The Smarmy Carny

In this commercial, a guy shows up with his girlfriend at a wine and cheese party. He is carrying a huge piece of cheese — probably a foot tall and almost as wide.

He takes the cheese into the kitchen, where most of the men are hanging out. As a guy comments on the size of the cheese, the man picks up the faux cheese to reveal a six pack of Bud Light underneath.

Another guy removes the end of his baguette and reveals a bottle of his own and a third guy opens his Chablis wine, which actually houses a mini television.

As they run out of beverages, the guy tells his girlfriend that he is going on "a cheese run."

Watch the video:

This ad starts out with Troy Aikman discussing football as Joe Buck starts dozing off, with his head nodding as he falls out of consciousness a couple times. Haddaway's What is Love? starts playing.

We then see various people nodding off: A guy with a combover at a diner, office workers, valets, cowboys, and nominees for "Song of the Year" award at a music awards ceremony (Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Macy Gray, and Missy Elliott). More people are nodding off: sheep shearers, Japanese restaurant workers, "Galacticon" convention geeks, a bobblehead factory worker, a game show contestant, and a father pushing his daughter on a swing, a trucker, and an auto mechanic. During the commercial, the father is sent flying as his daughter swings back and nails him across the playground, the auto mechanic doesn't awake to see that the has lifted a car up into a metal bar, and the diner man nods off into his soup.

Finally, an office worker pushes in a cart filled with Diet Pepsi Max. The office workers take a healthy gulp and are suddenly energized. Their sleepy head nodding suddenly turns into head bobbing to What is Love, a la A Night at the Roxbury. We see the various characters bobbing their heads now.

The true punchline of the commercial comes when Chris Kattan enters the scene, notices the head bobbing, and yells, "STOP IT!!!" at the people doing the head-shaking dance. Of course, Kattan popularized the movement with Will Ferrell in the Saturday Night Live sketches that inspired the movie A Night at the Roxbury.

Watch the video:

At the end of the commercial, an obnoxious voice yells, "Wake up, people!"

For this ad, Audi reworks the classic "horse head in the bed" scene to sell their cars.

As the commercial opens, we see an exterior shot of a house followed by a pan in on Moe Greene (played by Alex Rocco) sleeping in bed. Just like in The Godfather, we see him stir and notice the stains in his bed.

Moe looks at his hands and sees the dark fluid. He throws back the covers to reveal — not a sawed off horse head, but the sawed off front end of a car. The dark liquid was not horse blood, but motor oil.

We then see the exterior of the house again, with the Audi R8 and its neat-looking running lights.

The message: This is the death of old luxury.

Watch the video:

For more on the Audi R8, check out TruthinEngineering.com

American Idol 7 started up this week, bringing us two episodes full of hilarious and frightening auditions. As usual, Idle Idols is blogging the funniest and most entertaining auditions.

We've only had two episodes thus far, but don't miss articles on the female linebacker, the crazed, hyper glitter woman, a song from a Paula Abdul stalker, an enthusiastic worshiper of Simon, a man willing to wax his chest hair, a psycho Star Wars fan, a fingernail collector, an unconvincing transvestite, and even a politician.

Be sure to stay tuned to Idle Idols for more updates during the rest of the audition season, which should last for three more weeks.

Happy Thanksgiving week! That also means that Black Friday is this Friday.

If you haven't started preparing already, be sure to take a look at the various ads and get ready for all the big sales! Here are some sites and forums to help you get your Black Friday strategy set:

• The Black Friday Podcast (site operational, but the podcast is coming in 2008)
• GottaDeal (and forums)
• Black Friday Ads (and forums)
• SlickDeals (and forums)
• DealTaker (and forums)

Spend time with family, stuff yourself silly, and be sure to rest up in preparation for Black Friday!

Chuck Norris endorses Mike Huckabee in a new YouTube campaign video. In this video, "Chuck Norris Approved," Huckabee gives several Chuck Norris facts and Norris gives various Huckabee facts. The video calls the mash up "HuckChuckFacts." Take a look.

Of course, in order to understand this video, you'd have to be familiar with the various Chuck Norris facts that have been flying around the internet for the past couple years.

The only problem I have with this video is that we've got the humorous Chuck Norris facts combined with actual Mike Huckabee talking points. The writers for this video really should have tried to get Huckabee's talking points across in a humorous manner that would match the Chuck Norris facts.

Thanks to Delirium for bringing this one to my attention.

While watching television this week, I was surprised by the conflicting views in a Wal-Mart commercial. Wal-Mart shows the twisted way in which they view "family togetherness."

In the commercial, the mother of a family of six discusses her family and a deal she found at Wal-Mart:

You know what I love about Wal-Mart?
They know how to bring a family together.
See, this year, we're getting a [insert brand name here] HDTV.

The woman continues about the affordability of HDTVs at Wal-Mart. As annoying as it was to hear Wal-Mart claim that buying an HDTV would bring a family together, my jaw dropped when I heard the mom's conclusion to the commercial:

You know, it's hard to stop everybody from running every which way at Christmas . . . but it helps when you can put a big HDTV in their way.

So not only is an HDTV a great way to bring your family together, but it accomplishes it by trapping them on the couch. Nice. Wal-Mart's current campaign (included at the end of this commercial) is "Save money. Live better." Save money? Probably. Live better? Not like that.

Keep in mind, I'm not at all anti-Wal-Mart and I'm not part of the "Kill Your Television" crowd, but I can assure you that sitting in front of the TV is the best way to be completely disconnected with your family while still being in the same room. When you watch television with your family, you're not talking with them about their day or about their dreams or problems. I guess that Wal-Mart views "family togetherness" as nothing more than a physical state, not a relational state.

Wal-Mart is having a bad quarter. Last month, they proved that Wal-Mart dislikes diligent shoppers.