Author: Nigel G Mitchell

Monty Python Live (Mostly); Source: YouTube It was truly the end of an era on July 20 when the surviving members of the legendary comedy troupe Monty Python performed their final show at London’s O2 Arena. Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam led the crowd in a rousing chorus of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” before lowering the curtain for the last time. The group says it’s their final performance together, which is more than likely, given all of them are in their 70’s. The only other member Graham Chapman died in…

Weird Al with Donnie Osmond in “White and Nerdy”; Source: YouTube Weird Al Yankovic is not only the most popular song parody writer of all time, he’s also a major geek. This week, Weird Al released his first new album in three years, Mandatory Fun and we’re glad to have him back. Over the years, he’s proved not only a funny guy, but also someone who’s down with the geek community. Here are his five geekiest songs so far. 5. “White and Nerdy” (2006) “White and Nerdy” is a parody of “Ridin'” by Chamillionaire. The song is one of his most…

Time travel has been a beloved part of science fiction movies for decades, but the rules always change. Can you change history like in Back to the Future? Do you have to be naked like in Terminator? Are there side effects like in Primer? Find out in this handy infographic by MTV that covers 17 famous time travel movies, and how they work. [Via MTV] What do you think of the infographic? What rules do you like the best? What other time travel rules exist? Related Posts: 10 Awesome Movies About Time Travel 3 Insane Ways We’ve Tried to Find Time…

Epic nitpickers Honest Trailers and Cinemasins covered the same ground once again when they both tackled the infamous DC flop, Green Lantern. Watch an ocean of gags about Ryan Reynolds’ Van Wilder-like Hal Jordan, CG costumes, a cloudy villain, and more. But they still didn’t dwell on my biggest problem with this movie: if you can make anything you want, why would you make a racetrack to stop a falling helicopter? Why not just catch it with a giant baseball glove or something and be done with it instead of racing it over the heads of everybody who are already…

Female Beta Ray Bill by Lar Desouza What will happen to Thor? Is the new Batman v Superman trailer real? Will the new fan film about Storm get off the ground? All this and more in this week’s Geek Bits! What Happens to a Snake in Zero Gravity? (via Neatorama) Stephen Colbert announces the new Captain America. (Via comicbook.com) Maya Glick, creator of the fan film RAIN, is still trying to bring a new vision of Storm to life. Her Kickstarter ends in seven days! Via Blackgirlnerds.com On The View, Marvel announced that Thor will be reborn as a woman (via themarysue.com).…

Did you know a surprising number of actors are actually true geniuses? The normal range for an IQ test is between 70 and 130, but there are many in Hollywood who have scored beyond that. Here’s a list of eleven celebrities who are actually card-carrying mental giants. 11. Sharon Stone I.Q. 154 She’s best known as an Academy and Golden Globe award-nominated actress, notably playing the beautiful femme fatale in the movie Basic Instinct, but her mental skills are even more impressive. She won a scholarship to attend Edinboro University at only 15, where she studied creative writing and fine…

Publicity photo of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Credit: Paramount) When Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered, we loved the futuristic look of the uniforms, but the costumes turned out to be nightmarish behind the scenes. Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s creator, firmly believed in a utopian future for Mankind, which has been praised by fans of the series. Unfortunately, his vision for fashion was way off. The costumes he specified for the crew of the Enterprise in The Next Generation ran into a lot of problems. Thanks to recent interviews with the cast and crew, we know how they suffered to bring us…

I don’t know about you, but YouTube is an enormous sucking black hole of time-wasting for me. Once I watch a video, I can’t help watching another. But what was the Internet was like before the endless stream of video content came into existence? What websites or applications occupied our time? Created by YTDDownloader, this infographic shows what we all did on the Internet before YouTube. Or at least, those of us who remember that far back, eh, sonny? Twenty-three skidoo! Hosted by IMGUR.com What did you learn from the infographic? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below…

This video, I think, could be used in psychology courses as a textbook case of obsessive compulsion. Someone (username: suckerpinch) made a video that catalogued and organized every single English word in Star Wars IV by number and in alphabetical order. Ever wanted to know every single instance of the word “help?” They’ve got you covered. “Lightsaber” only appears once, though. [Via Sploid] What do you think of the video? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

Science in movies is an exciting and dramatic world, but the real world of science is far different. How different? We could make a boring list explaining it, but a lot of scientists have become cartoonists, illustrating the difference between real science and movie science in brilliantly funny ways. Source: People in White Coats Source: PHD Comics Source: The Upturned Microscope Source: XKCD Which was your favorite? What other differences have you seen? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

