This is the teaser for Volkswagen’s Super Bowl commercial. Outside of the the beaver saving the motorist commercial, the best ad from 2011 was easily the “kid Vader” one Volkswagen put out. This might beat it:

I actually had a really cramazing Thirsty Thursday post lined up for today, but it’ll have to wait until next week — I have an exciting announcement to make (well, two actually):

First up: my Diver Riding Shark shirt was worn by Jimmy on FOX’s Raising Hope this week!

The full video won’t be up on Hulu until next week, but rest assured, it will be embedded ASAP (provided Congress doesn’t destroy the internet between now and then). There’s something vaguely satisfying about Jimmy passing his GED test while wearing one of my tees…

But even MORE exciting than this teeny-tiny step up the ladder of fame is the addition of ART PRINTS to the Ex-Boyfriend product line! While a limited selection to start, I hope to be able to add to the collection of available art prints in the future. Each 11″ x 17″ print is digitally reproduced on 100 lb. glossy cover stock, ships for FREE in sturdy cardboard shipping tubes, and is guaranteed to get you mad high-fives & fist-bumps at your next dinner party (if your dinner parties are typically held at the Jersey Shore. And if they are, the high-fives might be for your delicious rum-ham.)

Look familiar? Probably because that was your aisle-mate on the last time you flew on an airplane. Well, some countries’ airlines have finally realized that more than any other aspect of air travel, your seat-neighbors are the things that can make or break your experience.

Whether it’s a screaming or hyper-active child, a smelly unwashed person, a smelly heavily-perfumed person (did you know Brylcreem and Aqua Velva are still manufactured? And USED? By living, breathing humans in the 21st century? True story), or somebody that will just not shut the f@#k up while you’re trying to pound mini-bottles of booze to assist you in passing out and sleeping through harrowing turbulence (truly, the only way to fly), cramped seats, minimal legroom, shitty in-flight entertainment & food, or surly flight attendants have NOTHING on the annoying aisle-mate.

Fear not, though, my jet-setting friends! According to this article at Springwise.com, Malaysia Airlines and KLM Airlines are on the cutting-edge of using social media networks for something other than updates about what you’re watching on TV at any given moment (full disclosure: I fully enjoyed back-to-back viewings of Leprechaun V: Leprechaun In the ‘Hood and Leprechaun VI: Back 2 da ‘Hood on BET Friday night — and posted that shizz all over my Wall!)

Malaysia Air’s MHBuddy Facebook app allows passengers to see the profiles of friends (and likely friends of friends with public Wall’s) to coordinate travel dates with friends who are heading to the same destination within that time-frame, and to even elect to sit next to or near one another during the flight. KLM’s Meet & Seat service is even more interesting because it incorporates both Facebook and LinkedIn. This means that even if no direct friends are on that flight, you can still peruse the LinkedIn profiles of fellow passengers and choose seating based on those in similar industries or with similar interests. As Bob says, baby steps. There are still no guarantees that your seat-neighbor is a big fan of personal hygiene — but at least the conversation is interesting.

I try not to “re-blog” other peoples’ content too much — they work(ed) hard to be funny/crazy/stupid/embarrassing to themselves & their families, and I don’t want to develop a rep as a plagiarist.

If something is worthy, I like to take a pass at it too and contribute my own two cents to [insert witty blogger's name here]‘s scholarly analysis.

But Bobby Finger’s break-down of nouveau Christmas classic Love, Actually is pretty much perfect. You can check it out here at The Hairpin.

A few notes of my own, though:

— My wife isn’t a big rom-com fan. She’s OK with Love, Actually, and thought Crazy Stupid Love was good, but generally she likes to tease me about the fact that I will stop and watch any of the following whenever they pop up on the cable guide:
• When Harry Met Sally
• Four Weddings & A Funeral
• Sleepless In Seattle
• You’ve Got Mail

Essentially, anything with Meg Ryan and/or Tom Hanks circa me no longer thinking girls were icky.

