Sci-Fi writer John Scalzi has put together a list of the “10 Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time.” I refuse to excerpt any of it because I demand that you follow the link and read the whole thing for yourself, but the titles include “Ayn Rand’s A Selfish Christmas (1951)”, “The Lost Star Trek Christmas Episode: ‘A Most Illogical Holiday’ (1968)” and “A Muppet Christmas with Zbigniew Brzezinski (1978)” among others. Read it for a healthy dose of the spirit of Christmas.

In a piece he entitles “The Top 10 Rightblogger Stories of 2008” (but the Economist’s Democracy in America blog titles more aptly “Your year in wingnuttery“) Roy Edroso chronicles the most ridiculous right-wing blog memes of the last year (via the Opinionator.) It is no less than a stunning and hilarious chronicle of the ineptitude, stupidity and mean-spiritedness of right-wing bloggers who grew increasingly hysterical as the campaign season wore on. (However, I must rise to the defense of Megan McArdle at the Atlantic who should not be included amongst the “rightbloggers” Edroso lists, and whose only crime is a general sort of cluelessness that sometimes infects her blogging.)

Hands down the most hilarious thing I’ve seen on the intertubes this week, and that includes the list of top ten lamest D&D monsters. Topless Robot is easily the greatest blog discovery this year for me.

Via The Superficial, “Prop 8 – The Musical” starring Jack Black as Jesus. There’s more star power than humor, but still worth a watch for a few chuckles. 

A video that Glenn Sacks and his readers will appreciate, though probably not for the same reasons you or I might.

On the 2008 elections:

Mongol General: Conan! What is best in life?

Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women.

Hilarious Onion video: “Voting Machines Elect One of Their Own for President” (via Threat Level.)

Seven now, but whatever. Via Adam, the guys at 23/6 have recommendations for how us hard-core Dems can make it through the final week of the campaign. They’re hilariously apt, from the recommendation not re-load DailyKos and Huffington Post a thousand times an hour to setting aside five minutes a day for “poll acceptance” (which basically means accepting that Obama really is ahead like the polls say he is; there are a few on our side who really could use this one.) Anyway it’s good for a laugh, especially for those of us who are only likely to be more insane by the time Nov. 4th rolls around.

I bet you didn’t know that the Crusaders liked to stop for a road beer too (thanks for the link mom!)Also, today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, now being observed for the second year in a row here at TWM. In honor of the day, here’s an excerpt about Blackbeard from a contemporary history of pirates:

Before he sailed upon his adventures, he married a young creature of about sixteen years of age . . . and this I have been informed, made Teach’s fourteenth wife . . . with whom after he had lain all night, it was his custom to invite five or six of his brutal companions to come ashore, and he would force her to prostitute herself to them all, one after another, before his face.

Hmmm. I would not recommend celebrating today in a similar fashion.

A new genre of humor is born! My personal favorite:

Q: What do you get when you cross a neocon with a lemming?

A: Peace.

It’s just a joke! I don’t really want all neocons to run headlong over a cliff (wink wink)!