The Smarmy Carny

American Idol 6 is premiering on Tuesday, January 16, so naturally this Sunday's Site is Idle Idols, the web's home of the funniest American Idol auditions.

Idle Idols doesn't care about the winners and good singers. Idle Idols cares only about the William Hungs of this world. I know it and you know it: American Idol's entertainment value is derived primarily from the wacky, crazy, and lame auditions and the reactions this gets from the judges.

Idle Idols will attempt to blog each of the entertaining auditions throughout American Idol 6 and future seasons. For a trip down memory lane, you can also read through American Idol 5 audition notes that are posted there now. Rumor has it that previous seasons will also start to appear after the American Idol 6 auditions are over.

One of the highlights of Idle Idols are the Idle Interviews it gets from American Idol contestants. Thus far, it has already posted interviews from American Idol 4 reject and psychodiva Mary Roach as well as American Idol 5 rejects "Crazy Dave" Hoover, screamo boy Ryan Hart, and "Everybody Dance Now" Laurence Soares.

Idle Idols describes itself as such:

Idle Idols celebrates the phenomenon of breathtaking American Idol auditions — and not in the good way. When we say "breathtaking," we're thinking less of "exciting and thrilling" and more along the lines of "astonishing" or "I'm out of breath because I just ran four miles away from that horrid act."

Kelly? Reuben? Clay? Taylor? Never heard of 'em.

This is the world where William Hung is king. Other celebrities include Mary Roach and "Crazy" Dave Hoover. These contestants taught us that quality singing isn't nearly as entertaining as a good show. Bad singers, outrageous outfits, and your everyday, run of the mill psychopaths . . . that's entertainment!

http://idleidols.com/

Idle Idols is a sister site of The Smarmy Carny. Enjoy!

Transformers – Autobots

The live-action Transformers movie is scheduled to be released on the 4th of July, 2007. That's exactly 7 months away from the original date of this post!

Thanks to my son, I have been rewatching the old Transformers series that I grew up with (available on a 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD) as well as watching the new Transformers Cybertron series.

If nothing else, Transformers in all its forms is a great taunt-fest. If you need great trash talk lines, you'll find plenty when you watch Transformers.

The official movie site still has more content to add, however you can already view the teaser, download wallpapers,

Though it's expected anyway, I'm glad to see that Starscream will be in the movie. On Black Friday, I bought a 14.7" tall Transformers Cybertron Supreme Starscream for my son. It's for Christmas, but I want to bust it out of the box and play with it before then. For a list of other characters appearing in the movie, watch the extremely informative the Yahoo! webcast Q&A with the writers (Windows Media Player required). They discuss many facets of the movie, including working with Hasbro, the role of humans in the movie, and working with director Michael Bay.

For the latest Black Friday posts, check out blackfriday.smarmycarny.com

Black Friday Deals!

Black Friday @ GottaDeal is up and running again for this year's Black Friday season! In the spirit of the season kicking off, I'm answering a few questions about Black Friday and GottaDeal. To keep up on my Black Friday posts, just keep an eye on the Black Friday category.

When is Black Friday?

Black Friday is always the day after Thanksgiving. In 2006, that will be Friday, November 24.

What is Black Friday?

Sales, sales, and more sales! It's the day to completely clean up on thousands of items. Save hundreds of dollars on large ticket items like computers and HDTVs. Get smaller items completely free. Jaw-dropping savings all over the place. It's the day to buy every single Christmas present for your entire family.

Of course, it's not called "Black" Friday because it's depressing, but because business often move from losses (red) to gains (black) for the year on this day. Though many people refer to this day as "the biggest shopping day of the year," this is not the case. The weekends preceding Christmas, along with Christmas Eve, top Black Friday in terms of sales. Black Friday is, however, the busiest day of the year as far as the number of shoppers.

How do you find out about Black Friday deals?

By far, the best place to find out about Black Friday before the deals are published is via GottaDeal.com's Black Friday site and forum. In addition, you'll want to buy the newspaper on Thanksgiving to get all the Black Friday inserts to make sure you're not missing any deals.

Why aren't there any ads posted yet?

If you're reading this any other month than October or November, it's because the ads are usually posted some time near the end of October. If you're really drooling for the information as soon as it's available, keep a close eye on the GottaDeal Black Friday forums for the information first. It's not as pretty when it first shows up, but you're getting the scoop! If you really just want an idea of what types of deals you can look forward to seeing, check out the thread outlining Black Friday deals since 2003. (Last year, GottaDeal posted deals for the following stores: Wal-Mart, Toys 'R' Us, CompUSA, Best Buy, K-mart, Sears, RadioShack, Costco, and many more!)

