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Showing posts with label parody. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parody. Show all posts

Monday, October 02, 2023

Artificial intelligence has original singers performing "Weird Al" Yankovic's parodies... and it's pretty horrifying

This is already the scariest thing I've seen all month... and it's only October 2nd.  A terrible, terrible line has been crossed.  Advanced technology really is taking us to places that, not to put too fine a point on it, are unnatural to the extreme.


Andy Baio at Waxy.org has applied artificial intelligence to a lot of songs - which are mostly parodies of other artists - by "Weird Al" Yankovic.  Baio's intent with this dubious exercise is to see what would happen if the original artists performed Al's parodies themselves.

In other words, Baio has Michael Jackson's voice singing Yankovic's "Eat It".  Among others.

Let Mr. Baio indict himse... I mean, explain himself:

In the parallel universe of last year’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Dr. Demento encourages a young Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe) to move away from song parodies and start writing original songs of his own. During an LSD trip, Al writes “Eat It,” a 100% original song that’s definitely not based on any other song, which quickly becomes “the biggest hit by anybody, ever.”

Later, Weird Al’s enraged to learn from his manager that former Jackson 5 frontman Michael Jackson turned the tables on him, changing the words of “Eat It” to make his own parody, “Beat It.”

This got me thinking: what if every Weird Al song was the original, and every other artist was covering his songs instead? With recent advances in A.I. voice cloning, I realized that I could bring this monstrous alternate reality to life.

This was a terrible idea and I regret everything.

This is a horrific milestone in digital manipulation.  There is no going back now.  Like the Joker said in The Dark Knight "You've changed things, forever."

Mash down here to read more about this experiment in abominable intelligence.  God have mercy on us all.

 

EDIT 10/08/2023 2:44 AM: Feel led to say something here.  All of this "the horror! the horror!" was done purely tongue in cheek.  I actually think is pretty cool.  Excellent work Mr. Baio :-)


Friday, February 19, 2021

YouTube videos: Song parodies from The Rush Limbaugh Show

Two and a half days later and Rush Limbaugh's absence from the airwaves continues to haunt.  I tried calculating how many hours I listened to him over the years, and couldn't do it.  From summer of 1992 until I started college at Elon three years, I was listening to him at least nine hours a week.  In the past few years I sort-of rediscovered him and listened as much as possible.  There was none like him before, nobody compared when he was with us, and it is doubtful that anyone will ever really succeed him.

It wasn't just his brilliant commentary, it was also the hysterically funny comedy that was a huge part of Limbaugh's show.  Especially the song parodies.  Most of them came courtesy of a chap named Paul Shanklin.  There were a few others also.  I remember one guy who was in the Bay Area.  Another was from Massachusetts.

So in Rush's memory I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the song parodies and other material that he played on his show.

I forget who made this one.  It might have been Shanklin.  "The Philanderer", a spoof of "The Wanderer":


"In A Yugo", parody of Elvis Presley's "In The Ghetto":


This next one is a clip from "Weird Al" Yankovic's movie UHF, Rush played it on his show every so often.  The commercial for Spatula City:



One of my personal favorites: "They're Coming To Take Ross Away", a parody of "They're Coming To Take Me Away" by Napoleon XIV.  And I liked Ross Perot!



The Barnacle Brothers 60-Second Sale spot:



And finally (but far from the only remaining parody that Rush did on his show), "Al Gore Paradise", a send-up of Coolio's "Gangsta Paradise":




If I spot any more I'll post 'em here! :-D



Friday, May 29, 2020

FORCERY is fifteen years old!



It really does seem like just yesterday when we were slathering that fake blood all over Chad's legs, and making a springtime drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway look like blizzard in the Colorado mountains.  And turning a cousin's living room into Skywalker Ranch.  So much happened since then and yet, our cast and crew became a family that has endured.  More than endured even.  And for that, I'm thankful that this project got seen through to the end.


Yes, it has indeed been fifteen years since the release of Forcery: that Star Wars fanfilm parody of the Stephen King movie Misery.  I'd wanted it to be ready before Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith but it didn't quite make it.  Still, it was late May of 2005 when it was first unloaded onto the Internet and about a year or so later it was "serialized" (because of time restrictions at the time) onto YouTube.  And then everyone could behold the tale of George Lucas (Chad Austin) being held captive by Star Wars-obsessed uberfan Frannie Filks (Melody Hallman Daniel).

I will be the first to admit: it looks a little dated now.  We shot it with a couple of standard definition camcorders, and I did my best to color grade it to look more cinematic.  The car going off the road in the blizzard well... no doubt someone could CGI that easily today.  And there is one effect that I wish we could do over again because it would be ridiculously easy to fix and that's my faulte entirely.  Sometimes I wonder if it could have been edited better but again, that's on me.

