Black Friday (The Shopping Trend and its Origins)

If you want to know how ridiculous Black Friday had become, look no further than South Park’s parody on ‘Game of Thrones’.  

I know the deal they offered on ‘South Park’ was exaggerated, but the fight to get a $99 knockoff 40 inch tv is shockingly true, that people actually die because of getting run over by shoppers.

http://consumerist.com/2014/11/25/walmart-still-avoiding-paying-7000-fine-for-worker-killed-by-black-friday-shoppers-in-2008/

This is ‘The Rejected Playboy’ trying to uncover this madness regarding ‘Black Friday’.  Mainly, how did ‘Black Friday’ was associated with shopping, even though it shares the same bad luck with the stock market, JFK, poker players (Pokerstars), and pop music (Rebecca Black).  For starters, let’s go back to 1966 within the streets of Philadelphia.

Yes, way before Rocky take on Apollo Creed, the Philly police had to deal with huge crowds of shoppers that were causing so much traffic jams, they dubbed it ‘Black Friday’.

There it is folks, the Philly police used ‘Black Friday’ as a dreadful day to work overtime in order to deal with the massive crowds after Thanksgiving.  It gets ‘better’.  In 1975, not only the cops had to deal with the overcrowded shoppers, but also the Army-Navy game, which was playing at then still intact, JFK Stadium.

If you had been to conventions that’s also hosting a sporting event, you already know how much headache Public Safety had to face.

But wait, there’s another revelation that’s occurring on ‘Black Friday’.  Despite the recession that occurred before, shoppers are still looking for deals.  So much so, that companies realize that ‘Black Friday’ means another term:  When their sales earnings are heading to the ‘black’!  

Combine the fact that theoretically marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season during the final stretch of the 4th quarter, the negative connotation regarding ‘Black Friday’ was changed as a positive for merchants and retailers who were struggling to clean out their inventory for the next year.  

That’s right, ‘Black Friday’ was officially commercialized.  

However, ‘Black Friday’ wasn’t a real issue until recently because it wasn’t the busiest shopping day of the year until 2003.  That honor goes to ‘The Saturday before Christmas’.  

That is, until retailers are starting to get a little too greedy.  You see, since 2004, there’s a little thing called the Internet that’s dissuading shoppers from leaving their house.  Not wanting to lose out the competition, some retailers decided to make Thanksgiving their ‘Black Friday’ instead.  

Even though some venues are opened on Thanksgiving, the hatred of it stems that companies wanted to increase the bottom line at the cost of their employees.  And not giving overtime or other incentives to do so.  And failing to give them proper protections.  Or any notable promotion opportunities.  Or, just something…..

And it’s all because you want that $99 42-inch no-name TV, which is probably sold out 10 minutes into the sale.  Or that $10 toaster, sold out in 20 minutes.  Or maybe that towel that was sold out in 30 minutes, despite it not a real discount on Black Friday.

Notice the pattern?  Most of these so called deals aren’t that much of a deal at all.  What even worse is they are in limited quantities.  Yeah, 10 deals for a crowd that’s has at least a hundred shoppers.  To put into perspective, they’re just using these improbable deals to get into their stores.  

Not only Black Friday has been a negative connotation with commercialization, there aren’t any deals to brag about other than dealing with pushy shoppers.  If you really want a decent deal, just check out Lifehacker for all those details, use your favorite credit card if there are hidden deals inside, or clip, clip, clip coupons.

http://lifehacker.com/5973864/the-best-time-to-buy-anything-during-the-year

Until then, this is ‘The Rejected Playboy’.  Winter is coming…..

Review: ET (song) by Katy Perry in response to Extraterrestrial

(Introduction to ET on Atari.  Died after losing his last life)

This is ET on Atari and for odd reason, there were music videos, documentaries, and a whole movie based on this videogame!

I don’t know what’s the big deal about this game!  Something about landfills, crashes, and The Nerd or something.  However, there’s a big deal about this song I’m covering for today.  This is The Rejected Playboy.  For starters, let’s discuss Katy Perry.

Ah, Katy Perry, the gospel singer from Santa Barbara who sang such classics as ‘I kissed a girl’ and ‘Ur So Gay’.  Yep, getting people ‘talking’ was definitely a way to level up your stardom.  Though, ‘Waking Up in Vegas’ isn’t that bad.

During her peak of her career, she had a brief marriage with ‘Russell Brand’, the guy who appeared in the ‘Arthur remake’ and supposedly ‘Drop Dead Fred’.  

(Picture of Fred Flintstone dropping dead)

Katy Perry made a few songs that was theoretically about her relationship including ‘Teenage Dream’, ‘The One that Got Away’, and this topic for today:  ‘ET’

I have to break my character for a moment.  I know ET and how it nearly destroyed the entire videogame industry.  What really boggles me is how this song was titled:  E. T.  

