"The Gunfighter" - One Very Meta Western

The Gunfighter is a fun, tongue in cheek and very meta short directed by Eli Kissack, exploring the concept of what would happen if a protagonist all of a sudden was able to hear his narrator. Especially for anyone who's played The Stanley Parable, the entire short film becomes a matter of protagonist choices becoming inevitably driven by this voice.

While it starts off like a relatively tame saloon showdown, the narrator chooses to hilariously turn this affair into a very awkward, personal airing of everyone's dirty laundry. Featuring the smoky vocals of Nick Offerman, who depending on your outlook is either a straight shooter or plain out villainous in his homewrecking intent.

"Phone Home" - An Awkward Interplanetary Exchange

The Brothers McLeod animated this silly little short about the first phone call from Mars by an astronaut called Jeff. To his chagrin though, his wife displays the type of enthusiasm typically reserved for occasions like watching paint dry, followed by a twist that could only be delivered with millions of miles of distance between two people. Enjoy the most dysfunctional display of interplanetary communication ever animated.

"Butts" - Aka Animated Short Of The Century

Having a bad week? Let Butts take any notion of negativity or bad vibes in your head and chuck them into a blast furnace. Despite it's not so serious name, this animated short by Tyler Hurd delves into some very profound issues about making a difference, however you can. The animation style employed might be worth an in depth analysis in itself, but I'll leave it up to you guys to judge it for yourself. Words fail me.

'BUTTS' is a  3D animated cartoon about anxiety, depression, and lending a hand to those in need. Perhaps the most important film of the decade, 'BUTTS' is a reminder that no matter how strange something may seem, people can still make a difference in their own unique and beautiful way.

Denmark Gets All Grindhouse For It's Elections With "Voteman" (NSFW)

The folks at Akee just unveiled their latest promotional campaign for encouraging young people to vote in Denmark with Voteman, and it's nothing short of mind blowing. Featuring a rather intense Danish badass as the spokesperson, this little animated advert warns against the dangers of not voting and having an impact on various important issues. Problem is, the cartoon is already banned in it's native country despite having been thought up by Denmark's own Folketinget (Parliament) with a purported budget of $30,000. Following it's release last week the short was removed a day after it's release following the massive backlash that ensued.

Go figure, but I appreciate that parliament's sense of humor. Bans aside the end result is an animated short that feels like a fine blend of part Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror, Machete) and part Adult Swim. So to our friends in Denmark, please vote on the 25th or else you might end up getting headbutted by a bondage gear wearing dolphin. We wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Once Upon A.... (Selfie)

Amber Ren's charming animated short called Once Upon A takes a series of classic fairy tales and combine them with the selfie plague trend. A princess ultimately finds out that her true love is just a tad on the vain side, an ugly duckling gets a little too self involved and a fairy realizes that she's a little out of her league. The tongue in cheek PSA finale offers a little warning about the type of fate fairy tales would have if these types of trends were commonplace when they were written. Clever idea, fantastically executed.

Jon Lajoie Makes The Most Generic 'Commercial Song' Ever

It's been a while since French-Canadian comedian Jon Lajoie has gotten around to a new song, and while I've been enjoying his role on The League it's about time to see some new content from the satirical mind. Please Use This Song is every bit as catchy as it is true, providing a horribly generic song to accompany the depressing lyrics about the current state of the music industry. 

It never really occurred to me how overused xylophones are used in commercial music, but somehow this track really emphasized their horribleness without even making mention to it. I don't think I'll ever be able to able to enjoy them in a song again. 

Mickey Mouse In "Cable Car Chaos"

Mickey and Minnie take a visit to San Francisco's Chinatown via the town's iconic cable cars, only to have all hell break loose after the operator loses control. The action packed premise takes me back to the first modern Mickey Mouse short Croissant De Triomphe, which centered around Mickey trying to quell a critical croissant shortage while zipping through Paris in a Vespa.

Oh god I don't even.

I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely think that Disney should create a toy to commemorate the first appearance of Minnie Hulk™. Kudos to Paul Rudish and his crew for also accurately capturing what it feels like to actually make the mistake of biking around the hillier parts of downtown San Francisco.

Pharrell's "Happy" Without The Happy

Who doesn't love themselves some deconstructed music videos? The folks at House of Halo took it upon themselves to remove all the music from the ultra viral hit video, that featured people from different walks of life getting down to the undeniably catchy track. With a fresh sound treamtent we're instead presented with a group of people awkwardly shuffling around, clapping and a lot of shoe squeaking. The 'no music video music video' is the best thing to come around since the advent of those hilarious shredding videos

Doraemon Meets Akira at the 2020 Neo-Tokyo Olympic Games

Did you know? Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira manga correctly predicted that the Tokyo summer Olympics would occur in the year 2020. Following the successful bid for the summer slot, Tokyo appointed Fujiko F. Fujio's famous Doraemon character to serve as a special ambassador/mascot for the upcoming games.

