On the surface the story behind Super Mario Bros. seems pretty normal- moustachioed plumbers raised by egg laying dinosaurs save princess from a giant mutated turtle with a Donkey Kong complex.
Mario and his brother squash mutant mushrooms, turtles, fish and other fairly normal looking animals, but things start to get strange in the Mushroom Kingdom every time they battle ghosts and other supernatural creatures.
It's like the game designers just gave up on realism and decided to get weird with it when they created creatures like Boo, I mean, who the heck is that body shape based on?
There's a simple and obvious explanation to all the strangeness that occurs in the Super Mario Bros. franchise, as shown here in this EXTRALIFE comic by Scott Johnson.
Owls make the best guards because they have a 360 degree view of the action, and their hearing is so acute they can hear a sneaky critter coming a mile away, except for carp ninjas, of course, those guys are dead silent.
Star Trek TV shows such as Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise have played host to so many guest stars over the years it's hard to keep track of them all.
And casual viewers may not recognize stars like Jason Alexander, Iggy Pop and Jonathan Banks under all that makeup.
Of course, Dwayne The Rock Johnson is recognizable no matter what he's wearing, and he appeared on Voyager in the late 90s, at the height of his WWE wrestling career.
He played a Tsunkatse fighter who puts a hurtin' on Seven of Nine, and even uses Rock's finishing move, The Rock Bottom, to take down the reformed Borg drone.
Landing a guest starring role on Star Trek is a dream come true for an actor who's also a Trekkie (Trekker?), so when Jason Alexander was offered the role of Kurros on Voyager he had to .
Jason sites Shatner's performance as Captain Kirk as his inspiration to pursue acting so being on Star Trek was at the top of Jason's acting wish list, but he wanted to hold out for a role as an alien:
As he explained to StarTrek.com in a 2011 interview, “It was finally Voyager that understood that and called with the perfect part.” He was thrilled with Kurros explaining that “They gave me everything — an alien guise, great intellect, and evil. The trifecta. What more could you ask for?”
It's unclear whether Jonathan Banks shared Jason's enthusiasm for wearing alien makeup, but he definitely threw himself into the role of Ennis leader Golin Shel-la on Deep Space Nine.
Jonathan brought that brooding badass energy we've come to expect from him to the role of Golin, and you can almost see the beginnings of Mike from Breaking Bad in his portrayal.
So what kind of energy did Iggy Pop bring to his portrayal of Vorta clone Yelgrun on Deep Space Nine? Man, Iggy plays Iggy no matter what!
Fans will forever think of Nintendo's Mario with the voice of veteran voice actor Charles Martinet, because most of us can't think of Mario without hearing that "It's-a Me, Mario!" catchphrase in our heads.
But Nintendo really should've had Charles be the voice of Donkey Kong more than once- because the guy's a bit bananas!
Great Big Story sat down with the voice of Mario (and Luigi too!) to discuss how he became the voice of Mario, his storied acting career and the 26 wonderful years he has spent with Nintendo.
Overzealous religious fanatics tried to turn the Satanic Panic into a new McCarthyism for the 80s, but they failed because anybody with a brain could see that Pampers, the Smurfs and Mr. Ed were not a threat to their immortal soul.
But in 1986 evangelists Greg Hudson and Jim Brown presented their evidence anyway, claiming Mr. Ed had been corrupting innocent souls for the Lord of Darkness by using its theme song as a subliminal tool for recruitment.
They claimed that when you played the theme song backwards it sounded like the singer was saying "The Source is Satan" and "Someone heard this song for Satan".
As if that bit of jackassery wasn't enough- Proctor & Gamble got caught up in the Satanic Panic when it was decided their beautiful logo, which dated back to 1882, featured Satanic symbols.
Cartoon obsessed crackpot Phil Phillips joined pastor Gary Greenwald to battle those treacherous toons on Turmoil in the Toybox, claiming the Smurfs, with Thundercats, He-Man and Rainbow Brite were a gateway to corruption aimed at children.
The Smurfs were said to be a depiction of dead homosexuals, the Thundercats and He-Man were inspired by "heathen gods", and Rainbow Brite has a pentagram on her cheek- the mark of pure evil.
Cards Against Humanity's business operations have been a little strange. They've increased prices on Black Friday, dug a giant hole for the middle of nowhere and even sold users actual cow poop. That's why they claim they now need a CEO that can offer "real adult leadership." The only problem is that the job listing has some pretty specific requirements, such as "experience hunting terrorist masterminds," minimum eight years experience President of the United States of America or equivilent nation," and "must currently hold a national approval rating of 57.% or higher."
The company took out a full page ad in the Chicago Tribune just hoping to catch the eye of the right candidate. Unfortunately, despite their offer to pay for relocation costs, the only man qualified for the job happens to have already stated that he plans to stay in Washington D.C. until his youngest daughter graduates high school. I guess it's four more years of a company that has "no idea what we're doing."
If you're love is tainted except for on Friday, if your strangelove tears you apart and makes you feel like you have a heart of glass, or if you're part of a bizarre love triangle then you're a New Wave lover.
