Fugdale’s Funhouse

Nutshell: For all those office workers who ever wanted to do “IT”, I dedicate this video to you.

Review: A hilarous and poignant video depicting a candid looks at office workers who have gone off the deep end largely due to nagging routines and outdated equipment. While the actions of the people in this video obviously come out of sheer frustration with their jobs, they represent what many many people in the world feel about the world we seem forced to live in. When you watch these angry, trapped people destroy their computers and attack other co-workers you want to cheer for them. Notice how the people around the office in the background usually react with shock, but then just return to what they were doing as if events like this were bound to happen and as if they must preserve their jobs at all costs. Too bad all the workers couldn’t be that frustrated all at the same time. There may be a revolt in corporate America.

As someone who is facing the prospect of returning to an office environment for work, I find this video a haunting warning. You see, I rarely feel like throwing my guitar across the room. Maybe I should consider a Bohemian lifestyle.

Nutshell: Send a holiday greeting to friends and family with you as the star.

Review: Office Max generally wouldn’t be the name you think of first for holiday humor, but they have developed a really neat holiday web application that allows you to upload up to 4 different face photos of yourself or others and create a little animated musical greeting with them. The greeting consists of 1-4 dancing elves and some lively music. If you upload photos with interesting facial expressions, the results are hilarious.

You can also use your cell phone and the instructions provided to record a holiday greeting which will play during the animation. Your voice will get transformed into a high pitched elf voice along with an animated moving mouth which will make your recall Saddam Hussein from South Park.

After you’ve scaled and edited your photos with the intuitive online tools and completed your animation, you can send it along to your friends and family. The one downside is the somewhat long load time, but it’s worth the wait. If you enjoy the concept, but not the holidays, you also have the option of creating a “Scrooge Yourself” animation.

Nutshell: Series of short flash interactive experiences

Review: This site is trippy. Currently there are 99 different short interactive flash animations. Most of them feature the same character doing various things. He pulls his face off in one, he plays piano in another. He visits his therapist, drives over flowers or grows facial hair. Exploring the nicely drawn snippets generates all sorts of non-sequeters, facial smirks and brain connections.

The site has a lot of bizarre humor and twisted fun. Nothing is too deep. Nothing you have to figure out. Just play around with it and use the site for inspiration. Seems like new animations are added regularly, but even if they aren’t, you have 99 to play with already.