Rumor has it there’s a new Batman movie a-coming this summer. While that last Batman flick was pretty stunning all-around, the film’s greatest claim will always be Heath Ledger’s creepy, epic turn as The Joker, a role that won him a posthumous Oscar. But, as is often pointed out, Ledger actually had a small amount of screen time in a film that clocked in at two-and-a-half hours. In fact, you can squeeze it all into one 10-minute YouTube video, which someone has already done below. [via The Daily What]

Alexandre Dubosc, a filmmaker who is apparently also not too shabby at making pastry, has put together a new, appropriately weird tribute to Tim Burton. Dubosc's caketrope—a zoetrope, but in cake form—celebrates the director's oeuvre,  signature spooky style, and love of things like old trees and jack-o-lanterns. Being a filmmaker, Dubosc made a short film about the construction of the cake, though the slideshow of pictures on his site are potentially more illuminating about just how the entire thing came to be and, sadly, the fact that it's not actually an edible cake at all, but instead just fondant and decorations attached to Styrofoam.

[via Flavorwire]

It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything Star Wars-related here, but this seems awesome enough to warrant mentioning. At the Emerald City Comic Con (that’d be Seattle) in March, a host of entertainment’s best voice actors gathered for a special in-character script-reading of Star Wars Episode IV. And by “in-character,” we mean in the voice of each actor’s most popular voice-over character. So you have Billy West playing Dr. Zoidberg as Luke Skywalker (at the 29:16 mark). See? Fun times. The whole cast was Billy West, Tara Strong, Maurice LaMarche, John DiMaggio, Kevin Conroy, Jess Harnell, and Rob Paulsen, so enjoy and see how many characters you can recognize. 

Movie Simpsons is a new Tumblr that’s relatively self-explanatory: It simply takes scenes from The Simpsons that reference movies, turns them into animated GIFs, and butts them up against animated GIFs of the scenes from the movie. That’s simple enough, but what results is kind of a magical combination of intense nerdery and unabashed movie buffitude. As of right now, the still-new Tumblr only has scenes from a handful of films/episodes, but given the degree to which The Simpsons mines pop culture, there’s likely plenty more in the hopper.

[via Splitsider]

You may have heard this, but there’s a new television show on HBO called Veep and it stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as embattled Vice President Selina Meyer. It’s also really great and as sharp as one would expect from Armando Iannucci, the mind behind the BBC series (and Veep forbearer) Thick of It and its feature-length spin-off In The Loop. Vice President Meyer also has a fun YouTube page that serves as a small supplement to a few of the show's storylines. If you happened to catch this weekend’s episode, you’ll remember it ended with Meyer—much to her chagrin—being drafted to head up the unseen president’s obesity campaign. (And no, that's not a major spoiler, so save it.) Below is the resulting PSA, which is pretty straightforward, but it’s followed by a great “outtakes” clip that’s as spot-on as everything else Veep does. And you have to watch the first to fully appreciate the second, so don't skip it. Okay? Don't. [via Vulture]

With Moonrise Kingdom opening in some markets this weekend, that means it's time for the Internet to ramp up its Bill Murray lovefest again. Fortunately, there's a new video of the madras-clad, rum-drinking star giving a tour of the Moonrise Kingdom set, all of which appears to have ceilings that are just a little too low for him. That doesn't seem to affect his witticisms, though, as he has plenty of thoughts on Wes Anderson's thing for pants that are too short and Ed Norton's predilection for playing psychopaths.

During a recent Law & Order marathon, Malkah Duprix was struck by how the often the show’s characters are fucking chewing on something. Everybody’s gotta eat, of course. But Law & Order’s ubiquitous, almost obsessive depiction of down-and-dirty mastication adds an extra layer of realism (plus a few mustard stains) to the show’s crime-drama sandwich. Naturally, Duprix took to Tumblr and launched Law & Order & Food: a smorgasbord of unaltered images featuring various L&O actors stuffing their faces onscreen. From Chris Noth noshing hot dogs to the late Jerry Orbach unhinging his jaw to devour, well, everything, Law & Order & Food shows that no calorie was spared in making L&O a gritty beacon of bacon-flavored verisimilitude. It’s enough to make you hungry for justice. And take-out. 

