Video Truffles: Everything is Terrible

First of all, Happy New Year from Roger Ebert. Which reminds me of Everything is Terrible.

Everything is Terrible takes the baton passed from TV Carnage and The Found Footage Festival, and passes it on to the internet with daily postings of genuinely ridiculous videos and out of context movie scenes ripped from old VHS releases. From an interview posted at Cinevegas the team behind Everything is Terrible explain their utterly perfect name: "The way I see it, there can only be great movies and terrible movies. Mediocre movies are the absolute worst. The fact that our name ends in an exclamation point is because we love the fact that the world sucks. We want to rub our faces in it." Or, if you prefer more of a battle cry, "Terrible, which is everything! Therefore everything is worthy and thus every quality of everything is Terrible! Hence forth and so one making everything Terrible!"

Here are some of my favorites so far - all featuring really creepy men.

After the jump are some other random video clips from around yon internets for your enjoyment.

One of the influential performers that I missed posting video from in last week's RIP post was George Carlin. I always liked Carlin's friendly counter-culture style, and the stand up from his later years features some of the best observations on society that you can find outside of Philosophy (well, maybe I'm overstating, but he did have quite a way with words). But when I was a kid, I loooooved George Carlin. His "Take Offs and Put Ons" album rarely left my turntable (second most played was Bob Newhart's "Button Down Mind"), and I would giggle for hours at his amazing sense of wordplay. So, in honor of the George Carlin I loved as a kid, here's a clip from Carlin and Flip Wilson co-hosting a fake newscast from 1972.

Parodying radio styles was classic Carlin that dates back to his earliest bits - which makes sense since he started as a chipper top 40 disc jockey in the 1950s. Here he is with the "Wonderful WINO" bit from 1966.

Chris Dane Owens is the primo musician for all pop music loving LARPers. According to his bio, Owens is "a Los Angeles native who distills many of the city's musical styles into one unique brew." Well, that's one way to look at it...or you could imagine it as an ate-a-super-big-burrito-then-watched-a-double-feature-of-80s-fantasy-movies-right-before-bedtime nightmare.

Ernie Kovacs meets Esquivel, in this office symphony of 'Jalousie' & 'Sentimental Journey'. Via Martin Klasch.

Indie band Tomboyfriend made it to the museum halls with this video for "End of Poverty", made entirely out of internet videos of teenagers showing their moves. One thing the YouTube revolution has renewed, is our passion to film ourselves dancing! Visit the YouTube page for comments from some of the participants. Via novelist Heather O'Neill's shout out in NYT Magazine.

But for really hot booty dancing action, look no further than King Sporty's 1983 dancehall-disco hit "Do You Wanna Dance".

Who can resist the phrase "Oliver Reed drunk on talk shows"? This is just the tip of the iceberg for what a rebel/nutjob/genius Reed was. Watch the 5 part documentary on Reed for more.

Star Wars vs Star Trek. I am very weak when it comes to viral videos that combine Picard and Darth Vader. "Is there any nudity in it?" Nope.

High quality stereo music wherever you go. No, not a Walkman, silly. I'm talking about the much more hi-tech Music Vest. Not sold in stores.

In 1982 Blancmange was actually a bit edgy. A bit. Via The Red Room.

Retro space aged fashions with retro space aged moog. See more via World of Kane.

And we leave you this week with this early vocoder demonstration. Via Channel 53.

Comments

[Jeffersonic]

Great crop of clips. I was surprised...I mean, I didn't think the "Room Service" guy was going to go as far as he did with that zucchini...

[hiland]

This blog looks promising. I always thought the FOUND FOOTAGE FILM FESTIVAL was a little weak.
Their commentary always seemed about as clever as a 5th grade teacher.

[souldesqueeze]

Oh, great, they edited out all the info about how to use the new Philips CD Recorder. Now I'll never know how to create the perfect one-year anniversary date.

[bartleby]

Anybody remember the BoneFone? It was advertised regularly in late '70s issues of Omni. While it lacked the sartorial flair of the stereo vest, the ads touted the Bonefone for giving FM stereo sound through the skeleton. Since we had to go across the street to our neighbors to play atari it's needless to say I never possessed one of these scarf-like FM radios.

[plunderpunk]

...an exotic dancer? holy guacamole that's not the thing to say!

[edgertor]

i loved 'blind vision' when i was a kidlet!

also, re: music vest--toys r us used to send these speaker pins that you plugged into a walkman, similar idea. damn i wish i had bought a pile of them now.