The Underground — Issue #116
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: John Oliver takes apart conspiracy theories, A classic Bill Burr joke gets the animated treatment, Mark Hamill does some Bad Lip Reading to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and a quick lesson on the rules of baseball as opening day hits most cities in the country.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention that’s our job: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about. That’s The Underground
1. John Oliver’s breaks down how silly conspiracy theories are. When I was in high school, I was all about a good conspiracy theory. I’m not proud, but there was a moment where I thought 9/11 was an inside job or something. That was until I heard all the professionals reassure me that I was an idiot and there was no conspiracy. That turns out to be the case from most conspiracies and actually makes real conspiracies have less clout.
Below is another typical breakdown of something from John Oliver that most come to expect from him every Sunday. It’s refreshing to see him take on another subject other than Trump, I appreciate political comedy, but everyone is doing it to the point that it’s getting stale, which is why no one should stop doing it!
Check out John Oliver discussing conspiracy theories below. We’re not immune.
2. Some genius animated the Bill Burr helicopter story. Many comedians have stories that can be repeated easily since they’re short or one-liners. Bill Burr is more difficult because he tells lengthy stories. One story he told was about a news story he saw where a father gave his son his helicopter business. His son was excited and wanted to do his father proud, but then someone who wanted to be flown around in a helicopter ruined all that by jumping out of the helicopter on the son’s 5th day of work.
It gets funnier and a lot darker when you watch the animated version of it below. It really shows how Burr’s work begs to be animated because he stage performance is basically voice work. He knows when to make himself far away to give the audience the image in their heads. With this, it matches up seamlessly.
Laugh yourself silly with the video below, then go On Netflix and catch some of Burr’s specials.
3. Mark Hamill gives Star Wars: The Force Awakens the Bad Lip Reading treatment. If you happened to see the movie, the only person in the movie who couldn’t have their lips read was Mark Hamill. He got into super shape just to turn around like Zoolander with no lines. To be fair, the entire movie was based around finding him, and who would turn down that sweet Star Wars cash to show up for 5 seconds? No one.
Using his impressive voice over talents, Mark Hamill had the chance to mock all the stars of the blockbuster film. If you’ve seen Bad Lip Reading before, you know that they have some funny stuff to put over videos, but Mark Hamill really kills it here. Oh, and if you haven’t seen the recent film, what the hell are you doing? Go watch it, then come back here for the best Star Wars coverage!
Enjoy the soothing tones of Mark Hamill doing some Bad Lip Reading.
4. Baseball’s most difficult things to explain to new fans EXPLAINED! Many fans think they’ve go baseball all figured out, but can get simple stuff wrong like where the strike zone is. There’s a bit more to it than just throwing the ball and getting it over the plate. It depends on how and where the batter is standing. It also matters how they tall they are. These things are factored in by the umpire, the batter and the pitcher every time the ball is throw. Now what happens when the batter swings? Well, that is a whole other story that makes it on the news every night.
As opening day celebrations are getting underway all over the country, maybe take some time to relearn some things about baseball that you may have overlooked or forgotten. If you have kids who are just getting into the sport, have them watch this a few times. I can’t tell you how little we actually learn when I was little. It was all about hitting the ball far, and nothing really mattered besides that. Well, in practice, if you could run the bases in under 15 seconds, you got a free slurpee. That was genius.
Have a look at the video below. You may not be the expert you thought you were, slugger.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com