Have you ever wondered how much Doc Brown’s mansion in Back to the Future cost? I honestly never thought about it until I saw this infographic from Movoto. The answer is interesting and actually surprising. Looks like Doc Brown’s time travel research was quite lucrative. What do you think of the infographic? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

Source: YouTube Do time travelers exist? If they exist, how do we find them? Those are the questions people have asked since the concept of time travel was first conceived. If people could travel through time, they should have been here by now, but it’s possible they’ve been hiding. Several people have come up with ideas on how to find them, and here are three of the craziest. 1. Time Travel Convention – On May 7, 2005, Amal Dorai and other students at MIT threw a time travelers convention. The convention was to be the first and only one thrown,…

Source: YouTube Frank Wunderlich posted this video under the title “Leaked Star Wars Episode VII Filmset Footage.” It claims to be taken at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany, where they’re filming the new movie. It doesn’t take long to tell the footage isn’t really of the movie, but it’s still pretty cool to see AT-ATs and Imperial shuttles. I love these found-footage style Star Wars videos. [Via http://youtu.be/Snph22qSUMU] What do you think of the video? Related Posts: 6 Awesome Videos That Put Star Wars in Real Life If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends…

When you’re trying to get a date, it helps to have some pickup lines on the ready. It’s made more complicated when you’re a geek. Let’s say you’re a fan of Star Trek, and you miraculously happen to find another fan of Star Trek you’re attracted to. How do you break the ice? Let us help you out with these funny pickup lines. Which is your favorite line? What other pickup lines would you like? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter |…

With a new Planet of the Apes sequel dawning soon, both ScreenJunkies and Cinemasins decided to revisit the franchise’s darkest hour: Tim Burton’s disastrous 2001 remake. Witness honest commentary about all the mouth-breathing, ape screaming, nonsensical ending, and repurposed dialogue. It’s a madhouse! A maaadhouse! What did you think of Planet of the Apes? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

Throughout its run through multiple TV series, Star Trek has had some phenomenal episodes like “City on the Edge of Forever.” But they can’t all be winners. Every now and then, a weak episode slipped through, but these eight episodes are not just bad Star Trek. They’re bad television. Let’s run them down. 8. Threshold “Do you take this giant newt to be your lawfully wedded wife?” While the quality of Voyager in general is debatable, “Threshold” really pushed the series into Bizarro world. In this episode, Lieutenant Tom Paris becomes the first person to break the Warp Ten barrier. As a…

What if Godzilla was real? We all know the answer the movies would give us. We’d all run screaming in the streets until Godzilla was defeated, possibly employing super-laser tanks or giant robotic Godzillas to beat him, and everything would go back to normal at the end. But what would really happen? What if Godzilla was real and existed? How would the world look? How would people react? What would be the long-term social and economic effects if a giant monster attacked a major city? Alternate History Hub asked all these questions and more in this very interesting video. [Via YouTube]…

In Attack of the Clones, R2-D2 shocked the Star Wars community when he sprouted jets and flew through the factory at Geonosis. This was something he had never done in a movie before, and people started asking why he hadn’t flown in the original trilogy. The Expanded Universe explanation is that R2’s rockets had been damaged between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. But what if they hadn’t? Here are some changes we would have seen: How else would R2-D2’s rockets have helped him in the original trilogy? Hosted by IMGUR. If you enjoyed this, then please use the…

Batplane flies in Batman, Source: Warner Bros. This week is the 25th anniversary of Batman. Released on June 25, 1989, Batman is described by Wikipedia as “a critical and financial success, earning over $400 million in box office totals. The film received several Saturn Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination, and won an Academy Award. It also inspired the equally successful Batman: The Animated Series, paving the way for the DC animated universe, and has influenced Hollywood’s modern marketing and development techniques of the superhero film genre.” Here’s some trivia you may not have heard about this iconic film. 1. The…

Ever wanted to explore the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation in a pixelated form? I didn’r either until I found PixelTrek. PixelTrek is a sort of game where you can explore a recreation of the Enterprise in a top-down 8-bit map. The results are surprisingly cool, wandering through tiny rooms of the ship and seeing familiar sights like the Battle Bridge or Data’s quarters. You also get to see things you never saw in the original show like the storage room for all their uniforms and the bathrooms…hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go. Okay, so you…

