Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

A fun little conspiracy theory centered around The Simpsons

Well, fun or alarming, depending on how seriously you take this.

I found this here, and I am putting this up solely because I love The Simpsons and I am tickled by this odd merger of the show with real-world events (after 9/11, the 1997 episode centered around the World Trade Center was heavily discussed at the Simpsons list I have moderated for most of the last decade), and the notion that some writer(s) on the show is warning people about false-flag attacks.

No, I'm not one to go in for conspiracy theories and I believe there is so much television out there that there are bound to be some coincidences. And terrorists thinking up new and innovative ways to shock the world might easily be thinking along the same lines — and about the same high-profile targets — as Hollywood writers who think up disaster films.

Nevertheless, these coincidences are just plain eerie. Now eerie doesn't mean there's some there there. It could just be eerie. Our neighbor back in Compton was eerie, but he wasn't the axe murderer that we kids had feared he was. (Petey was the most convinced. But after he decided to confront Old Man Beckman that one January evening, Petey must have been so embarrassed about how wrong he was that he never showed his face again. Just disappeared, that's how embarrassed he was. Hey, wait a minute...)

If they had just left it at the 9/11 stuff, I might have been a little more shaken by this, but the program that showed signs of Hurricane Katrina months before it happened... if they're trying to suggest the guvmint had something to do with it, well that has crossed the line into the fantastical. Coincidence.

But I will note that after the 9/11 attacks, Fox decided to permanently pull the World Trade Center episode of The Simpsons (as well as censor the one where ~~the Backstreet Boys save it from a terror attack~~ N Sync try to save Mad Magazine headquarters, which looks kinda like the WTC, from a non-terror attack... thanks to television, I can't remember what happened eight minutes ago). It seemed odd to us Simpsons fans, who thought the episode would be an appropriate homage.

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Ask Kushibo.

My Google/Blogspot data shows that a lot of the 2 million people who have landed on my site (yes, that's the real number) are looking for cultural information on Korea (e.g., “When did Syngman Rhee die?” “What did the Indians bring to the first Chusŏk?’ etc., etc.), as well as practical or historical stuff.

That got me thinking that, hey, I have a master’s degree in Korean studies and a minor in Japanese studies, I’ve lived in Seoul far longer than most foreans my age (whether they're kyopo or non-kyopo), I teach introductory courses on Korea and its cultural trappings and history, so why not offer a free service where I attempt to answer people’s questions, point them in the direction of where they can get them answered, and/or offer my regulars (that’s you!) a chance to take a stab at some of this stuff, too.

So if there’s something you’d like to know from a “contrarian scourge,” click on ASK KUSHIBO and just ask a succinct question in the comments section below.

Oh, and play nice. Please don’t make me regret this.

九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.

Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Thursday, November 11, 2010

A fun little conspiracy theory centered around The Simpsons

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