— How weird is it to see Andrew Lincoln butchering zombies on The Walking Dead now after having his role as Mark in Love, Actually be the one that defined him for the rest of the 2000′s?

— Whatever happened to Kiera Knightley?

— Is Bill Nighy contractually-obligated to appear in every single big-budget, ensemble-casted movie out of the UK?

— Colin Firth was awesome in the BBC’s Pride & Prejudice and Bridget Jones’ Diary, but can we all agree that his entire career is built on two roles in which he played the same character (his last name in BJD is even Darcy, for f@#k’s sake!) and that he’s pretty much been coasting since the early 2000′s?

— Hugh Grant IS awesome in everything he’s in, but can we all agree that his entire career is built on playing the same character (himself) and that he’s pretty much been coasting since Four Weddings & A Funeral?

(Tip of the hat to Adj!)

So I apologize in advance for all the Australia-related posts coming down the pike in the next few days—it’s just that it’s very exciting to be able to blog about weird stuff I’ve experienced first-hand, as opposed to mining the web for content. To that end, please let me introduce you to SYN.

SYN (Student Youth Network) is a youth-run media organization that operates and broadcasts out of Melbourne, Victoria. A lot of their marketing mentions it’s for young people aged 12-25, which is a pretty wide spread. The cool thing is that it’s 100% true—over the course of the week and a half I was there, I heard DJs in various time-slots that were anywhere from 12/13 to 25, with shows ranging from mall-punk music and horror movie critiques from 14 year olds to sex advice from 25 year olds. Among other show themes, there was a time-slot focused on Formula 1 racing, stand-up comedy, Korean pop, Cantonese pop, Japanese pop, a show devoted entirely to Radiohead (cleverly titled Radiohead to Tail), and even a show hosted by a pair of dudes with mental disabilities discussing their favorite cars and music. But the show that really caught our ear as we were driving around the Yarra Valley looking for good wineries? Happy Hour at the Cantina.

HHatC, sadly, was broadcasting their final show of the season (possibly ever?), but nothing quite prepares you for turning on the radio to hear adults (or close to it) discussing the pros and cons of living with an ewok housemate (“Well, you’d have to have a treehouse in the back yard for it to live in.” “CORRECTION: you’d GET to have a treehouse in your backyard for it to live in!”), and how unfair it is that outside of Wicket and the Chief, none of the other ewoks were given names. This went on for the better part of an hour, interspersed with Star Wars-themed songs, like a Russian klezmer jam about how Boba Fett and Grand Moff Tarkin were childhood friends but had a falling out. REAL. TALK.

And this is just the DJ’s conversing—by and large, the music on SYN is top-notch, and we were exposed to a lot of cool Aussie indie-rock that we otherwise wouldn’t have ever heard of (it seems like Pitchfork et al only champion a few Aussie bands a year). And the great thing is, you can stream it live online! I highly recommend tuning in periodically to get a taste. Just remember—they’re on the other side of the world, so the best time to tune in is in the evening for their morning programming, being broadcast from the future!

Oh, Persian kittens, so adorable. The kind of cute that is so unbearable it makes you feel violent. These guys know what I’m talking about. The problem is that eventually they’re no longer kittens, and you spend the next 15-20 years rooming with Wilford Brimley:

So enjoy your current state of cuteness while it lasts, India.

(Via DailyPicksandFlicks.com)

So DirecTV just started airing a new commercial, and it blows. Actually they first aired the new “Truth” commercial a couple weeks back, and it’s pretty lame, but is saved by the adorable little kid at the end:

The NEW new commercial features some douchey hedge-fund guy on house arrest hinting at insider trading and still living it up in the multi-million dollar “prison” he’s confined to. But you know what each is missing? FREAKING TINY GIRAFFES.

Broken English is hilarious enough, but toss in a petite giraffe and you have comedy gold. Unfortunately, DirecTV must not have received that memo, since they seem to be moving on from the Russian clips. But not before commissioning this amazing bit of viral marketing: the official website of the Sokoblovsky Farm, fake purveyor of petite giraffes, complete with broken English copy, still photos, and looped webcam of the giraffes hanging out around the farm.