Source: YouTube Would you like to see the Doctor and Sherlock together on screen? Doctor Who and Sherlock have a lot in common. Both shows are popular on BBC and BBC America. Both shows are run by executive producer Steven Moffat. It’s natural that fans have often thought what would happen if Doctor Who and Sherlock met. Through some clever editing and amazing CGI, editor John Smith created this brilliant mash-up. If you’d like to see how this short was achieved, check out the VFX breakdown. It really is amazing work. [Via YouTube] What do you think of the mashup? If…

Batman: The Animated Series Title; Source: Warner Bros Animation In 1992, Batman: The Animated Series premiered. The series was widely praised for its thematic complexity, darker tone, artistic quality, and faithfulness to its title character’s crime-fighting origins. The series also won four Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program. Its impact is still being felt in pop culture, and here are five ways. 1. Mr Freeze Prior to his portrayal in B:TAS, Mr. Freeze was just a gimmicky mad scientist. He’d run around with what looked like a spray bottle of ice and make cold puns. He’d fallen into disuse in…

Source: YouTube When Guardians of the Galaxy came out, its trailer took the Internet by storm, surprising everyone with its comedy, editing, and attitude. Well, YouTuber The Unusual Suspect created this trailer that imagines Star Wars in the same style. In many ways, this is symbolic of what they would make if the Star Wars trilogy was released today. The focus on comedy, the quick cuts from seemingly random moments, the action sequences, snippets of witty dialogue, the spoiler of the ending, and (of course) “Hooked on a Feeling.” It’s all here. And for comparison, here’s the original trailer for Star…

Two of the most popular scientists in modern history are Sir Isaac Newton and Bill Nye (the Science Guy). They’re both scientists, both geniuses, both loved by the scientific community, but how do they rank at hip-hop? Epic Rap Battles decided to pit the two of them against each other in a heated war of words. And there’s a special guest star who’s too good to spoil. And yes, that is Weird Al Yankovic. [via YouTube] Who won? Who’s next? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

One of the most famous stories in Hollywood is about the disaster of the RoboCop suit. When filming the original movie, the RoboCop costume was late being delivered to the set. Actor Peter Weller (who played RoboCop) had to prepare and train without trying it on, scenes had been delayed, and they finally got the suit…and it didn’t work. It took too long to get on, it was too heavy, and Weller couldn’t even move in it. Bits of the story have been explained, but here’s the full story. After a special showing of RoboCop, Peter Weller talked with Ain’t…

All versions of Star Trek since the original series depicted action aboard starships (weapon impacts, explosions, warp core malfunctions) by using the highly advanced and sophisticated technique of the actors throwing themselves around the set. Usually, the camera is shaken or shifted to compensate, but some enterprising souls on Reddit decided to see what these scenes would look like if the camera were stationary. Welcome to Star Trek Stabilized. And it’s hilarious. BONUS: Check out Jeri Ryan and Wil Wheaton discussing the technique on an episode of his webseries, Table Top (1:45:00). What do you think? If you enjoyed this, then…

The Death Star is one of the most iconic spaceships in the history of science fiction. Geeks are Sexy, in collaboration with Car Insurance Guide, created this detailed infographic about the Death Star. Known areas, known residents, interesting features, it’s pretty much all here. Compiled by Car Insurance Guide and Geeks are Sexy | Picture hosted on imgur What did you think of the infographic? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all the new technology out there. Space-age inventions and innovations have been a staple of futuristic entertainment since before The Jetsons. Flying cars and robot maids are still a ways off, but it might surprise you to learn that some of high-tech toys and tools from “the future” are actually already available today. For example, a talking dog collar like Doug’s from UP or a water-powered lightbulb. Click below to enlarge and check out some of these items in an infographic from Who is Hosting This. Source: WhoIsHostingThis.com What item would you want…

The movie Gravity has been critically acclaimed and widely popular. But in 2013, scientist and TV show host Neil DeGrasse Tyson tweeted a series of critiques of the accuracy of the movie. Tyson later came out on Facebook to praise Gravity and point out the fact people thought Gravity was accurate at all speaks to its quality. Nevertheless, Tyson agreed to narrate his own critiques on this very special episode of “Everything Wrong With Gravity.” What did you think of Gravity? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email…

The 2014 World Cup is almost here, and most of the world is on their edge of their seats waiting for it. In the US, of course, most Americans are more interested in competitive fishing than the World Cup. But if soccer was more like this, we might be. For their Risk Everything campaign, Nike released this short film called “The Last Game.” Created by Wieden+Kennedy, the short imagines a dark future where genetically engineered clones replace humans at soccer (or “football” to non-Americans). With their superior but less imaginative skills, the clones threaten to ruin the game forever until…