Tag: satire

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Cautionary Tales News Politics Smolitics Video Clips

ZA NEWS: Changing The Face of South African News

Popular South African cartoonist Zapiro is tired of just being in the news, and is now making the news. Debuting on October 6th and delivered exclusively on the Internet, ZA NEWS takes a satirical look at South African politics and the celebrities that make the magic happen.

The “news” segments are acted out by rubber puppets who are remarkably similar to the politicians they are parodying. Each show is around five to seven minutes long, and there is wrap-up show on Saturday. Have a look at the inaugural episode which features President Jacob Zuma, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and always-entertaining Julius Malema, who this time can’t seem to find the word Internet in his dictionary.

Catch more of ZA NEWS at the Mail & Guardian.

According to Hayibo.com the SABC are less than thrilled about the matter as they already have a satire show that broadcasts daily, it’s called The News ;-)

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Science & Technology

Pigeon Race 2009: Will A Homing Pigeon Beat The Telco Giant?

In a satirical attempt to highlight slow and often inconsistent transfer speeds in South Africa, a financial services company has decided to host Pigeon Race 2009. The company postulates that in a data race, a pigeon could haul a 4GB file to a location faster than it can be transferred through a normal land line. The affable 11-month old homing pigeon, named Winston, will have a 4 GB flash stick SD card strapped to its leg and will fly from the company’s call centre in Howick to its head office in Hillcrest, Durban, a distance of 80 km.

Risking bad weather and death by predatory hawks, the pigeon is expected to arrive in 45 minutes whilst the landline transfer is expected to take two days. The race is expected to start tomorrow. Keep updated with the story on Pigeon Race 2009.

Already people have placed more favour with the pigeon over the telco giant – a commenter on The Times article feels that the pigeon will be faster even if it walks. And some MyBroadband forum members think someone will shoot the bird so they can braai it. Others think Telkom might be hard at working trying to secure an unimpeded connection to secure the win.

What are your thoughts?

[via MyBroadband]

Update (09/09/09):  Winston did not disappoint his 1000+ Facebook fans, landing safely in 2 hours 6 minutes and 57 seconds. At that point the ADSL transfer still around four percent complete. A round of applause  for Winston and birdband :yes:

News travels fast – Winston makes it onto the Daily Mail and gets Slashdotted.

Categories
Arty Cautionary Tales

KENYONB: Graphic Satirist

Kenyon Bajus (or KENYONB) isn’t afraid to tackle issues of racism, sexism, classism, ageism, war, and homophobia in his work. Some may find his work sarcastic, others might be seriously offended, and that divided reaction is exactly what he’s looking for.

If I had a room full of people that were upset by my work, that would be better than everyone walking by with no reaction at all.

Here’s a small gallery of this work.

See more at KENYONB.

[via Design You Trust]

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Featured Music Video Clips

Eminem’s Comeback Single: We Made You

“We Made You” is a hilariously offensive new single from that man Eminem. Having been away from the spotlight for some time (I’m too lazy to google it), his comeback plans seems to include attacking celebrities like bootylicious Kim Kardashian, a portly Jessica Simpson, on-and-off lesbian Lindsay Lohan, and even former US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. There’s a fair amount of filthy innuendo thrown in as well.

Produced by Dr Dre, “We Made You” is the debut track off Eminem’s upcoming album Relapse. Enjoy.

Find the lyrics after the jump.

Continue reading “Eminem’s Comeback Single: We Made You”
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Awesomeness Entertainment Video Clips

Natalie Tran: YouTube Superstar

My experience with YouTube is like one-way traffic – I usually drop in to watch a blooper video or tune, and that’s about it. I never really noticed the vloggers – the video bloggers who spend much more time on YouTube, posting response videos, and generally rambling at their low-res web cam. The other day, Onelargeprawn reader Macross posted on the PS3ZA forums about Natalie Tran, a 22-year old Vietnamese Australian student whose understated, self-deprecating humour has made her one of the most celebrated vloggers on YouTube.

Natalie’s videos are usually short skits in which she plays every character, and she chats candidly to the camera between each skit. She’s natually funny and the video are very entertaining, so it’s no surprise that her YouTube channel has over 10 million views.

