AFFotD’s When Vigilantism Goes Awesome Part 2

“This is like, the plot of that movie ‘Kick-Ass’ right?”

~You, the Reader


As stated previously, vigilantism is a ethically “ambiguous” and “can cause more harm than more good” and “blah blah bring me pictures of Peter Parker” we get it.  We don’t want to quibble in semantics.  That’s for the next fun fact regarding American vigilantism when someone was legit straight up murdered.  But forget about that heavy shit, today, we’re going to continue AFFotD’s When Vigilantism Goes Awesome with…

Superheroes?  More like Super…uh…That-sounds-fuckingAwesome…oes.

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AFFotD’s When Vigilantism Goes Awesome Part 1

“Well, no that’s the BAD kind of vigilante justice.  This is the GOOD kind of vigilante justice…”

~AFFotD’s PR director in response to comments today’s fun fact will receive

Okay, so we at AFFotD are obligated to say that this article, which we will tell you right off the bat is about great moments in American vigilantism history, is in no way an endorsement of vigilantism, and that laws and regulations are in place for a reason, and it is a slippery slope when you go outside the law to enact vengeance.  We do not condone acts of vigilantism, and point out that the consequences are real, and many people have suffered unduly because of misguided vigilante zeal that we feel is irresponsible, and ultimately damaging to a society of law and order.

Wink.

This is what irresponsibility looks like.  You wouldn’t want to look that cool, right?

Justice is an imperfect monster in society.  Humanity has flaws, and those flaws sometimes lead to punishment being wrongfully meted out.  And yes, there have been instances of Leo Frank sized injustices at the hands of a vigilante public, but a fair amount of death row inmates have been equally guilty and equally punished by the justice system.  So we’re not here to quibble in the nuances and ethical complexities of vigilante justice.  We’re just here to tell you about times when it gets fucking awesome.

Ha Haaaa!

Here is part one of AFFotD’s When Vigilantism Goes Awesome.

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Are You American Quiz Part 3: Foreign Correspondant Edition

“Even when you start accepting Canadians, you won’t let ME in?”

~Joshua “Hey, remember Dawson’s Creek, eh?” Jackson

 

As we’ve seen previously, we at the AFFotD offices have a series of checks and tests to ensure that those working for us are properly American.  And when our first American test was unable to detect the distinctive traces of maple syrup in Seth Rogan’s Canadian blood, we had to make an secondary “Are You American” quiz to root out the pretenders and, well, Canucks.  And the combination of the two tests worked extremely well, as we were able to spot and turn away Hayden “Well, he was Darth Vader, but he also was the shitty one” Christensen, Ryan Gosling, and Ryan “We get him confused with Ryan Gosling more often than we’d like to admit” Reynolds.  But then, we received a phone call that completely changed the hiring policies of the America Fun Fact of the Day in ways that still has the offices deeply divided.

Jason “Made sweet, grunty, outdoor love to Amy Smart in Crank” Statham called and asked if he could be an AFFotD foreign correspondent.  We’re pretty sure that concept is an oxymoron, but then again we don’t know what oxymoron means (…someone too dumb to breath?), but it did lead to a series of lengthy meetings.  And by meetings, we mean a 48 hour booze party.  When we woke up, we had a series of voice mails from Angelina Jolie asking for us to stop calling or she’d file a restraining order, and Statham was in our offices to thank us for accepting his application.  We don’t remember calling him, but apparently we did.  An excerpt of the voice mail message he played for us is listed below.

“Heyyyyyy Transporter 2 guy!  Hey, it’s the America Fun Fact…urp… of the Day offices here.  Tittays!  Wooo!  Hahaha, dude dude stop it, I’m calling the bald dude from those Guy Ritchie movies.  Hey, shhhhhh guys, I’m on the PHONE here, Christ.  So, listen, like, you’re not American but you do kick ass, like, you know, Americans do, it’s how we doooooooooo.  So you can’t be on the staff man, but you can be like, our British dude.  Like, the resident British dude, or yeah, what you said, the four lane Coors despondent.  Yeah.  Yeah… I’m gonna, just, like, rest my eyes for a bit…”

Forty minutes of silence followed, but the evidence was clear.  We had hired a foreign correspondent doohickey.  And really, if anyone could have swayed us, it would have been Statham.  We added Hugh Laurie to that category shortly thereafter because, dudes, Dr. House, seriously.

