Intro to the phenonmenon that is the Los Angeles Lakers

*Ok so I got on the blog today to respond to posts and realized that for some reason mine didn't post on Monday! I promise I'm not such a terrible slacker!  But here it is!  Sorry for the unnecessary delay!


Like it or not, most Americans, whether they are sports fans or not, know who the Lakers are.  Whether you love them, hate them, or don't really care, you can't deny that you know what they are about.  And what is it that makes the Lakers so memorable?  They win. 

The Lakers have a vast history with many major players and components.  Here's a short overview (more to come later...obviously!)  The Lakers have been around forever.  Well, since 1947 at least.  Then, they were the Minneapolis Lakers.  That's how they got their name.  Being that Minneapolis is the land of a thousand lakes, the team became known as the Lakers and it's just stuck over the years.  They moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and continued to flourish and gather an even larger fan base.

Many baskeball greats have worn the Lakers jersey and many more will wear it in the future years. Legends like George Mikan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, and, most recently, Kobe Bryant have graced the court under the direction of great coaches like John Kundla, Pat Riley, Phil Jackson and many more.

In 1949, they won their first NBA finals and thus started the trend that led to 16 NBA Championships in the years to come.  Reigning from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, the Lakers have lead the league of sport fanatics into the spectacle of supreme athelticism that is professional basketball!

 

Intro to Elves

When elves are mentioned, two images come to mind: working elves and nature elves. And yes, Harry Potter's house elves can be combined with Santa's working elves. These two groups of elves contain their own history and lore despite sharing the same name, and both of them have invaded the internet through memes, fan art, videos, comics, and websites.

Whether liked or not, nature elves have become a major item in our current fantasy culture. They are littered through books, movies, video games, regular games, myths, TV shows, cartoons, etc. Their popularity comes from their enviable characteristics, such as longevity, attractive figures, and magical abilities. People admire them, and not only just the movie or video game geeks (nerds?).

 Working elves are famous because of Christmas. We like the toys they make, plus they are easy to make into jokes, movies, and other forms of entertainment. Then Harry Potter came along with a new design of working elves: the house elves. No longer working for Santa, elves work for wizards and witches and do less than desirable chores. They aren't making toys anymore, but our hearts were won by Dobby's lovable antics, even if they were annoying to Harry Potter at times.

Either way, both classes of elves have won our hearts. Many people seek to show their devotion and the internet is just the place.

Rage Intro

So, there are a lot of comics floating around the internet. Many of the more popular ones look like this:

Comics like the one above are called rage comics. They use preexisting template faces--all of the girls' hair is the same shape, the reactions are all similar, etc.--to quickly create comics about life. Each one tells a short story that is either inherently funny or funny because of the reaction (or rage) faces. These comics came into life on 4Chan, but quickly gained prominence on reddit, tumblr, and cheezburger.com. Here are some other comics for your amusement:

Hey guys!

 I was sick so I missed class today.  Is there anything terribly important that I missed? 

Rage Comic Madness

So, I wasn't sure that this was going to work. Rage comics are comics, who would turn them into videos?  These guys would:

This is from PistolShrimps, who like making rage comics into real life. They do a pretty good job at it, too. I don't find them as hilarious as some of the rage comics, but whatever effects they do to the videos to get the faces are pretty good. PistolShrimps have a lot of these videos, so I thought that I'd only post one.


TopTenMemes does animated rage comics every week of the top ten rage comics they enjoy. These ones are usually pretty darn funny. They also encompass a wide range of rage comics. I did find a guy who was obsessed with the forever alone meme, but that just kind of threw me off. It says something about him, right?


Then there's this pretty girl who makes the meme faces. I'm not sure why, but she does.


This is some compilation of the cereal eating guy, because he is less depressing than the compilation of forever alone. Plus, the song is pretty awesome, too. Cereal eating guy is more about contrasts. He declares what is expected and then he spits out cereal when the unexpected turns up.


This shows where some of the rage comic faces come from. I thought it would be good to show a little history. Also, the fact that "Trolololo" is playing in the background makes it more amazing than before.
I think there's enough rage comics for today. I think some of the better ones can be found in video form. Which is nice, because then I don't need to sift through all the others to find funny rage comics. And as a pallet cleanser, here's Chuck Norris stopping a chainsaw with his hands:


You're welcome.

Youtube Elves

Most of the videos of elves were manipulations of official media. I found a lot of images from movies and video games curated to different songs. I did find a few videos of people explaining how to catch elves or going on an elf sightseeing adventure. These were often long with the narrator's dressed as elves. One video didn't even have the correct information about elves and kept going on about unicorns.

However, many of the images with music videos were well done. Most images I found were from Lord of the Rings, Elf, World of Warcraft, Warcraft, and Lineage. Often the music expressed the fan's opinions about elves. In this first example, the fan seemed to like elves as the music and video both show the stronger and better characteristics of elves.

This next example is a parody of elves, combining a song that mocks tights with images of elves from Lord of the Rings. While the fan may still like elves, the video mocks them as pretty boys.

These videos affect the elven culture as fans express their opinions and devotions. Videos, such as the first example, will only attract more fans and increase the loyalty of the genre in video games. Videos like the second will bring in the LOTR fans to the elven fan base. And both these videos  exemplify characteristics of elves that so many of the fans like: awesome fighting ability, magical powers, and attractive appearances. As the beloved features are emphasized in the media, it'll only create more fans and a higher devotion.

