Bizarro is brought to you today by Alternative Lifestyles.
When I was a boy, I spent many hours with friends inhaling the helium from balloons and talking funny. Oh, the laughter. Then later I heard that this practice can actually be fatal. Anybody know if that’s true? I’m too lazy to look it up: one of the few things that Sarah Palin and I have in common.
We also used to play a version of Russian roulette. We didn’t have a gun, but one of my friends found a bullet, so we would put one bullet and five and foam rubber ear plugs into a bag, reach in and pull one out, then throw it as hard as we could at our own temple. No one was ever killed, but we occasionally got a small bruise. (This blog does not recommend this practice nor will it accept responsibility if you knock your own eye out.)
Where do jokes come from? Scientists have long studied what it is that makes people laugh and why. Nobody knows the definitive answer for certain, but it sure has made a lot of scientists giggle like school children.But then, the same can be said for nitrous oxide.
Here is another group of images from one of my sketchbooks. The loose theme of this one seems to be anthropomorphic methods of transportation. What it means is anyone’s guess.
Helium is an inert gas, so it can never be poisonous as such, but too much can cause hypoxia simply by displacing the air from your lungs. People have committed suicide that way, but any alert person would feel woozy and get air. There’s another gas with the opposite effect: sulfur hexafluoride or SF6. YouTube has a few SF6 inhalation videos: freaky.
Thanks, Brian. Now I can talk like Donald Duck with impunity.
Sarah Palin too lazy to look things up? Surely not. It was on the New Zealand news that she reads every magazine, “all of them”.
(And before you ask, no, we do not have news of our own. Unless you count this http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/5294966/Sheep-runs-wild-in-Wellington-streets That’s probably a good thing, though :) )
Just wanted to say how much I appreciated the studied link to the Nutty Professor with Jerry Lewis. Classic funny stuff. Even without the Helium.
I heard on the radio the other day that valium is more more effective than placebos for treating depression. I can’t imagine Mrs.Draper being depressed on the ceiling. It just doesn’t collocate.
People have committed suicide that way, but any alert person would feel woozy and get air.
Plus, no one would take you seriously if you called for help.
What it means is anyone’s guess.
Looks like something drawn by Peter Max.
Helium can be lethal, yes.
I’m a big supporter of death with dignity… as in… people choosing to take their own lives while they still can rather than dying a slow, agonizing, humiliating death in misery. Intense concentrated helium inhalation is the current method of choice.
See http://www.assistedsuicide.org/ for more info.
That said, your patient on the ceiling cartoon is hysterical, and I’ll be forwarding it to the mailing list for the assisted suicide supporters. Thanks Dan!
I’m a big advocate of death with dignity as well. Thanks for passing this on.
The sketches today remind me of a particularly nutty guy who goes by ‘cyriak’.
His animations are at http://cyriak.co.uk/blog/ but he’s probably most famous for one he did of cows, called ‘Moo’. It’s towards the bottom of http://cyriak.co.uk/blog/?paged=4 but the commercial showreel at the top is pretty neat too.
Cheers!
Brilliant work, I wonder how I’ve escaped knowing about him. Thanks so much for the link!
Also, fair warning, the ‘moo’ animation is kind of gruesome in parts.
I looked through his site for a long time and never found the “moo” one. I found “Cows, Cows, Cows” but I’m guessing that’s not the one you’re talking about.
try this for “Moo”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9iIgQN5uZE&feature=player_embedded#at=31
thanks for showing us more of your sketchbook!
Brilliant! Again, thanks for the link!
Penn & Teller recently did a neat trick with helium, and according to Penn helium is fatal as it displaces oxygen. Of course, he could be mistaken.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHleQZMlnhU
Great gag, very funny. Apparently helium is deadly because you can’t breath it and live, so that part was true.
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