(Video link) In an attempt to post some lighter, fun stuff today in the midst of horrible events, here are the male cast members of Downton Abbey performing a parody of Breaking Bad on last night's episode of The Colbert Report. Earl blue is the hot tea on the street, yo. Language NSFW. (via The Wrap)

djBC and friends have put out their seventh Santastic collection of holiday mashups, "It's a Wonderful Mash." Wonderful it is, too. I recommend starting with track 14, I Wanna Be Dentated - Blitzen's Bop (The Ramones vs The Three Stooges vs The Ray Conniff Singers) or track 6, Riders On The Sugar Plum (Sugar Plum Fairy vs The Doors vs Maroon 5). But it's all fab, and free. Here's djBC's writeup:

The 2012 edition of our annual free mashup collection is now available for free download. Artists sampled include Major Lazer, Soma, Jars of Clay, The Judds, Alex Clare, Queen and David Bowie, Smokey Robinson, Elmo, Lucy Van Pelt, LL Cool J, The Tuborg Julebryg Jingle, The Moonglows, Elvis, Daft Punk, Eddie Dunstedter, ATOM, Tchaikovsky, The Doors, Maroon 5, Johnny Mathis, AC/DC, Ciara, Sublime, Diana Ross, Muse, Bruce Haack, Deadmau5, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Sean Kingston, Diplo & Nicky Da B, Mojo Nixon, The Showboys, Britney Spears, Jose Feliciano,The Ramones, The Three Stooges, The Ray Conniff Singers, Nirvana, Night Ranger, and The Temptations. We wish you Happy Holidays, and hope you enjoy the collection!

Santastic Seven: It's a Wonderful Mash

Thanks to everyone who submitted to the Pirate Flix Video Remix contest and especially to those who braved the rain to come out to Brooklyn's WORD books tonight. Herein presented are the winners of the contest, starting with Diran Lyons's first-place-winning 99 Problems (Explicit Political Remix).

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Marvel superheroes are going on summer vacation with Phineas and Ferb, and Archer is going to Bob's Burgers. When you consider what it would mean stylistically and comedically, cartoon mashups can be a pretty beautiful (and beautifully weird) thing. As a fervent supporter of them, as well as someone who has written her fair share of fan fiction, I have five suggestions for potential crossovers with shows that are currently on the air. Would any of them actually happen? Probably not, but we can all dream can't we?

Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure there is zero chance of these actually happening.

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Ayn Rand's Lord of the Rings —

“'Yes,' said Frodo. 'I shall keep the Ring from the foolish parasities who wish to destroy it. For shockingly, many wish to destroy the Ring! They wish to keep the Ring from the rightful ownership of the rugged individualist who made it as his own.'" [Oliver Miller at Slacktory. Previously.] — Rob •

Rench sez, "The previously BoingBoinged bluegrass hip-hop band Gangstagrass shares an exclusive premiere of their live video for 'Gunslinging Rambler featuring R-SON' - showing that this has gone way beyond a mash-up. Witness rapper, dj, and bluegrass band rocking the stage together at one of their face-melting shows in Brooklyn. We are offering the first peek at this to BoingBoing as a world premiere!"

I'm a great fan of this stuff. Gangstagrass performs exactly the kind of bluegrass music I favor and exactly the kind of hip-hop I favor, and seems to have discovered the alchemical secret of mixing the two perfectly.

Gangstagrass: Gunslinging Rambler featuring R-SON live at Southpaw (Thanks, Rench!)

In this performance from 1982, schoolchildren face off against the disco Illuminati of Pink Project, their dueling renditions of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall (part 2) and Alan Parsons Project's Mammagamma merging into a groovy mashup a fair few years ahead of its time. An extended mix is also available. If you like it, the next stop is Pink Project's mix of Jean Michele Jarre's Oxygene and APP's Hyper Gamma Spaces. The next stop after that is paying too much for a tatty vinyl at eBay Italy.