If Mario ditched that whole princess-rescue business and instead hunted the specter of his disillusionment with technology through a nightmarescape culled from his darkest fears and paranoia, the soundtrack to that game would sound like this. YouTuber QuintonSung is responsible for transforming the two landmark Radiohead albums to old school NES-style buzzes and blurps, a transformation for technophobe music that’s pretty appropriate and still better than The King Of Limbs. iO9 has links to full downloads of the albums if you really want to make your next get-stoned-and-play-Tetris session even spookier. [via Pitchfork]

It’s pretty tough to claim a sentiment as vague and universal as “cool” as one’s catchphrase, but if anyone’s earned the right to do so, it’s Community’s Abed. Here’s the evidence. It’s pretty... well, you know.

[via]

“First!” You know what it is. We all do. But who was the first first in Internet history? That’s the question at the heart of this piercing short documentary. While we’re ultimately left hanging as to an answer, there’s still the promise that this mystery might one day be uncovered, that we will finally know the first first. See what I did there? Also, canceraids.

As far as cute stuff on the Internet goes, it's hard to beat videos of dogs doing tricks set to the Mission: Impossible theme song. Three kids in Portland have managed to outdo that, though, with their moving, hilarious tribute to The Beastie Boys' late Adam Yauch. Filmmaker James Winters recruited his two sons and nephews to strap on wigs, fake mustaches, and ill-knotted ties in a shot-for-shot remake of The Beastie Boys' super-memorable video "Sabotage." The results are simultaneously bad-ass and adorable, as three little kids struggle to climb over chain-link fences and chase down bad guys. Some of the effects were a little out of the group's reach, like the car explosion, but they did manage to pull off the whole "throw a dummy off a rooftop" trick with flair. The whole thing comes off as a fitting and loving tribute to Yauch, who came up with the concept for the original video.

It’s been a great couple of days for the Parks & Rec crew. First, there was last night’s fantastic, well-reviewed season finale in which the season-long plotline of Leslie’s run for City Council was brought to a close. Then, just a scant few minutes (or hours or days, depending on when you get around to reading this), news came that, despite the show being the latest Twitter celebrity death, what with rumors of its cancellation swirling, the show has been renewed for a full 22-episode fifth season. What happier way is there to rejoice than by reveling in the greatest hits of Pawnee’s hardest-hitting journalist, Perd Hapley? And the answer is none. None more happy. But for those who missed last night finale, take heed: Thar be spoilers. [via Hitfix]

Ah, television: teacher, mother, secret lover. With Mother’s Day on the horizon, what better time to focus on that second descriptor and reflect on all the sound motherly advice television has given us via seminal TV moms like Carol Brady (“You can carry a joke too far; somebody can get hurt”), Brianna Barksdale (“This right here is part of the game, D”), and Cercei Lannister (SLAP!). This excellent supercut from Flavorwire has all of them and more. Watch it, send it to your mom, and thank her for not being Betty “go bang your head against the wall” Draper. And remember: You have a beautiful body.

Fans of the dearly departed show Friday Night Lights are well aware that no one delivers a talking-to quite like Coach Eric Taylor. Who hasn’t dreamt of being gently reprimanded in that fatherly-yet-also-kinda-sexy West Texas drawl, prefaced with a benevolent “Let me tell you something…” Well, now thanks to an intrepid YouTube supercutter, we can experience the thrill of an incoming Coach Taylor speech without any of that boring advice or scolding… nothin’ but two-plus minutes of glorious prelude. Now the real question is: Who’s going to step up and make a supercut alternating Coach and Hank Hill saying “I’ll tell you what…”?

