British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited the White House recently, and he and President Obama exchanged gifts.  Obama gave Brown a collection of 25 DVDs (list of titles after the jump), but the big story was that the British press is all bitter and pissed about it.

“In return for a pen holder carved from the timbers of the sister ship of the one the White House desk is made from and a first edition of a seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, the Daily Mail is appalled that “Barack Obama, the leader of the world’s richest country” gave Brown a box set of 25 DVDs selected by the American Film Institute. These, it says, include Raging Bull, Casablanca, Psycho and The Graduate. It is, the Mail says, “a gift about as exciting as a pair of socks”. ” [Guardian]

Wow, a pen holder… thanks.  That’s, uh, I mean, normally I have so much trouble with the pen, you know, just laying the f-ck down on my desk all horizontal like, but this should, uh, really nip that problem in the bud.  And as for that seven-volume biography… that’s, uh, awesome.  I mean, I read a four-volume biography last year, but after only 2000 pages… I feel like there’s so much more to know.

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^{“Four score and seven weeks after we shot the pool scene in Van Wilder, my agent said to me…”}

Yesterday marked the beginning of a whole new era.  It was truly a great day for horrible metaphors and inexplicable appearances. What the hell is Kumar doing at the inauguration?  Are we really that stupid that we need actors to show up to political events so that Tobey Maguire can clarify that he’s not actually the real hero?  I will say this though, after every pause in Obama’s speech I half expected him to say, “Today… is our Independence Day.”

Another thing that would’ve improved the ceremony?  Replace the poet lady with Michael Madsen.

[via BWE]

A 3-D ad for Monsters vs. Aliens (latest trailer here) will air during the Super Bowl February 1st and again later in the month during a special 3-D broadcast of Chuck. In other news, recording commercials and Chuck is a great way to confuse the f-ck out of your Tivo.

The glasses [which you'll need to fully experience the commercial, of course], which use the new Intel InTru 3D [the newfangled type of 3-D] and ColorCode 3-D, will be distributed free at Pepsi/ SoBe Life Water displays at 28,000 locations including grocery, drug and electronics stores and big-box retailers [like your mom].

It seems like Pepsi completely fell off the pop culture map for a while there, but now they’re back with a new logo, which just so happens to look a lot like the Barack Obama logo.  Check out our new flavor, Yes We Cran! A little game I like to play is to go to restaurants that only serve Pepsi and order a Diet Coke, and then when they say “Is Diet Pepsi okay?” I just shriek at the top of my lungs and sprint out the door.

[Source]

If you missed South Park last night, go home and DVR that shit right now.  What, you’re telling me your stupid job can’t wait?  What’s that, you lost your job and can’t afford DVR?  Whatever, Professor Poopypants, this attitude of yours is bringing everyone down.

Anyway, they somehow used the election to do a send up of the Ocean’s Eleven movies, and one of the most impressive things was that they used material from the election night speeches.  Granted, we’ve known Obama was probably going to win for a while now, but they included stuff like Obama taking a puppy to the White House that wasn’t in the news until a day and a half ago.  They probably did the animation with the candidates’ lips moving a while ago, and then all they had to do was change the voice overs last night, but… Okay so maybe it wasn’t that crazy, but whatever, science, you’re not gonna ruin this for me again.  Feel how soft this puppy’s fur is! It’s a miracle!

UPDATE: You can watch the whole episode online now.
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I was too busy running through the streets of Harlem yelling “Kill whitey!” last night to see this myself, but apparently there were some eerie movie-related coincidences in both candidates’ choice of theme music last night.

Consider: McCain left the Arizona stage to part of Hans Zimmer’s score from “Crimson Tide.” (This part, actually.) The 1995 Tony Scott film focused on a career Navy man (Gene Hackman), labeled a maverick by some, who is stripped of his authority and ultimately beaten by a young black guy, somewhat new to the scene (Denzell Washington).

Then there was Obama, who left the stage to the strings of Trevor Rabin’s score from “Remember the Titans.” The 2000 Disney/Bruckheimer joint followed an African-American coach who brought together whites and blacks to win a championship.

This is obviously more than coincidence, but is this genuinely telling? Someone chose these songs on purpose. [MTV]

I can’t answer that question.  But if I’d been a campaign strategist, Denzell would’ve played Obama in all the commercials, with Morgan Freeman delivering inner monologue voice overs a lá The Wonder Years.

Also, and this is neither here nor there, but Robby the Republican Anteater is so upset he needs a hug (thanks to Brendan for that).  Alternately, he could be Italian Anteater.  “Ey, I’m fackin’ walkin’ heah!”