Gluemeat

What you may not know about international superstar diva singstress Celine Dion is that she has a pretty extensive family. Also, they’re all musically inclined. They’re not all good, mind you, but being a Dion means you have some love for performing onstage.

In the province of Québec, the Dions are the equivalent of the Kennedys. A more down-home, neighbourhood-type Kennedy family, but the comparison still stands. The matriarch, who is commonly referred to as “Maman Dion,” is constantly on television and is a superstar in her own right. But it seems to me that every six months or so, she ends up on talk shows where people there start fawning over her Mad Motherhood Skillz™. She’s become the archetypical Québécois mom for raising all these children and getting them involved into music (although only one did it with any success). These spots always end up in some kind of tribute where a couple of Maman Dion’s children come out (never Celine because, you know, she’s busy) and gurgle through a tacky song.

So they did it again this past Sunday night on a Québec talk show. Maman Dion got on the show and another little tribute song was on its way. Desperate to avoid repeating a set-up that had already been done, the genius producers figured it would be a good idea to have THE WHOLE CLAN come on to do a song, all in perfect harmony. This time, the dowdy tribute song would be seen as a major, mind-blowing event.

The end result: miscues, restarts, microphone mishaps, off-key singing, on-the-air-frustration: the worst produced segment I have ever seen on television. The Dion clan were laughable, but the production team also dropped the ball. Doomed to failure, this one was. Let me tell you, there are people on public access who pull tighter stuff off.

It’s hilarious and sad, all the way to Celine showing up “live” on screen (*cough*pretaped*cough*), to the bunch of them in the studio fiddling around with their ear monitors the very minute the song is done. You gotta love live TV.

I always liked Steve Irwin.  A man with so much enthusiasm and passion for his work is one in a million.  You could tell that all the stunts he did were just a pretext to raise awareness for conservation.

As a modest tribute to his memory, here are three Gluemeat comics I did back in 2002 as an homage to his character.  May the Crocodile Hunter rest in piece.
- Crocodile Hunter (Part 1)
- Crocodile Hunter (Part 2)
- Crocodile Hunter (Part 3)

I tell ya, those Jackson kids, they loved their alphabet.

Man, Tito never looked this good. Or happy.

Via Lukira