Video Game Masterpiece Theatre

Faithful readers, I have a confession. It may not be a very shocking confession. It may not be a surprising confession, but it's a confession I must make, nonetheless: I enjoy watching Downton Abbey.

If you would have come up to me 10 years ago and told me that I would be anxiously awaiting the latest episode of a British soap opera set around the time of WWI and WWII, I would have probably slapped you across the face with my glove and challenged you to a duel. However, the fact remains that I do enjoy the show even though, as my brother so aptly put it, nothing happens. It's a slice of life program where the dramatic action is usually no more than a sharp word or menacing glance. Yet the good writing and solid acting almost always win me over. Granted, there are a few things that bother me about the show, but for the most part I am completely caught up in the lives of those that live at Downton and those that serve them.

But why do I bring this up? Well, because this video game parody of Downton Abbey, created by a guy named Bill Kiley, at first looks completely ridiculous. I mean, who would ever play a game based off of this BBC Masterpiece Theatre drama? But then, after watching it a few hundred times I suddenly started thinking "Actually that looks kind of fun."

Check it out:



 I doubt the Dowager Countess would approve -- after all, she was more of a Sega Genesis fan.

All Hail Internet Animals!

Animals rule the internet. Don't believe me? Go to Google right now and type "Animals" in the search box and hit enter. Now click on "Images." What do you see? That's right, nothing but animals.

This highly scientific experiment aside, no matter what you search for in Google (cat, lolcat, keyboard cat, etc.) you're going to find pictures of animals. And not just any animals, either. Cute animals. The internet used to be a place where people traded information and data was stored. Now, it's full of baby tigers, bear cubs, piglets and miniature horses all with little captions imagining what the animals would say if they could talk.

But that wasn't enough!

A British sketch comedy series called Walk on the Wild Side takes stock footage of wild animals and dubs voices over the video, with hilarious results. Instead of captions, the animals are now actually talking - take a look.



This video was originally brought to my attention by, alert readers, Ryan and Rosa Lee, but it was brought to the forefront of my mind once again by, alert reader, Brad. It was just as funny the second time as it was the first time.

However, I don't think the boys over at the BBC anticipated what kind of consequences this could have. People already freak out over the cute animals they find on the web. Now that these animals are talking, imagine what they could say. . .what they could tell you to do.

You couldn't resist a cute little kitten asking you to click on a simple little ad, right? And what if an adorable puppy politely told you to go to a particular website, could you say no? Now, imagine a charming, petite bunny rabbit telling you to buy something you don't need, a sweet little baby monkey persuading you to try drugs, or an irresistible baby seal commanding you to destroy all humans? Could you resist? I hope so.

Let us pray they never use Fennec foxes for evil - or heaven help us all.