coughing with the coronavirus going around. 

It's serious, distressing stuff, as we all know.

To make you laugh a little bit, here's a British PSA reminding people not to sneeze out in the open, to cover your mouth when you have a sneeze coming on.

Here it is:

Randy Rainbow Takes On The Coronavirus

Randy Rainbow is giving us a bit of gallows humor
with "The Coronavirus Lament."

Leave to Randy Rainbow to give us a bit of comic relief for the coronavirus nightmare.

Over the weekend, Rainbow dropped a new video called "The Coronavirus Lament."

It's based on "Adelaide's Lament," by Frank Loesser, which is from the 1950 Tony-winning musical "Guys and Dolls."

I've been a nervous wreck during this crisis, so I definitely need a laugh. You do, too.

Randy Rainbow's Latest, To Nurse Your Super Tuesday Hangover

The ever-productive Randy Rainbow released a new video during Super Tuesday, urging us to vote for a Democrat. Any Democrat. He doesn't care. As long as it's not GOP Trump.

This parody is from the song "Any Dream Will Do," from Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."

Instead of "Any Dream Will Do," Rainbow switched it to "Any Dem Will Do."

In the fast-pace time of primaries, certain aspects of this video were outdated upon release, even though he clearly made the video in the past few days.  Democrats featured in the video include Peter Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer, who all dropped out of the race in the day or so before Super Tuesday.  (Then Mike Bloomberg dropped out just this morning).

Of course, Rainbow doesn't even remember Steyer's name in the video, Todd or something, because this candidate wasn't exactly an overpowering presence in the Democratic lineup.

In any event, Rainbow, in his song adheres to his motto, "Any Dem will do," because despite any and all of the Democrats' individual quirks and shortcomings they're better than Trump. Such as Bernie Sanders, "He's more kvetchy than my mom."

Here's the video:

Like Clockwork, Randy Rainbow Gives Us A New Video Today: "No Rules"

To brighen your Tuesday, Randy Rainbow has dropped
another great video.  Dance to "No Rules For Donald"

Any week is good when Randy Rainbow drops a new video, which I always report here. And we got a hot new one today called "No Rules For Donald."  

As usual, he starts with a news interview this time with U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr. Rainbow and Barr must be on a first name basis, since Rainbow calls him "Roseanne."

But anway, once we get into the song, which is based on Dua Lipa's hit "New Rules," we get into all of Trump's GOP enablers.

Other than the fact that I will never unsee that brief glimpse of Devin Nunes in ruby red lipstick, this is another video to brighten hour dystopian, gloomy February day. Watch and enjoy!

My Annual Darlene Love Christmas Greeting

Darlene Love and Jason Derulo perform this year's "Christmas (Baby
Please Come Home." on "The View"

Every year, because Christmas is the season of tradition, I do my annual Darlene Love Christmas greeting.

Here's the recap: My favorite holiday song is Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) made famous by Darlene Love way back in 1963.

She sang it every year from 1986 and 2014 on the David Letterman show. When that went off the air   she moved to "The View."

It's now nice every year when Darlene Love comes on that show and puts a temporary end to the hosts' constant bickering.

This Christmas  is a bit different for me than recent ones.  Usually, I have to stay in Vermont while my husband travels to South Dakota to be with family.  Normally, I can't go, as since I work for a retailer, I have to stay to the bitter end at Christmas. No holiday trips to South Dakota for me!

Except this year. A generous boss at work gave me some time off, so I've joined husband Jeff in South Dakota this year. So it's beautiful chaos for me as numerous in-laws, nieces, nephews wander in and out. And I'm with my husband, so I don't have to whine about baby, please come home.

Of course, this means I'm not with family in Vermont, so you can't have everything.

On "The View" this year Darlene Love was joined by Jason Derulo for this year's rendition. Here you go and Merry Christmas!

Doris Day Passes Away At Age 97

I have been temporarily far too busy to post on this here blog thingy lately. I hope to post more soon.

For now, though, I should mark the passing today of the great Doris Day, who passed away today at age 97.  As the loving obits all note, she really had a full, busy life of talent.

I'll save these good tributes for the experts. I'll just mark her passing with this tribute: A video of Doris Day and her famous song Que Sera Sera

Awesome, Odd Fosse Choreography And 1960s Cool On Video Fascinates Me

A scene from Bob Fosse's choreography of "Rich Man's Frug 

There's extra attention these days on the legendary choreographer Bob Fosse given that televised series on FX called Fosse/Verdon.