Here are a couple of her skits:

Makeup like a Celeb in 1 Minute

The “We Just Touched Awkwardly” Song

But I Can Dance!

See more at her YouTube channel.

Categories
Politics Smolitics

South African Politics: It’s a Horse Race

This little audio clip got sent to us via email. It’s about South African politics as a horse race, more specifically, the R500 million Presidential Horse Race due to be run soon. Some of the top contenders are Wet Blanket ridden by Kgalema Motlanthe, Corruption ridden by in-form jockey Jacob “Shower Power” Zuma, and a surprise entrant, Genocide ridden by Robert Mugabe.

Who’s going to win? Find out below or download the MP3 file (2.8 MB) from here.

[Thanks Boo]

Categories
Cautionary Tales Video Clips

White People Problems

From bad tasting lattes at Starbucks, to ingrown hairs, to long lines at the Apple store it’s hard out here for a Caucasian. Just because they are white, doesn’t mean their burden is light.

Zach Selwyn and Eli Braden let it all hang out in the hilarious music video, White People Problems. Check it out below.

[via Buzzfeed]

Categories
Mindlessness Video Clips

Twitter Police – Watcha Gonna Do?

With a ten-fold increase in traffic in the last 12 months, Twitter is taking the world by storm. Several million tweets are posted everyday, and there is bound to be irreverent users spoiling it for rest of the Twitterverse.

That is when the Twitter Police have to step in and bust some heads. A special branch of the force, this independent group fights against bad tweets. This is a day in their lives:

Found via The High Definite.

BONUS: How big is your Twitter e-Penis? Find out here.

Categories
Cautionary Tales Entertainment Video Clips

Deadpan Comedian: Memorable Jimmy Carr Quotes

A comedic hero of our times, Jimmy Carr is the veritable king of tasteless one-liners. Here are are some of them:

  • My girlfriend said she wanted me to tease her, so I said “Alright, fatty.”
  • I’m not being condescending, I’m too busy thinking about far more important things you wouldn’t understand.
  • I did a gig in the US once for the homeless. I said “It’s nice to see so many bums on seats”.
  • See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Rohypnol(TM).
  • Throwing acid is wrong, in some people’s eyes.
  • When someone close to you dies, move seats.
  • Cats have nine lives. Which makes them ideal for experimentation.
  • The right to bear arms is slightly less ludicrous than the right to arm bears.
  • My dad is Irish and my mum is Iranian, which meant that we spent most of our family holidays in Customs.
  • A big girl once came up to me after a show and said “I think you’re fatist.” I said “No, no. I think you’re fattest.”

And here’s a clip of Carr at the Royal Variety Stand Up Act in 2008.

Find more memorable Jimmy Carr quotes at He Wants Revenge.

Categories
Awesomeness Politics Smolitics

Shoo Bru

RSA iflagi

As you may have noticed Dear Reader, I am a great fan of satire, sarcasm, irony and all things dark and dangerous. Anyway the fabulous Zahidah (maker of superb pies and samoosas) pointed me in the direction of a very lekker local site that is jam packed with lovely juicy satire and sarcasm. Here’s a tasty tit bit:

After 15 years ANC thinkers make incompetence breakthrough
PRETORIA. After fifteen years in power the ANC has for the first time threatened to sack non-performing ministers, saying that the groundbreaking concept to stop rewarding incompetence went against everything the new South Africa stood for but was necessary if the ruling party was going to carry out effective purges inside its organization.

Speaking to journalists this morning ANC spokesman Yesman Mxenge said that the new concept, called “accountability”, had sowed panic and confusion among ANC backbenchers.

“The problem is that it’s a very high-end concept,” said Mxenge. “I’m not sure I understand it myself.

“In a nutshell, it’s basically that if you don’t do the job you’re being paid half a million a year to do, you don’t get fired.

“Wait, no, you do get fired. That’s the part that keeps tripping us up.”

For more full flavour fun and delicious belly laughs visit Hayibo. Oh and their polls are awesome too!