Nobody Expects the...

…Spanish Inquisition. 

Can a parakeet repeat this famous Monty Python line? Yes. Yes it can. BTW if you're wondering, it's completely real. Odd that they didn't teach it the "parrot sketch" though.

Geek Screen Gems: Wet Hot American Summer

More of a satire on 1980s summer-camp movies than a parody, Wet Hot American Summer was released in 2001 to hardly anyone, and for good reason. The producers of this hilarious take on Meatballs, and other similar teen films, are all alumni of the love-them-or-loathe-them comedy troupe, The State, who enjoyed a shaky three-year run on MTV, making their mark during the brief revival of sketch comedy in the 1990s, which included acts like the Upright Citizens Brigade, Mr. Show and Canadian comedy prodigies, The Kids in the Hall. Although widely panned by critics and audiences alike and grossing less than $300,000, Wet Hot American Summer's absurdist take on the whole National Lampoon genre is worth a second look for its twisted and bizzare gags, ridiculous premises and over-the-top characters all of which have helped this movie reach a comfortable cult-status on the home video market. Of course it didn't hurt to have a host of fantastic cast members on hand, many of which were relatively unknown at the time the film premiered such as Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Amy Poheler, Bradley Cooper and Judah Friedlander. Add a few established talents of the period, in this case Janeane Garofalo, Molly Shannon and David Hyde Pierce, and throw in a cameo performance by H. Jon Benjamin as a can of vegetables and you basically have a guaranteed hit. Except it wasn't.  So if you loved those cheesy 80s summer movies or just have fond memories of your own camp experiences, head on down to the video rental store and pick up a copy of Wet Hot American Summer (available on VHS and Beta) tonight!

WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER ON NETFLIX

WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER ON ITUNES

WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER ON GOOGLE PLAY

My favorite scene.

Elvis Sasso

Well folks, I've been on vacation for about a week now and I've done my best to keep you loyal retrogeekers abreast of all the oldest news the Internet has to offer. But today I'm going to be lazy because, well, just because. So I was sitting in a Mexican restaurant in Colorado today and I started to space out on the little dessert menu placard that was positioned between me and my queso. Of all the delicious dessert items listed, and there were many, I kept returning to "flan," you know, the creamy, custard-like cake that you either love or hate? Well any way you slice it, flan is a damned funny word which immediately brought to mind a hilarious old sketch from the now-defunct comedy show, MadTV. The sketch stars the brilliant Will Sasso who performs an uncanny, albeit over-the-top, impersonation of Elvis Presley, and spans several periods in the life of The King, illustrating his eventual decline into the sad shell of the man he once was. Trust me, it's funny. So set aside a good 10 minutes or so to enjoy the somewhat-retro but completely hilarious video below, and by the time you get to the end, you'll totally get the flan connection. Hmm, the flan connection, sounds like a good movie title.