RIP Tim Conway (1933–2019)

This morning, we lost Tim Conway, one of the world's great comedians. Tim Conway was so funny! I remember seeing some of his skits on The Carol Burnett Show, and I also remember some of his sound bites from Jim Healy's radio show.

The Internet of Stuff

In honor of George Carlin, the Internet of Things really ought be called the "Internet of Shit" (or possibly the "Internet of Stuff").

RIP Joan Rivers (1933–2014)

Joan Rivers, a comedy legend, died today.

I don't remember when I first heard of her, but it was a long time ago, and vastly predates when I saw her in 1987 in Spaceballs, where she played the voice of Dot Matrix (who is, roughly, analogous to C3PO). That's her role that I know the best (by far), and my favorite quote of hers from that movie is the following one: That was my virgin-alarm. It's programmed to go off before you do!

(Tip of the cap to David Blau.)

RIP Robin Williams (1951–2014)

Comedy legend Robin Williams was found dead earlier today (the 11th) from an apparent suicide. I'm not sure what my favorite one of his roles is, but he certainly had some memorable ones (such as Mork and in movies like Good Morning Vietnam and Dead Poets Society).

(Tip of the cap to several people via their Facebook posts.)

Update: The CNN article about Williams' death has some additional information.

RIP Harold Ramis (1944–2014)

Harold Ramis, who is best known for his role as Egon Spengler in the Ghostbusters movies, died today after being ill for several years.

I hadn't realized this, but he also wrote/directed Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, and Analyze This. That's some seriously high-quality work!

In his honor, it's worth pointing out that sometimes you need to cross the streams.

(Tip of the cap to Scott Porter.)

What Happens in Barcelona Stays in Barcelona

Well, I finally made it to Barcelona. I have been meaning to go for several years, and I even was planning to go to a conference here a few years ago (but I was only given a poster presentation and --- under the circumstances of the initial e-mail response to my abstract when I submitted it --- it felt like a bait-and-switch, so I declined it). Now I am here for the 2013 European Conference on Complex Systems and for its associated satellite meetings. I have never gone to this conference series before, though some of my collaborators have previously presented our joint work at ECCS conferences. I already ran into Alex Vespignani at the hotel check-in desk, so I know I'm in the right place!

I was tempted to introduce this post with a Crystallian (as in Billy) fake European accent as a nod to a certain oral report I did in 7th grade on the city of Barcelona. The school year was 1988-89, and we chose Barcelona as our city on which to report because of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games for a presentation in Andrea Ambler's class. I think it was my idea --- not too creative, I admit. In our oral presentation (and in other presentations on other European cities), every single person used the same fake European accent --- no matter which European city was covered in their report. It was kind of ridiculous. (Is it too late to apologize for this past transgression? Now that I have several European friends, I feel like I owe them a retrospective apology for that oral report.) And for those of you who don't know what that "European" accent sounds like, let's just say that it's simply marvelous. In summary: My group's 7th-grade report on a European city was on Barcelona, our collective notion of a European accent (for all countries) was Billy Crystal, and this series of oral reports must have been extremely painful to watch (and, especially, to listen to) for anybody in the room who had any knowledge at all about Europe. Those were the days.

Update (7/01/14): I think I forgot to post my pictures from Barcelona.

The Most Important Anniversary of 2012

And I bet you know what it is, too?

That's right: 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of what is probably George Carlin's most famous skit.

The man was a comic genius, and much of what he had to say back then still rings true today.

How many of those words can you say on television now? :)

He Might Want to Try Using the "Aristocrats" Joke Again

Gilbert Gottfried might want to use "The Aristocrats" joke again after he got himself fired from his role as the Aflac Duck for making insensitive comments about the situation in Japan via twitter in an attempt at humor that went over like a lead balloon.

I hadn't actually realized that Gottfried provided the voice of the duck, and given Gottfried's grating voice (for which he is best known), that's actually pretty cool. As described in the wikipedia entry for the Aristocrats joke (as well as in the movie about the joke), Gottfried made some 9/11 based jokes only 3 weeks after the event. When those didn't go over well at all (so there's a bit of a history here...), he rescued himself by switching to the Aristocrats and doing a massively funny version of the joke.

Gottfriend does seem like quite the douchebag, doesn't he?

"Mel Gibson Charged With Battery"

Isn't this headline something that ought to happen in Soviet Russia? (Also, the headline "Yakov Smirnoff Charged with Battery" would be rather ironic, given that the whole Soviet Russia meme originally came from his comedic shtick.)

I'm just saying...