All the same, quirks and all, Forcery was a little film that could.  And it made its way from the living room of a few friends' houses to the big screen and some bigtime media recognition.  Clips of Forcery were heavily featured in the acclaimed documentary The People vs. George Lucas and I've been told that some of it was even shown on Japanese television (which would be one of two times that this blogger's work has been on TV in the land of the rising sun... but I digress).  Knowing that's your lifelong best friend being projected onto the screen at Cannes: it was more than a little startling.  Like, "we did THAT?!?"

But most of all, Forcery was a binding and bonding experience for those who came together to make it happen.  It would take reams of virtual paper to chronicle all the good that came of it.  And I'm too infamous already for writing long stuff, but here's one example that took place a few years ago.  Know this though: that I am now and will forever be proud of the effort that so many made to turn this little film idea into a reality.  THEY are the ones who Forcery is accredited to, far more than it ever could be to me.

Anyhoo, Happy 15th Birthday to Forcery!  And if you want to see it right now now now, you're in luck!  You can watch it in fairly large scale via the Forcery page on this blog and some nice chap uploaded it to YouTube.  So strap yourself in and prepare for fifty-four minutes of a film that some said couldn't be done and others said should not have been done.  They don't count though (but that's another story :-P )



And one last bit of fun: I turned what is arguably the most-quoted line of dialogue from Forcery into an animated GIF.  Feel free to use it elsewhere :-)


Monday, March 30, 2020

"One Shining Moment 2020"

"One Shining Moment" is the song that CBS uses in the final moments of their annual coverage of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, to recap the highlights of the road to the championship.  All well and good... except that there won't be an NCAA men's basketball tournament this year because of the coronavirus epidemic.

So I, foolish I, took it upon myself to address this curious situation...



Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Time for some classic Christmas music

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

"Weird Al" Yankovic parodies Lady Gaga with "Perform This Way"! But...

...according to Weird Al himself on the song's YouTube page, this song will not be part of his forthcoming album! In Al's own words:
This is my parody of Lady Gaga's song "Born This Way" -- which, I'm sorry to say, will NOT be included on my upcoming album. I will give the details of the whole Gaga saga (and offer free mp3 downloads of the song) on weirdal.com very soon.
If this is at Lady Gaga's insistence, I hope she will come to realize that to be chosen by Al to be the subject of one of his parodies is an extremely high honor! I mean, when Weird Al marks you for spoofing, it proves that you've achieved musical immortality: more so than getting a Grammy, in my opinion.

Well anyhoo, here is "Perform This Way":

UPDATE 1:29 p.m. EST: Al has posted his account of what happened that kept "Perform This Way" off his new album and... well, I have to admit that it's one of the stranger stories that I'm aware of from his 30-plus years-long musical career. Yeah, even more strange than what happened with "Amish Paradise". Of particular note, Al was set to donate proceeds from the song's sales to the Human Rights Campaign. And Al was already planning an accompanying music video that "was going to be BEYOND AWESOME, and disturbing on many levels."

Chalk me up as one of Al's fans who is disappointed to hear this, but is also hoping that Lady Gaga might yet change her mind :-)

Friday, April 23, 2010

"You Picked a Fine Time to Lead Us, Barack"

Here is Jonathan McWhite (accompanied by David McWhite on guitar) perfectly aping a classic Kenny Rogers tune with this hilarious song parody about Barack Obama...

Very great thanks to good friend Bethany Myers for finding this! :-)

Sunday, February 21, 2010

REAL Church of Christ member discusses Johnny Robertson

First things first: Earlier this week somebody suggested that we should begin referring to local cult leader Johnny Robertson as "He Who Stalks Behind the Pews".

It was too good an idea not to go into Photoshop with it...

(click to drastically embiggen)

Heh-heh. Haven't done one of those in awhile :-P

Speaking of video cameras, a number of people have informed me that during his four hours of "Religious Review" this past week that Johnny Robertson put the word out to all(?) of his viewers that he wants them to begin covertly video recording all the churches in this area with video cameras, cellphones, iPhones etc. and to send the footage to him.

Between his obsession with Martinsville-based television station BTW, his constant scheming to destroy Baptists and Pentecostals and Methodists (especially Baptists), his harassing innocent people in their own homes and churches and store parking lots, his monitoring both feeds of WGSR to watch for dissenters, and now trying to amass an army of spies, does Johnny Robertson ever, like... you know, minister to the members of his own church? Doesn't seem right, somehow.

