Best Thing Ever
2008 March 31
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The folks behind Wallace and Gromit took interviews with human beings about body image and put them in the mouth of squishy animated animals. The result is something I need to watch about 80 more times.
(H/T Elastic Waist.)
This is absolutely brillz. There is something so deliciously non-judgmental, and in fact unifying to hear these statements in the manner in which they are presented. I don’t have to see what the person actually looks like, or their expression. I get to draw my own conclusions.
My personal favorite is the giraffes. Kids…..so beautifully unselfconscious.
Plus I’m a sucker for any sort of animation.
They used to air this on CBS, before CBS decided that “The New Adventures of Old Christine” was funnier, and that sometimes high, inconsistent ratings were better than a loyal fan base (Jericho, anyone?)
I laughed out loud on several occasions. And I think towards the end I totally wanted to hug the vulture.
I love how honest and simple this is. It just makes me all smiley.
This was just too cute. It definitely is a must-see. I’ll probably watch it a few more times :) I love it.
Beautiful and brilliant…and yes, I laughed out loud!
I love it. Although the penguin that tries to fly (behind the polar bear) made me sad. Though it was like a summary for half of the interviews, where the people/animals said they would like to change one characteristic… which was usually the one that made them so special.
Could we make this mandatory viewing in schools, please?
Adorable and funny, I’ll definitely be watching this again. In a way, it shows how silly self-consciousness/putting yourself down can look.
Oh my gosh that made my day!
Best thing ever!
Polar bear FTW. :D I love it, thank you for posting.
These guys are brilliant as ever. I am so glad I didn’t have any liquid in my mouth when the last line was said, or else my monitor and keyboard would be drenched LOL.
I usually catch Creature Comforts on BBC America when I think to look, so strange seeing them with American accents.
It’s hard to adjust to, isn’t it, JeanC? I always expect the Aardman beasts to speak with middle-class English accents!
Oh yes, definitely laughed out loud…fig leaf my god. :D I love Wallace and Grommit and seeing these words put to those mouths was wonderfully uplifting! ^^
For some reason, I can’t get it to load, it gets to 2 seconds and stops. Oh well, I’ll have to try it later.
meowser, it let me watch about 3 minutes and then it cut out. Probably the site is overloaded right now, what with the Shapelings all clicking the link.
it says it no longer available. le sadness.
I’ll have to go searching for it :)
nevermind now it works :D
That was so sweet. A perfect ending to the day.
That was awesome! I love Wallace and Gromit, too.
The vulture was the cutest thing ever!
The shark was the cutest thing ever, too.
The bees were also the cutest things ever.
And so forth.
I’ve also fallen in love with the two dogs, the ones who don’t like the word “ugly”. The were freakin’ adorable.
That was f’in awesome! And the “average-sized fig leaf” line at the end made me soooo glad I’d finished my coffee! I totally would have snarfed!
yet one more reason to love aardman!! though i do agree the lack of british accent is kinda weird…
“I always expect the Aardman beasts to speak with middle-class English accents!”
???
I’ve only heard one or two Creature Comfort characters speak with middle-class English accents. The rest are regional accents and normal working class people, or upper class e.g. Totty and the bad guy in ‘Wererabbit’.
I loved this (we’ve had Aardman over here in the UK for years and I’ve loved it from the start) but what I found rather telling was the pig’s mother’s attitude to her daughter. Boy have I been on the receiving end of those kind of poisonous comments.
Just wanted to thank you for linking to this – it’s lovely!
And for Skreee, here’s some penguins who *do* fly… (the BBC’s April Fools day joke this morning!):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/epeng001.shtml
The penquins clip from the BBC only works if you’re in the UK.
And I, too, am happy I didn’t have coffee in my mouth for the fig leaf line.
This is teh awesome! Thanks for sharing. Oh, and here’s another great LOLcat for you:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/03/31/funny-pictures-i-need-it-to-live/
i love them.
Cheese, Gromit!
Miss Conduct, that cat is hilarious–I hadn’t seen that one.
It’s a new one up today. Perfect response to the OMG scary fats/carbs foodophobic crowd. Srsly, is there any important concept that LOLcats cannot condense more poetically and meaningfully than any number of philosophical essays?
