Super Mario is a Buddhist (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; GodSlayerNES; Dr. Jane McGonigal (BuddhistGeeks.com); Dan Milano (ABC)

A short film about two Buddhist moments in Mario and Zelda for the NES.

  

Super Mario is a Buddhist

Dr. McGonigal and Mario, 1st BG Conference

(WQ) Prof. Jane McGonigal, Ph.D., is a game designer at Stanford Univ. who wants to change the world through gaming. She delivered a riveting presentation with her twin sister, also a Stanford professor (different hairdo), at the first Buddhist Geeks Conference in 2011 at the Univ. of the West. She detailed the benefits of multiple-player games where people are going into the world and using gamer virtues for real-life good. From better community organizing, to solutions for regional famines, to possible treatments for cancer, McGonigal and her gamers are changing the world one epic win at a time.

• VIDEO: Who is Mario? (Trivia by WatchMojo)
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New Super Mario Bros. U features five players

Dan Milano  (ABC News, Nov. 25, 2012)

Mario in high definition. That sounds like something Nintendo fans should be scrambling over each other to get their hands on. The issue is, with the release of "New Super Mario Bros. U" for the Wii U, this visual update is six years too late. Xbox and Playstation games have been wowing us visually for that time and in 2012, the "HD" angle is pretty, but old hat. So what else is new?

  

Tanooki suit folklore (nintendolife)

Well, for one, Mario is flung southwest from Princess Peach's castle at the start of the game, technically landing him in a new area of the Mushroom Kingdom. There are a handful of new baddies mixed with classic foes, with a new power-up or two to compliment the always-flawless level design. The stages are presented with an over-arching map that you can zoom in and out of, very much akin to the world map in "Super Mario World."
 
While there are some new elements at play, most of it equates to the same old platformer as far as gameplay is concerned. Some levels are indistinguishable from zones in previous "New Super Mario Bros." titles.

 

The Wii U's big new thing is the touch-screen GamePad controller, which is used most creatively in this game's co-op mode. Up to five players can... More

• Wii U Game Review: "Nintendo Land"
• Nintendo's Era of Censorship 
• Games Radar: New Mario
• SOURCES: FilibusterCartoons.com; Ksitigarbha; Swastika as Buddhist symbol; Shigeru Miyamoto; North American video game crash of 1983; Tanuki; Best-selling franchises

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JOKES: Buddhists are funny! (video)

LA Buddhists Seth Auberon, Jordan Kramer, Frank Miles, Wisdom Quarterly (edited by Seven); Scandinavian Lutherans Garrison Keillor and Friends; Italian lapsed-Catholics Eddie Pepitone, Jimmy Dore; east/west coast atheists Sarah Silverman and David Feldma...

The Buddha Gautama's always smiling, just as the next Buddha Maitreya will be (Malovika)

Monk Budai (Hotei) aka "Happy Buddha"

We don't know for certain if Buddhists are the funniest, but Wisdom Quarterly aims to make it so. It's tough keeping up with the atheists and agnostics of all ethnicities and religious persuasions, who seem to make the best comedians. Here are some gags to give your friends the giggles.

1. Knock, knock.

Who's there?

A not a...

Anatta who?

*Crickets chirping*

 

2. This is not a pot belly; it's a fuel tank for a sex machine.

AUDIO: "Groundhog Dayne"

Tig has c*nc*r; go ahead, laugh (NewYorkTimes)

(ThisAmericanLife.org) Famous people are supposed to be somewhere else, invisible to us. Comedienne Tig Notaro tells a story about repeatedly running into Taylor Dayne, who was a pop star in the late 80s and early 90s. Tig hosts the podcast Professor Blastoff and has a comedy album called Good One. (16 mins.)

3. The last thing, the last thing I want to do is hurt you. It's on the list, but it's the last thing.

Whoop-whoop, let's hear it for me, MB in DC!

4. When Mitt Romney went up to concede the election to Barry Obama, Anne Romney got on stage with him. Then when Mitt finally conceded, Anne breathed a sigh of relief. She really wasn't looking forward to moving into a smaller house.

5. "VOTE! It's your right! (Offer not available in all states)."

6. Knock knock.

Who's there?

Lilac.

Lilac who?

Lie like a politician and see how far you get.

"Ellen" talks to Suri's mom Katie (Anne Hathaway) on SNL (and says hi to Nicki Minaj tots)
   

7. Did you hear about the Buddhist coroner who got fired? He was great at his job. They just couldn't get him to stop writing "Birth" as the cause of death for every single one of his cases.      
   

Our nerd friends are geniuses

8. The Dalai Lama went into a pizza parlour and said, uh, something-something. "Make me one with everything"? No, no, he walked up to a hotdog stand barefoot in New York and got overcharged. He's always walking and always barefoot. He asked, "Where's my change?!" Then the vendor said something funny, but what was it? Something like, "Change comes from within"? No, no, he was barefoot, reeking from all the garlic on his pizza. He cried out in pain on account of a toothache from all the junk food. So the vendor directed him to the nearest dentist. The dentist saw that a tooth had to be pulled and asked His Holiness if he wanted some Novocaine, while offering him a breath-freshening mint. The old lama, as weak as he was, said "no," explaining that he would "transcend dental medication." And that's why he's known throughout the world as the "super-calloused fragile mystic exhibiting halitosis."

 

"Life in Hell" creator Matt Groening

9. An American tourist walks into a creepy old clock shop in Germany. The repairman barks: So? Vut seems to vee zee problem!? It's this antique grandfather clock I just bought, the tourist explains; it doesn't go "tick-tock, tick-tock." It just goes "tick, tick, tick..." Mmm-Hmm! relishes the repairman. I sink vee can fix zis. Let mee jusst look inside. Ve haf vays of making you tock. 9. They found a big hole in the wall around the nudist camp. The police are looking into it.

