The Rabbit Hole
Now that the election is over and we’re no longer treated to Tina Fey’s spot on impersonation of Sarah Palin, the Digital Shorts are my favorite part of Saturday Night Live.
Sometimes they don’t quite make sense, but most of the time they’re hilarious, especially the shorts featuring songs created by the group The Lonely Island.
Their first studio album, Incredibad
This is the short that started it all. Although this was the second of the Digital Shorts to air on SNL, this song swept the internet like a plague in December of 2005. Enjoy the hilarity of Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell rapping about such hardcore topics as cupcakes and the Chronic (what) cles of Narnia.
Proving she’s a million times cooler than we already thought, Natalie Portman pairs up with Chris Parnell to mock her perfect and clean image in this profanity-laced rap.
(this is the uncensored version)
The next year, Andy Samberg paired up with Justin Timberlake to present this R&B parody. It was also a huge hit online after NBC posted the uncensored version on Youtube, and it went on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Original Lyrics and Music
I know some of the reactions to this short have been mixed, but I think it’s absolutely hilarious. I know premature ejaculation is a serious matter, but the heightening of the ridiculous causes builds up to the perfect crescendo of jizzing. Yeah, it’s a little immature, but it’s still funny.
(That’s the explicit version. You can watch the clean version here)
This is the latest of the shorts, which premiered this past Saturday. In this parody, the guys are joined by T-Pain to rap about their experiences on a boat. They’ve got their swim trunks and their flippy-floppies, and you just have to watch it to really experience the magnificence.
With the economy the way it is, everyone’s cutting back on the non-necessities. One of the little luxuries that has become a necessity in modern times in television. Cable and satellite prices are outrageous, and usually you’re paying for channels you don’t even watch, just to get the few that have your favorite shows. And don’t even get me started on the premium channels like HBO and Showtime.
Thankfully there are alternatives available on the internet, and there are countless websites where you can watch your favorite shows anytime day or night, for free.
I love Hulu–I’ve been using it since it launched. It has a clean, simple design and features full length episodes of many of the shows I love (The Office, The Daily Show, & Heroes) plus older TV shows (like Alfred Hitchcock Presents), and even movies. New episodes are usually posted the day after they air on TV. You can browse by popular episodes or shows, and also genre, network, and recently added shows. The site also features a queue, so you can add several episodes (or clips) and then sit back and watch them back to back without having to pull up each one separately.
Similar to Hulu, Joost features a variety of TV shows, including Adult Swim shows, How I Met Your Mother, and others. The site also features movies, and unique from Hulu, has a music section with collections of music videos by popular artists.
If there’s a specific show you like, try checking the network website. Many sites feature full streaming episodes. Some have all the episodes up all the time, other feature episodes for certain periods. Some places to check include ABC, NBC, TBS, Discover Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, VH1, & MTV.
Yes, even Youtube has full episodes of TV shows. These are usually lower quality and split up into chunks since they’re uploaded by users, but you’ll be surprised what you can find on there. I often watch Daria, The Soup, and MST3K on Youtube, and with the quicklist, I just put all the parts on there in order and it will automatically play each clip in order.
Though you can’t actually watch the episodes at Sidereel, it is the ultimate reference for finding TV (and movies) streaming online. Unless I know I can find a specific show on Hulu or Youtube, Sidereel is the first place I go to find online episodes. Just search for the show you’re interested in and you can find links to watch specific episodes online. Often there will be links to buy the episodes on iTunes or Amazon, but a lot of the time there will be links to other random sites to stream the videos.