Here’s a propaganda-ish video showing the training to Kim Jong-Il’s corps of bodyguards. Hard to tell if they can fight, but they sure are good at having stuff smashed on them. As for my favorite, it’s a toss up between the guy who hucks a shovel at another guy’s bare chest from two feet away like a spear or the breaking cinder blocks against guys’ foreheads with a sledge hammer. [via CagePotato]

MORNING LINKS
Listen to this week’s Frotcast! We interview a guy who’s been to prison! It’s good! ! |Frotcast|

Holy crap, this made me laugh a whole lot. |gif via gifs from movies|

The 10 Funniest TV Episodes of 2011 |Warming Glow|

American Psycho Updated for 2011 |Film Drunk|

No, Robin Is Not In The Dark Knight Rises, But Here’s A Better Easter Egg |Gamma Squad|

Awesome Tumblr Alert: Kim Jong-Il Dropping The Bass |UPROXX|

MMA Video Tribute: The 25 Most Brutal Finishes of 2011. |CagePotato|

Common Confirms Drake Diss, Pusha T Adds Fuel To The Fire |Smoking Section|

The Best Fails Of 2011 |Buzzfeed|

15 of the greatest gifts in the history of presents. |MentalFloss|

Lindsay Lohan trying to look like she’s reading a script is sad. MAKE HER DO PORN! This is getting ridiculous. |TheSuperficial|

New party game: Passive aggressive movie title. |Videogum|

Random people vs. an icy staircase. I love this. |GorillaMask|

Trailer for HBO’s “Game Change.” |TheDailyWhat|

Where are they now? Christmas Story edition. |ScreenJunkies|

The craziest kung fu silliness you’ll see today. |HolyTaco|

How To Catch A White Person |NextRound|

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It’s been a dangerous year for stunt people.  Transformers 3 left an extra with permanent brain damage and sent a policeman to the hospital in two separate accidents.  And that’s to say nothing of the ongoing carnival of pain that is the Spider-Man Musical.  Now the curse has struck the set of The Hangover 2 in Thailand, leaving a stunt man in a medically-induced coma, and not the fun kind.

Australian stuntman Scott McLean is recovering in a Thai hospital after an accident on the set of “The Hangover Part II” left him in an induced coma.

Warner Bros. confirmed the tragic incident in a statement on Monday. “There was an accident involving a truck and a car on the second unit set of “The Hangover Part II” near Bangkok, Thailand.  The truck and car were both driven by stunt drivers. We are awaiting further details concerning his condition.”

The carefully planned and choreographed stunt went awry after an oncoming car skidded into a truck. Weather was believed to have played a factor in the accident, as recent rainfall left the roads slick.

Doctors decided to put McLean into a coma-like state after surgery in order to help him recover quicker from the serious injuries he sustained, although McLean is apparently aware that his friends and family are at his bedside, so his prognosis is positive. [TheWrap]

Jesus, you see how dangerous this stuff is?  That’s the main reason I never became a handsome, Australian stunt man.  Well, one of the top three reasons at least.

Meet Damien Walters.  He’s a Hollywood stuntman, and you can see his impressive showreel after the jump.  Most recently, he did the stunts for the upcoming Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn‘s supposedly hyper-violent comic-book adaptation starring Nic Cage and McLovin.  In the video, Walters pulls off some moves that you would only think possible if you lived in The Matrix. One of the more impressive of which is taking his shirt off while backflipping, then removing his pants during a twisting double backflip.  But then he goes and ruins it by flexing for the camera.  Hey, buddy, I work in my underwear too; you don’t see me showing off my six-pack abs.  …Okay, bad example.
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A stuntman died on the set of John Woo’s new movie Red Cliff in Beijing.  Surprisingly, the cause had nothing to do with white doves or people shooting two pistols at once.

"The fire broke out early Monday morning when the crew were shooting a scene in which a small, smoking boat crashed with a large ancient war vessel," Xinhua news agency said.
At the point of collision, at which machines let out smoke, an unchoreographed flame jumped 30 meters (yards) into the air, the Beijing News said, citing crew at the northern Beijing location.

Good job, Reuters.  Glad you felt the need to explain to us what a meter is, and to tell us it’s the same as a yard – close enough, I guess.

The film, adapted from China’s classic novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," is set in 208 AD in the dying days of the Han dynasty, culminating in the battle of Red Cliff in which 2,000 ships were burnt. [Reuters]

The good news is that because it happened in China, there’s a lot less paperwork involved.  No lawyers, no insurance companies, no OSHA.  In China you tell a government official, "Hey, uh, so… Somebody died on the set."  And they just shrug and go, "Bumma, man.  Suck fo dat guy."