You, Too, Can Be Stewie Griffin, and Other Odd Stories

This week’s oddities include an RPG that will let you be Stewie Griffin, neurologists studying brain injuries of comic book heroes, a Hot Wheels movie and some pretty cool fan love from My Little Pony.

Coming soon to an internet near you: The Family Guy online game. The just-announced MMO will hopefully let you, too, make inside jokes about ’80s TV shows along with Star Wars parodies. Now who do I want to be today … Peter, Brian, Stewie or that giant chicken?
Asterix and the Brain Surgeons: German neurologists have done a study of beloved European comic heroes Asterix and Obelix. “The goal of the present study was to analyse the epidemiology and specific risk factors of traumatic brain injury [TBI] in the Asterix illustrated comic books.” I am going to Germany later this summer, and if I hurt my head please send me to Italy for treatment.
Iowa rejects video privacy protection for cows: That’s my headline of the week (and yeah, it’s got nothing to do with entertainment, I hope). Man I tell you they are just treated like meat. (Although, in truth, the rejection was actually good for the cows.)
A movie about … Hot Wheels? This has been a great week for toy-based movies and a lousy one for non-toys who go to the movies. In the wake of the news that Risk, Stretch Armstrong and Maj. Matt Nelson are all going to the big screen comes news that a Hot Wheels movie is in the works. I have a great script for a Hot Wheels/Transformers team-up. Call me.
My Little Pony shows physicist why friendship is magic: High schooler Stephen Magnet was given an assignment to explain the good or bad physics of a film or television show. His choice? MLP:FiM. The result was a great video that the internet fell in love with (for good reason). Well, Hasbro turned out to be as grateful as every pony should be and said thank you with more stuff than you can shake your hoof at.