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• Meat-eating sponge discovered under sea 
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10. How do you find a vegan at a party? Don't worry, she'll find you.
  

The human Barbie doll (buzzfeed)

11. A ventriloquist was bombing on stage and desperately wondering what he could do to turn his act around. He suddenly remembered that when he was a stand-up, he could always get laughs telling Dumb Blond jokes. He started in on some standards, and before long he had the crowd roaring with laughter. Just as soon as he did, an angry blond in the back stood up and began to excoriate him: "Do you have any idea what it's like trying to live in this society with people like you perpetuating those kinds of stereotypes? The anguish I feel every time I apply for a job and they see that I'm blond and prejudge me..." The ventriloquist was dumbfounded, his jaw dropped, he turned beet red, as he struggled to apologize and explain. "Shut up!" the woman hurled. "I'm not talking to you! I'm talking to the little guy sitting on your lap."

12. A rich man married a young blond. "How are you ever going to keep her around?" his rich friends lamented. I'm not worried, he explained. I've got a circular driveway.   
  

Marilyn Monroe photos fetch $750,000

 

(eddiepepitone.com)

13. A fundamentalist Christian preacher and a Catholic priest sat next to each other on a plane. When the flight attendant asked what they'd like to drink, the priest asked for a glass of wine. The preacher asked for water mentioning that true Christians avoid alcohol. The priest argued, "But Jesus drank wine" [lightly fermented Nazarene fruit juice in place of water]. The fundamentalist shot back, "I know, and I would have thought a lot more of him if he hadn't."

14. The blond scientists unveiled their plan to get a rocket to the moon. The crowd roared with laughter. The moderator asked about what he saw as an obvious problem: How do you intend to avoid being burned up? "Oh, that won't be a problem," one of the blond scientists explained. "We plan to go at night." End of Part 1 in three-part Wisdom Quarterly series
     

WARNING: Rated R. Sarah Silverman has a plan to feed the world.

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• VIDEO: Cockatoo found making and using tools 
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• Drunk man arrested for "statutory" rape
• Consumer Reports tests and rates AA batteries
• FREEBIES (designyoutrust.com) 

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"The Bitter Buddha" (comedy)

Wisdom Quarterly, Eddie Pepitone (The Bitter Buddha) via David Feldman (PLAY SHOW)

Fat happy Budai (speakinggod)

"The Bitter Buddha" is coming to theaters and on-demand in late 2012. Screenings and news can be found at TheBitterBuddha (Facebook) and TheBitterBuddha.com. This documentary is an unfiltered look at Eddie Pepitone, a real "comic's comic." His life is on full display in this comedic portrait of creativity, enlightenment, and rage. 

  

A film by Steven Feinartz. Animated segment: audio courtesy of WTF with the Marc Maron podcast. Original animation by Allen Mezquida.
 
"The Bitter Buddha" takes an unconventional journey through the life of one of America's most original comedic voices.

 

"Want to feel like you've discovered something new? That you're watching a comedian poised to hit critical mass? This is your movie."

- The Chicago Tribune

 

Featuring comedians: Eddie Pepitone, Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, Paul Provenza, Sean Conroy, Dana Gould, Todd Barry, Todd Glass, Andy Kindler, BJ Novak, James Adomian, Paul Gilmartin, Paul F. Tompkins, Andy Daly, Jen Kirkman, Jim Earl, Leo Allen, Matt Oswalt, Paul F. Tompkins, Rob Huebel, Scott Aukerman, Todd Barry, and more.

  

LISTEN Fridays or archived for 90 days at KPFK.org

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Who needs a computer anyway?

DesignYouTrust.com; Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly

The actual reason Apple got famous was that long ago it hired cartoonist Matt Groening (Life in Hell, The Simpsons, Futurama) to convince us that we all need a personal computer. It didn't really sell until they miniaturized it down to the size of a sleek iPhone: LOOK INSIDE.

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Comics make everything better (cartoon)

Cartoonist David Horsey (latimes.com) and others; P.B. Law (buddhisthumor.org)

(Thetandd.com) With the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, inside a packed movie theater showing “The Dark Knight Rises,” questions are being raised as to whether there is any connection between the killings and the movie’s plot and the character of Batman -- in which a masked villain leads a murderous crew into a packed football stadium and wages an attack involving guns and explosives. More
   

Animation: Buddhist/Christian conversation

There are many types of Buddhists and there are many types of Christians. This is only a conversation between two individuals. (It's comedic).

  

What Makes You Not a Buddhist?

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

"Some people think that stringent rules and virtuous deeds are the essence of Buddhism, but these are only a small component of Buddha's skillful and abundant methods. He knew that not everyone is able to understand ultimate truths right from the start. It is difficult for many of us to process concepts such as 'hell is merely the perception of your own aggression,' let alone the concept of emptiness. Buddha doesn't want Jack to be caught in a personal 'hell,' but he can't tell Jack to work with his perceptions and aggression either because Jack is an idiot. So for Jack's sake, Buddha teaches that there is an external hell and that in order to avoid going there and being boiled in molten iron, Jack must stop entertaining his non-virtuous, negative actions and emotions. Such teachings pervade the Buddhist milieu; very often we see hell realms painted on the walls of Buddhist temples, complete with burning bodies and terrifying gorges of frigid water. These images can be taken literally or figuratively, depending on the capacity of the student. Those with superior faculties know that the source of everyday hell, our suffering, stems from our own perceptions. They know that there is no judgment day and there is no judge. Buddha's final aim is to make Jack understand, like these superior students, that there is no hell realm apart from his own aggression and ignorance. By temporarily minimizing his negative actions, Jack is diverted from becoming more entangled with his perceptions, misgivings, and paranoia." More

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