In other news, eating Domino's makes you hot.
SkyMall is my favourite part of most plane rides. It’s like reading 1,000 tiny infomercials, which doesn’t sound fun, but is if you find rubbernecking on the sheer stupidity of post-industrial life fun, as I seem to. SkyMall is free to take with you out into the real world, so intones an attendant at the end of each flight, just in case you’re tired of sorting through different Hammacher Schlemmer and Sharper Image catalogues in order to find the world’s most exclusive pointless crap to divert your income to. If you really want to know what banal evil lurks in the heart of the Modern Machine, it’s SkyMall: the most frivolous consumerism imaginable, reduced to sad little sales pitches designed to make peeing statues sound like high art and dog ladders sound indispensable. SkyMall is what it’s all about people, the resource wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, derivatives speculation, the endless parring down of social services, infrastructure, education, and the arts. SkyMall is the antithesis of conservation, culture, and taste. SkyMall is what happens when drugs and sex are either punished or marginalized, and adult humans develop a desire to get their rocks off by purchasing Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville-brand tequila shot chiller ($250) 30,000 feet in the air. SkyMall is waste porn. To wit (click on any picture to enlarge):
Hey world's dentists, SkyMall just made you IRRELEVANT.
Stop worrying about your fucked up teeth and just pop these bad boys over your grisly nubs! No one will be able to tell the difference between real, healthy teeth and these expensive versions of Halloween vampire teeth, which everyone knows are very comfortable and stay in place, like, no problem man.
Also squeezes tear ducts shut.
“Look 15 years younger by holding a prosthetic face over your own! No one will be able to tell! Murder Talk to pretty girls again!” Well, not quite, but almost. At first I thought this ad was for some miracle pills or creams or something. Turns out, it’s for an “invisible” harness to physically wear around your face. No one will be able to tell your face is being physically stretched back by a harness around your head. Swear to god. And if they do, just play it off all cool: “oh this? what? did you hear about Mary’s oxycontin addiction?” Feel your best every morning as you tape your skin back in a desperate attempt to be someone else.
Make believe this doesn't cost the same as a new iPhone.
Jesus Christ Jane, with a name that boring you could at least have interesting status updates on Facebook. And what kind of idiot wants to watch Netflix on this $200 digital picture frame? Especially when…
With free internet included!**
… there’s this must-be-some-catch MacBook Air rip-off for $250 on the next page! **Free internet limited to 30 hours per month, which should be just enough to check your AOL and myspace page.
Patented "Italian" design.
Dude, Rodan’s “The Thinker” pose is totally not making that look any less stupid. And rocking that apparatus on your head after a hard day of male modeling definitely sounds way more fun and relaxing than drugs.
Finally, you can listen to records in your car! What's that you say? No one wants to listen to records in their car? Uh, shhh...
Now I just need to wait for them to make records even slightly portable. That technology is advancing fast these days, so, shouldn’t take too long.
"After I wake up from this luscious nap I'm totally going to bang one of those air waitresses"
Teal body pillow? Check. Purple Hawaiian shirt? Check. Unlike nearly every other product in this catalog, this product appears to be for those who DON’T GIVE A FUCK what they look like.
What TV? Where?
Do anything? Wear anywhere? As badass as it looks to chill with some brooding rockstars in footie pajamas, this advert does and IS in need of some major copyediting. “Cute” and “playful” aren’t opposing concepts at all. Would it be proper to say “this product looks undeniably embarrassing, yet boasts a tacky style”? Also, I’m really not sure if “playful pajama attitude” suits literally everyone, especially that girl scowling in the corner. You can’t look that self-serious while modeling Ed Hardy-inspired footie pajamas for adults. You just can’t. I do commend the makers of “Jumpin Jammerz” for coaxing Chris Gaines out of retirement though.
New goal in life: see one person actually using this, stare.
Their unique solution to the misplaced cell phone: CHAIN IT TO YOUR FUCKING WRIST WHEREVER YOU GO. What about when you wash your hands? Or go to the bathroom? Or when you have to do ANYTHING with your hands for that matter? If this doesn’t scream “I don’t have my shit together in the slightest,” I don’t know what does…
You think it might be fun to get drunk and hook up with this girl. IT WON'T BE.
… okay, maybe this. “Sure to get noticed” is a vague notion and a slippery slope SkyMall. Lot of things are “sure to get [you] noticed,” like wetting yourself or yelling on the bus. It’s not clear that’s always a good thing.
Racisty!
I don’t know about you, but I’d feel kind of extremely weird eating off the back of my fake Japanese man servant. The perfect coffee table to sit around and discuss Pearl Harbor with your militia friends.
This does not in any way look like a comfortable way to sleep.
Daaamn, her posture is so bad.
A fair number of products in SkyMall seem to be designed solely to make breasts jut out. Suspicious…
This is MY meat.
To take the time to heat up your personalized branding iron in order to sear your initials into your dinner so you can.. see your initials on your dinner before you eat it. I don’t know whether this is more dumb or sad, which is why I prefer psychological dominance of my food. No branding necessary, my frozen pizza knows who calls the shots around here. JSB, that’s who.
This is actually kind of cool, provided you never actually use the words “lip ticklers.”
It’s worth mentioning that half the products in SkyMall are variations of spy technology, hidden cameras, data monitoring, etc. The other half are mostly to hide your real self from the world or to make your house look like a Thomas Kinkade gallery. Paranoia, self-loathing, and useless consumption makes your lifestyle healthy!
Just The Right Amount, Man 