But in order to add the appropriate foreign correspondents, and make sure that, despite their “born in another damn country” handicaps, they still have enough American traits to at least keep us informed of the latest crazes in Deer Kickboxing, we needed to create a new, separate test.  One that could determine the Americanness of an individual who was not technically American.  It hurt our brains to think about it, but that might just be the hangover.

And here is the fruit of our labors, the “Are You American Enough To Be Called An Honorary American” Quiz.  You can keep score at home.  A– is worth 0 points, B- is worth 1 point, C- is worth 4 points, and D- is worth 5.  Here we go again.

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America Fun Fact of the Day 5/8- May 8th in American History

“Uhhhhhhhhhh?”

~Johnny Roosevelt, After Being Poked By a Stick

Cinco de Mayo was pretty rough on the higher ups here at the America Fun Fact of the Day offices.  We’re not here to name names, but certain descendants of certain badass presidents tried to see if they could chug an entire bottle of Tequila.  It didn’t work out too well.

Here’s the thing about Tequila- unlike Whiskey, which is a cultivated art form in America, Tequila is a foreign liquor that invades American livers like, uh…some sort of liver termites?  That’s gross.  Like we said, Tequila does weird things to American minds.

We woke up and this was our damn screensaver

Anyway, when we’re not mentally able to give you an informative fact, we always have one Sunday tradition to fall back on…no, not church.  It’s…

The American Events on the American Day of May 8th

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America Fun Fact of the Day 5/7- AFFotD’s Saturday Image of the Week

“Haaaa what?”

~Everyone

There’s an old saying, “He who sees what it would look like if Abraham Lincoln like, rode on the back of a bear while he had like, laser eyes?  Like, that’d be awesome.”

Holy sweet American Jesus…that’s glorious.  Have a good weekend, everyone.

IPAs Are More American Than You Would Think

Today, the hoppiest examples of this style are made by the new generation of American brewers.”

~Michael Jackson (No, the other one)


Not everything that is American was created in America.  Beer Pong, for example, has previously established Sumerian roots.  Whiskey might have originated somewhere else, we guess, we wouldn’t want to sully Whiskey’s name by verifying that statement.  Punches to the back of the head have been around since the beginning of time, but that doesn’t diminish how American it is to punch someone in the back of the head.

We mention this because we feel obligated to inform you that the American item we are going to discuss today doesn’t even have America in its name.  It has a different country.  But, all that doesn’t matter for shit, because it’s beer, so suck it up, gulp it down, and appreciate the American drunk you will feel when you drink…

India Pale Ales.

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The Art of the Man Hug

“Dude?”

~Dude

Every great nation, and every historical era, has bred specific social groups that follow seemingly arbitrary social guidelines.  Frontiersmen in the Wild West (or Jim fucking Bowie or Andrew “Straight-Up-Killer” Jackson) followed an elaborate series of rules and regulations for duels.  British dandies were supposed to look like girls or something.  Hippies chose to look and smell disgusting at all times.  No, seriously.  They can never be clean.

GOD that decade was a mess.

As America surges ever deeper into the 21st century, various socially prevalent groups have taken their niche positions in American culture, but one trait is shared by the males of every one of these groups.  That would be the ability, and willingness, to perform the Man Hug.

The man hug is for men what naked pillow fighting is for women- namely, an important affirmation of one’s gender that should be done far more frequently and in the most public places possibly.  But it is more than just a greeting or a vehicle for the term “No homo” to gain notoriety.  No, it exists as a manly and American greeting for 50% of our nation’s population, since apparently people get uncomfortable when you slap their ass.  Yeah, we’re looking at you, Frank, you know you liked it.

