ZeFrank1, the producer of the hilarious but informative “True facts about the [name animal here]”, has apparently sold his soul to to Big Cat Food, just like Henri and Grumpy Cat before him. It’s inevitable. However, this three-minute video for Friskies—while not identified as the product of ZeFrank1, but which resembles his videos and has a voiceover that sounds identical—is the best sell-out ever.
Watch as a resident cat instructs a new kitten on the ways of the staff.
Bonus: the kitten looks a lot like Jerry Coyne the Cat!
This is a bit gruesome, but on the whole very touching, so if you don’t want to see pictures of a dead cat, or of its cremated remains, read no further.
What began as a reddit post about a Buddhist funeral for a cat, held in Tokyo in 2009, turned into an imgur series showing the funeral from corpse to urn to shrine. It’s pretty amazing, and testifies to the love in which these people held their moggie.
I won’t show all the pictures, as there are many, but here are a few, beginning with a photo of a pet funeral home. The Japanese do love their animals!
The altar in front of the cremation slab:
h/t: Florian
The Ze Frank commercial was good. I liked the “curtains of invisibility”.
The cat funeral stuff was sad and a little strange as I find human funerals as well.
Yes human funerals are strange – I have stipulated no funeral for myself – if anyone wants to please me after I am dead.
They are for the bereaved, of course, and they can do as they wish, but funerals just add to the suffering in my experience.
My only stipulation is “No Damned Priests”. If one shows up I’ve vowed to return from the dead and torment those responsible for the rest of their short lives.
I’m trying to outlive everyone I know so I don’t bother caring what they do with me but if like to be part of the fossil record.
Yes, ‘curtains of invisibility’ had a nice Tolkienesque ring to it.
And I loved ‘human larva’.
The funeral home had only been a crematorium for a year or so. I was about to sign the form for my mother’s cremation, but paused on the phrase to the effect that what I’d get back were the non-metallic mineral remains. The crematorium guy said he knew what I was thinking, that they saved dental fillings, but it wasn’t that at all.
“You wouldn’t believe how much metal people have in them. The second guy we did had had a hip replacement, and we didn’t know what to do with it so we just put it in the box. A few hours later the phone rings. “What are you guys DOING???””
Last month my miniature schnauzer had an argument with a bus. He is now buried in the back garden in a snuggly-fitting Margaux wooden wine case.
You don’t realise just how much you miss these clever* little guys until they’re gone. If there really were a god perhaps we could meet up with them again in the afterlife rather than having to bump into the Kent Hovinds, Ken Hams and Ray Comforts of this world.
* clever as compared with Kent Hovind, Ken Ham and Ray Comfort
I agree. I’d much rather find Nick, the wonder dog, than an IDiot like Ken Ham in my post-death existence. Fortunately it is improbable that I’ll find myself saying “oh, shit” after I die.
P.S., Nick was a Border Collie and the smartest dog to ever live with me. If there is an existence after human death I’d much rather be reunited with my canine companions than most of the devout Christians I’ve known.
My old cat who died five years ago was cremated specifically so that whenever I go – or more to the point wherever I go – she comes along and ends up in exactly the same place.
The same goes for the three I have now and indeed any after that.
>
I think I’m cool with what ZeFrank1 did here. Henri turned his whole thing into an advertisement; ZeFrank1 is just the unidentified voice talent for somebody else’s commercial. Plenty of other actors do uncredited voiceovers in commercial spots without any presumption that it’s other than a paid gig.
Compare Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones reading a script for some commercial and never appearing on screen…with Bob Dole singing the praises of Viagra. Yes, you recognize the former voices because they’re so distinctive, but it’s also obvious they’re being paid to read a script. Dole, on the other hand, was making the point that he was personally endorsing the product because he himself used and loved it.
b&
I’m cool with it, but this is more than just a voice. This is classic Ze Franke material. Good stuff.
Please, never again with the Dole-Viagra business. It was information I never wanted about a place I forbade my imagination to stray when the ad aired, and this reference induced an instant (albeit fleeting only, thank you mindfulness discipline) of cringing flashback.
Never worry. It’s all just a figment of your imagination. (Or is it…?)
b&
Ze Frank is fabulous and this advert is also fabulous, I’m down with that. Selling out is about using your star-power to get people to watch crappy stuff. If you do good things for money, well that’s how the world works.
Dear Kitten was fantastic.