In the five days since he passed away, tributes have been rolling in for the Beastie Boys’ Adam “MCA” Yauch. And rightfully so. Besides the music the band created, Yauch was also an indie filmmaker and a respected human-rights defender. (That the previous sentence could even be typed after the girls-in-cages shenanigans of the License To Ill era is also a testament to the group’s willingness to own up to its youthful ignorance and make amends.) At the center of it all, though, is the music. And MCA’s distinctive rasp was a solid balance to Ad-Rock’s hyperactive yelps and Mike D’s bouncy delivery. Here, then, is a collection of every single opening line by MCA from every Beastie Boys song. It’s maddening in a way; these single lines are a tease, mere glimpses that still manage to hook the listener before the mix moves on to the next song. But that teasing also reflects how good the group was. It stands as a brief testament to the main reason the Beastie Boys have remained popular for over 25 years: their sheer talent. [via The Daily What]

Movies like The Raid: Redemption are awesome. There’s just enough plot to tie together a string of amazing, head-spinning (and smashing) fight scenes. But technology is so advanced these days; isn’t there a way to boil a movie down to its most violent core? Why yes, yes there is. Enter the below video, which streamlines the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic Kickboxer to the film’s most important five minutes: just the kicks. No fuss, no muss. But, as Movieline points out, it still manages to grasp the essence of the film:

The crazy thing about this supercut is that, in addition to being strangely mesmerizing at times, the chronological edit comprised only of onscreen kicking scenes completely conveys Van Damme's entire emotional arc as he goes from supportive cornerman to avenger-in-training to ring champ. It's also a reminder of just how majestic Van Damme was in his prime, doing split kicks in mid-air and roundhousing heads left and right all young and oiled up and stretchy...

It’s true. Enjoy the majesty below. 

As we saw previously with the spectacular Mad Men-themed episode of “Chris Hardwick’s All-Star Celebrity Bowling,” nothing brings out a comedic web series’ full flavor like a little dash of Hamm. Now musical comic/weirdo Reggie Watts is testing this theory further with the first installment of “Reggie Makes Music,” a web companion series to the upcoming IFC show Comedy Bang Bang (premiering June 8), in which he and CBB guests improvise musical interludes. First up is inveterate swell guy Jon Hamm, who brings his freestyle… well, not skills… let’s say freestyle gameness to bear on Watts’ loopy loops for a Taxi-themed jam, throwing in a pretty spot-on Christopher Lloyd impression and a thoughtful reconsideration of the series’ later seasons for anyone who needs further convincing that Jon Hamm is The Best. 

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Popular music has always served as a good snapshot of the era from which it came, and thanks to the Internet, it’s gotten easier and easier to riffle through those snapshots at top speed. Building on an idea previously seen in those medleys of every No. 1 single from Billboard’s Hot 100, the Radio Time Machine takes pop-music time-tourism one step further, offering up 62 years’ worth of hit radio singles via a nifty slidebar-based widget that lets you scan through the most popular music of 1940 onward. It’s seriously cool, and well-designed to boot (though it doesn’t seem to like Firefox browsers very much), and if you have a Rdio account, you can sign in to hear full song instead of 30-second clips. Spend a couple of hours tripping through time and marvel at how Elvis completely changed the radio landscape, or discover what songs people were getting totally sick of the year you were born. (Mine: “Billie Jean,” “Sweet Dreams,” “All Night Long”… not bad, not bad at all.)

Just in case you’ve managed to avoid every possible media outlet imaginable, The Avengers hit theaters today. Tom Hiddleston returns as the chief antagonist and Norse god Loki, giving a villainous turn more like Alfred Molina in Spider-Man 2 or Gene Hackman in Superman, but not so much Kevin Spacey in Superman Returns. Like his Thor director Kenneth Branagh, Hiddleston is an accomplished thespian and Shakespearean actor.  His first post-Avengers role will be as Prince Hal/King Henry V in a new BBC adaptation of Henry IV and Henry V. As a guest on Mark Hoppus’ talk show Hoppus On Music on Fuse, Hiddleston brought out the big guns and delivered the “Once more unto the breach, dear friends,” monologue from the beginning of Act III of Henry V. From the look of things, it’s a much different take than his old director, but no less forceful or inspiring.

