But they seem pretty clever. I’ve never seen the show America’s Got Talent or even the UK version that I have to assume exists and the original idea was licensed form was licensed from. That’s OK, one good “homage” deserves another. From this clip, it’s apparent that a group of frat boys got together to make their own version of BMG, and it looks surprisingly good.These frat guys are called Defying Gravity. They’re ex-frat guys actually, I guess they dropped out of school to be on the show. I hope it works out for you guys, but you need a new name. I guess it’s at this point that I’m going to need to add some sort of “circus” category, seeing as how this isn’t the first time we’ve had skateboarding mentioned in conjunction with the circus. Defying Gravity takes on a bit of skateboarding in this segment that reminds me a little bit of some of those fingerboarding videos where they skate on turntables with fixed obstacles. – Thanks to Seth Levy for the tip.

Guess what? It’s Turf week on Skate and Annoy. All Turf, all the time. We have a campaign going to help save Surfin’ Turf/ The Turf skatepark here in Milwaukee, WI. We even went so far as to dig out one of the bowls last night and made it on the 10:00 news. Details about whats going on, a video of the news story, and most importantly what people can do to help save the park are all at beercity.com. More information and the video after the jump. UPDATE: It’s been filled in. I don’t know how this effects the big picture.

I’m pretty sure this is the same board from Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. It’s pretty tame video until you get to the end part where the guy jumps off and appears to get run over. I can’t believe they let that thing roll unchecked, and then didn’t follow through. There’s probably more footage elsewhere, looks like it’s on Woodward property. Check it out on MSNBC. – Thanks to Egbert and Kelly Hillyer for the tip.

The Gatorade Free Flow Tour hits the Department this Saturday July 10th. Get some before it shuts down. The Department, not the contest series. The Alliance of Action Sports puts on this tour and the Dew Tour. I saw some of the Dew Tour on TV the other day under the program name of “Action Sports.” More interesting is the fact that they aired a commercial for their online store. I don’t know if they are carrying their own inventory and doing their own fulfillment or… hold on. I just called the 800 number, and once I got past the corporate phone tree messages, the person that answered said they were from StandardBoardShop.com.

The secret word is “do.” Season 5, epsiode 9. I’ve owned this for 4 years and I finally got around to watching this episode. I’ve got my kids trained to tell me anytime there’s a skateboard on TV. “Daddy, Daddy! There’s a skateboard on TV!” Usually it’s a Sketchers commercial. There’s another episode in season one where Pee Wee briefly pulls out a plastic skateboard and says something like “Oh! A skateboard! Ha ha!” Of course my kids managed to crack that that DVD. This episode caught me by surprise. I saw Pee Wee back on David Letterman (?) a while back. I hear they are talking about making another movie. Pee Wee’s Playhouse was the shiznit.

Nissen is a girls clothing brand in Japan. This commercial is airing in Tokyo. That’s all I have to say on the subject, except thanks to Jeff Thompson for the tip.

Butch Patrick as Eddie Munster. Now I have to search out a DVD of the Munsters to look for a skateboarding episode. Sounds like a job for Scott Starr. Enlarge-o-rama.

I caught this in passing the other day. I thought it was going to be lame, but it was actually fairly decent. It’s about as good as something like this could be from an unconnected third party like Disney. It’s part of a series on kids and sports… I think. I’ve never seen any of the other ones.

How to Make it in America is an HBO series much like a grittier version of Entourage. Though no surprise as Mark Wahlberg is also an executive producer. The show is pretty decent. Two guys trying to “make it” in America. There is a an undercurrent of skateboarding in the series. Skaters are often seen as extras, including in the opening. The main characters have a room full of skateboard models for a local hero who has gone awol from public life. Right. There’s a lengthy video extra about skating in New York. Hey NYC readers, according to this month’s Thrasher, there are some billboards with skateboarding in town for an investment bank or something. I need a photo or two.

Yes, it’s Jim Henson day on Skate and Annoy. Here’s a bit from the first season of Fraggle Rock, something I have admittedly not seen more than a few seconds of before now. My wife says she loved that show as a kid, but I married her anyway… It’s from a 1983 episode called the Garden Plot. A Fraggle Rock regular known as Traveling Matt makes a visit Venice Beach and takes a spin on some sort of weird Powell knock off deck. Check out the Carrot Top lookalike. Thanks to Kevin for pointing the camera at the TV!