I so wish these gay style skateboard toys were real. I’m gay for them. I first watched this video with the sound almost all the way off, cause Mrs Kilwag didn’t want it competing with the Vampire Diaries. I was viewing under the assumption that it was real, but then the drag queen mom made me suspect. With the sound on, it’s more than apparent that it’s a gag, and part of an upcoming Australian TV series (to be aired in the UK and US as well) called Angry Boys. It’s pretty damned funny, but I do have to point out that even if it was real, Tim wouldn’t have been the first openly gay sponsored skater. IMDB sasy this is supposed to air some time in 2011. Catch the gay skateboarding specific part of the trailer and a longer one after the jump. Remember you saw it first at Merde. – Thanks to Sandwich Cookie for the tip.

Spike TV airs a show called 1000 Ways to Die. Episode #309 aired on December 10th, 2010. It features a supposed former pro skateboarder who met his death when he wiped out and landed face first in wet cement, passed out and suffocated. These deaths are supposed to based on real occurrences, with the names changed to protect the identity of the deceased. I don’t recall hearing anything about a skater dying this way, despite the fact that they Brought in Kristian Svitak as an expert witness. Listen closely, because he never cops to actually knowing the guy in question. My guess is somebody suffocated in concrete but they dramatized it as a skateboarding accident with a tragic figure to make it more interesting. You can watch it on Spike, but that’s an exercise in annoyance due to the fact that you have to watch the commercials (I’m not opposed to that, actually, they got make money) but the episodes aren’t indexed very well, so you end up watching more commercials than necessary. Fortunately, a good samaritan posted a slightly less annoying version. For some reason this video is flipped horizontally. I don’t know, maybe that helps trip up the…

I’ve only seen one episode of American Pickers, a show where two guys travel around trying to score junk they think is worth some money. I wasn’t too sure they knew what they were talking about, and this clip doesn’t help out. These are hot right now. This stuff is so collectable… …This was an expensive board back then. This board was probably 75 bucks.” Ha! Less than $50, and is that a re-issued Grabke? If so, it probably costs… $75. They shoulda hired Neil for that one. – Thanks to Boy Ipoh for the tip.

Adventure Time may be the best animated show on television, although It’s tough to top the Venture Brothers. I’m still waiting for skateboarding to show up in the Venture Brothers, somehow I thought it happen there first, maybe Dean trying to impress Triana Orpheus, or Dr Venture getting hassled by teenagers on the street… Meanwhile, Adventure Time snuck in some skateboarding. The kingdom of Ooo may be magical, but it’s not a free or all. It’s fairly flushed out, there is some crossover with the real universes, but then again Finn is the only human alive, and skateboarding has always been the domain of homo sapiens. I want to see skateboarding in my favorite shows (is that wrong?) but I don’t want it to be awkward. What the math indeed. Spoiler alert, don’t watch this clip if you haven’t seen the Mystery Train episode because it will give away the ending.

Skull Skates founder PD appeared on a Vancouver-based TV show called Urban Rush. He had a ton of product and a couple dark silent types from Barrier Kult. I was hoping for more interaction with the Barrier Kult guys, they look so sinister standing on that set, like it’s a hostage situation. A large segment of the skateboarding population knows about Barrier Kult, but I’m sure their presence was shocking and a little disconcerting to the general viewing public, especially in the current political climate. It looks like a hostage situation. – Thanks to Prickly Pete for the tip.

I was not a fan of Phineas and Ferb when I first saw it. I think it was the animation style and color pallet made it seem kind of cheap. My kids are into it though, and like any lazy American good parent I watch a lot of TV monitor what my children watch to make sure it’s appropriate. I’ve since grown to appreciate it. Phineas and Ferb have a spin off now called Phineas and Ferb: Take Two. It’s essentially the same premise as Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a virtual set and hosts with real guests. Space Ghost Coast to Coast is one of the most brilliant shows ever put on late night TV, so Phineas and Ferb has a tough act to follow. I’ve only seen the one episode, and it falls flat. Part of what made SGC2C work was the general weirdness of the situation. Some of the guests didn’t quite know what was going on, and the writers occasionally deliberately created a semi hostile atmosphere. At it’s best, Space Ghost Coast to Coast was a bizarre masterpiece of postmodern awkwardness. Then again, Phineas and Ferb is aimed at a grade school audience, so maybe I…

CNN has a follow up on the recent skateboard emissary mission to Cuba. You might recall we posted about a Christmas day session that was also a drop off for new and used equipment to be brought to Cuba. So how did it go? Check out the story and video on CNN.

Here’s a beautiful turd of a skateboard that Valterra put out in 1987. It’s an Alf board, and it’s kick ass. Alf is in full Hawaiian shorts and neon Ray Bans mode. This model was auctioned on eBay a while ago, I don’t know what it went for but I remember being tempted. Another craptacular thing about this board is the fact that the graphics are on top and the bottom is completely bare. This one has GT wheels on it, which is really confusing to men because I thought GT was a 70’s era brand, so these wheels should have loose bearings. I suppose it’s possible someone could have put old wheels on a new board if the axle size didn’t change. Can you believe ALF was actually still on the air in 1990? I wonder why Valterra never put out a Back to the Future deck. – Thanks to Buck C for the tip.

This insipid marketing manufactured cartoon and toy line was created by the American Greeting company in 1983. According to Wikipedia, the cartoon’s creators were trying to appease television watchdog agencies crusade against cartoon violence by attempting to “reinforce the importance of group harmony over individualism.” The end result is, well.. as with any compromise of this nature, mediocrity at it’s finest.

I’ve been formulating my own skateboarding parody of this show for a year or two now. It will be called “Ho Daddy-Yo!” Yo Gabba Gabba has quite a bunch of skateboarding on it, usually in the form of some of the short intermission animations, but it also appears in the beginning of the “Cool Tricks” segment. In fact, I believe Ray Barbee makes an appearance on “Cool Tricks.” This segment is a couple years old too. So old that they got around to posting it on the Yo Gabba Gabba Youtube channel before I got around to posting it. For some reason they made this part of the Dancey Dance segment. Dancey Dance usually features someone at usually at least marginally famous leading the gang in a dance. Tony Hawk can’t dancey dance. – Thanks to Michel Skart Poulin for the reminder.