Results tagged “parody”

Yes Men co-founder Andy Bichlbaum was arrested this morning while demonstrating one of the group's post-apocalyptic SurvivaBalls, described as "a self-contained living system—truly, a gated community for one. If you have a SurvivaBall, even if everyone else is dying, at least you can weather all storms." A spokesperson tells us that Bichlbaum was at Stuy Cove Park, just north of East 20th Street on the East River, wearing a SurvivaBall along with twenty others similarly ensconced. There were about 40 spectators, and so the NYPD, acting on NYC's unconstitutional parade permit law, arrived to break up the citizens' peaceful assembly.

Oh no, man! According to witnesses, this morning the NYPD detained several volunteers working with the Yes Men to distribute the hoax edition of the New York Post. Photographer Jason Nicholas was at the scene outside News Corp., the Post headquarters, when he observed cops detaining three volunteers who had been handing out copies.

After last November's fake New York Times treatment, lefty political pranksters The Yes Men are back with a fake "Special Climate Edition" of the New York Post. The front page story, "WE'RE SCREWED," covers, in Bizarro-world Post fashion, the catastrophic events which the scientific community expects humanity to endure due to climate change. You can read it all online here, but the culture jammers have also distributed 1 million copies of the print edition city-wide.

This generation's obsession with instant nostalgia and visually documenting every part of their daily lives serves as the punchline in this Onion News Network piece. In the story, an NYU dorm is set ablaze during a party, and "after examining the evidence from the 25 iPhones, 15 Blackberries, 10 video cameras and 40 digital cameras obtained from the students who attended the party" the entire event was reconstructed, placing blame on chain smoking 22-year-old Danny Gordon.

Okay, so this isn't the real Dov Charney, but we're going to assume it's pretty close. The parody was written and directed by UCB's Todd Bieber—be sure to watch the whole video for whispered lexical gems like, "I want you to know that you can trust me, okay?"

A reader sent along these photos from the E train, saying, "I am sure that they are fakes and that they are making fun of the current Keep it Going NYC campaign." We asked an NYC Transit spokesman if they were fakes, to which he replied, "I have no idea." Smells like a renegade campaign to us! And unlike the KeepNewYorkMoving ad campaign, it's not asking Albany for funding, but criticizing both Governor Paterson for his budget cuts and the MTA for its proposed fare hikes and service cuts.

Watchmen hasn't been getting the best reviews, but Slate thinks it could be worse. What if Woody Allen directed it! Allen's would be set on the UWS, of course, and the site imagines a romantic comedy "where wealthy dermatologist Dr. Herbert Manhattan (Allen) suffers a freak accident with his dermabrasion machine. How will his blue skin and omnipotence affect his relationship with beautiful but scatterbrained silk importer Laurie Juspeczyk (Scarlett Johansson)?" Other what-if scenarios include the bromance-obsessed Judd Apatow, Quentin Tarantino, Tyler Perry, Sofia Coppola and Pedro Almodóvar—but who else would(n't) you like to see reinterpret it? How about a Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan directed Bollywood take on the comic? A Dr. Mumbai dance number may be just what this movie needs.

Remember how last month we all had fun hating that "support group" Dating a Banker Anonymous [DABA], created by and for materialistic ladies freaking out about their suddenly penurious boyfriends? And then, after a NY Times article about the women led to an immediate book deal for the DABA co-founders—swiftly followed by talk of a movie and TV deal—we all gagged on our own bile? Well, as previously suspected, the whole thing was just a satirical put-on—there never was any support group, just a blog—and the Paper of Record has just issued a mea culpa, almost four weeks after the article was originally published:

An article on Jan. 28 about women who commiserated over dating Wall Street bankers caught in the financial crisis described a group they had formed, Dating a Banker Anonymous, as a support group. That is the name of their blog. Its creators originally told The Times that about 30 women had participated, but since publication, they have said that all involved were friends. Laney Crowell, one of the women who started the blog, said in the article that it was “very tongue in cheek;” she has since described it as a satire that embellishes true experiences for effect. Had the nature of the blog been made clear at the outset, the article would have described it accordingly, not as a support group.

Not that it makes a difference to anyone rushing to cash in on the nation's lust for Schadenfreude; the DABA girls' new literary agent tells Newsweek, "It’s a humor book. That’s the category it would be." The continued interest is damn good news for Crowell; she was recently fired from her job at online fashion channel StyleCaster "because DABA-fever had become a distraction."

Finally someone has parodied the New York Times Weekender ad. You know the one ("It's like you get the Friday paper, and boom you're right into the weekend!"). Behold the all-star ensemble cast starring in Michael Showalter's version, created for the 92YTribeca. Spoiler: Mike Birbiglia's illiterate!

The NY Sun reports on a 4-page parody ad for "Sucker City" that runs in the latest issue of MAD Magazine. Circuit City was displeased to find the spread, which "pokes fun at high prices, the breaking of promises found in advertisements, and the employees who save sold-out merchandise for friends." Reportedly a "humor-impaired" employee ordered that all magazines be removed from Circuit City newsstands...yeah, don't worry, MAD's editor-in-chief was equally confused, saying, "We at MAD were shocked and confused by this entire incident — mainly because we had no idea Circuit City even sells magazines." After their removal, the issues were then ordered to be destroyed. That order has now been reversed, and the company has apologized to the magazine.

Grand Theft Auto gets an '80s redux (heroin for 20 bucks back then seems a little unrealistic, however). If you ever wondered what the game would have looked like on the original NES, this one's for you:

The specialty beverage industry – particularly Smart Water – is now the recipient of a clever parody from Brooklyn designer/photographer Till Krautkramer, who’s rolled out an elaborate marketing campaign for a line of beverages called MeatWater. The website proudly declares that the drink uses “only the finest protein” for such “High Efficiency Survival Beverages” as Dirty Hot Dog, “an authentic taste of the Big Apple you can sip through a straw!” and Italian Sausage:

Mangia! You’ll feel like youse is at da famous San Gennaro festival in New Yawk’s Little Italy after drinkin’ dis. But widdout the annoying bridge-and-tunnel crowds askin’ “How much is doze zeppoles? Tree fuh a dollah? I’ll take tree.”

Other appealing liquid meals include Beef Jerky, Beef Stroganof, Fish'n Chips, and Brunch Omelette ("There’s nothing like a lazy Sunday! But who wants to go all the way to the diner and wait in line with the other losers for a table?")