Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)
Immaculate deceptions going on every day, still you follow the clowns who give the circus away
[The Almighty]
No genes were lost in the making of this whale
Evolution of alcohol synthesis
Development, medicine, and evolution of the neck and shoulder
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
« I don't hate Jonathan Wells | Main | So silly a child can see through it »
Category: Humor
Posted on: March 5, 2008 12:23 PM, by PZ Myers
This one is just too cute for words: a little girl summarizes Star Wars. The younger your eyes, the better that movie looks.
Uh, well, maybe this one isn't appropriate for lunch. There's nothing immediately off-putting about it, but it will sneak up on you. It made me laugh, anyway.
(TrackBack URL for this entry: )
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
(Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
Comments
heheheh, they need to air that second one here in Texas, now that they are legal (or at least possession of more than 6 of them is.)
And speaking of Texas, creationism supporter Barney Maddox lost the SBOE primary!
Posted by: susanbrown | March 5, 2008 12:37 PM
"Don't talk back to Darth Vader..."
That's just too precious for words.
Posted by: Dan | March 5, 2008 12:40 PM
Thanks for the daily dose of medicine. Laughter that is!
Posted by: Eric | March 5, 2008 12:42 PM
I though perhaps you meant this video as inappropriate for lunch.
It is very pharyngulian... from today's NYTimes online.
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=a50dbbd306f6a287c66776ea3f66b69183ab0970
Posted by: Anon | March 5, 2008 12:47 PM
...and that's why I always slice up my cucumbers as soon as I get them home from the store. No uncomfortable little surprises that way.
Posted by: Forrest Prince | March 5, 2008 12:51 PM
What a little sweetie! And so articulate! Why can't she
stay that age and just charm us with her sweetness and
innocent banter!
Posted by: Holbach | March 5, 2008 12:58 PM
OT: Ken Miller is speaking at my school next week. Got any trick questions I can ask?
Posted by: Faithful Reader | March 5, 2008 1:08 PM
Every year thousands of people accidently fall on cucumbers. When this happens you need two things. Ice prongs and freind who can keep a secret.
Posted by: Urban Shocker | March 5, 2008 1:09 PM
That little girl giving the finger is a riot! The intense
expression on her face speaks reams of meaning! Her friend
thinks it's a hoot also!
Posted by: Holbach | March 5, 2008 1:11 PM
My cube pals are wondering why I am laughing and I consider it wiser to not disclose why. be well.
Posted by: Barry of Denver | March 5, 2008 1:12 PM
My spoken English is not good (i.e. I can read everything perfectly, but I have a hard time understanding spoken English) so I haven't got the joke in the second video.
Can anyone explain it to me?
Posted by: Alex Besogonov | March 5, 2008 1:25 PM
?
Cucumbers?
What's the legal zuchini limit down there?
(I kid)
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | March 5, 2008 1:25 PM
If only we could all see the world so simply! Now as for #2, lets leave these sorts of things to the bonobos who seem to be much more creative and resourceful than we ever could be in this arena.
Posted by: Sustainable Sean | March 5, 2008 1:26 PM
#9 I recognise that picture, anyone know where it comes from?
Posted by: Jason | March 5, 2008 1:33 PM
Alex - based on it being an advertisement for vibrators the joke is the young woman used the cucumber in the fridge as a personal pleasure device, but her partner didn't know it so used it to make sandwiches to serve with tea.
Posted by: Nan | March 5, 2008 1:34 PM
PZ... fyi... on challenges to role of natural selection, Mazur on Altenberg meeting:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0803/S00051.htm
Posted by: steve | March 5, 2008 1:55 PM
er..I laughed too at the second one, but... why on earth would the woman have put the cuke back in the fridge in the first place?
Posted by: Steven Sullivan | March 5, 2008 3:28 PM
#17 To keep it fresh of course.
Posted by: Ryan | March 5, 2008 3:45 PM
My thought process during that cucumber video was "Hmm, now I'm kind of hungr-- Ah. AAAAAH!"
Speaking of stuff sneaking up on you, check this out, this is TERRIFYING.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km9B9zcfym4
I wonder if the people in the church looked at each other afterwards and asked "Did that just happen...?"
Posted by: October Mermaid | March 5, 2008 4:01 PM
If the pull-tab banana is ID's answer to the candy bar, does it not follow that the ergonomically-designed cucumber is a divinely sanctioned alternative to the "marital aid"?
"'Dil' pickles--the Atheist's worst nightmare."