Yet another blog has popped up to counter Johnny Robertson and his so-called "Church of Christ". Whoever is behind it is already asking hard questions about the hyper-legalist doctrine of the cult as well as the lingering enigma regarding Jason Hairston's departure from the cult.

Finally, there is this that was posted on another forum by a mainstream Church of Christ member in the Martinsville, Virginia area. I thought it pertinent enough to repost here...

Word on the street, is supporters of John are starting to see through him, meetings have transpired as to a solution.

Even the Preaching School was created on lies and deceit via pictures, names of attendees. Funds were raised via a list of names and pictures of those who were supposedly enrolled. After some dropped from the program, funds were still being raised as if the program still had the same enrollees. It is quite clear that the purpose of the training school, was not to make “Gospel Preachers” but created solely to make clones – clones of John. John knows he has lost support and also realizes that his negative popularity is hurting his cause, rather than furthering his agenda. In desperation, he has tried to push more air time, as if this will help.

Watching a few shows one can quickly see that the show revolves around his ego. Seldom is Jesus referenced on his shows. He is more interested in picking apart the flaws of others than he is in reaching lost souls. And, NEVER do you hear him discussing the many problems within the Church of Christ. Why not? Well, simply put, it would show him to be like the rest of us – IMPERFECT. He falls short with morality and doctrinally, just as everyone else. But, pride comes before the fall and he dare not acknowledge his short-comings nor will he disclose information regarding the many disagreements within the Church of Christ; and folks these are not just some minor disagreements, they involve doctrine.

The “Doctrine of Christ” becomes whatever each sect within the Church of Christ deems it to be. Also, there is so much disagreement over “the gospel”-- not the Gospel about Jesus, but the gospel of scriptural interpretation. If you teach something like one cup MUST be used during communion, the multiple cuppers are labeled preaching “another gospel.” Many splits have occurred because one group says the other church of Christ sect is preaching “another gospel.” In both cases, Johns teaching on the “Doctrine of Christ” and Paul’s teaching to the Galatians are twisted and ripped from context and then used to divide the Church – a sin that Paul condemned strongly. John is a master at such misapplication of scripture, often ripping a verse from it's context and giving his own private interpretation which we are warned not to do.

Cults are masters of scripture manipulation and this brings me to the million dollar question: Is John Robertson a cult leader? YES!! Is the Church of Christ a cult? NO!! Many conservative Church of Christ are loving people, teaching the truth in love, not wanting to control peoples minds, but lead them to Christ. John wants his cultish ego fed and many afar off are staring to see this.

If you are reading this, and desire to stay in the Church of Christ, there are others in town who know John is a cult leader and they will gladly accept you and will do so in love and not attempt to control your minds.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Last night during my personal Bible study (so far that's all I'm reading this Lenten season, having vowed to give up reading for pleasure :-) I did some study in 2nd Corinthians. Beginning in the eleventh chapter, Paul has a lot to say about as he puts it the "super-apostles" who were puffing themselves up with legalism. They thought that by following "the rules" that this would give them more merit than other Christians. Paul rails against them and not just because they were trying to destroy Paul's ministry either. These people were bringing back the same rule of law that Christ's substitutionary death had put an end to. In effect, these people were undoing the finished work of Christ at Calvary.

It's not by any work of our own, lest we should boast! We are saved by the grace of God, and not by the grace of other men.

I cannot put it any more plain than this: to insist otherwise, is a very evil thing. Perhaps the most evil thing possible in this world. Christ came to free us. Men like Johnny Robertson and his followers lust to enslave others... and in the name of Christ, no less!

And I'm going to keep stating the obvious for however much I have to, regardless of any intimidation or threats from Johnny Robertson and his lackeys.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

This DESERVES to be a real Thanksgiving TV special...

It's not the first time that I've blogged about this. But a short film this good easily merits sharing more than once. And who knows, there might be some who have never had the pleasure of seeing it before.

Here is that brilliant, spot-on and hilarious spoof of Ron Howard's Apollo 13 that Gene Kranz himself has taken to watching with his family as a holiday tradition.

Behold: Thanksgiving With The Kranzes...

Monday, January 05, 2009

BRING ME THE HEAD OF CHARLIE BROWN

In 1986, CBS Television was presented with the following roughly-animated proposal for a new Peanuts holiday special. Apparently it was decided somewhere that Charles Schulz's classic characters needed upgrading to become more timely and "Eighties" in order to "reinvigorate the franchise". Network execs saw the proposal - a short film by Jim Reardon - and immediately and quietly chose to bury it within the CBS vault. More than twenty years later and thanks to YouTube, it has finally seen the light of day! Here is Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown...

