parody posts

Filed under: Humor, Multimedia, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store

Giant Bomb makes an app (and, more importantly, a commercial)

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jul 6th, 2009

Unless you're a fan of their website, you probably don't need the Giant Bomb iPhone app. It's a pretty limited use piece of software. While it does offer easy access to everything on their site, including videos, reviews, previews, and so on, it actually costs $1.99, and we can't really justify a purchase like that. Isn't browsing sites what Safari is for?

But we are thankful that they made the app, because, at the very least, it encouraged them to make the commercial above. It features a few spot-on parodies (the first one overstays its welcome, but stick with it), and even has some nice iPhone-related humor. I don't know about you folks, but I winced when Apple's device went in the drink during the ShamWow parody. The app itself might not be worth the price, but the commercial is definitely worth every penny.

Tags: app-store, apple-device, funny, giant-bomb, humor, iphone, parody, price, purchase, video, videos

Filed under: Odds and ends, Flickr Find

Flickr Find: You've been Steve'd!

by Megan Lavey (RSS feed) on Jan 19th, 2009

When Flickr user jpegsrock returned from a few days out of the office, he discovered that someone else had taken over his desk while he was gone -- Steve Jobs.

It's an unwritten rule among his co-workers that something is done to their cubes if they're going to be out of the office for awhile, and the prank they settled on for jpegsrock was hanging up portraits of Steve on every available surface. Why? Jpegsrock told me that he is the unofficial Apple spokesperson for his office and his colleagues figured this would be an appropriate homage. As another TUAW writer who saw the gallery commented, it's fantastic, but a bit creepy. And yes, it even got a little creepy for jpegsrock as people from around the company dropped by his cube to check out the display.

Tags: flickr find, FlickrFind, parody

Filed under: Hardware, Humor

The Onion creates MacBook Wheel parody

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Jan 6th, 2009

There's a great history of Apple parodies in pop culture, and the latest one from The Onion is particularly funny. The fictional "MacBook Wheel" replaces the traditional keyboard with a large, touch-sensitive scroll wheel. As the Apple representative demonstrates, typing "...couldn't be simpler." Just use the wheel to scroll from letter to letter via an on-screen keyboard, pressing the center button to make a selection. Easy, right?

You've got to admire the effort that the folks at The Onion put into this, including the posters and set at the Apple "booth," the employee's uniform and the sweet video of the Wheel in action. They've also nailed Apple's typical release schedule, saying that "...The MacBook Wheel won't hit the shelves for another three to fifteen months." Good job, Onion! We noted the vid on Twitter last night but thought you all deserved a look.

Click below to watch the video.

Continue reading “The Onion creates MacBook Wheel parody”

Tags: humor, macbook, macbook wheel, MacbookWheel, parody, the onion, TheOnion

Filed under: Humor, Apple, Holidays

Stop the presses: Apple cancels Christmas

by Megan Lavey (RSS feed) on Dec 16th, 2008

In a stunning revelation, in addition to Steve Jobs declining to give the keynote speech and announcing Apple will pull out of Macworld after this year, a joint statement released by Apple and Santa Claus states that Christmas will end after this year.

"Apple has been steadily scaling back on holidays in recent years, including Valentine's Day, Columbus Day, President's Day and Grandparents Day in Japan," the press release states.

The joint press conference was sponsored by an unknown lover of parody and a good bit of tongue-in-cheek humor.

And, don't worry. We can always import the Japanese Health and Sports holiday (second Monday in October) and use it to fill the gift-wrapped Apple-shaped holes in our hearts.

Many thanks goes to the unknown site creator for creating a smile in the middle of a lot of confusion!

And also thanks to @frijole on Twitter for the tip!

Tags: humor, parody

Filed under: Humor, iPhone

Found footage: The Soup's iPhone parody

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Jul 16th, 2008

We love a good parody, and E!'s The Soup has produced a winner. For the unfamiliar, The Soup is a television show on the E! network that pokes fun at TV and pop culture in America.

Here's a parody iPhone ad that ran on the show earlier this week. It's really funny, with an emphasis on the pricing changes the iPhone has experienced in its first year of existence.

While we're on the topic, here are a few other Apple parodies you'll enjoy

Tags: ad, commercial, e, iphone, parody, the soup, TheSoup

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Apple, Found Footage, MacBook Air

Found Footage: MacBook Air makes thin in again

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jan 19th, 2008

Is anyone else worried about Apple's obsession with being thin? This issue has come up before, but while last time around it was supposed to be serious, this time it's just plain silly. While Apple is crowing about releasing the world's thinnest notebook, nobody's thinking about the self esteem of all those other laptops and notebooks out there. Instead they're left... well, you can see above. Hilarious.

