Weird anti-drug PSAs

My personal favorite of these anti-drug PSAs is The Chicken Club - here's the youtube info:

This is a legitimate anti-drug music video (from the 80''s) conceived and created to let youngsters know that if they were confronted with the temptation to do drugs they could say "no" with confidence. Even if the person propositioning the child called them a "chicken" (as a last ditch effort to persuade the kid to change their mind) the youth could fire back with the completely unexpected answer, "That's right, I am a chicken and it's OK because there is this sweet music video that told me that it's cool to be a chicken. So your taunts, jeers and name calling will not make me change my mind, in fact they only strengthen my resolve. I'm not only a chicken...I'm in the Chicken Club!"

I would really like one of these Surfing Monkey Banks, please - story below the video:

Dangerous Minds had a post about the Surfing Monkey PSA in 2012 and heard from the creator, Greg Collins:

I’m one of the creators of that surfing monkey spot you threw up on Dangerous Minds this afternoon. Thanks for doing that.

Apparently you can buy these now.

That spot actually dates back to 1999. A buddy of mine and his wife totally smoked out one night. The next morning, they woke up on the sofa, their ribs and stomach muscles were hurting. They didn’t remember much of anything, other than laughing their asses off.

About a week later, a UPS guy knocked on their door, bearing some boxes from QVC. While they were all gassed out, they bought a Star Trek collector’s plate, a Chi-Wash-Wa home car washing system and a Michael Jordan in-flight pewter statuette. All in all, about $400. That must’ve been some great weed.

When they told me the story, I thought that’d make an awesome commercial, but all of that was too much to put into a :30 spot. We needed to drill it down to one item for simplicity and comedy’s sake. My buddy Greg hit on the idea of something really ridiculous like a surfing monkey coin bank. We shot the spot for like $300 and sold it through to the Partnership For A Drug-Free America. It ran in 1999-2000, and, to this day, remains one of their most beloved and recalled commercials.

And once you've moved on from the madness of reefer, here's LSD, A Case Study (turn down the sound - there's a very loud screaming hot dog):

via Flavorwire, where you can find more.

Tuesday links

Composer Dimitri Shostakovich was born September 25, 1906: some quotes, history, and music.

When the U.S. Government Tried to Make It Rain by Exploding Dynamite in the Sky.

Georgian era stand-up routines.

Hypnotic breast enlargement.

This Is Your Octopus On Drugs.

 

A short history of Sleepwalking. 

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include the physics of swirling your wine, Firefly's Unification Day, the 17th century Russian beard tax, seamless underwater-to-air communication, and the Great British Hedgehog Census. 

Friday links

From 1960, here's how to build your own fallout shelter.

World War II Prison Camp Music.

Is beaming down in Star Trek a death sentence? Is it still you on the other side, or is it a copy?

Weird anti-drug PSAs.

Why We Yawn.

Scientists have found an octopus city.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include a brief history of hypnotic breast enlargement, the post-mortem journey of Buffalo Bill's corpse, and composer Dimitri Shostakovich's birthday

Wednesday links

On March 30, 1848, Niagara Falls Ran Dry, with bonus Niagara Falls sketch by Abbott & Costello and The Three Stooges.

Before computers: Inside the FBI’s Colossal Fingerprint Factory.

In this 2.5 minute video, Carl Sagan lucidly explains how Eratosthenes not only deduced a spherical earth, but accurately calculated its diameter in 200 B.C.

For Van Gogh’s birthday, his recently-discovered sketchbooks and the unexpected math behind "Starry Night"

Prozac in the Water Makes Fighting Fish More Mellow.

The Demonic Origins of Ventriloquism.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include the history and calculations behind Easter's varying dates, a gallery of Easter bunnies terrifying children, and a collection of videos of violence against marshmallow peeps.

Friday links

Here's video of an elephant herd attacking a motorcycle.

How a group of neighbors created their own Internet service.

10 Star Wars Movie Scenes You've Never Seen.

From the archives, this must listen: woman calls radio show, rants about government encouraging (via crossing signs) deer to cross busy roads.

Did the CIA's Experiments With Psychedelic Drugs Unwittingly Create the Grateful Dead?

Why Midcentury Lawyers Spent 12 Years Arguing About Peanut Butter.

ICYMI, Wednesday's links are here, and include lots of Guy Fawkes Day stuff, why it's called "root beer", why you scratch an itch, and photos from the Paris department store where Nazi's shopped for stolen Jewish belongings.

Wednesday links

Are mites having sex on your face?

John Lennon’s nearly-forgotten 1974 Broadway flop Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road.

A Requiem for Saturday Morning Cartoons - they've been dying off for a long time but now have ceased to exist.

Weird (and funny) anti-drug PSAs.

Advances in Miscreant Trapping: patents from the struggle between good and evil.

12 mesmerizingly informative GIFs. Have you ever seen how an ant walks before?

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, including why coffee makes you poop, people who managed to screw up their one job, and Lego versions of Peter Quill, Mal Reynolds, and Han Solo (from Guardians of the Galaxy, Firefly and Star Wars, respectively) debating "Who shoots first?".