RIP Adam Yauch

  • May 4, 2012 10:43 pm

When I first heard the Beastie Boys’ music, I hated it. Even though I was just a kid and my “higher” musical sensibilities had not been completely formed yet, “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)” seemed like the epitome of everything I despised in pop music—it was stupid, mindless and nothing more than a bunch of annoying white boys co-opting hip hop music.

It wasn’t until I saw them perform in concert with Run DMC and then later heard their album “Paul’s Boutique” that I started to come around. I found a complexity and a maturity in their work that I hadn’t noticed before. What I respond to more than anything is surprise and these guys surprised me in a major way. I became a fan.

I was introduced to Beastie Boy Adam Yauch some years ago by Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and though I only spent an hour or so talking with him, Yauch was nothing like I expected. There was no rock star bravado or ego. By then, he was married with a young daughter, a committed activist (his big cause was Tibetan independence) and pursuing his interest in film and art. He was an interesting and sensitive soul and impressed me in a way that most celebrities don’t.  Read more...

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The YOMYOMF Network: ‘Internet Icon’ and the Unexpected Surprises

  • May 1, 2012 10:29 pm

So we’re about halfway through the shoot of Internet Icon, our YouTube competition show premiering this summer, and we’re down to our top six finalists. By this weekend, we’ll be down to our final two and the winner will ultimately be decided by viewer votes when the show debuts later this summer on our upcoming YOMYOMF Network on YouTube.

(l to r): Internet Icon judge Christine Lakin, host Chester See, producer Andy Fickman & judge Ryan Higa.

I have to say the experience of being involved with this show hasn’t turned out how I expected. Everyone’s been working long hours and fighting fatigue to make a great show under the leadership of uber-producers Andy Fickman and Betsy Sullenger (Oops Doughnuts), Bobby Smith Jr. (Ashore Entertainment) and director D.J. Viola—that’s not the surprising part. But what has been unexpected is the level of talent of our contestants and the high quality of work they are consistently producing under very adverse conditions.

Here’s how the typical day plays out: the contestants are given a “challenge” for that day’s videos. I don’t want to give away what the specific challenges are, but it might go something like this—everyone is given a grocery bag full of food and they must make a video incorporating every item in that bag.  Read more...

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This Chinese Woman is a Literal Ballbuster

  • April 27, 2012 10:13 pm

A male shopkeeper in the Chinese town of Haikou died last week when a confrontation with a woman resulted in testicular asphxiation. Or to put it in layman’s terms, the woman grabbed the man’s balls and squeezed really hard until he died.

According to reports, the unidentified woman tried to park her scooter in front of the man’s store so she could pick up her child from school, but the man wouldn’t let her. This led to an argument, which led to violence, which led to the unfortunate death.  Read more...

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The YOMYOMF Network: ‘Internet Icon’ Begins & The First Ever YouTube Video

  • April 25, 2012 1:22 pm

The Internet Icon finalists lining up to sign-in on the first day of the shoot.

It seems fitting that today is the first day of shooting on our upcoming YOMYOMF YouTube Network show Internet Icon because it was almost exactly seven years ago on April 23, 2005 that the first video was uploaded to YouTube—changing the world forever.

So who would’ve thought that just seven years and a couple of days after that auspicious beginning, we’d be launching a competition to find the next “Internet icon” with one of the biggest personalities on YouTube (and our YOMYOMF network partner)—Ryan Higa–acting as a judge alongside Family Guy’s Christine Lakin and a rotating list of guest judges including some of the top names on YouTube like KassemG and Jenna Marbles (with our own very handsome Chester See acting as host)?

But here we are and as I write this, the Internet Icon finalists from all over the country have filed into the downtown L.A. studio that will be home to our show for the next week-and-a-half and are signing in:  Read more...

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The Proper Way to Fart On, Rip Off & Eat a Face

  • April 24, 2012 12:01 am

These noodles somewhat resemble the noodles described in the following post.

So I stopped at the Koreatown Galleria Mall earlier this evening to grab a quick bite in the food court. As I was enjoying a bowl of hot noodles (see image above), a young boy—he must have been five or six—came up to me wielding a toy gun and pretended to shoot me. So I did the logical thing in such a situation—I pretended to die.

The boy found this to be highly amusing and then blurted out, “I’m going to rip off your face and eat your face and then fart on your face!”

His ensuing laughter made it clear that the boy found the notion of following through with what he said also highly amusing.

But I found his words to be disturbing. It’s one thing to pretend to shoot someone with a toy gun, but those words—even a boy that young should know better. I knew I had to set him straight.

“Look, kid, what you just said isn’t good,” I spoke in my most authoritative yet calming voice. “I want you to think carefully about your words and why they’re wrong—I’m going to rip off your face and eat your face and then fart on your face.”  Read more...