The show involves the life of Fosse and his romantic and creative partner, the dancer Gwen Verdon.

As my mind tends to wander into unexpected corners, I recently heard a snippet of the song "Rich Man's Frug" from Sweet Charity, the 1966 musical by Neil Simon and choreographed by Fosse. (It was later made into a movie released in 1969.

I was very young in the mid and late 1960s, and I always admired what to my mind were the sophisticated adults in the room. Or more accurately, not in the room, but out there in the world, somewhere. In some alluring city that was not West Rutland, Vermont, where I was.

I'd see glimpses of televised variety show performances from shows like "Sweet Charity" and others during the rapidly changing 1960s. Even as a five or seven or eight year old, I could feel the fever of that era, even if I didn't fully understand it.

These were exotic people doing exotic things in exotic times. There was precious little of that in the small Vermont town where I grew up. As an adult, I love the little town of West Rutland. Back then, not so much.

All those feelings about the worldly matters I craved came back to me when I looked up Rich Man's Frug and found this 1960s, very awesome Fosse choreography to that song from Sweet Charity. The video is simultaneously dated and so modern cool and wonderful that I can't resist.

It might be the best Fosse number I've seen. I love the odd physical movements, the fake air of snootiness on the faces of those dancers, the humor in all that athleticism.

Here's the video.  Totally worth the watch:

A New Take On Old "El Paso." With Politics And Comedy!

Marty Robbins had a huge hit in 1959 with the song "El Paso."

You know the tune ...."Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl...."

As we know, Donald Trump visited El Paso this week to tout his silly border wall, falsely claiming that El Paso was a violent mess before they put up fence along the Mexican border there.

Which gave Stephen Colbert the chance to update the song a little bit. Colbert's version starts, "Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, I saw a speech by a man Putin adores."

Yeah, it goes on from there. Have a listen and a look:

Want A Beer At Applebee's Buy The Small Size. Here's Why

Somebody posted a video that shows how restaurants use different shaped glasses to make us think we're getting a lot more to drink in large sizes than small.

At Applebee's the people in the video ordered a small beer and a large beer. They drank the small beer. Then they poured the contents of the large beer into the smaller glass. When the small glass was full, there was barely anything at all in the large glass.

I'm guessing a lot of other restaurants do this, too. Watch and see for yourself:

How To Combine Mismatched Passions Into Something Awesome

Some of the mood captured in the Pecos Hank song/video
"Drive Under The Moon."

The other day, in my sister blog, "Matt's Weather Rapport," I featured a guy named Pecos Hank.

Pecos Hank is a storm chaser, the kind of guy weather geeks like me love. He spends days, weeks, maybe months out in the Great Plains, chasing after tornadoes and other severe weather.

Unlike many storm chasers, Pecos Hank emphasizes creativity and art over the usual yelling and screaming and shaky images of tornadoes that most storm chasers embrace.  Pecos Hank's storm videos, which he narrates, are moody, beautiful, beguiling.

I think his creativity with the storm videos comes from his other job, his other passion. Pecos Hank is a musician.

Pecos Hank last year was wise enough to combine one passion, storm chasing, with the other, music, to create a haunting music video that I just can't resist.

OK, I'm a fanboy of this guy. So sue me.

The song is called "Drive Under The Moon." It liberally uses outtakes of his storm footage to create a dark, mysterious, almost morbid music video. I like songs that have a darkness, so this appeals to me wonderfully. Pecos Hank's deep voice, combined with his sort of Tex-Mex sound, is just perfect. And the 1950s styles in the video add to the retro, brooding mood.

Is the creepy guy driving the car the Grim Reaper? Is the glamorous woman adventurous and oblivious to her fate, or is she a willing participant in this tornadic, deadly story? You decide.

You have to see this. Watch:

Addams Family Dance To The Ramones, Making Everything Right In The World

The website Open Culture gave us this little gem recently: It's the 1960s television sitcom version of the Addams Family dancing to the Ramones'  classic "Blitzkrieg Bop." I know, I know, it didn't really happen, the Ramones song was just dubbed over some Addams Family scenes.

But this is delightful. You HAVE to watch the video:

The Addams Family dancing Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones from Gabriel Magallon on Vimeo.