I actually caught this one during the five fucking minutes that Creature Comforts was airing. Love it. Hey hey, I’m a model now!
“A normal size fig leaf would cover it.”
Fan-fucking-tastic!
@ thegirlfrommarz: thank you so much. :)
@ Nan: this link should work for Leftpondians:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/01/npenguin101.xml
I like the cow, with the Birthmark. She’s adorable.
holy shit!!!!!!! this is RIDICULOUS! my brother in law is napping on the couch so i was watching this with headphones and trying SO hard not to laugh out loud. i think i busted a capillary in my face from holding it in.
I have been horribly flu-ridden for the past few days…this was so nice to watch! I wish there were more interesting shows on tv, which I am stuck in front of.
I finally got to see this. LOOOOOVE. How strange that this was a series and I never even knew.
I don’t think I’d want to stand under a flock of flying penguins.
This is fabulous! Some of those couples are so brutally honest “the shape of her body underneath the fat” is so something my mother would say!
So so awesome. I love the dog who complains that the problem with being so darned good looking is that you have to keep it up.
AHmazing!!! Oh that was the best.
Oh my gosh, this was awesome! The fig leaf at the end made me snork.
I love it!!!!!!
I love this series, so much! I didn’t know there were new (American) episodes! =D
That was awesome and yet, a bit depressing. Only one person was truly unqualifiedly happy with how they looked, and he was immediately slapped down by his companion!!
And the mother, and her mother– so depressing.
The “thick” shark was pretty awesome though.
I’d seen something like this with British accents so I must’ve caught an episode of the BBC version once. But it’s hilarious.
You just want to hug them all.
Weirdly I think my favorite Aardman characteristic is the teeth…
I <3 Creature Comforts. I dearly wished that the American version had continued past the three or four that were shown.
One thing that I found interesting, watching this again from the perspective of body issues, is that with a few exceptions the interviewees’ companions liked their bodies better than they did. Like the rabbit who loved his wife’s big nose. And I actually kind of liked the mother pig – she thought that her daughter’s body was her best feature, it was the daughter who felt the need to add “under the fat”.
Aww, I really loved this. The vulture really cracked me up.
I believe they did a version called “Creature Discomforts” that had people with disabilities from the UK talking about prejudice and discrimination. What I’ve seen of that was really good, too (not good that it exists — you know what I mean).
Animal Planet is going to start showing the American episodes soon. I don’t know if it’ll just be the ones originally on CBS or if there will be additional ones, but I’m happy that they’re back on my TV either way!
Got directed here from another page… looks like I’m late to the game, but I thought I’d toss in my two cents. ^_^
Loved watching this show on Animal Planet. I was sad it only seemed to last for about a month before disappearing, and at weird show times so it was hard to catch it. This particular bit was one of my favorite segments of all time. It’s so honest and so cute.
I thought the piggy mom was really adorable, myself. The only thing she says that might be considered negative is the part about the make-up. Yeah, she agrees with the daughter’s “under the fat” comment, but not with any great enthusiasm, and really what do you say to that, especially when it’s probably not the first time they’ve had that conversation?
My mother used to tell me to put on some make-up too. Now, I believe it’s a woman’s own choice whether or not to wear make-up, but you can tell the mom pig thinks her daughter is lovely and the message, to me, she is trying to send is “honey you’re so pretty, you should WORK IT!” The daughter pig has some obvious body issues and her mom seems to be telling her to love what she’s got and rock the look, so to speak. The part that made me laugh the most was when the mom says “oh, the best part about her is her shape… her big boobs-” and then the daughter cuts in “MOTHER!” I guess having her mother talk about her breasts on television was just too much for her discomfort with herself to handle. I loved them both.
Those rabbits are probably my very fave, though. They’re so funny, cute, and kind of raunchy in other episodes (in a way I thought was refreshing and charming in a world where most people are afraid to be open about their sexual selves). It’s always nice to see affectionate married couples, since the more popular thing to do on movies and TV is have couples who fight all the time. Real couples always trump sitcom stereotypes. ;)