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Karaoke Etiquette or How to Avoid Musical Herpes

  • April 23, 2012 12:01 am

We take our karaoke very seriously at YOMYOMF. Or at least one of us certainly does:

That’s my fellow Offender Anderson and he’s definitely the King of Karaoke. Which reminds me of a famous Anderson karaoke story that’s achieved a level of infamy here at YOMYOMF central. Anderson often works long hours and sometimes he’ll just doze off as I learned last week when I was riding along in his car as he proceeded to take a brief nap at a stop light.

Anyway, as this story legend goes, after a particularly long day at the Hawaii International Film Festival (where Anderson is the head programmer), he was letting lose at karaoke as he is known to do. Waiting his turn with the mike in his hand, Anderson fell asleep. But as soon as his song began, Anderson suddenly sprang to life and sang his heart out. As soon as his song ended, Anderson immediately fell asleep, only to magically awaken when his next selection began. I’ve been told it was quite an amazing sight to behold.

But…this blog isn’t about Anderson, it’s about me. And a little thing called karaoke etiquette. As defined by me.  Read more...

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Happy 4/20!

  • April 20, 2012 1:47 pm

What better way to commemorate this special day than by revisiting an oldie but goodie—a few years ago Detroit police officer Edward Sanchez took home some marijuana that he had confiscated and decided to bake them into some brownies.

Well, the brownies turned out be stronger than Officer Sanchez had anticipated, leading to this classic 911 call where Sanchez told the operator such gems as:

Check out the full audio of the call below and then join me for some Twinkies and pizza.  Read more...

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The Big Secret About Asians Finally Revealed: We Can Read Minds!!!!

  • April 18, 2012 5:02 pm

So the celebrity gossip site Just Jared posted a short piece this afternoon with photos of actor Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) running errands with his pooch. An otherwise seemingly dull standard piece of celebrity fluff, but something about this story prompted a reader named Vanessa to post some lengthy rambling remarks in the comments section that started off like this:

Yup, whoever this mysterious Vanessa is, she has finally exposed the truth: that Asians have the secret ability to read people’s minds. That’s clearly why we have “completely expressionless faces” and are “very unfriendly in general” ‘cause we’re using that as a cover for reading your minds.

Now, thanks to the mysterious Vanessa, Zachary Quinto and his dog, we have been exposed. And if you’re thinking to yourself, what the hell does Asians reading minds have to do with Zachary Quinto and his dog? Well, I already knew you were thinking that ‘cause I can read your mind, sucka!

Check out Vanessa’s comment in full as she lays out the truth:  Read more...

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Who Wants to Go Vampire Hunting in India?

  • April 17, 2012 11:10 pm

If you want to make a few bucks hunting down some blood-sucking creatures of the night, a trip to India may be in order.

It seems that vampires have been “sucking the blood” out of the local cattle in the town of Dharampuri in Tamil Nadu. Things have gotten so bad that apparently residents are painting religious symbols outside their homes to ward off these vampires known as Ratha Kaatteri.

It’s become such a problem that local politicians are offering a reward of 100,000 rupees (around $2,000 US) to anyone bringing in a vampire corpse. However, the politicians are using the reward more as an attempt to expose the vampire stories as a hoax perpetuated by late-night bootleggers who do not want to be disturbed as they pry their trade. If no vampire corpse is produced despite the reward, then they must not exist, right?

But whether the stories are bullshit or not, I do offer one piece of advice—if this is you:  Read more...

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Chopsticks + Fork = the Chork

  • April 16, 2012 11:18 pm

Considering the spork has become a staple of picnics and white trash trailer banquets, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that now comes…the Chork:

It’s a combination fork and chopsticks and…well, just see how awesome it is for yourself:

 Read more...

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Why Japan is Awesome #22: A Hotel for Sheep

  • April 12, 2012 5:05 pm

You can now check into Japanese’s newest five-star luxury hotel, or rather, your sheep can.

Yes, the Hotel Sheep Guest House is a new 30-room hotel just for sheep. I can only assume that a number of Japanese keep sheep as pets, otherwise, well, Japan may be an even odder place than I original thought.

The hotel has all the amenities from maid service to TVs in every room to ward off loneliness:

But not everyone is welcome here:  Read more...

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The YOMYOMF Network: Attack of the Paparazzi

  • April 10, 2012 6:40 pm

Normally, I don’t care for the paparazzi or tabloids, but they become harder to ignore when you receive numerous early morning tweets, emails and messages about them. In this case, it was regarding pics of actor Jessica Alba mixing it up in the ring with WWE wrestler John Morrison that appeared in the British tabloid rag Daily Mail:

What does this have to do with YOMYOMF? Well, if the presence of my fellow Offender Jerome in the foreground of the shot above doesn’t give it away, this was taken during a shoot for a promo we’re filming to launch our upcoming YOMYOMF Network on YouTube.

The promo is being co-directed by our own Justin Lin and the awesome Timothy Kendall who previously gave us this Interpretations gem starring honorary Offender Danny Pudi:  Read more...

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