The world needs another Pride And Prejudice adaptation like it needs… nope, there’s no way to finish that sentence, because there is nothing the world needs less than another Pride And Prejudice adaptation. And yet here’s another one! However, “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” earns points for originality as probably the first attempt to adapt a novel to the piecemeal, short-form, overly-jump-cut “vlog” format. A present-day retelling conceived in part by YouTube VIP Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers, the series consists mainly of brainy grad student “Lizzie Bennet” (played by actress Ashley Clements) sitting in her bedroom talking about her brood of sisters (who occasionally burst into her bedroom to join in), her obnoxious mother (played by Lizzie in costume), her best friend/camerawoman Charlotte, the rich medical student named “Bing Lee” who just moved in next door, and his mysterious friend Darcy. (“Isn’t that Colin Firth’s name in that Chubby Zellweger movie?”)

Despite the familiar story, it’s interesting to see how the series adapts the normalities of Jane Austen’s day to modern times: Dowries are now crushing student-loan debt, weddings take the place of fancy balls, and gossip is meted out via text and ...

Oh look! Someone made a Lego version of the Game Of Thrones opening credits! Because this is the year 2012, and wishes you didn't know you had are granted. It's downright heartwarming, even. But look: It's really neat how this video uses stop-motion technology (and not in a depressing Ben from Parks And Recreation way) to capture the inner-workings-of-a-watch essence of the original credits, but would it have killed them to use the actual music from the opening? Because the version they use is what the karaoke version would sound like if Sunfly was trying to get around having to pay the original artist. For best enjoyment, turn the sound off and sync with the second embedded video Dark Side Of The Moon-style.

[Buzzfeed]

As told through the images of Perfect Strangers’ intro sequence—and the inspiring strains of its Jesse Frederick-penned theme song—Balki Bartokomous left the Mediterranean island of Mypos with little more than a newsboy cap, an infectious smile, and winged dreams on which to rise and fall. Of course, there’s a lot that’s left out between the images of Balki’s arrival in New York City and his eventual settling in Chicago: For instance, at any point in his journey, did our hero run through an apocalyptic hellscape while the lyrics of Frederick’s theme whizzed past him?

Those mysteries are solved thanks to Perfect Strangers: The Video Game, an odd bit of viral marketing courtesy of developer/ad man Jason Oda, creator of Web 2.0 watershed Emo Game. Like Emo Game, Oda’s latest pays homage to its subject matter while maintaining a satirical distance, playing up the ludicrous (or rather “ridiculous”) platitudes of the show’s theme song while also providing an entertaining, if fleeting distraction from the things that could very well stop you now. [Insert harmonica riff.] 

It’s not entirely clear if the game is promoting anything beyond awareness of a 26-year-old ...

 Seemingly no longer content with bringing its poorly translated, hilariously literal, and increasingly self-aware perspective to real-life subjects like James Franco, Louis CK, and Lana Del Rey, Taiwan’s Next Media Animation has turned its attentions to speculative previews of fictional television shows, as evidenced by this “official trailer” for season five of Breaking Bad. Considering that pretty much the only thing that’s been leaked about season five thus far is that it’ll be divided into two parts, it’s pretty impressive that NMA was able to sniff out scoops like Gus rising from the dead in a Satanic ritual, Walt dying after being crushed by a falling ATM, and Jesse and a miraculously healed Walt Jr. taking revenge on Los Pollos Hermanos. Or, you know, they just made it up. But hey, at least it provides an excuse to relive Gale’s sterling performance of “Major Tom,” and we can only hope that season five will kick off to the strains of “Car Wash.”

Videogame characters, especially the really old ones, are just a series of bits. And when you zoom in on them, it becomes really obvious that some programmer on some outdated computer (probably running LOGO) drew this guy to look like something you're supposed to root for. "How dare he," you think to yourself as you wipe the tears from your eyes at the death of your Mega Man, your Link, your Guy From Game I Can't Remember. There are plenty of these moments in our collective videogame past, and this montage collects them all. Simply titled "Go Right," it's a bunch of characters running into the unknown and occasionally faltering, but inevitably succeeding. Geez, time to go write 700 poems nobody but Samus Aran would appreciate. And why are they always running right? That's some Western culture superiority we've been engineering.

