Showing posts with label the wire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the wire. Show all posts

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Fake Campaign Shirts 09

I'm still making my way through Battlestar Galactica for first time, because I refuse to watch good TV shows until everyone else in the world is already over them. Some of the election episodes got me itching for a good "Baltar/Zarich 01" shirt (01 of course referring to the calendar restart following the earth getting blowns up...that's how it works, right?) I couldn't really find what I wanted, except for this officially licensed merch by the Sci-Fi Channel, which you can't even get anymore.



Disappointing, yes, but it did lead me on a quest to find other awesome fake campaign shirts. Because nothing says "I Refuse to Draw A Line Between Fantasy and Reality" like wearing a campaign shirt for a candidate in an election that takes place in a made up fantasy land.

This is probably the greatest shirt ever. You don't need to read the rest of the post, cause it's all downhill from here. You don't even need to be a fan of Futurama to enjoy this shirt; anyone can enjoy the horrific comedy inherent in the idea of a Mecha Nixon running for public office.

More less good shirts after the jump...

This is a dumb cheesey font and unimaginative design. I think Zaphod would have his campaign team go a lot, A LOT, flashier. You should have to plug this shirt in. There's so much potential. It's a good thing D. Adams is already dead, because seeing this shirt would kill him. Someone please make a better one.


Sometimes a show does all the work for you in designing the campaign iconography; in the 3rd Season of the Wire, we saw this plain and simple campaign logo all over the place, but it took a weirdly long time for someone to make a decent shirt out of it.

You'd think there'd be like a million awesome Harvey Dent shirts online, right? Nope! The official viral campaign shirts are lame and no one has made any cool ones. This Obama knockoff is the best the internet has to offer. Sad sad state of affairs. Get it, state? State official, election, district attorney....eeheh. I guess there's no need for re-election campaign materials anyway, because one party with Bruce's friends and he'll never need another cent! Also he's dead.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Det. Munch: A Threat To The Multiverse?


Though I'm a proud NYC nerd, my geek roots rest firmly in Baltimore... and as a prouder son of Baltimore, Homicide: Life on the Streets remains one of my all time favorite shows. So I found it particularly intriguing when fellow g'nerd, Bishop, pointed out that Richard Belzer has played the character of Det. Munch on a record breaking 8 separate shows-with 10 credits on the character's IMDb page.

I'm not entirely surprised; the character's great. I was thrilled to learn he was going to outlast Homicide and move on to the Law & Orders (though I can't say I've ever watched a full episode of SVU). And I was ever further delighted to spot his cameo in the last season of the Wire. However, once I looked at the credits on his IMDb page, a terrible truth became clear: Det. Munch is going to obliterate all of Space and Time.

How? Read on.


Its no shock that he has appeared in Law & Order since Homicide-the two shows clearly exist in the same fictional universe as they've enjoyed a handful of crossovers. And it doesn't require too much of a leap in logic to assume the Wire exists in the same universe-though the world is considerably grittier and... Wire-ier than both L&O and Homicide.

But Munch's diabolical show spanning isn't limited to cop show universes. No, he's appeared in an episode of Arrested Development, an episode of X-Files; Hell, he's even traveled into the Muppetverse and has been featured as a Munch muppet on an episode of Sesame Street! He's opted to explore the furthest reaches of what has been called the Westphall Universe, a fictional universe that comprises at least 60% of all television. The crux of the Westphall hypothesis being that the entire series of St. Elsewhere (created by Homicide showrunner Tom Fontana) took place inside the mind of a minor character-an autistic child named Tommy Westphall. This wouldn't be too big a deal, except for the fact that St. Elsewhere characters appeared in an early episode of Homicide... implying that Homicide, too, took place in Tommy Westphall's head... implying that ALL of the Law & Orders took place in Tommy Westphall's head... and, as prof. Brian Weatherson has pointed out, Law & Order has featured real life figures such as NY mayor Mike Bloomberg... implying that... um... we took place inside Tommy Westphall's head? You can see where the theory gets sticky.

But clearly, none of the great minds piecing together this delicate theory of the Westphall universe have accepted the obvious fact that the Westphall Universe is in fact, the Westphall MULTIverse. Surely, you can't expect us to believe that the Wire, Arrested Development, the X-Files, and Sesame Street all exist within the same fictional universe. It Must be a Multiverse! And Det. Munch is slowly eroding away at that Multiverse, WHICH INCLUDES OUR OWN UNIVERSE! As the Monitors of the DCU have pointed out, time and time again; all this inter-universal travel isn't healthy for the multiverse!

Something must be done, and fast! If his cross-universal travel continues unchecked, who knows what untold destruction he may reap. Even as we speak, Det. Munch is set to appear in an episode of Paris EnquĂȘtes Criminelles-the french version of Criminal Intent... which apparently takes place in some strange universe where cops speak french. Richard Belzer, I implore you, stop your nefarious counterpart! Pick a universe, and stick to it! Save our Multiverse! Otherwise, I'm not responsible for any action a rogue Monitor may take...

May God help us all.