So yesterday was Independence Day, a holiday which, outside of maybe Labor Day or Memorial Day, is most often associated with celebrating outdoors.

Meaning, it’s for suckers.

It was 95° outside yesterday! I’m pretty sure the “independence” means “freedom from the tyranny of Mother Nature” and was intended to be spent sitting in front of A/C vents.

Pretty sure. I could be wrong.

Sorry, vets! Jus’ joshin’! You know I love you guys!

But anyway, I spent yesterday inside working on new designs and watching some of the “best” worst TV programming ever. Summer holidays are the ones when the nerdy interns nobody likes are left in charge at TV HQ, and man, do I love those guys. Yesterday I watched Godzilla vs. Mothra, which was terrible, but strangely amazing, and made me want to watch the original Godzilla, so I streamed that shizz on Netflix. It got me thinking, “what are the best movie monsters that don’t use language?”

It’s pretty easy to be a villain if you can explain your reasoning and motivation before causing mayhem on a large scale. You may disagree with his or her desire to saw your arms off or melt your brain with a laser, but more often than not they’re at least conscientious enough to explain the “why” behind their actions. Not so with these guys:

5. Staypuft Marshmallow Man—

This guy! I love this guy! He’s adorable (must be the hat), but capable of a truly sinister smile as he’s causing massive property damage, and leaves behind some truly tasty entrails once he’s been dispatched with some crossed streams (ewww).

4. Jaws—

Looks-wise, easily the most terrifying entry on this list. A lot of nerd-hay has been made since 1977 about how “fake” this animatronic beastie looked in hindsight, but I assure you, he looks pretty f@#king real to five year olds who only ever truly feel safe in water if they’re wearing water-wings, and even then, only in the kiddie pool.

3. King Kong—

50 feet tall, opposable thumbs, and unlike the 50 Foot Woman (supposedly), cannot be reasoned with.

2. The Kraken—

Talk about terrible branding—the kraken has never been definitively depicted. Sometimes its just a giant squid, other times this mash-up of a squid and a trilobite, and most recently in Pirates of the Caribbean as a sort of water-bound sarlacc. I prefer Ray Harryhausen’s creature from The Clash of the Titans; gigantic, amphibious (he will bring the beat-down to you), and has what look to be opposable thumbs. Want to avoid Jaws? Stay out of the water. Want to avoid the kraken? Um…learn to fly?

1. Godzilla—

Triple-threat! Dude can swim, walk, is big as a skyscraper, and can eat, burn, or sit on you to death. Then they gave him wings in the sixties. Game. Over.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the new(ish) design! I re-did my Peanut Butter & Jelly Lovers design last week; I think it’s kind of awesome:

So after a quick diversion into the robotic realm last week, I thought I’d wrap up this two-part series about my recent European escapades!

Previously I posted some pics of the cool art to be seen in Oslo, Norway and the choicest selections from Berlin’s East Side Gallery. This week’s focus is a bit more on Berlin’s excellent street art scene.

This awesome Japanese woodcut-style portrait decorated the side of a hotel across the street from the East Side Gallery facing the Spree River. We really loved the economical use of color and elegant contours and just thought in general it was great art AND marketing for the hotel; it’s hard to miss AND hard to forget.

After a couple of mis-steps seeking out the cream of the art scene crop that we’d heard so much about before arriving in Berlin, we asked the proprietor of Big Brobot, a very cool book/toy/comic/t-shirt shop in the Friedrichshain section of the city, if he could recommend any good galleries that exhibited more street art and pop art (as opposed to the truly awful installations we’d seen up to that point.) He kindly pointed us in the direction of the NeuroTitan gallery and shop.

After a couple of missed turns, we finally were pointed in the direction of the correct alley leading to the gallery. Once we stepped into the alley, we were greeted with some really wonderful pieces of street art, from spray can art to traditional media to paste-ups.

