Early Sign of the Inevitable Robot Uprising

Ancient Greeks Are The New Vampire

Because they are just soooo cool!
So yesterday I was looking at this website or whatever. It has trailers for upcoming movies. One of them was entitled Immortals. Hmmm, I thought to myself. Better check it out, just in case Hollywood accidentally churned out something good.



Why, it seems to be a version of the story of Theseus. Now, if I remember correctly, Theseus was involved in some shady biz with minotaurs and labyrinths n' stuff, but I guess in this movie he's fighting Titans. Ok. I mean, it's all fictional anyway. But what's this? The film's title is tagged by the line "from the Producers of 300".  Lest we forget the scantily-clad extravaganza that was 300:


(still one of my all-time favorite trailers)

And only last year was America gifted with Liam Neeson bellowing "Release the Kraken!!!" in Clash of the Titans:



But then I started remembering other Ancient Greek films,  Troy and Alexander being two recent additions:





Even Ancient Romans and Norse are getting some significant screentime, like in The Eagle, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and Thor:







I even have the feeling that there's been so many Ancient-Greek/Roman-themed productions lately that I'm forgetting some. Hmmm. Well, there's one last one that I'm not forgetting. Twilight played its part in the Vampire craze, and I'm sure that The Lightning Thief has played its part for the Ancient Greek trend (although it's focused on Greek Gods, not Ancient Greece, but still). I read the book, and I wasn't impressed, but clearly tons of kids are, because the books are selling very well, and I've noted these same kids going nuts for nonfiction books on Ancient Greece.



Last but not least: there's always more on the way.

Humor and Size

I was at work today, at the bookstore. My friend Andie told me that I had to read this book called "Thirteen Reasons Why". The premise of the book is pretty sad, so I won't go into it, because I'm writing about humor, not sadness, I mean come on.
Anyway, there's a character named Hannah, and she's talking about a dream she had where she has oversize feet and someone else has really tiny, almost nonexistent feet. Obviously I was picturing this in my mind, and was, in turn, amused, and then horrified.
Big feet? Hilarious! Why are those feet so big? Ha! They are so unwieldy!
But small feet...oh...why are they so...oh, oh dear god, where are your feet? OH DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN WHERE ARE YOUR FEET?
See? Two totally different reactions.
So this made me start thinking about humor in relation to sizes of body parts. I am not trying to be dirty, let me just stress that right now.
Oversize body parts are funny!
Oversize heads! Look at them! They look like butts from behind!

Oversized noses! Always getting into trouble!

Oversize eyes? We got those too! They are the cutest!

Oversize hands? Oh, it's just too good when someone's hands are too big:

Classic big hands here.
Oversize everything:


But...
When body parts are too small, they are creepy, like Denise's hands here:


And as for Voldemort, I have just one question: where, oh where, is your nose?
Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com



And now, for some significant exceptions!

Lady Gaga's eyes are huge in parts of this music video, but the result inspires nightmares rather than hilarity:


And this poor T-Rex has a big head, and little arms- the curse of all T-Rexes. But it's hilarious, not creepy!



You're welcome, world.

Valley of the Uncanny Robots!

This company sells realistic masks modeled after your face. So you can finally see what you look like? (read post here)

Which totally reminds me of that one scene in Mission Impossible 2. You know what I mean!

Next we have a robot singer/dancer. Strangely enough, the weirdest part of this video was when I realized that the back-up dancers are NOT robots. Oops.



Last, but oh god not least, is a glimpse of what will soon be replacing meat puppets:

Uncanny Valley: Dancing Dog

So my friend Rob has commented multiple times that he feels that Labradoodles (lab/poodle dog mixes) bear an uncanny resemblance to a person in a dog costume. This always cracked me up, because Labradoodles do indeed have a big old muppety goofiness about them.

With this in mind, I happened to find a video of a dog dancing the merengue. This sounds cute until you see the dog and realize that it dances better than you or I can or ever will. I started to freak out a little as I realized that as much as Rob and I joke about Labradoodles being people in dog costumes, the dancing dog really does look like a person is inside there somewhere. Or maybe the wagging tail gives it away and it really is just a dog. Or maybe it's a robot?

Uncanny Valley: Handsome Guy Mask

As many of you probably know, something I find really interesting is the uncanny valley. After I learned about it, I started spotting items that fall into said valley more and more often. 

One great example is this special effects mask, demonstrated below.

Imagine if you saw someone wearing that in public. You would probably notice that something was off, right? Would you know what was off, exactly? I'm not sure that I would, but I would be creeped out. It reminds me of the time I was in the Milwaukee Art Museum and finally realized that the cleaning guy in the corner was not in fact real and was actually an exhibit. My mind exploded a little bit because I'd really, really like to think I can tell the difference between things that are living and things that are not, but sometimes I can't. 

Oh jesus...what if nothing is real??!