Has anyone considered the feelings of these bulky notebooks, growing up in a world that values computers so small and thin that they fit in envelopes?!? Worry not, little laptops. ~~God~~ Dell, Lenovo or HP made you just the way you are, and it's possible to be big and beautiful all at the same time. Well, not Apple beautiful (come on now-- you could definitely stand to lose that optical drive), but beautiful in your own big, bulky way.

[Via Waxy]

Tags: found-footage, hilarious, humor, macbook-air, parody, thin, thin-is-in, video, worlds-thinnest-notebook

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Humor, iPod Family, Found Footage

Found Footage: They iScrewed me again

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jan 8th, 2008

I can't say MADtv is my favorite sketch show, and personally I really liked the Feist iPod ads, but in terms of skewering the downsides of being an iPod user, they pretty much hit the nail on the head on this one.

If you listen to our talkcast, you'll already know that Apple makes their product release decisions based around my own personal experience -- every time I buy an Apple product, Steve stands up and releases something even newer and cooler soon after. Of course, as the parody says, if you want to own something that doesn't ever get better after you buy it, there is always an alternative.

[Via Macenstein]

Tags: ads, feist, found-footage, ipod, ipod-ads, madtv, parody, video

Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends, Blogs

Zune on Woot for $20 less, Woot offers rebate (and parody)

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 21st, 2007

Gosh, I love Woot.com. Not only are they based in my original hometown (St. Louis, MO, also home of Fried Ravioli and the Bowling Hall of Fame), and not only do they have some great deals on their site (they sell just one item per day, usually at lower-than-normal prices), but they are insightful and funny people. Take, for example, today's item-- it's a Zune (that non-Apple mp3 player that you may have heard of). When Woot offered the Zune a little while ago, not only did they make headlines, but Apple fans really enjoyed it-- it took Microsoft's mp3 player a full 23 hours to completely sell out, even at the low price of $150.

And now, as reader Jon points out, Woot is giving Apple fans another chuckle. Not only is today's Zune on sale for $130 ($20 less than before-- and it is sold out as of this writing), but their description text is a pitch-perfect parody of another mp3 seller who's had to announce falling prices on one of his products. And they've even offering a coupon back to their previous Zune customers-- as they say, "we want to convincingly pretend to do the right thing for our valued Zune customers."

It's Jobsian parody worthy of Fake Steve. Very nice job, Woot.

Thanks, Jon!

Tags: apple, humor, jobs, parody, woot, zune

Filed under: Humor, Multimedia, Odds and ends, iPhone

The zunePhone

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 23rd, 2007

Mark sent us this silly mockup of a zunePhone that his coworker made, complete with the signature commercial music for the iPhone (which is actually called "Perfect Timing (This Morning)" by Orba Squara, available on an iTS near you). What's up with that hand? Did he actually animate it using stills from the real commercials? If so, A for effort, even if it does end up looking a little strange.

The flashing 12:00 makes me laugh (as does what happens to the Polaroid after it's done developing), but otherwise, this phone is pretty much what you'd expect from Microsoft-- a blatant copy, only done messier, tackier, and much, much later. Good times.

Tags: ad, commercial, iphone, microsoft, music, orbasquara, parody, zunephone

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Humor, iPod Family, Software

iPod easter egg in Starcraft II

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 15th, 2007

AJ noticed something funny at BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment's big gaming convention out in Anaheim, CA the other week-- hidden inside Starcraft II, Blizzard's upcoming RTS game, is this little nod to the iPod. Hidden on a little billboard in the game's futuristic setting is an ad for the iPistol: "advanced targeting... get into the groove."

Of course, it's one of many, many Apple parodies, but this one's extra special, because not only will Blizzard's game be huge when it finally releases (and all Blizzard fans like myself know that'll be a few months after "when it's ready"), but the same disc will install both on Windows and our beautiful OS X. At a time when other companies are getting props for joining forces with Apple, it should probably be noted that Blizzard's been with us all along-- from Diablo to World of Warcraft, Blizzard's games have always been Mac friendly. So while there will be many easter eggs in Starcraft II, I'll wager, we like this one the most.

Thanks, AJ!

Tags: blizzard, games, ipistol, ipod, macfriendly, parody, starcraft

Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends, Found Footage, iPhone

Found Footage: Calamari retro

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 11th, 2007

So, say you're watching Pirates of the Caribbean. Mmmm... Did somebody say, "Calamari?"

