The Blind Mike Project - The Worst Comedy Special

I don't believe I've mentioned GD Fenderson already. GD is a stand-up comedian who's alledgedly made the worst stand-up special of all-time. Blind Mike is watching/reacting to the entire special in installments - every week or so, they're trudging through a few more minutes.

In this episode, they find a fun way to treat the added captions. It really elevates the material.

The official designations from Blind Mike are: Tom Myers is the worst stand-up comedian of all-time but GD Fenderson has the worst special of all-time. I haven't looked into it in-depth but I find these terms to be reasonable.

Best of the Worst - Star Slammer, Talos, and The Apple

RedLetterMedia's "Best of the Worst" Episode 141.

I won't spoil it but the ambition and execution of what they do at the end is what elevates this episode above the average.

Late Night - Norm's MTV Beach House Story

Conan's youtube channel has officially released this classic appearance by Norm Macdonald.

There are a number of mysteries with this particular clip.

1. I had every beat of this interview memorized and I don't remember where/how I watched it originally.
2. Why does the video start whilst coming back from commercial? There's a first segment that's omitted. You can watch that here. 
3. It's now 2025 and so we should be able to find and watch the MTV appearance Norm describes.  Norm was actually on for a week of shows, Days 1 through 4 are online, the incident should be found on Day 5 which did exist on the internet at one time, but has been thoroughly scrubbed from the internet. If you find it, let me know.

The Late Show is Ending

CBS has announced that the Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end its run in May 2026.

Stephen isn't being replaced, the show is simply ending for financial reasons.

Mr. T and Trees

As much as I did a deep-dive on Mr. T a while back (or several deep-dives) I believe I missed that he was in the National Guard for a short stint and the legendary story, now posted on military.com, from his time there:

At some point during his military career, a platoon sergeant started "throwing his weight around." He ordered Pvt. Mr. T to chop down trees on the base but failed to mention how many. Mr. T axed 70 trees in 3.5 hours before the company commander ordered him to stop.

A tall tale? The new Chuck Norris? A modern day Paul Bunyan? I sure don't know. But, reddit has already made the connection to other obscure Mr. T Tree lore (from Curbed Chicago):

 Now, in honor of Curbed Outdoors Week, let's take a look back at one of the Chicago area's most infamous landscaping debacles: Mr. T's 1987 inexplicable destruction of more than 100 trees (actual tree counts vary) on the old Armour estate in Lake Forest... 

...The home in question was built in 1910 for a banker named Orville Elias Babcock, and it was later occupied by meatpacking magnet[sic] Laurance Armour... In 1986, Mr. T (a Chicago native, by the way) bought the sprawling English Tudor estate for $1.7 million... Then, a year later, he went all Paul Bunyan on the hundreds of trees that filled his property. He even wiped out four 12-foot topiary trees that had been sculpted to represent birds in nests....

The papers called it the 'Lake Forest Chainsaw Massacre.' Arborists were stunned. And for his part, Mr. T never bothered to fully explain why he fired up a chainsaw and, alongside hired workmen, got busy clearcutting the oaks, elms and maples that populated his seven-acre estate...

So, I don't know, it seems that Mr. T hates trees. If we're looking to see if this can be added to the Mr. T Cinematic Universe, it maps to the S03E05 "A-Team" episode "Timber!" where the A-Team helps out a lumber company, but I don't know of any other connections.

Radiohead - Lift (Live at Pinkpop)

This performance, officially released today by the Pinkpop channel, is from 1996. From this time, it would be another 21 years before this song would be officially released. But the official release would be a disappointment, in my opinion, because the studio version can't compare to this one perfect live version from 1996. 

Of course, I wasn't a fan of any of the long-awaited releases ("I Promise", "Man of War") so maybe it's just me.