“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” just may be one of the funniest damn television shows ever written. A detail in one of the episodes (season 2 - “The Gang Goes Jihad”) has caught the attention of several serious fans: a mysterious sandwich called a “Grilled Charlie.” Below are the results of my own reverse engineering analysis of a Grilled Charlie.

Its appearance and description in the show offer several good clues to its construction:
•Firstly, the instructions shouted by its creator, Charlie:

“A Grilled Charlie has peanutbutter last! Peanutbutter outside, chocolate inside! Butter inside, cheese outside!”

•Close inspection of the scene reveals a jar of JIF peanutbutter, a packet of American cheese slices (or cheddar), and a bottle of Hershey’s syrup next to the hotplate used to fry the “Grilled Charlie” (though other posted recipes erroneously indicate a chocolate bar).

Here’s a possible/probable way to create this:
Step 1 - Butter the bejeezus out of one side of a piece of white bread. Place the piece of bread, butter-side down, onto a hot skillet (if you’re hardcore, your skillet is on a hotplate and you’re in a filthy apartment).

Step 2 - As the butter side is frying, place a slice of cheese (American or possibly cheddar) on the top of the bread and let it melt. Then flip the bread over and fry the cheese side (you’ll need a sh*tload of butter to pull this off properly). You’ll have to keep moving it so the cheese doesn’t burn off the bread.

Step 3 - Remove the butter-cheese slice and put a new white bread slice onto the skillet (make sure there is still sufficient butter in the skillet to fry it). Fry the piece of bread, and while it is frying put Hershey’s chocolate syrup on the top side. Flip the bread over and quickly fry the chocolate side (it will actually fry if you do it right). Remove from skillet.

Step 4 - Join the two pieces of fried bread, cheese on outside, butter and chocolate on the inside. Add JIF peanutbutter to the outside of the sandwich (not clear if it goes on top of the cheese or on the opposide side of the sandwich).

Step 5 - Eat warm, with cold beer. Then prepare for the heart attack.

It is surprisingly good - a nice combination of burnt cheese, chocolate and peanutbutter.

The website for the upcoming Simpsons Movie is pretty damn stellar. If you haven’t done it already, make your own Simpsons avatar: a Simpsonified version of yourself. Here’s the Blogadilla crew.

Would you believe that we pretty-much look like this? Except Chris is much much shorter, Cindi’s hair is much larger, Heywood is actually blind, and AMP looks even more like the lovechild of Lisa Loeb and Tina Fey.

Thanks Team Blogadilla for submitting your images.

A couple weeks ago, Heywood and I posted photos of two of the 7-Eleven “Kwik-E-Mart” conversions (from Mountain View, CA and 42nd Street, NYC). Blogadilla reader (and our new best friend) Kulle sent us some nice photos of the Kwik-E-Mart in Burbank, CA. Thanks Kulle!

Kulle’s Kwik-E-Mart Burbank slideshow

The celebrity formerly known as Posh Spice, whose NBC special “Victoria Beckham: Coming to America,” airs July 16, insisted this week in an interview with the AP that she’s “just a normal girl from London.”

(News flash to Vicky: normal girls have this strange thing they do. It’s called EATING. Try it sometime. It’s fun. Trust me.)

Beckham, who will live with her family in a $22 milllion, 13,000-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills, also called herself a “working mum.” Which makes this working mom want to slap her with my last daycare bill.

I’m sure her special will make for absolutely gripping television. Still, I think I’ll save my precious TiVo space for something else.

Maybe you have to watch the show “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” (from Craig McCracken - the guy who created the Powerpuff Girls) for this to be funny, or maybe not. Or, maybe, I spend too much time with kids. Help me.

A brilliant ad campaign for the upcoming “The Simpsons Movie” (July 27th) - for one month, twelve 7-Eleven stores have been converted into Kwik-E-Marts. I went to the Mountain View location (which is walking distance from Google Headquarters) - the store is completely outfitted with KrustyO’s*, Buzz Cola, Squishees, Homer Simpson pink doughnuts, and immigrant employees. [click photos to enlarge]

*KrustyO’s are produced and distributed by Momco, a likely Futurama reference.