I know, it's shocking really that the majority if videos that popped up are primarily videos of highlight reels and news stories related to the Lakers and their players.  But, there were some fan videos that were created by amateurs that I thought were rather entertaining. 

This one highlights a former player, Shaq, and a player that was just traded to our team, Dwight Howard.  It is essentially a highlight reel, but it serves more to tell a story than it does to show great plays.  It is meant to pay homage to a Lakers great and showcase what he did to help out our team.  It also shows Howard and all that he has done in the past to show what he will be bringing to the team.  While the video itself has many flaws, I think it does a great job to show how important something that seems so trivial to many, can actually be something that many of us are passionate about.  The creator showed some of the elements of evolution that the team is undergoing and I rather enjoyed it!

Now this next one has a more humorous tone.  Like many of the "S**t people say" videos, this one pokes fun at the stuff that Lakers fans say but is done by a Magic fan.  It's really quite funny because he has a lot of things dead on.  If you're not a basketball fan you wouldn't get most of it, but I was laughing really hard and related because embarrassingly, I have said a few of these things in the past.

I really do find it so interesting that this era in media development has really become a time where ordinary people can create new "documents" that are widely shared all over the world.  129,890 people viewed this last video and that is actually pretty low for most youtube videos.  I just think that it is such a great way for inexperienced people who are not in highly paid media jobs are creating projects that allow them to showcase their talents as well as talk about things that really matter to them.  It used to just be highlight reels and news clips but now you can find homemade clips that fans like me tend to relate to even more!

Pokemon on Youtube

Okay, so Pokemon is a kids' show, right?

Right?

Well, thanks to the power of the internet... Pokemon has become something very interesting.

I apologize for the language in that one (though IMO, it's HILARIOUS because of it). Those of us who grew up in the crux of the Pokemon revolution are now no longer living at home with their parents - we've moved on to make things like this. :D  If anyone watching this is familiar with the Game Boy games, then you'll notice that even the mechanics of Pokemon are perfect targets for parody.

Oh man. I can't even watch this for very long without tears coming to my eyes. Not because it's any good, mind you, but because memories of my awkward childhood keep flooding my mind with embarrassment and regret. Wait, did I say that out loud? Anyway, that's what makes these things so dang funny - we look back at our own experiences with this game/anime/force of nature.

Then there's attempts like these, though honestly, they seems to be few and far between:

Yes, a realistic, gritty version of pokemon filled with murder and intrigue. It always seems to happen to video games: really cool movie trailers, but not very cool movies. But, of course, the ones that turn into movies are Doom, Resident Evil, and Tomb Raider, and their emphasis is already in violence and drama. Of course, Mario already tried a big screen debut with a gritty, realistic approach... And we know what happened to that one. *shiver* Freaks me out just thinking about it.

The generation that grew up with Pokemon is becoming the generation who is now creating media, movies, and art. Not a problem, in my book.

Baby Don't Worry

There is quite the variety of video production available on youtube about breast cancer awareness. In general they aren't manipulations of pre-existing media, though some do use background music of popular songs.

Media or entertainment shows poke fun at the confusion of how the awareness of October organizes monetary proceeds when the color pink rakes in the dough, and the irony of how some products that seem somewhat harmful to environment or health also "go pink." I agree with the one I watched involving "Modern Lady" where she discusses the strange marketing strategies of turning everything pink. If we get talking about it, somehow that will lead to a cure? Could help, sure. If I buy that yogurt, they'll donate money toward funding cure research. It makes sense if you were going to buy yogurt anyway, but there are so many percentages of proceeds going to who knows where that it seems if you really cared, you'd donate straight to research centers. But because you bought that yogurt you've done your part. You're involved. Anyway.

Talk and Morning show hosts join in on the conversation.

Several "amateurs" have animated ditties or survival stories.

Also there are naked women with videos of self breast exams. Hooray. There's a surprising amount of videos displaying pink fingernails. Um, I don't think two-inch fingernails are very conducive to self breast exams, even if they are pink.

This one below is kinda fun. It does make me think, "hey, get back to work curing breast cancer" but, it's nice that they could all let loose together and have some fun despite the serious work they're doing. The janitor is my favorite.

 

The Elven Story

Image from http://www.cracked.com/funny-2307-elves/ 

Elves began as supernatural beings in Germanic, Old English, and Old Norse mythology and texts. They were powerful and sometimes mean. But as time passed, the Elves were able to see a new light in their culture. J.R.R. Tolkien captured the life of these evolved elves. They lived peacefully in Middle Earth, but they didn't stop evolving. Their slender and androgynous figures transformed into gender differentiating features, e.i. boobs, as the elves inhabited Dungeons and Dragons. But their transformation wasn't complete. World of Warcraft changed more features than just the chest in elven evolution. Ears and eyebrows became more extended from the head and the ears less leaf shaped. They grew taller and had wider shoulders and chests. They were no longer the Tolkien slender elves. They had evolved. Despite their evolution, many people continue to reference the elves of Tolkien's time. These Middle Earth elves refuse to be forgotten.

But it isn't over yet. While these tall, gorgeous figures are on everyone's mind, their small, magical distant cousins can't be forgotten. The working elves of Santa that everyone loves at Christmas time still continue to be part of the world though not talked about as much. Despite their unpopularity compared to their tall cousins, Santa's elves are still valued. "ElfYourself" still is popular as people make themselves appear as a working elf for their amusement. But even with these types of fan sites and activities, these elves are completely overshadowed by their beautiful cousins. But who wouldn't like the tall elves with magic not limited to making toys?