Nothing says irony quite like a white rapper performing acoustic versions of his own songs in Echo Park, California. That’s why “The Soup” asked Vanilla Ice – who must have the greatest business card ever, considering he’s a “rapper, extreme athlete, and home improvement television personality” – to sing “Ice, Ice Baby” and “Ninja Rap” to a bunch of hipsters, accompanied only by a guitar, glockenspiel, and the sounds of sarcastic mustaches being twirled in a “yes…yes…I like this” fashion.

The event’s clearly, yet cleverly staged (I hope…), and Vanilla Ice plays up his white boy rapper image well. Thing is, I can totally see this becoming a thing, beginning as parody before becoming self-parody. An upcoming “SNL” musical guest is Karmin, who became Internet famous because they recorded themselves performing a sincere, yet ironic keyboard cover of Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now.” My point: where’s Snow at?

Also, Vanilla Ice might have the greatest Wikipedia page ever. Excerpts and the video after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Henry Rollins is not the sort of person to be trifled with. Not only did the guy front Black Flag, he played a white surpemacist/gang rapist on “Sons of Anarchy” WAY too believably for me to go spouting off if I ever saw him in person.

But that’s what a couple of New York City hipsters did when Rollins and Iranian artist Shirin Neshat went into an East Village establishment for a German TV show called “Into the Night with…” In the video below, a hipster girl starts loudly talking about Rollins and laughing at about the 0:40 mark. He brushes it off and keeps talking to Neshat, but when the girl yells “Get in the van!” — the title of one of Rollins’s books — that’s when he snaps. Look at the banner image. That’s Henry Rollins’s face when he decides he’s sick of your stupid mouth.

I hope I never see that face in person, because it means I failed to avert my eyes and mind my own business, and that I’m about to get my ass kicked by heavily muscled and tattooed 49-year-old punk rocker in a USO fleece. Goddam that dude is badass. He now ranks ahead of Charlie Murphy on my People I Want as My Dad list.

Read the rest of this entry »

Exactly a year ago today while filling in for Matt on this site, I proclaimed that SNL deadweight Fred Armisen had never done anything funny in his career. Now comes the news that IFC has picked up a series that Armisen will star in that will consist of comedy shorts that “lovingly illustrates the people and values of Portland, Ore.” I’m laughing already. Repetitive tasks just put me in that kind of mood.

Lorne Michaels is producing, so this must be some sort of consolation to a long-time cast member who can’t develop a character interesting enough to carry a movie vehicle. But Aubrey Plaza has already been mentioned as one of the guest stars on the show, so I suppose I can be convinced to tune in to see her mumble and glare at someone. I’m convinced she’s the daughter of Mexico’s Bill Belichick.

Now, I’ve never been to Portland and probably never will because it’s not located within my laptop, but it’s always mentioned in the same breath as Austin as one of the noted hipster havens in our great nation. So I’m guessing there’s something to trade on with that. So long as you’re into the lovingly illustrative school of hipster insults.

Wow. Ordinarily I’m not one of those people who think awkward situations are always funny, but this interview between “Jersey Shore’s” Snooki and the band Phoenix (you know, the group your cool friends were Twittering about six months ago) is just an absolute train wreck. The linguistic/cultural chasm between these two entities is far larger than anything that should ever be televised.

Snooki: Hi guys. I don’t know if you know me. Snooki? “Jersey Shore”? Do you watch it?
Laurent Brancowitz: No, we are French.
Snooki: Oh, that’s terrible.

She’s like America’s version of Borat, except real. I love it.

[via BuzzFeed]

“Whatever.”

The adorable Ellen Page, who was terrific in Hard Candy, twee in Juno, and unwatched in Whip It, is adding credits on the other side of the camera, agreeing to write and produce an HBO comedy about hipsters with two of her super-cool friends.

Page has teamed with HBO for “Stitch N’ Bitch,” a single-camera comedy she will write with two other young actors, Alia Shawkat and Sean Tillmann.

The trio will executive produce the project, which follows two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood to Los Angeles’ Silver Lake enclave in hopes of becoming artists — of any kind.

Oh boy, I hope their trust funds are big enough to support their dreams! You girls be careful — I’d hate for your kaffiyeh scarf to get caught in the spokes of your fixed-gear bicycle on the way to Hotel Cafe for your band’s debut. What would they do without their lead ukulele player?!?