What are you trying to do, piggyback the success of Steven Spielberg?  One company already did that and failed miserably! (Atari)

Wait a minute….are you stating that you have the hots for E. T.?  I don’t want to be too judgemental but, <yeesh>....

Yes, we know he has a thing about Reese’s Pieces and can become a party drunk whenever he pleases, but all he does is collect telephone pieces while running away from mad scientists and the FBI.  The less I say about his finger technique, the better.  

For some odd reason, I don’t want to know about the ‘other’ E. T. movies.  In fact, I’m surprised there’s a Rule 34 for E. T.  

NO, I WON’T SHOW THE CLIPS.  Here’s a drunk parody instead.

(The Critic:  DT:  The Drunken Terrestrial)

Back to the song, at least for a song like E. T., it’s catchy, right?  

Um, no….

(E. T. song)

If anybody’s making a song about intergalactic love, at least make it upbeat.  Katy Perry’s version seems so dull, that it feel forced or something.  Of course, that’s a possibility considering how aliens probe your butt or something.  

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.  I haven’t covered Kanye’s collaboration.  

Oh, Kanye, how you showboated your antics at the hurricane relief and Taylor Swift, giving you the perception how you don’t understand ‘Fishsticks’.  That’s the problem I have about Kanye.  He claims that he’s one of the most talented musicians in the world and the only thing I heard from him recently is a corny love song for some socialite who got her fame by leaking her sex tape!

Speaking of his guest vocals, it still didn’t add much to Katy Perry.  It probably made it worse because the rap verse didn’t transition well.  

Why can’t we having something a little more energy like these soundtracks from Japan?

Please teacher!

(Shooting Star by Kotoko)

FLCL

(Ride on Shooting Star by The Pillows)

Urusei Yatsura

(Lum’s Love Song)

Even ‘A Flock of Seagulls’ had energy!  And this was back in the 80s!

(Space Age Love Song)

Well, at least there couldn’t be any alien songs worse than this.  Right?

(Britney Spears’ ‘Alien’)

Okay you win.  This is ‘The Rejected Playboy’ saying, if you like to swing on the stars and be better off where you are, you rather go to earth (and not listen to ET)! 

Dumber than 'Dumb and Dumber': Stupid Criminals

This is ‘The Rejected Playing’ ripping on current events and relationship issues.  What’s even dumber than ‘Dumb and Dumber’?  How about stupid criminals.

Yes, I’m taking this off from Jay Leno’s playbook, but you can’t help but smirk at the stupid criminals whether it’s shoplifting a turkey between your thighs or showing a stolen credit card directly at a security camera.  In most cases, it’s makes law enforcers lives easier.  

So what criminal act they committed in ‘Dumb and Dumber’?  Holding a ransom at an International Airport during broad daylight!

There’s a reason why ransoms occur at night at an undisclosed location:  You won’t get caught!  I’m sorry, but if you’re going to make a plotline about kidnapping, think harder next time!  

So let’s break down why it’s a terrible idea to have a ransom at an airport.  Leaving a suitcase in the middle of the airline check-in would definitely raise a red flag for both airport security and the state police!  It’s not like an unmarked luggage would suspect a terrorist attack or something.  Oh wait, yes it does!

Not to mention, if there was a security breach, cameras are everywhere at the airport, which would’ve no doubt detected the two ransom suspects.

But wait, it gets ‘better’.  Because Lloyd had an infatuation with the passenger, he decided to run after her to return the package.  

How he bypass security checkpoint is beyond me.  By that time, the airport would go on a lockdown, review some of the cameras, and start arresting suspects.  

Instead, we get a plotline with Lloyd convincing Harry to go on a road trip to return the suitcase.  If his IQ was 30 points higher than ‘Forrest Gump’, he would have sent the suitcase to authorities for inspection instead.  

Yep, that’s pretty much the plot device for ‘Dumb and Dumber’, a stupid criminal act gone wrong that lead ‘Dumb and Dumber’ on a road trip.  That’s pretty much dumb.  And I was dumb enough to point all of these flaws out!

Say what you want about ‘The Stupids’, but at least the crooked arms dealer gets the idea about holding a deal at an undisclosed location.  ‘Beavis and Butthead’ are also stupid, but at least the crooks knew how to take advantage of their lowly intellect.  As for….(Miss march) nope, I won’t talk about that!

So next time, if you’re going to do a road trip movie, try to make it ridiculously plausible.  National Lampoon’s ‘Vacation’ got that one right.

This is ‘The Rejected Playboy’ saying:  Having an obsessive crush is indeed destructive.  I mean that both figuratively and literally!