Posted by: Sarah_D | March 5, 2008 4:16 PM
The execution of this ad is (thankfully), far yes sexist than it could have been. I'm fairly (some would say hyper-) sensitive to sexism in the media, and, although this ad was unsettling, it wasn't what I'd call mean-spirited.
Posted by: Sarah_D | March 5, 2008 4:25 PM
Um...that's "less sexist", of course. Distracting people in the background.
Posted by: Sarah_D | March 5, 2008 4:28 PM
Yummm, marinated cucumber!
Posted by: bigjohn | March 5, 2008 4:56 PM
I don't see what was sexist about it at all. The closest I can see is that the woman was playing a character who -had- to be female for it to work...
Also, if he doesn't wash vegetables before eating them he'll have far more unhygienic sandwiches than that one.
Posted by: Olaf Davis | March 5, 2008 5:15 PM
@#24: You know, the character didn't -have- to be female for the ad to work. Menfolk have a handy-dandy cucumber storage area as well.
Though if I read the second part of your post right, I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking "So what? As long as he washed the cuke off, right?"
Posted by: apophenia | March 5, 2008 5:33 PM
I really don't get why it would be sexist either. I also don't get why it would be inappropriate for lunch, or why it's weird that she put it back in the fridge. Unless she's suffering some sort of disease, there's nothing... inedible, about her nether regions. A bit embarrassing, but no one's harmed. It would've been a lot more offensive if it had been a guy, as that WOULD have been unhealthy.
Posted by: Felicia Gilljam | March 5, 2008 5:37 PM
I think that it's the commercial's premise that "vaginas are gross, so don't eat cukes that may have touched them" that people are seeing as sexist.
Posted by: apophenia | March 5, 2008 5:53 PM
It's not supposed to be sexist. Some people were confused in the comments of the original post and she explained. She meant > to mean that Europe was bigger in the sense of being better in terms of sexism, not in terms of having more sexism. The implication is that the frank and healthy recognition of female sexuality implicit to the ad would never have flown in the US. Vibrators only became legal in Texas recently, after all.
Posted by: Gregory | March 5, 2008 6:12 PM
That reminds me; I've got to warn my roommate before she serves that roast chicken to her thesis supervisor!
Posted by: Brownian, OM | March 5, 2008 7:22 PM
I saw the Star Wars one a week or so ago--Mom and Dad might want to consider a new DVD or two.
Posted by: MAJeff, OM | March 5, 2008 7:24 PM
The little girl is just too cute for words.
I had to watch the second video twice before I got it. It's pretty amusing now, but the first time, I was just, "Huh?"
Posted by: Seamyst | March 5, 2008 7:53 PM
Brownian,
You've been watching way too much Southpark!
And, um, yuck!
As for the ad being sexist, I don't see it. I don't think the reaction being sought was one of revulsion but more one of the psychological implications of your parents partaking of your pleasure toy. They wanted people to laugh, not to be grossed out.
P.S. Cold cukes, as I understand it, intensifies the sensations.
Posted by: Don Smith, FCD | March 5, 2008 9:20 PM
P.S. Cold cukes, as I understand it, intensifies the sensations.
"That's too cold." --Margaret Cho's mother.
Posted by: MAJeff, OM | March 5, 2008 9:24 PM
Felicia, I thought it was funny because the people eating the cucumber sandwich were here parents. If it were any other company, well it would have been a funny story to tell them after tea. But this is something she can now never tell. Anyone.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | March 5, 2008 9:55 PM
"It blow'd up!"
"Blow'd up real good!"
"Real good!"
"Yep!"
Posted by: antaresrichard | March 5, 2008 9:58 PM
On the second video,
And here I though the look on her face was more of a "But, I was saving that for later..." than a "Ew."
But that's just me.
Posted by: Prillotashekta | March 5, 2008 11:36 PM
LOL @ Brownian!
Holbach:
Yes! I agree! T
he Star Wars kid was cute, too, don't you think?
Posted by: Kseniya | March 6, 2008 1:21 AM
Mermaid (#19), I wonder if "Little Markie" is a manifestation of DID...
Posted by: Kseniya | March 6, 2008 1:25 AM
I think it shows the gulf between the two continents that some people did not 'get' it first time around. That would work well in Italy or Spain too, the Pope's disapproval notwithstanding. And she does show her disgust, in that bit where they show her mouth and as she realises the chewing slows down...
Posted by: Peter Ashby | March 6, 2008 7:15 AM
Oh and I don't remember the last time I saw a whole cucumber here that wasn't wrapped in shrink wrap plastic...
Posted by: Peter Ashby | March 6, 2008 7:17 AM