No, this isn’t a raucous slob comedy movie about anthropomorphic letters living in a rowdy frat house chugging beer kegs and throwing toga parties. It’s a famous animated sequence from the early years of Sesame Street, involving an elaborate Rube Goldberg device in a ca-razy house. Enjoy.
“Suuuu-real!”
There’s far too much animosity in the world today.
After a while, I get tired of seeing pairs of characters constantly hating each others’ guts and always being at each others’ throats. This is why today’s Nerdvana takes the opposite approach and pays tribute to some of my favorite besties in fiction. Today we celebrate…Super Best Friends, some of my favorite fictional best friend duos. As you should know by now, we’re big on duos here at Twinsanity.
BLUE BEETLE II (TED KORD) & BOOSTER GOLD
I know these days lots of peoples’ favorite Blue Beetle is Jaime Reyes because “he was in Young Justice and that was the best DC show eva and I hate Cartoon Network for cancelling it for Teen Titans GO! and blah blah blah blah blah”, but my favorite Blue Beetle is and always has been Ted Kord, the goofy genius with the amazing tech. For a time during his reign, it looked like Ted was being groomed to be the Tony Stark of DC, and I definitely could’ve gotten behind that. Ted wasn’t dark, brooding, perfect or overly serious; he was fun, good natured and self-effacing, something you rarely see in capes nowadays. Another reason I like Ted Kord is because he was bosom chums with another C-list at best superhero, Booster Gold, everyone’s favorite time-traveling glory hound. Together the 2 of them formed the duo of Blue & Gold, getting into wacky shenanigans and even dare I say…
While Booster Gold has made a few TV appearances already, we’ve seen very little of Ted in animation, mainly because by the time of the DCAU and the subsequent superhero media boom, Ted Kord was already deceased in the comics. Darn shame. Maybe after DC reboots and retcons their universe for the umptee-seventh time, they can resurrect Ted, and then maybe we can finally get some Blue and Gold antics on a TV show or DTV movie. Personally I’d totally be up for some “BWAH-HA-HA!” action somewhere. Fun, goofball superhero buddies are sadly rare.
Let’s get ludicrous!
SUPERGIRL & BATGIRL
I’ve already went over this briefly in Carpin’ and Gripin’, but one of the many reasons why Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice left me cold is because I’m personally sick and tired of Supey and Batsy’s nonstop pissing contests that DC and popular media insist on perpetuating post-Dark Knight Returns. This is why I’m glad to see that whenever Superman and Batman’s female counterparts, get together, they actually get along. When Batgirl and Supergirl team up, they don’t start fuedin’ and fussin’ like cats and dogs, they’re fast friends, working together and complimenting one another, Kara’s arsenal of alien powers meshing well with Barbara’s big brain and incredible tech arsenal. (In fact, their friendship calls to mind a show idea I tried developing many years ago called Super Trouble!, about 2 silly young aspiring girl heroes who were always getting into crazee situations, think Broad City meets Freakazoid!.) I still dig Superman and Batman as they’re the parentheses of the superhero world, but I’d really like to see this ongoing chest-pounding contest between them come to an end; they could learn a lesson from their teenage girl offshoots. maybe one day we can get a response movie called Batgirl & Supergirl: Dawn of Besties.
LYRA HEARTSTRINGS & BON BON
No, these 2 aren’t superheroes or even main characters, but our site, our rules. My favorite 2 background ponies, each one belonging to my 2 favorite Pony Tribes (no offense to the Pegasi, but I’ve always liked the unicorns since they can do magic, and the Apple Family, Mr. and Mrs. Cake and Bon Bon made me a fan of the Earth Ponies–I can’t resist the country, candy and desserts); the MLP fan base turned these 2 random characters into a cute and endearing coupl…er, um…DUO. Yeah, duo. When Lyra and Bon Bon finally made their speaking debut as said characters in Friendship Is Magic‘s 100th episode “Slice of Life”, they didn’t disappoint:
OK, 3 things:
No, I’m not delusional, I know that’ll NEVER happen in canon, but I wouldn’t be against it; I find Bon Bon (or Sweetie Drops) and Lyra to be profoundly cute together, in any regard, I’m OK with them just being BFFs (Best Fillies Forever).
“I dunno y’all, I’d like to see me some filly on filly action. That’d be groovitatious!”
Yeah, I think we’re done here.
Behold this ad for Blur, the badass racing video game that tried to make a name for itself by taking a thinly veiled swipe at the “lame” Super Mario Kart series by proclaiming “Race Like a Big Boy”, as if to say, “We’re the mature alternative to Mario Kart”, meant to appeal to the type that think being “edgy” and “X-TREME!!!” equal being mature. Basically, an insecure juvenile’s idea of maturity.
Fast-forward to now, where the Mario Kart titles continue to sell millions of copies, whereas most people have completely forgotten about Blur. The irony here is obvious: many people who viewed this spot said they’d rather play the cutesy, squeaky-clean parody game in this spot than the actual game it was advertising, plus the ad managed to tick off a lot of Mario Kart fans, not a good idea if you want them to try your game. (BTW, anybody who thinks that Mario Kart is “about making friends” has clearly never played the game; one well-placed blue tortoise shell or lightning bolt could cause a severe rift between players, if anything Mario Kart could end a friendship as easily as it could perpetuate one.)
The same fate befell game mascots Croc…
…And Ty the Tasmanian Tiger…
…Both of whom attacked other, more popular game mascots in their ads, only to promptly vanish into obscurity.
“Man, I, like, y’know, never heard of those cats!”
What’s the lesson to be learned here? If you want your potential video game franchise to be long running and successful, then don’t attempt to slam other games in your ads. That only worked for Sonic the Hedgehog, and look at him now. Better yet, look at him 15 years ago.
If you try to put yourself over other games, you’ll end up harder to find than this guy:
“FTR, I’ve never played Blur either!”
Today’s 2 Funny is a favorite segment from Animaniacs. The Warner Brothers and their sister Dot take on rabid fanboys. I keep this foundation and its’ name in mind whenever I’m confronted by hardcore fans who obsess over fictional romances and people who think that fun kids’ cartoons need to become more “adult”.
Anyone who regularly interacts with fans, be it in real life or on the internet via message boards or social media sites, knows at least 1 fan like the geeks in this segment, and if you don’t, then you are that geek.
Twin Images 
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