Laughing Squid
a daily dose of unique and curious things
Peter Dinklage Plays Hervé Villechaize During His Final Days in the HBO Film ‘My Dinner with Hervé’
In 1993, Hervé Villechaize, the diminutive star of Fantasy Island granted his last interview just days before his tragic suicide in 1993. The interviewer, filmmaker…
How a Specific Combination of Repetition and Variety Works to Make Pop Songs So Catchy
Derek Thompson, author of Hitmakers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction and senior editor at The Atlantic, explains how a specific combination of…
Expert Dance Moves Transferred to an Amateur Using AI Re-Targeted Source Motion Mapping
Researchers at UC Berkeley have ingeniously discovered a way to transfer expert dance moves to an amateur on video, essentially giving them the talent of…
A Wonderfully Touching Video Tribute to the Life of Legendary Playwright Neil Simon (1927-2018)
With the sad news about the death of legendary playwright Neil Simon at the age of 91, The New York Times posted a wonderfully touching…
Aging Investigator Tries to Recall the Details of His Biggest Case in ‘True Detective’ Season 3 Teaser
In the decade spanning teaser trailer for the third season of the HBO series True Detective, an aging Arkansas investigator named Wayne Hays (Mahershala Ali)…
Determined Little Tortoise Adorably Follows a Feline Friend Out of the House Through the Cat Door
A little tortoise sitting outside on a straw mat watched closely as a feline friend easily exited the house through a flap in the door…
Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. Explain the Meaning of Their Iconic Song ‘Losing My Religion’
Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. sat down with the Dutch NTR station Top 2000 à Go-Go to discuss the meaning behind one of…
How ‘No Country For Old Men’ Uses Behavior Rather Than Dialogue to Establish Character and Plot
Filmmaker Michael Tucker of Lessons from the Screenplay took a look at the sublime now-classic Coen Brothers film No Country for Old Men, specifically noting…
An Amazing Array of Cleverly Animated, Endlessly Looping Colorful Virtual Contraptions
Swedish designer and motion graphics artist Andreas Wannerstedt has filled his Instagram feed with an amazing array of very clever, continuously looping, virtual contraptions. These…
Three Transgender People Share Their Stories Against a Beautifully Rotoscoped ‘Flash Flood’
In the beautifully rotoscoped animation entitled “Flash Flood“, filmmaker Alli Mackay interviews three transgender people who share their stories about how and where they grew…