Nightmare at Cafe Terrace

Freddy Krueger is in your French nightmares! And Hillary White is giving me quite the art history lesson with her latest interpretation, Vincent Van Gogh's Café Terrace at Night.

Previously on Popped Culture...

Vincent Van Wolverine

Won't You Be My Nightmare?

Gotham Starry Night And Other Van Gogh Parodies

Quentin Van Tino

Tarantino only copies from the masters, right? Van Tino by Gigart for Spoke Art's upcoming Quentin v. Coen show.

Previously on Popped Culture...

Vincent Van Wolverine

You Know, For A Second There... Yeah, I Kinda Did

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Gotham Starry Night And Other Van Gogh Parodies

The Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh's most recognizable work, has been replicated and interpreted countless. These are a few of the parodies. (Gotham Starry Night by ~1funnyguy)



A terrifying vision of Hello Kitty bestride the world like a colossus. Could this be the vision that sent Van Gogh to the asylum in the first place? (Hello Starry Night by Leslie Holt)



The Battle of Endor as interpreted by a famous Ewok artist. (Starry Night Star Wars by newbpainter)



Don't know the artist behind Barth Van Gogh, but it seems to have spread from the tumblr Return of the Vader.



The Fleet by CraigMc. From the Worth1000 contest Star Wars Ren 3.



Again, is it any wonder that Van Gogh was in an asylum? Just look at what he saw in the night sky. (Starry Night with TARDIS by TerryLightfoot)

A McDonalds and a mosque? Billions served indeed. (Muslim Starry Night by Ron English)

Is that what Snoopy sees in the night sky? No wonder he sleeps on his doghouse every night. (Link via La Heidi)

Oh, I see what they did there. (From The Gremlin)

Somebody always has to be a critic. (Savage Chickens)

Previously on Popped Culture...
Vincent Van Wolverine
A History Of Emoticon Art
I'm Going To Disneyland!

A History Of Emoticon Art

Bet you never thought you'd come here and learn something. Now the next time you go to the Museum of Modern Art or the Louvre you won't feel so out of place. (Link via BuzzFeed)

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It's Pizza Time, Picasso!
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Homer (Simpson) Pollock

I'm Going To Disneyland!

Oh Vincent Van Gogh, can't we take you anywhere? (Bob Buccella's Vincent Van Goghs to Disneyland via arturomob)

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Come As You Are: Nevermind The Parodies
Would You Like Fries With That?
Pop Culture Masters

Vincent Van Wolverine

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Wolverine and, I dunno, promote a tiny little art film they've got on the go, Marvel is issuing a number of titles with variations done in the style of some of the world's greatest artists.

Above is Laura Martin take in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. Others include Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Edvard Munch and Roy Lichenstein.

It's a nice touch and a nod to pop culture's place in the arts. (Link via Super Punch)

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You're A Bad Man, Chris Brown
Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink'
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Come as You Are: Nevermind The Parodies

Remember the baby chasing the dollar bill on the cover of Nirvana's seminal album, Nevermind? Yup, that's Spencer Elden, all of 17 now and likely chasing more than a buck for recreating this photo. Happily, this time he wore a bathing suit.


Of course this got me thinking, as I'm wont to do, about parodies of the album cover I've seen here and there, which are are now conveniently located below:


The most famous version was of a baby version of Bart Simpson chasing the almighty Krusty buck, for the November, 2002 cover of Rolling Stone. It's rare to get official parodies.


Of course the King of Parody is the other exception to the rule. "Weird Al" Yankovic's Off The Deep End, which featured Smells Like Nirvana:

Were so loud and incoherent
Boy, this oughta bug your parents
Yeah

You know you've had an impact when "Weird Al" spoofs both your hit song and your album art.


A nice take on a Van Gogh self-portrait and a comment on how much money everyone has made on the back of his art following his death. Shades of Courtney Love. Found on one of Worth 1000's brilliant photoshop contests.


A mashup of Jaws and Nirvana. Cute. Again, from the archives of Worth 1000.


Millions of users at a buck a download? I think Apple found their Nirvana with the iPod. From Flickr user axb500.


Just another way those bastards killed Kenny. From a South Park fan art page, in case you couldn't tell.


I think I mostly amused by the Neverfind band name. Yet another from the whizzes at Worth 1000.


And lastly, what roundup of parodies would be complete without a Lego entry? From a collection of Lego album cover parodies. Is there anything minifigs can't do?

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Suddenly Last Supper
Popaganda: The Pop Culture Revolution
Would You Like Fries With That?
Find Waldo, Yet Again
Pillow Talk: 25 Strange Throw Pillows

Would You Like Fries With That?

My name is Jeremy and I am an addict. Hi Jeremy. I’ve been eating McDonald’s for as long as I can recall. As a kid it was an occasional treat and in high school I spent a couple of years behind the grill, flipping burgers and gorging on fries.

A few years ago I was eating at McDonald’s every week - basically it was cheap and I was lazy. Who am I kidding, I was lovin’ it – to use a phrase I picked up somewhere. Then I read Eric Schlosser’s brilliant expose, Fast Food Nation, and cut my consumption considerably. So when Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me hit theatres a few years later, a small part of me avoided it as I figured it could kill off the last vestiges of my desire for greasy, salty goodness.




As fate would have it, the CBC aired Super Size Me last night, likely as a way to spur on those who made New Year’s resolutions to lose weight. While I can’t say it has curtailed my taste for Mickey D’s any further, it did get me thinking about McDonald’s pop culture impact and to follow up my posting from last May. I may have cut down, but how I did I come to love it? Mostly the ubiquity, I figure. No matter where you travel, you can almost always find the Golden Arches. And make no mistake, they target the very young, something I am keenly aware of as a new father. Anyone recall the ad where the baby cries every time he can’t see the logo outside of the window? Or how about this ‘McDonalds is akin to breast milk’ print ad? Tristan doesn’t stand a chance.


Of course I’m far from the first to make this connection and many artists have created art and parodies to comment on McDonald’s empire’s impact on health, culture and our way of life. Canadian artist Chris Woods, whose work explores the effects of consumerism on society, was one of the first I ever saw back in the late ‘90s. I love how his paintings evoke religious awe and a disturbing amount of patriotism.







A more of-the-moment version of parody is the McVideogame, an online flash game that lets you run every part of the company, from the South American pastures to the feedlot, all the way to corporate HQ. I only made it a few months in when environmentalists were protesting over the bulldozing of rainforest and my cows were going mad from ground animal meal I was feeding them. I knew I should have bribed some more health officials!



Ron English is another culture jammer who uses McDonald’s imagery in his work. His work was featured in Super Size Me, but my favourite is his version of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, with an original-style McDonald’s franchise replacing the village and the church with the arches replacing the cross.








For even more examples of McDonald’s parodies that I found while out trolling the web, including Grease from AdBusters, which has always been a fantastic source for anti-McDonald’s ads head over to my McDonald's Parodies Flickr set.