[Buzzfeed]

Film stars: They were once just like us (only on camera and probably not at all like us)! Every Leonardo DiCaprio and shell of a man that once was Mel Gibson had that first role in a film—a moment that launched a career that spanned decades, sometimes millenia. Yesterday, Flavorwire produced an encore to its "And Introducing…" video from earlier this month, showing off the fleeting moments of today's big film stars' early work. And it's pretty enlightening. For example: I had no idea Edward Norton started with Primal Fear, which is a pretty badass movie. Also it seems Alison Brie started her film career in 2007—CRAZY, RIGHT?!

We’re nerds for aesthetics here at The A.V. Club, like the style of one of our favorite television shows or nifty time-lapses from classic films. So of course we’re digging the below video from Off Book, a Tumblr run by the PBS Arts folks to give extra exposure to some fantastic stuff. The short feature takes a look at the art of the title sequence, talking to the designers behind some of the more memorable recent opening title sequences like the Mad Men open and the hilarious, thrilling sequence in Zombieland. Going beyond just what happens, these creatives talk about how these sequences help tell a story, how the design and style relate to their subject, and the larger themes therein. Bonus: Stick around for the whole thing (come on, it’s only six minutes) and there’s a nice little bit of homage to legendary sequence creator Saul Bass. [via Kottke]

In a recent interview, Chris Hardwick talked to us about the growth of his Nerdist empire, which now includes its own YouTube channel. One of the regular series on the new channel is “Chris Hardwick’s All-Star Celebrity Bowling,” which makes sense as Hardwick’s father was a well-known PBA bowler. So far, Hardwick and his Nerdist rollers have taken on a team from G4 and a bunch of celebrity chefs but the newest installment is probably the coolest. Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, sporting a new beard (which A.V. Club editorial ninja Genevieve Koski has given a thumbs down), swung by to roll a few frames with a few fellow co-stars (a similarly bearded Vincent Kartheiser, a.k.a. Pete Campbell, and Rich Sommer, a.k.a. Harry Crane) plus show creator Matt Weiner in tow. It’s a fun time, with Kartheiser teasing Weiner (“The Kardashians get better numbers!”), Hamm trying to murder Hardwick via banana peel, and Hardwick, unsurprisingly, dominating. If you ever wanted to see Weird Al face off against Don Draper in bowling, your dreams have come true.

Dr. Steve Brule has tackled a lot of subjects on his weekly show: Boats, money, health, and food. The building blocks of life, one might say. Fittingly, Check It Out! will end its second season on Adult Swim with an episode that tackles that which has previously been tackled piecemeal: "Life." The trailer for this week's episode hit the Interwebs today, and given Brule's promise to find out "who had the first life," it's fitting that today is 4/20. Because that's some serious shit, dude. Here's the video in all its nonsequitor, middle-school-educational-video glory:

Long time readers of this website will remember the genesis of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, the magical phrase coined by our own Nathan Rabin to describe those quirky, adorkable female love interests of so many Natalie Portman and Kirsten Dunst films. The trope has both been defined as a “cinematic scourge” and grown more popular thanks to Zooey Deschanel (who was the subject of satire when the MPDG manifested itself into a recurring SNL skit). As the MPDG continues to haunt our Shins-soundtracked dreams, it’s comforting to know there are those who care, as evidenced by the below video. Made by comedy group The Natural Disastronauts as part of their web series “The Katie Willert Video Experience,” the video envisions a home where loved ones can take their beloved MPDGs to roam free and be happy, unencumbered by society’s silly constraints once the memories of getting married in a bouncy castle have faded. 

Look, the world may not need a supercut of 193 instances of someone saying “double-oh” from all 23 James Bond films, but I for one am glad that the Internet has fostered such weird, pointless creativity. This 75-second clip is oddly hypnotic, and, if nothing else, a glorious display of single-minded commitment to absurd inanity. (Or inane absurdity, take your pick.) Be warned, it gets pretty intense in the last 15 seconds or so… those who haven’t yet had their morning coffee may find themselves reeling.

Double-oh-double-oh-double-oh-double-oh-double-oh….

[via The Daily What]