When animator Alex Pitarch put one and together, he felt an irresistible urge to mash these two revelations into an absolutely awesome mashup, starring Doraemon as Tetsuo in that infamous scene that scarred many minds across the world. Pitarch did an amazing job bringing this very strange animation to life, making it feel like it could have actually been part of the original landmark 1988 anime feature.

Starbomb And Egoraptor Present - The Ken Vs Ryu Rap Battle

Created by Spazinkid for his collab project with Egoraptor and Ninja Sex Party called Starbomb, this animated rap battle between Ryu and Ken is as one sided as it gets. Kind of glad Egoraptor is at least dabbling with animation in between doing some truly bizarre stuff as of late, including his stint on that strange Youtube Dancing show. Starbomb also created that recent Luigi's Ballad, which offered some truly pressing questions regarding Princess Peaches questionable taste in plumbers.

Musicless Music Videos

Youtube user Mario Wienerroither has been having quite a bit of fun lately, taking classic music videos and removing any semblance of music from them, replacing them with some expertly done audio foley. The result is surreal, awkward and kind of hilarious to say the least. Perhaps this is the next generation of those shredding videos? Nonetheless bless these people and their free time, this made us laugh pretty hard.

Everything But The News - A Report From Youtube's Vidcon

This was pretty amusing. PBS representative Jim Lehrer took a long, hard look at the world of Youtube entertainment through some seriously virgin eyes at the Vidcon expo, mainly centered around vloggers and personalities from Google's highly produced channels. Upon discovering a world of self absorbed folks with views in the tens of millions, Lehrer must ultimately make a tough choice: Become part of the jump cut, fast talking, low attention span grabbing crowd. For a PBS produced video, there's a lot of meta humor and self deprecation which makes it a pretty charming, old meets new piece.

"Mandela Is Dead" - Dead Parrot Brings Cringeworthy Youtube ConversationsTo Life

Prepare to face palm, and prepare to do so rather hard. The folks at the relatively new comedy group Dead Parrot have taken to reenacting some of the most cringe inducing Youtube conversations on various topics, but this one regarding the passsing of Nelson Mandela just takes the cake.

Using some really good, theatrically trained actors taking the roles of two Youtube users, we witness a seriously clueless man slowly coming to the realization that Nelson Mandela isn't actually Morgan Freeman. Props to Dead Parrot for taking the time to dig through the morass of Youtube comments to find comedy gold like this.

Beans

Beans, also known as 'animation and director with a lot of extra time on their hands' is a hilarious short film that might just make your day. Animated by Alvise Avati and produced by animation director Eamonn Butler, the short was created to raise awareness about their Soho, London based VFX company called Cinesite.

The company has been around for nearly twenty years and contributed to projects including Harry Potter, World War Z, Pirates of the Carribean, Skyfall and many other features. Nice to know that some companies still have a sense of humor. Check out Cinesite's full portfolio of movies over on their website.

FIIIIREEEEEEEEE!

Well that escalated quickly. Despite all the cinematic Source Filmmaker goodness that Valve has unleashed on their community over the last year or two, some creators still insist on using that humorously janky Gmod physics gun stop motion. Can't blame them, it definitely has a feel all of it's own.

Power Rangers And Old Man

While ADHD (Animation Domination) is hit and miss at best with their very meme/nostalgia-centric animation parodies, every once in a while they manage to get a chuckle out of us. This classic Power Rangers parody pretty much nails it on the head, with the exception of the addition of a rather unwarranted member to the classic cast.

Sticky Ends

A fish-man hybrid named appropriately named Jinx, unknowingly causes havoc to those around him. His latest unintentional victim is a man taking a flight.  Beyond the obvious outcome, it further delves into a contrived yet funny scenario. I've always rather enjoyed animated shorts that are either dialogue free, or include a non-descriptive language, as words don't always matter as much.  The art style is sketch-like, and the animation is uncomfortably twitchy, which is perfect for an uncomfortable scenario.

Duck

Created for a 48 hour animation jam by Kyler Spears, Quack tells the tale of a father duck stuck between a rock and a hard place when he's unable to provide food for his family. It's a matter of pride for father duck, who makes the ultimate sacrifice to get his family through the winter. That description might sound serious, but this short is anything but. Why did the epic score make it that much sillier?

Late For Meeting

Following 2011's insanely odd, yet strangely cheerful Going to the store, director David Lewandowski returns with a followup chronicling an even more glitched out humanoid on his way to work. To up the ante, our favorite glitched out humanoid goes to the grocery store this time, drives his verrry special 'car,' and even picks up some balloons in the process. The score is just as catchy as the first installment, if not even more. In case you haven't watched it yet, check out the original after the break for a pleasant daily dose of WTF.

Leaving Home by Joost Lieuwma

On the two far ends of the independence spectrum, we have people who are chomping at the bit to move out of their parents' house, and then we have those who have to be forced out. The latter is humorously shown in Joost Lieuwma's animated short, aptly titled "Leaving Home." A true mama's boy, the main character is forced out of his family home by his fed up father, and attempts to navigate the real world. "Attempt" is the key word here. Through bizarre forces not of his own doing, he frequently finds himself back at home.