The alley then led into a courtyard that featured this very cool steam-powered sculpture of a steampunk bat-creature with flapping wings, roving eyes, and flailing proboscis. I really wish I’d switched on my video camera to catch it in action!

Finally, to get to the NeuroTitan gallery, we had to climb a few flights of stairs to enter the shop area before checking out the exhibit. While the exhibit was pretty “meh”, the trip up the stairs was awesome, with the walls just COVERED in really cool graffiti and street art. One of our favorites was the “Fashion Chimp” ad paste-up, done in the style of a 1930s-40s women’s magazine. Who wouldn’t want a giant, life-sized “fashion chimp” for their home?

That pretty much wraps up our 2011 European adventure. Sad as we were not to be able to make it to Tokyo, it was an excellent diversion none the less, and hopefully the planet is done kicking Japan’s ass for a few years and we can make it over there soon.

In OTHER Ex-Boyfriend news—AT LEAST two new designs are going to be up by the end of this week. If you or someone you know is into vampires, kitties, and/or kawaii-style art, be sure to check back!

ALSO: Be sure to tune into The Daily Show on Comedy Central tonight at 11pm. Our good friend Jackson Galaxy from Animal Planet will be sporting our very own Fuzz Aldrin this evening during Aasif Mandvi’s segment! Woot! Be sure to spread the word!

UPDATE: The Daily Show segment featuring Jackson Galaxy wearing Fuzz Aldrin tonight has been postponed thanks to some big political news today, but I’ll keep you guys updated about when it really airs!

The fun folks over at The Onion’s A/V Club recently did a list of the 16+ most ridiculous killer robots of all-time. It was an admirable pursuit, but seemed a bit scattered and inconsistent. Here’s my top five list, with no specific programming criteria, such as murderous impulses.

1. Hedonism Bot, Futurama

The whole point of robotics is to make our lives easier, right? Well, once a robot becomes self-aware and develops its own intelligence, it seems logical that the end-point of their evolution would be the pursuit of their own pleasure. Right?

2. R2D2, Star Wars

Let’s face it: C3PO is a chump. He’s whiny, he talks too much, and would much rather hide from a dirty look than confront danger head-on. R2D2, on the other hand, beeps and boops in the face of danger. He breaks into prisons, hot-wires spacecraft, electrocutes enemies, and knows when to shut up and keep his head down while the things with thumbs shoot lasers at stuff. And all the while with this extremely developed sense of nuance and humor, made all the more impressive by his limited (human) vocabulary and nonexistent facial expressions.

3. Roberto, Futurama

The flip-side of Hedonism Bot, Roberto seems built for one purpose—stabbing things. Ostensibly he’s a criminal in other regards, like robbery and other forms of theft, but it all just seems like a pretense for him to put himself in a situation where he can thrust a blade into something or someone. Calling him “insane” always seems a tad redundant when it’s clear that he spends more of his days stabbing than doing anything else.

4. Awesome Andy, She-Hulk

A/V Club was absolutely right: the Mad Thinker’s Awesome Android was a complete dud until Dan Slott reinvented him as a legal temp in the early 2000s as a supporting character in the pages of She-Hulk. Like R2D2, Andy lacks verbal communication skills (making up for it by scribbling his thoughts on a chalkboard hanging around his neck), but makes up for it by being, in many ways, the most human character in the book. He gets frustrated with his coworkers’ hijinks from time to time, he pines after a female coworker who only thinks of him as a friend, has an annoying roommate, practices tai chi, and loves baseball (he’s a Mets fan.)

5. Optimus Prime, Transformers

Have you ever been in a movie theater full of 7-10 year olds and seen them all burst into tears when a robot dies? No? Then you must not have seen the original Transformers movie in a theater. That’s how big of a deal this stupid truck was to an entire generation of kids.

What do you think? Any notable omissions? Add them in the comments section below!