Very Long Toes

This item was contributed by a certain Regina O., a loyal reader of WU intent on "dipping a toe" into the sea of weirdness.

We've had a thread going about cosmetic surgery for feet. But the mutant simian-hybrid woman in this video needs no such treatment!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 11, 2008 - Comments (12)
Category: Body Modifications, Human Marvels, Sexuality, Women

Kitty Klaws

Alert and loyal WU-vie Figgy Floradell found this item in the Drs. Foster and Smith Catalog.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 23, 2008 - Comments (8)
Category: Body Modifications, Business, Products, Cats

The Evolution of G.I. Joe

From the work of Dr. Harrison Pope, a Harvard psychiatrist, comes this illustration of the evolution of G.I. Joe dolls. On the left is the original G.I. Joe from 1964, with relatively normal body proportions. Over the years, the dolls grew progressively more muscular until finally, on the far right, we arrive at a recent version of the doll, "G.I. Joe Extreme." Pope is trying to establish a connection between the toys and an increase in "body-image disturbances" among men.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 16, 2008 - Comments (8)
Category: Body Modifications, Toys, Gender

Breakfast by Svankmajer

Thanks to High Weirdo Sandy Pearlman, we can all enjoy this little gem by filmmaker Jan Svankmajer.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 29, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Surrealism, Body Modifications, Food, Movies, Foreign Customs

As Boys Grow

Let it never be said that WEIRD UNIVERSE is unbalanced or sexist. Here's a companion piece to MOLLY GROWS UP.

Doesn't the coach sound just like Troy McClure on THE SIMPSONS?

Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 27, 2008 - Comments (6)
Category: Body Modifications, Facial Hair, Domestic, Family, Children, Parents, Hygiene, Body Fluids, Sexuality, Documentaries, 1950s, Men

Molly Grows Up

Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 26, 2008 - Comments (13)
Category: Babies, Body Modifications, Domestic, Family, Children, Parents, Hygiene, Body Fluids, Sexuality, Video, 1950s, Women

Contortionists

I started thinking about contortionists again when I happened upon a feature on them in an old issue of Life. In my novel Spondulix I had a character who was an "enter-ologist," a great term I found in Ricky Jay's wonderful history of sideshows and freaks, Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women. Enter-ologists get into impossible places, rather than escape from impossible places.

In any case, a short search of the web turned up lots of online contortionist info, including the Contortion Home Page, which is where I found this pic of April Tatro. That's her in the video below as well.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 12, 2008 - Comments (7)
Category: Body Modifications, Entertainment, Human Marvels, Literature, Books, Science Fiction, Performance Art

Hair Club Infomercial

Continuing the baldness theme, there's something disturbing about this recent Hair Club for men infomercial. Don't Mike and his stepdaughter seem to be a bit too flirtatious with each other?



(via Presurfer)

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 10, 2008 - Comments (2)
Category: Body Modifications, Sexuality, Advertising

Harvey Comics

I loved reading Harvey Comics as a kid, and into "adulthood." (They're not published anymore, alas.) Their universe was quintessentially wacked and weird. As famed comics scribe Grant Morrison has remarked in an interview, sometimes the willed naivete of Silver Age writers following the Comics Code produced much stranger stuff than any consciously avant-garde writer could.

Take the two page strip to the right for instance, from an old digest-reprint of some Casper stuff. To parse it is to risk madness.

Is Nightmare indeed a mare, ie, female? if not, and even if so, is that the gayest hairdo ever, on horse or human? Why does a forest gnome like to hang out with a ghost horse? Why is playing human cowboys popular among the gnomes? Likewise riding an airplane. And finally, how demented does a ghost horse have to be, to stick planks up its butt and into its chest, and then purr like a cat, all in an effort to emulate a mechanical device so as to placate a gnome?

How I miss Harvey Comics! Thank goodness Dark Horse is reprinting some.....

Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 09, 2008 - Comments (15)
Category: Animals, Art, Comics, Pop Art, Surrealism, Body Modifications, Drugs, Entertainment, Flight, Games, History, Inventions, Pets, Writers, Cartoons, Hair Styling

Li’l Castros

[From Life magazine for April 13 1959.]

Of course, we all recall personally or at least have heard of the Davy Crockett Craze of the mid-1950's, when Disney's promotional genius had kids everywhere running around in coonskin caps. But who among us lately has dared to summon up memories of the Castro dressup craze from a few years later?

Yes, once upon a time, at the start of his revolution, Castro was received in the USA as a hero of the oppressed peoples of Cuba, and seen as a fit role model for tykes to imitate.

Please click on the image for the full glory of this era, and excuse any flash glare from my poor photo skills. I had to photograph rather than scan, to capture the full impact of the double page spread.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 05, 2008 - Comments (8)
Category: Body Modifications, Facial Hair, Business, Products, Fads, Family, Children, Parents, Government, Military, Pop Culture, War, Weapons, 1950s