(via AMP and Ari)

[UPDATE by Heywood]:

I too got a chance to visit one of the 12 7-Eleven Kwik-E-Marts, here in New York City (42nd Street at 9th Ave). Here’s my photo proof:

Does anyone else remember this kid show featured on Captain Kangaroo? I think it was the only reason I watched CK (I hope anyways). The little theme song has been stuck in my head since 1976 and I still love it. It was a 5 minute long show about Simon and how his chalk drawings came to life. He’d draw about something that had been on his mind, like having the measles or rocket ships, and then would interact with them and his chalk friends in a magical, alternate universe. It’s similar to it’s predecessor Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955) and definitely not a bad theme idea given the therapeutic effects of drawing. I really hope they put them on dvd.

On another note, I came across a video of Tony Hawk on Captain Kangaroo from 1981. He must have been 13!

There is a secret TV channel that only rich people can get.

Here is the reality: No, it is not a secret. Yes, it is a little creepy.

It is called “Plum TV” (the name alone is the flavor of lame that rich people flock to). On their website, Plum TV states:

“Plum is dedicated to producing the most informative and entertaining programming that celebrates life in our vibrant communities.”

The vibrant communities that Plum TV celebrates happen to be:

•Aspen
•The Hamptons
•Martha’s Vinyard
•Nantucket
•Telluride
•Vail

Regarding their use of the word “our” - one could surmise that it refers to those who own the costly properties in these celebrated (and gated) communities. The wealthy don’t celebrate their lives enough these days - it’s good to know there’s a whole channel dedicated to doing so.

(via Planet Timbotron, via Susan)

Frank Caliendo of MadTV on David Letterman (12/18/06)

Wow. It was like Us magazine threw up in my TV. If you didn’t watched the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday make sure to TiVo it when it airs again. The all seeing eye of Viacom has blocked most of it from YouTube, but you can see some highlights here on MTV.

Comedic dominatrix Sarah Silverman rips Paris Hilton a new one (and she’s in the audience), Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen make out, Nicholson is his usual smarmy, drunken self, Amy Winehouse looks as if she’s about to cry during her musical performance, Johnny Depp is just getting weirder by the minute, AND there’s an assload of Vitamin Water advertisements for Tim. Good times.

Sony recently revealed its advances in Organic Electroluminescent Displays (OLEDs) on a flexible plastic substrate. The future of television just got bendier.

(via Pink Tentacle, via Sony Japan)

No commentary needed. Worth watching if only to witness Sean Pean laughing.

I manage to fall in love with catchy music used in TV commercials, but not the actual products being advertised. The most recent example of this being the music for a new Toyota Prius commercial.

With a little hunting, I found the band and the song:
•The (Swedish) band: Suburban Kids with Biblical Names
•The song: “Rent a Wreck” (an ironic choice for a car commercial).

Here is the song (just click the “play” arrow):

Some other catchy songs on the TV commercial playlist:
•”La Breeze” by Simian (Peugeot commercial)
•”The Whistle Song” by P.J. Olsson (Starburst Fruit Chews commercial)
•”This is the Day (Disinfected Remix)” by The The (Dockers commercial)
•”Beautiful World” by Devo (Target commercial)
•”Zoom Zoom Zoom” by Only the Strong (Mazda commercial)
•”Factor Miedo” by Cartel de Santa (Axe Body Spray commercial)
•”Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra (Volkswagon commercial)

A fansite is not necessarily measured by subject matter, but by depth and enthusiasm. Perhaps one of the most impressive fansites is this - a site dedicated to the 70’s gameshow “Match Game.” “Match Game” was the meat and potatoes of the gameshow world from 1973 to 1979. Contestants were challenged to match the answers of celebrity panelists such as Betty White, Nipsey Russell, Brett Somers, and Charles Nelson Reilly.

This impressive site offers a cornucopia of wallpapers, trivia, video clips, and even the hypnotic gameshow background (funk) music. Even if you aren’t old enough to remember this show, take a moment to:
•See what smoking on a gameshow looks like.
•See a time when feathered hair ruled television.
•And learn some words of wisdom from host Gene Rayburn.

(via [adult swim])

I learn things from Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show all the time. Like the phrase of the day: bingo wings

Thankfully, there are no pictures.

My blog cherry has been popped.