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11 Artistic Renderings of Pee-wee Herman

This past summer, Gallery1988 held a collaborative art show called "I Know You Art, But What Am I?", a tribute to Pee-wee Herman. Here are 11 of the best Pee-wee tributes from the show, prints of which can be purchased through Gallery1988. 1. "Friends with Pee-Wee Herman" by James... READ ON

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11 Last Meals of the Rich and Famous

They lived amazing lives. They accomplished incredible (although not always good) things. But what were their last meals? 1. Abraham... READ ON

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THAT IS ALL, John Hodgman's Final Book of Complete World Knowledge

Photo by Brantley Gutierrez. John Hodgman's third and final book of complete world knowledge, That is All, hits bookstore shelves today, 11/1/11. I hope you'll buy a copy, because you'll need it when Ragnarok occurs. Oh, You Haven't Heard of Ragnarok? That is All is predicated on the premise (ahem, CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE) that, starting quite soon, we will enter a pre-apocalyptic period leading up to the end of the world, or to be more specific, Hodgman's "COMING TOTAL ULTRACOLLAPSE OF CIVILIZATION... READ ON

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John Hodgman: The Deranged Millionaire

I've been working my way through John Hodgman's final book of complete world knowledge, That Is All, for a few weeks now. It comes out November 1 (11/1/11), and I'll have a complete review then. But I'm here to tell you today: this is the best final book of complete world knowledge I've read all year. And I don't just say that because the previous two books of complete world knowledge were actually incomplete (and thus worthless without this final volume) -- I say it because That is All is the only... READ ON

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Andy Rooney, Re-Edited

As we've all heard, Andy Rooney has retired. But his body of work is vast, including 1,097 of his iconic 60 Minutes commentaries. I have a love-hate relationship with those commentary pieces -- I've actually watched 60 Minutes for many years, and while I'm tempted to turn it off when Rooney comes on (because it generally strikes me as "a few minutes" of crotchetiness), I generally stick around to see what cranky weirdness he's on about. Part of what makes Rooney's commentaries appealing is that they're... READ ON

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Garry Shandling's 1986 Pizza Hut Commercial

In 1986, at the height of his career (as It's Garry Shandling's Show was starting), comedian Garry Shandling did a Pizza Hut ad. Here it is: It appears to be part of a major campaign, also featuring standup comedian Roseanne Barr (whose show Roseanne didn't start until 1988), actor Pat Morita (whose turn in The Karate Kid was in 1984 -- I suspect this video is from 1986 despite the YouTube description), and actress Rita Moreno. If celebrity endorsements aren't your thing, here's a strangely... READ ON

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Five Potentially Great Power Couples (and why they never made it)

1. Bobby Fischer and Barbra Streisand Barbra Streisand, the future Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner, actually attended the same Brooklyn high school as Bobby Fischer, who at the time was already competing in and winning international chess tournaments. Streisand later confided that she had a crush on the chess player, saying that he "was always alone and very peculiar. But I found him very sexy." And how did Fischer feel about her? In an interview with a Japanese radio station, Fischer said, "I... READ ON

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mental_floss Gets Curbed

If you're a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm and you watched the season finale this past sunday night, you might have noticed a mental_floss cameo appearance. Larry sat down to wait for his date, who was running a few minutes late, and looked over the coffee table where a bunch of magazines were sitting, including our "Real Americans" issue. In true Larry David style, he paused for a long moment to consider the magazines and then picked one up and began flipping through it. Did he pick ours or another? Find out... READ ON

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Being John Malkovich...'s Face

So let's say you've got a webcam, some photos of a celebrity, and a Computer Science degree. Why not make a celebrity facial puppeteering system? In this 2010 research demonstration, several University of Washington researchers demonstrate a Being John Malkovitch Malkovich-style puppeteering method, in which a webcam watches the puppeteer's face and the computer selects similar frames from another face, causing the virtual "puppet" to act along. Given a sufficiently large database of frames, presumably... READ ON

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Celebrity Twists

Ahhh, the celeb remake. They all want one... but do they all need one? Some colleagues of mine and I thought these up. If you have some ideas for new/other ones, leave them in the comments below and we'll get to... READ ON