(For the real story of Reardon and his hilarious short, mash down here.)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

"Weird Al" Yankovic offers "Whatever You Like"!

"Weird Al" Yankovic is hard at work on his new album and he couldn't wait to share the first single from it! "Whatever You Like", a parody of T.I.'s hit song of the same name, is a spirited anthem (or is that a dirge?) for the current economy...

Speaking of Weird Al, this month's Wired magazine has an excellent article about his career and how he's still finding gobs of new fans!

And if you enjoyed "Whatever You Like", you can own it for yourself (and give Al some hard-earned cash) by buying it through iTunes or Amazon.com or Rhapsody or Napster!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

John McCain and Sarah Palin in APOCALIPSTICK NOW

Yeah, I had way too much time on my hands this evening...

With kindest regards to Bob Peak, who did the amazing poster for Apocalypse Now for its 1979 release.

Wish I could have found a pic of McCain with water dripping down his face, to match the effect of the original poster.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

"Weird Al" Yankovic's video for "Fat"

Here is a dire warning for all of those tempted to pig out this Thanksgiving. From his 1988 album Even Worse, here is the video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Fat" (which is a parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad", right down to the same subway set!)...

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

L. Ron Price: My best mash-up yet!

Incidentally, it was one year ago tonight that Ronald Filer Price, "conservative candidate" for Rockingham County Board of Education, stole the campaign signs belonging to U.S. House member Brad Miller. And then a number of citizens - including a doctor - spotted Ron's pilfering. Price admitted to the Reidsville cops that he had taken them, and claimed the following night on live television that he feared for his life because he was being chased by "goons".

Price, now too morally-tainted to serve on the Board, wound up elected and he had the gall to get sworn in anyway (but come the swearing-in ceremony, he meekly had to admit that there was nobody to hold his Bible for him). Ron "The Con" has since gained a reputation as being the most arrogant, sneering member of the Rockingham County school board, looking down on those he brands as "bad for the community" like WGSR and opponents of his sick school uniforms scheme. And of course, there is his ridiculous lawsuit against the Moores.

So on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of "the commotion" or "the signs incident" as Ron Price has sometimes called it, here is my most diabolical Ron Price graphic... at least so far. And I'm really tempting the fates with this one! Because not only might Ron the Con sue me for using his name and face (hey Ron, I will get away with it because parody is protected free speech!), this one also messes with the Church of Scientology: the one entity on Earth more sue-happy than Ron Price, if that's possible.

So here it is, in the fine tradition of L. Ron Hubbard and his book Dianetics, it's L. Ron Price's smash-hit:

Ron will probably sue me anyway, sheerly out of spite because he can't use Adobe Photoshop like I can :-P

Monday, October 29, 2007

The Ron Price Jack-o'-Lantern IS ALIVE!!

Just as I threatened to do a few days ago, here is the Ron Price Jack-o'-Lantern. Yes, I actually went ahead with my plan to carve a pumpkin in the likeness of Rockingham County's most larcenous, arrogant and condescending school board member! Ron Price is now immortalized in pumpkin... or at least until the thing starts to rot and decay (to match Price's moral principles).

Here's a shot of it on our kitchen table. Note that Monday Night Live on WGSR is playing in the background. Yup, even in our home, I make darn sure that Price cannot escape the scrutiny of WGSR, which Price once said was "bad for the community" (and click here if you want to hear Price say it himself)...

Here's a shot of the "Ron Price Political Protest Pumpkin" on our front porch...

With a bit of the light inside coming out...

And here it is in total darkness, with a wicked, sinister glow...

In case anyone's wondering, it took me a little over an hour and a half to carve this. Most of the work had to do with the fact that this was a robust pumpkin with a very thick (over an inch) outside, so it took some doing to scrape out the excess material. Ron "the Con"'s mouth and teeth were the hardest thing to carve out. But after a little patience, I can now boast that we have the scariest Jack-o'-Lantern on the entire street :-P

So I gotta wonder: now that I'm being summoned for deposition in Price's lawsuit against the Moores, does this thing up my own chances of getting sued by Ron Price? Probably. I mean, any elected official loco enough to sue a private citizen for (a) wearing a t-shirt and (b) practicing the constitutional right to petition, is capable of doing anything. Which makes it all the more important that we do what we can to knock people like Price off their pedestals. "They" serve us... and no matter how much Ron Price insists that he can get away with it because "I was elected", he's to be held just as accountable as anyone else. Price had the chance to do the right thing and step aside when he was caught stealing. He didn't do that. So now it falls to the rest of us to ridicule him and put him to shame... which he'll have to put up with, since he's a public figure by personal choice.