Before there was the iPhone, there was iHome. And strangely enough, it worked pretty much the same-- just a little slower, and you could only do it from home, and you had to decide who was going to get the phone book out and look it up. My only question is what exactly he's doing at the beginning. Is he pretending to drive the ship?

Thanks, Stephen!

Tags: ad, calamari, funny, humor, iphone, parody, thatmusic

Filed under: Humor, Software, Video, Features, iPhone

TUAW File: Apple's iPhone Demo Contacts - perfect for your ad spoofs

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Aug 2nd, 2007

Now that you have a usable snippet of the music from the iPhone commercials with which to start making your spoofs, how about a default set of contacts so you don't post anyone's private information for the whole world to see? Thanks to a clever reader by the name of Stephen Kenny, TUAW is now hosting this copy of the 60 phony contacts set up in the demo iPhones in Apple Stores. In case you're wondering, yes: this means you too can have John Appleseed in your iPhone!

The primary idea here is that you can simply sync these contacts perhaps as a group (or the only group) to your iPhone and only use those when ~~demoing~~ making fun of any of its features. Adding them all to a specific group in Address Book will help you keep things organized (both on and off screen), and you can easily delete them once you get all those spoofs uploaded to YouTube. Plus, your friends and coworkers will thank you for not putting their phone number or home address in too public of a place.

Without further adieu, here is the 5.2MB zip file containing 60 contacts that won't mind being spotlighted in your iPhone spoof ads. This zip file contains a vCard file, ripe for importing into Address Book (and possibly Entourage/Outlook as well) and synching with your iPhone.

TUAW File:

Apple's iPhone Demo Contacts (5.2 MB zip file)

Tags: contacts, demo, iPhone, parody, YouTube

Filed under: Audio, Humor, iTS, Software, iPhone

Music from iPhone ads now available - get working on those YouTube parodies

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Aug 1st, 2007

In addition to that wonderful iFuntastic app that allows you to add ringtones and rearrange your iPhone's apps (even after this week's 1.0.1 software update), iPhone Alley has also made available what is sure to become a staple of iPhone culture and parodies the world over: the 'official' music from the iPhone TV ads. After doing some digging, iPhone Alley's Michael Johnston found the song used in the ad - Perfect Timing by Orba Squara (iTS link) - so he chopped out what sounds like the exact portion and made it available for download. Head over to the iPhone Alley post for more info and to download a copy - then get to work on those YouTube parodies!

Tags: iphone, iPhone Alley, IphoneAlley, music, Orba Squara, OrbaSquara, parodies, parody

Filed under: Humor, iPhone

iPhone: The Musical

by Dan Pourhadi (RSS feed) on Jul 5th, 2007

David. Pogue. Is. Awesome.

Aside from the obvious reasons -- creator of the "Missing Manual" book series, New York Times Circuits columnist, all-around-great guy -- he does one thing no other tech pundit can pull off: he parodies well-known songs and turns them into tech classics. He usually debuts a new one every year at Macworld, and each year they get better and better.

And Pogue's done it again, this time creating an original music video called "iPhone: The Musical" about the drudgery of owning a Phone of Yesteryear, longing for an iPhone, and finally making the glorious purchase. Both the song and video -- some of it recorded with guest singers at the Apple Store Fifth Avenue iPhone launch -- are incredibly clever and humorous, and definitely worth a watch.

You can also check out some of Pogue's older song parodies at his website.

Tags: iphone, parody, pogue

Filed under: Humor, Video

Apple ad spoofs with PC as the protagonist

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on May 25th, 2007

This one has been climbing up the bloggeist for a few weeks, and it's a fine apertif for the start of the holiday weekend. Copywriter Laurie McGuinness, moonlighting as a commercial parody director, made a series of four Mac/PC ad spoofs in early 2007, with PC as the businesslike, successful protagonist and Mac as the geeky, freelance hand-to-mouth sidekick. (Is it just me, or does the guy playing PC look like a thinner, less crazy version of John Dvorak?)

All four ads are viewable on McGuinness' site or on YouTube, and they're mostly moderately funny; one exception is the 'Music' spot, which suggests that iPod users are selfish goobers who don't like to share music. Poor form!

If you've got a favorite Mac/PC ad parody, let me know in the comments and I'll highlight the top choices in a weekend post.

Thanks, Beth!

Tags: ads, hodgman, humor, justin long, JustinLong, mac/pc, parody, tv

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