Why GottaDeal?

Whether it be GottaDeal's Black Friday page or the GottaDeal forums, the site is by far the Black Friday site. GottaDeal hosts most of the Black Friday ads (including scans of many of the ads) before anyone else. Right on the Black Friday page will be a list of store icons that will link to Black Friday deals as they pop up. Of course, you can also sign up for periodic e-mail alerts to keep up on the developments as Black Friday approaches.

GottaDeal also offer a few nice features on their Black Friday site. My favorite feature is the Black Friday Shopping List. Registered users can select Black Friday items from a list and add them to a personalized shopping list.

The forums are also an invaluable tool for communicating with others about deals and details. The community is quite helpful, and this year brings a better, easier to navigate layout in the Black Friday forums. Not only do the new ads show up here first, the community also scrounges for additional coupons both online and offline to increase your discounts and savings. Post a list of items you're looking to purchase on Black Friday and where you're headed, and someone might suggest which stores to hit first, or maybe even point out a better deal at a different store. Additionally, there is a Black Friday Basics section to answer FAQs like "Can I price match BF items?" and "Can I get BF deals online?"

New Numa!

Gary Brolsma, the guy thrust into online fame via his video "The Numa Numa Dance," is back with a new video and a new dance!

Earlier this month, NewNuma.com appeared. Lo and behold, Gary finally returned at everyone's request to create a New Numa video along with his band, The Nowadays.

The newly released song "New Numa" has Russian lyrics and is performed by Minnesotan Chad Russell. It is reminiscent of O-Zone's "Dragosta Din Tei" (the original song used in the Numa Numa Dance).

Watch New Numa now:

NewNuma.com is also hosting a contest with a total of $45,000 given out in prize money to the top winners. Details will not be released until September 22, but it looks like it will probably be a "make your own video" contest.

NBC has released the first 10 minutes of the My Name is Earl season 2 premiere as a treat to the online community.

As far as Earl goes, I've seen better scenes than these, but the plot for the episode is set up, and I'm guessing that the remainder of the episode will ramp up the fun factor.

NBC has been catering to the online community, it seems. Between seasons, NBC.com hosted The Office: The Accountants webisodes that center on Kevin, Angela, and Oscar. The ten webisodes covered a story arc involving a missing $3,000 and their attempts to find out who might have stolen the money.

Thornton and Heder

School for Scoundrels looks to be an entertaining comedy revolving around a loser-turned-romantic battling a teacher of romance.

Roger (John Heder, best known as Napoleon Dynamite) is a down-on-his-luck loser who can't communicate properly with women. He has the ever-popular (and manly) job of NYC meter maid.

Tired of being pushed around whereever he goes, Roger enrolls in a confidence-building class taught by Dr. P (Billy Bob Thornton). He tells them not to bother with self-help books: "You can't help yourself because yourself sucks." Dr. P and his assistant Lesher (Michael Clarke Duncan) take the students through the dangerous yet effective confidence-building course. As promised, the program is successful for Roger: He switches from loser to lover and impresses his longtime crush Amanda (Jacinda Barrett).

After Dr. P congratulates Roger on his success, Roger makes the mistake of telling him, "Maybe one day I'll teach the class." This causes Dr. P's competitive side to come out, and Dr. P becomes obsessed with showing Roger that he is the master — by stealing Amanda away from him.

Watch the School for Scoundrels trailer and decide for yourself. Don't forget to check out the official site, too. The movie is scheduled to be released September 29, 2006.

Since all the bugs are hopefully headed into hiding for the wintertime soon, here are a few bug jokes you can tell them while they're still hanging around. Remember: I'm not responsible for rolled eyes, shaking heads, or any other ridicule you might experience as a result of telling these jokes!

Q: What has six wheels and flies?
A: A garbage truck!

Q: Where do bees go to the bathroom?
A: At the BP station!

Q: What insect does well in English class?
A: A spelling bee!

Q: What has 18 legs and catches flies?
A: A baseball team!

Q: What type of bugs live inside clocks?
A: Ticks!

Q: What did the boy fly say to the girl fly?
A: Excuse me — Is this stool taken?

Q: Why do bees have sticky hair?
A: Because they have honeycombs!

Man: Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
Waiter: The backstroke!

Q: Why did the spider test drive the car?
A: So he could take it for a spin!

Q: How do fleas prefer to travel?
A: By itch-hiking!

Q: What do you call a bug with four wheels and a trunk?
A: A Volkswagen Beetle!

Q: What's worse than finding a worm in your apple?
A: Finding half a worm in your apple!