The pictures are nice, but this really is something that must be seen in person to be believed. The Ron Price Jack-o'-Lantern will be on display every night through Halloween (meaning that after tonight you only have 2 more nights to see it).

Next up: tomorrow night I'm going to carve Ron Price's light-side antithesis: good-guy Presidential candidate Ron Paul!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ron Price is a monument to all our sins

I really hate to say this, but righteous anger is something that has always helped me feel more creative so far as parody goes. If there's something wrong out there in the world, I do what I can to point it out and try to make it right, using whatever talent that God has given me... and in a way that I hope will make people both laugh and think about things.

So now that Rockingham County Board of Education member Ron Price is apparently trying to start-up the school uniforms thing again, my creative juices have gone into overdrive. A lot of ideas have come to mind in the past day or so regarding the Piedmont's #1 larcenous elected official.

Here's my latest work: Ron Price as the Gravemind in a piece inspired by the Halo video game series...

It was a bit hard to do, because Gravemind is one of the most undefinable objects that I've ever seen in a visual medium (no I haven't played Halo 3 yet so maybe he'll look better in that). But I still like how this turned out. And since Gravemind is the power-hungry, conniving central conscience of the Flood, I thought that the parallel to Ron Price was all the more appropriate :-)

Saturday, September 15, 2007

O.J.'S 11 - The Poster

You've probably heard by now that O.J. Simpson is being investigated - along with several accomplices - for armed robbery at a Las Vegas casino. The very first thing that popped into mind was that "this sounds like Ocean's 11!"

I couldn't resist. This was screaming for a Photoshop job.

Instead of the 2001 remake with George Clooney and pals, I went with the original 1960 movie with Frank Sinatra and the "Rat Pack", which I saw a long time ago and always liked.

So here it is: "O.J.'s 11" (or "O.J.'s Eleven" however you want to spell it out)...

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

PULP MUPPETS

'Nuff said...

Friday, July 27, 2007

Chris as a SIMPSONS character, Part II

About a month ago I showed what I would look like as a character from The Simpsons. That pic was courtesy of The Simpsons Movie website.

Then Darth Larry spotted another site, this one a promotional one run by Burger King called Simpsonize Me, also a tie-in with the new movie. But with this "you as a Simpsons character" thingy, you upload an actual photograph of yourself and the website does most of the work for you. Then all you have to do is fine-tune it with a variety of mouths, noses etc.

(Is it just me or is Burger King running some of the best movie promo sites lately? Their gimmick for Revenge of the Sith a few years ago was downright ... spooky.)

So I uploaded the photo I used for the newspaper ad from my school board campaign and after "tweaking" it a bit, the pic on the right is what I came up with. Personally, I think this looks a lot like me: right down to the part on the right side of the hair and the ears that are more or less standard gauge for guys in the Knight lineage. Compared to how I looked in my TV commercials, I can't imagine Matt Groening himself drawing a more accurate caricature.

So if you want to see what would look like as a resident of Springfield, point your browser to SimpsonizeMe.com and upload a nice-sized closeup of your mug. Anyone who's a friend of mine might as well go ahead and do it, 'cuz I'm prolly going to run your pics through this just for the heck of it :-P

Saturday, July 14, 2007

EXCLUSIVE: The FINAL PAGE from HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS!

This has to be the biggest coup in the history of this blog. Yes, ladies and gentlemen it is true: this evening the absolute very last page of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was sent to The Knight Shift. This is it! This is how the entire saga ends for good. This is the most absolute toppest-top secret that J.K. Rowling has been sitting on for over ten years now.

If you DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED, you are advised to TURN BACK NOW!

I mean it!

MASSIVE HARRY POTTER SPOILERS AHEAD

You sure you want to know?

Okay, let it be on your own head. Don't say that I didn't warn you.

Here it is, the final page from the very last chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

"Is there anything you would like from the menu?" Rosmerta asked.

"Three bottles of butterbear and an order of onion rings, please" replied Ron.

Rosmerta said "coming right up" and left for the kitchen. Harry looked around the pub: a family was laughing at a table close to the window. At the bar, a wizard was nursing a mug of meade.

Hermione turned to Ron. "You told her we would be here, right?"

"Ginny said she was going to come right after Apparation practice," Ron told her.

A trio of tough-looking Slytherins walked through the door. Harry watched them sit down. At the bar, a wizard in a Member's Only jacket was getting up and headed to the restroom.

Without warning, the scar on Harry's head began to tingle madly in pain.

The front door of the Three Broomsticks opened.

Harry looked up.

There you go folks: the conclusion of the Harry Potter saga. Discuss!