The Man Hug is so important to America that there’s even a how-to video for it on the internet.  That places “Man Hugs” on a level of importance in American society between knowing how to tie your own tie, and knowing how to start a grill.

So we feel it is our duty, as Americans, to teach the male readers out there how to properly perform a Man Hug.  Some of you know how to do it naturally, some of you struggle with the concept.

The Man Hug hugs manages to be more personal than the too-formal handshake without the potential awkwardness of the too-much-of-a-chance-that-the-…you-know…-penises-might-touch regular hug.  According to Wikipedia, “The origin of this hug is not clear” which is clearly bullshit.

The Man Hug, or as it is more hilariously know, the Bro-Grab, Homie Hug, or Shug, was discovered in the early 1980’s when deodorant technology had yet to catch up with cocaine use.  The result was a lot of very sweaty, very friendly men who were wearing oddly expensive polyester blazers, which were often ruined for the evening by one poorly chosen hug.  Enter, the Man Hug, which minimized contact while allowing you to establish yourself as a close friend or confidant.

The Man Hug is easy to perform, and almost never results in the two dudes kissing.  All you have to do is follow these easy steps.

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Point/Counterpoint: Are Flavored Vodkas American?

“It’s delicious!  *slap*  It’s disgusting!  *slap*  IT’S DELICIOUS AND DISGUSTING *sobs*”

~Faye Dunaway

The Americanness of most items is usually pretty straightforward and easy to discern.  Shotguns?  American.  Environmentalists?  Not American.  Hot Dogs?  American.  Tofu?  What the fuck do you think you’re even doing here?  Really, when it comes to American qualities, the AFFotD staff usually can agree on what works, and what doesn’t.

“We will run you the hell out of this town, you hear?”

This isn’t always the case, however.  Every so often, a topic will come up that will lead to intense debate among our staffers.  Is the proper term “pop” or “soda”?  What is the better movie series, Die Hard or Rocky?  How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?  All of these have been subject to virulent debate in the AFFotD offices.

We mention this because we ran across this article which described the creation of a brand of vodka that is flavored like cupcakes.  With that, two camps in the offices rapidly formed, one group who felt, “Holy shit that’s the best thing we’ve ever heard,” and another who believed, “You don’t fuck with liquor by adding weird flavors to it.  You just don’t.”

That is why we at AFFotD are pleased to bring you the first ever AFFotD American Point-Counterpoint, so each side can make an argument about the benefits, or evils, of flavored spirits.  We won’t name a winner, that’s for you, the reader, to decide.

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Osama Bin Laden Is Dead

“Wow…we kinda called it we guess?”

~Trey Parker and Matt Stone


The past 24 hours have been a whirlwind of news, commentary, and discussion regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden.  After nearly ten years of being the most wanted man on the planet, Osama was tried for charges of being Osama Bin Laden, where he was found guilty.  It was a pretty short trial.  No doubt, literally dozens of Americans turned to AFFotD yesterday expecting a hard hitting take on the death of the world’s largest Dickweed.  Instead, you were treated to a discussion of Andrew Johnson being sworn in as Vice-President while stinking drunk.

“That’s all well and good,” you all thought.  “But dammit, where is my Osama Bin Laden coverage!?”  Well, we can understand your confusion, but we figured it was best to wait a day before doing a fun fact on the death of a man who is such an asshole that proctologists use a scale model of his face to learn how to check for Hernias.  So, we chose to wait a day, spending our time reflecting on the moral ambiguity of celebrating the death of an individual doing a lot of celebration drinking.

As such a huge event in American history, it’s a lot to take in.

Our sentiment exactly, Mr. Hester. 

But now, we are here to fight through the hangover, and give you all a thorough, in depth discussion of this momentous occasion, as we present…

AFFotD’s Look into the Death of Osama Bin Laden

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