Category: Webseries

With Further Ado #122: I Love A Parade

With Further Ado #122: I Love A Parade

It’s a big deal to have a balloon in the Macy’s Day Parade. When I was in brand management at Unilever, we worked to get Snuggle, the cuddy teddy bear mascot for Snuggle Fabric Softener, included in this wonderful event.  It made for a few special Macy Day Parades.

There have been a bunch of corporate mascots included over the years (I’m looking at you, Poppin’ Fresh, you Pillsbury Doughboy!) This annual event generally has been very inclusive to comic characters too.

In fact, you could “Look! Up in the Sky” many times over the years to see the “first” superhero: Superman.

The last of son of Krypton actually had three incarnations with the Macy’s Day Parade. The first Superman balloon took to the skies in 1939.  Superman’s first’s appearance was, of course, in April of 1938. It’s incredible to us today that a character could debut one year and become a giant balloon in one of the famous parades the very next year. Surprisingly, this balloon even preceded  The Adventures of Superman radio show.

And as Superman was so new, it’s understandable that he looked a little “off-model”, a term that didn’t even exist all those Thanksgivings ago. Continue reading “With Further Ado #122: I Love A Parade”

‘Dope Movies’ Debuts on YouTube; Forgets the Ironic Date.

Peanut butter and jelly. McNuggets and dipping sauce. Funions and… more funions. Pairings that bring to mind those fine flavors that bore benevolence into the baked brain. That, or I haven’t had breakfast yet, and I’m jonesing hard. Debuting on YouTube today, from Comedy Central and the original minds behind “Middle-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles” (seriously, look it up) comes Dope Movies.

In the 6 minute clip, (perfectly re-watchable if you happen to accidentally eat one too many special gummies you just mistook for your morning vitamin…) actor and comedian Clayton English tokes up and recounts 1995’s action hit GoldenEye. In between the plumes of smoke, English waxes poetic on white privilege, James Brown, and the Sean Bean Death Rule. And while I wasn’t sitting back with an annotated script to check down English’s reminiscing… I’m near certain he recalls the best parts in spite of finding literally anything funny whilst filming.

If the format feels a little familiar? One might look only to Comedy Central’s other inebriation-based recollection show, Drunk History. Done with significantly less money, guest stars, and pomp-and-circumstance… Dope Movies hits the same laugh-center of the viewer’s brain all at a pandemically-friendly price-point. Especially for the millennial types who save their cord-cutting shekels for more Sour Diesel.

Check out the premiere episode below, and be sure to keep your eyes pink-free for Dope Movies’ take on Jurassic Park on 5/8, and Meteor Man on 6/5.

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!