That means you're not interested in celebrating conformist holidays like Valentine's Day, but you will be after you see these cool Valentine's cards by Matt Lineham.
Matt's the guy who made those amazing New Wave Christmas ornaments, and now he's back to make Valentine's Day a little hipper with his friends Siouxsie Sioux, David Bowie and the B-52s!
Matt's Valentine's cards come in five flavors- New Wave, Bowie, Stranger Things, Walking Dead and the ultra wicked 80's Horror series, which is clearly the most romantic series of the bunch.
If you love someone enough to propose, then you may as well make that proposal special. So if your little lady (or gentleman) is a bit of a geek, then a nerdy ring box is a great way to seal the deal with a little loving flair. Here are a few of the best dorky ring boxes we've seen online.
Golden Snitch
Geeky ring box sculptor Paul Pape has dozens of amazing designs on his Tumblr page -and this golden snitch is a perfect way to propose to any Harry Potter fan.
BB-8
Paul Pape isn't the only noted ring box sculptor out there. The Model Maker is also quite gifted and this BB-8 design proves it.
Pokeball
This great box by Gadget4Entertainment is actually part of a set for the hardcore Pokemon lover and both the ring and box are impeccable.
There are some really beautiful engagement photos out there, but let's face it -most of them are pretty similar. A couple holding hands and kissing in a pretty setting is nothing new, but these photos by wedding photographers Greg Basel and Maria Adams prove you haven't seen everything yet.
The dinosaurs themselves aren't a real couple, they are just friends of the photographers -but the photographers themselves are a happily married couple, so that's something.
It's certainly a clever marketing tactic. You can see the whole set at the photographer's website.
Wolverine is (arguably) the most successful knockoff character of all time, largely because the fine folks at Marvel worked hard to set their character apart from Lone Wolf/Timber Wolf, the DC character that inspired Wolvie.
However, the company's overuse of the character in the 80s and 90s led to an overabundance of knockoff characters created for storylines involving Wolverine, such as Shiv, Wild Child, Daken, Romulus and Wild Thing.
Since Wild Thing and Daken are technically Wolvie's kids they don't really count as knockoffs, but Shiv is the spitting image of Logan without the mask and has one claw on each hand instead of three.
But any savage comic character can be considered akin to Wolverine, so the feral characters Wild Child and Romulus, and the Liefeld character Feral for that matter, share that connection to him.
In fact, both Wild Child and Romulus are said to have a genetic connection to wolves, which conveniently brings us back to Timber Wolf...
The official name of the eighth episode of the Star Wars saga (which many are now calling 'the Skywalker saga') has been announced: Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We already figured that the movie would revolve around the aged Jedi master Luke Skywalker, and maybe we can assume that is who the title refers to. Or maybe not. No matter what happens in the film, we will all cry for Leia. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on December 15th, 2017. We'll have the first trailer as soon as it's available. -via Laughing Squid
Apps like Snapchat and Instagram do all kinds of funny things with people's faces when their filters are applied to a photo, but most of these filters are silly and don't improve the look of the person in the photo.
But now there's Meitu, an app with filters that are both silly and enhance a person's looks- by making them look extremely cute!
Meitu is an anime beauty app that puts a sparkle in your big, beautiful eyes, adds a glow to your eerily smooth skin, and makes your rosy lips look perfectly pouty.
What's that you say? These words don't describe your face at all? They will when Meitu is finished with you!
Meitu told CNET in a statement that the data collection code was included because the company is headquartered in China, where tracking services provided by app stores such as the Apple App Store and Google Play are blocked.
"To get around this, Meitu employs a combination of third-party and in-house data tracking systems to make sure the user data tracked is consistent," said a Meitu spokesperson.
Sounds legit to me, and what's a little third-party data collection when you're left looking this fabulous, amirite? *wink*
The Women's Marches that took place across the globe yesterday weren't just attended by women. Sir Ian McKellen is an outspoken political activist who attended the march -and he had just the right sign for the occassion. His epic facepalm sums his feelings up exactly and invokes his geeky BFF Patrick Stewart.
You wouldn't want to live in, on or anywhere near the Death Star, nor would you want your planet to be in the space station's sights, but having a mini replica of the Death Star in your house can be really fun!
In this instance the Death Star-related fun to be had in your home involves modding an IKEA pendant lamp with a really cool transforming feature to look like an exploding Death Star.
Instructables user MariaK64 modded the IKEA PS 2014 pendant lamp by masking and painting it to look like the Death Star, and since it already goes into explode mode with a pull of the cord the cinematic effect was complete.
Gamers who dedicate a portion of their lives to playing an MMO take their character and that character's in-game accomplishments very seriously, and they live in fear of having their account hacked.
And when you've played an MMO for ten years there's bound to be an emotional reaction when you find out your account was hacked, but don't take it out on your friends or family or they might share the meltdown online.
Twitter user bakebythepound's brother understandably flipped out when his Runescape account was hacked and held for ransom, but his immature behavior at home pissed off his fam and made him a target for live tweeting.
The incident continued through the night and then bakebythepound's bitter bro hilariously started the fight again in the morning, all over a crappy MMO with graphics that would have looked outdated in the 90s.