Debbie Harry And Joan Jett REALLY Let Us Have It With New Tune/Video

Joan Jett and Debbie Harry deliver an apocalyptic newcast
in a dark and funny video for the new Blondie tune "Doom or Destiny"

Blondie, with Debbie Harry of course, and Joan Jett have teamed up in a startling, but darkly funny video for Blondie's song "Doom or Destiny" and it's totally worth the watch. Especially since Harry and Jett have lost none of their considerable mojo over the decades.

In the video, Harry and Jett are off-kilter news anchors. The pair, as Rolling Stone puts it, "tease a series of foreboding headlines, referencing global warming, Russian election meddling, nuclear war and President Trump's 'grab 'em by the pussy comment from the leaked Access Hollywood tape."

Rolling Stone continues: "Harry said she wanted the video to comment on 'the bizarre state of media and news in the current 'idocracy' by addressing issues like 'environmental collapse, fossil fuels, bee population decline, global warming, sexism, patriarchy, Trump and Russia, feminishm, consumerism, the marketing of war and more.'"

Yes, that's a dark vision. And the video has that dark vision. It's not for bright and cheery Pollyannas. But those Pollyannas would be missing out if they didn't watch the "Doom or Destiny" video.

Harry, age 72, and Jett, 59, are still the no-holds-barred women they've alway been, thank goodness. In the video, they are disgusted, world weary and fuming as these two "news co-anchors" deal with dinasour men rejoicing amid money,  a Trumpesque orange sock puppet screaming "Fake News!" vapid fragrance commercials, a weather segment that forecasts, among other things, seven plagues and thermonuclear winter, and a report by Harry regarding global warming, "Hot as fxxxing hell"

You have to watch the video several times to catch all the very quick jokes and dark humor throughout the piece.

The song "Doom or Destiny" itself is at once catchy, dark, cynical, driving and some of the best work I've heard from Blondie, Harry and Jett I've heard in years.

Here's the video, which is not really NSFW, if you dare. It's so worth it.

A Frazzled SNL HR Director Confronts Sexual Harassment

A frazzled HR director tries to explain sexual harassment
policy on Saturday Night Lie

During Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" a beleaguered HR director appeared on air to help the anchor navigate sexual harassment rules.

The anchor aced the quiz, but as "Claire" the SNL HR director and everyone else knows, nobody seems to understand the rules of the workplace.

I'm sure Claire isn't the only fed up HR director in the nation right now, given how so many men just can't keep it in their pants.

Here's a funny, frazzled Claire to help us out with this:

Guy Barely Escapes Death At The Hands Of Molten Steel Snake

In this scree shot, a guy comes inches from death
from a ribbon of molten steel shooting out
of equipment at a steel factory. Yikes!

Sometimes, in steel plants, a bit of molten steel gets caught on rollers.

This causes more molten steel coming from the furnace to burst out in the form of a long snake like ribbon of hot melted steel that can go anywhere.

Of course, if you're hit by something like this, you're dead.

Watch how close this guy came from dying a really horrible death. It's from December, 2016

H/T Boingboing:

Guys Too Nonchalant About Volcano Blowing Up Next To Them

A couple of guys were setting up a GoPro camera on the edge of a volcano on Vanuatu, a Pacific Island, when the volcano decided to explosively erupt.

I think the guy setting up the camera in the video was a bit too relaxed about the flying chunks of lava flying around him.

What do you think? Watch the video and decide:

Product Safety Commission Blows Up Mannequins In Disturbing 4th of July Video

Mean girls? Nope, just the Consumer Products Safety
Commission using mannequins to demonstrate
the risks of 4th of July fireworks. 

The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission wants you to have a safe 4th of July.

Fireworks are part of the celebration, and too many people blow off their hands or worse during celebrations.

By the way, you could have guessed this but the vast majority of people who are injured by fireworks are teenage boys.

Go figure.

The CPSC put out a video that I can't decide whether is disturbing or funny. Or maybe both.

They blew up mannequins to show how dangerous fireworks can be.

Be safer than these mannequins!

Neil Young's Call For Resistance

Just in time for the Fourth of July, Neil Young has brought us an anthem for the times.

It's called "Children of Destiny" and gives us a timely reminder about patriotism, freedom and resisting those who would take it all away.

Cool song

Watch and listen: