best YouTube video – Shingo Mama no Oha Rock!

Somebody online said they found the best YouTube video, so I had to watch it.  I don’t have time to find the best videos.  If you’ve ever perused YouTube for a while, you’ve undoubtedly discovered that some videos are not funny or not interesting or of low quality.  (Those are often referred to as crap.)  But that said, there are some great videos there, and when someone says they found the best one, I figured it had to be something special.

It’s a music video of a song called “Shingo Mama no Oha rock!”, and, well, it’s unique.  I’ll give it that.  I’m embedding it below, for your viewing pleasure.  I do have to warn you, though — it’s not for the faint of heart nor the faint of butt.   The backgrounds can give you a headache, and the dancing can give you gas.  (At least, that was my experience.)  So don’t say you weren’t warned.

About 30 seconds into the video, I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been had.  I mean, this is like the Macarena gone bad.  But this recommendation was from a blog that I’ve read for about a year, and there’s still over 3 minutes left in the video, which is plenty of time for something awesome to happen, like some explosions, ninja fights, car chases, etc.   So I keep watching.

About a third of the way through, the singer and dancers explode!   Well, that was something.  But they come back.   So obviously that was fake.

About halfway through, the music pauses, and James Brown comes out!  This so caught me by surprise!  I mean, THAT WAS RANDOM!  I’ve listened to a lot of James Brown’s music, and that was the furthest thing from my mind during this song.  I have no idea how he got involved in that video, except that it probably involved a LOT of money.

While trying to find an English translation of the lyrics, I found an interview with the artist, and he said he wants kids to have dreams.   He said when he gets rich from his music, he’s going to buy a castle in Europe, move it to Tokyo, put a panda in the castle’s garden, and name the panda “Oha”, which translates to “Good Morning”.  So every time they sing (or shout) “Oha!”, they’re saying “Good Morning”.  While researching this, I also found out that this song hit #1 on the pop charts in Japan.  And the special guests during the chorus are Japanese TV celebrities.

The next video clip has the interview with the artist, plus the video with the lyrics in Japanese and in English.  He’s singing about the importance of a good breakfast, and other such things.  It’s definitely randomness, which is why I had to post it.  And FYI, the video becomes more amusing as you watch it more, especially if you starting singing along.  OHA!

So now that you’ve watched it, let me know what you think about it.  Was it the best YouTube video ever?

Is Obama part of the biggest practical joke ever?

I remember a discussion with some of my friends where we discussed ideas for the biggest practical joke in history.  The discussion was done just for fun, because these days you couldn’t pull off a huge joke without offending multitudes of people — so many people are just wusses when it comes to humor.

But after seeing Obama’s first 60 days in office, and especially the political events of the past week, I have to wonder: Is President Barack Obama part of the biggest practical joke in history?   I keep hearing unusual news stories about Obama, and I find myself wondering if people are just making it up or if Obama is really doing stuff that stupid?   It seems inconceivable that our nation’s leader could be this ignorant and incompetent.  Here’s a few examples:

* Obama was laughing incessantly about the economy on 60 Minutes, to the point that the host asked him, “Are you punch drunk?”  That’s not something you expect to have to ask the President of the United States!

* Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez called him “ignorant”.  Well, that could probably happen to anybody.

* AIG execs get huge bonuses, and at first Obama’s administration said they didn’t know about it, then we find out they are lying.  For some reason, they decided to let the bonuses remain.

* Obama appeared on Jay Leno like he has nothing more important to do.  Has anyone told him the campaign is over and that he has a LOT of work to do?

* Speaking of which, Obama continues acting like a celebrity, thinking it’s all about him.

* Obama keeps filling leadership positions with people who don’t pay their taxes.  Don’t they run background checks?

* Obama said he wouldn’t put people in his administration who were recent lobbyists, then he did exactly that the same day, in the same speech.  You just can’t make that stuff up.

* Obama gave 25 DVDs to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and then the DVDs weren’t playable over there because they are region encoded to work only in North America.  Did that really happen?  Doesn’t our President have access to better gifts for leaders of other countries?

* Under Obama, our government seems to be spending a few more hundred billion dollars every other day, when our government is already over $10 trillion in debt.   Doesn’t he realize that it’s bad fiscal policy to spend more money than you have?  And that if our country ever runs out of available credit, we’ll go bankrupt?

* Obama claims he will cut the deficit in half, but then his policies call for unprecedented spending.  What deficit is he talking about, and how many expenses are excluded from those calculations?

I could go on, but you get the idea.  I realize Obama is an amateur when it comes to leading a country, but he’s hired a lot of Bill Clinton’s former people to report to him, so they have experience (for what that’s worth).  Plus, some of this stuff should just be common sense.  So instead of thinking that Obama is really this stupid and incompetent, this must be some kind of huge practical joke.  Surely, any day now he’ll say “April Fools!” and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief and eventually have confidence in our government again.   Come to think of it, April 1st is right around the corner, so maybe that’s when we’ll find out if this is all for real or not…

caption contest, man on upstairs rails

It’s Monday, so you know what that means — another caption contest!  This week’s picture probably does contain at least a thousand words worth of captions.  So let’s get to writing.

If you’re new to this, the plan is simple — figure out what’s going on in the picture and write something funny about it.  You can invent whatever background circumstances necessary to support your idea.  You can embellish the story, or you can completely make it up from scratch.  You could also base it off current news.  Either way, just have fun with it.

man on upstairs rails

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

Man vs Food — Carnivore Pizza Challenge

One of my favorite new shows is Man vs Food on the Travel Channel.  I wish I had his job!   I don’t know where you sign up for such a position, so I’ll just watch the show and dream.   🙂

One of his challenges is to tackle the Carnivore Pizza with a friend.  (Here’s a commercial for that episode.)  The pizza comes from Big Pie in the Sky, a New York style pizzeria located in Kennesaw, GA.

carnivore pizza on man vs foodThere’s a video on the restaurant’s website which shows the pizza being made and describes it.  It also shows two guys being defeated by one pizza.  (Click here.)

If you didn’t watch the video, here’s the awesome details.  The pizza is 30″ in diameter and weighs about 11 pounds.  There is about a pound of each of the following meats: Pepperoni, Beef, Italian Sausage, Ham, and Bacon.

The restaurant will give you $250 if you and a friend can finish it in one hour.  So far no team has been up to the task.  A few people have eaten their half, but the challenge is still unbeaten.

I’d like to attempt this, but to eat 5 1/2 pounds of meats and pizza crust in an hour, I don’t think that’s happening.   Back in high school, I’m fairly sure I could’ve eaten my half.  These days, I think my metabolism has stopped completely (I sure miss it!).  I can still eat a lot, but it takes more work to burn it off.  That said, I would still like to try this challenge.