Things are starting to get Super, Super Official for the great YouTube food reviewer Daymon "Daym Drops" Patterson. 

Wednesday night, Patterson took the leap from YouTube to the boob tube, appearing on NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to offer up his take on McDonald's McRib sandwich, a much ballyhooed item on the menu that seems to always come and go.

Think of it like a hamburger subbed with pork meat. Instead of being ground into a patty, it's ribbed like a babyback rack and served hot under onions.

A new item, but Patterson's operation was still business as usual. The large-and-in-charge Connecticut man got in his car and drove to McDonald's, ordered the sandwich, then fired up his camera. 

"I shot that review on Monday," he told the Daily Dot Thursday morning, adding that Jimmy Fallon's Late Night producers called him over the weekend. 

"They were like, 'Okay, so we got the McRib dropping, and it's coming your way on Monday. Would you mind heading over to McDonald's and doing a review and shooting it over to us so that we can debut it for you?' 

"That's exactly what I did."

Patterson's McRib Review, which lasts 5:24 and features Patterson rating the sandwich a C– and changing its name name to "The McSlab," aired at the beginning of Fallon's hour-long late night show, during his monolog, when Patterson believes most of Fallon's fans were watching. 

"I didn't know that I was going to headline," he said. "That was the craziest part for me. I thought it was going to be in the middle of the show, but as soon as it got started and Jimmy hit the ground running, that was the first thing that they showed.

"Oh my goodness, it was incredible, bro. Incredible. I gotta hop on my decline, you know? I don't think I've slept since the show."

Neither have his networks. Patterson reports that he's picked up 1,000 Twitter followers, 1,300 YouTube subscribers, and 850 Facebook fans in the hours since Late Night With Jimmy Fallon aired his review. 

"And we got a whole lot more coming in right now as we speak," Patterson added.

So can we expect more of the magic that is Daymon Patterson on late-night TV? Right now it looks like we can only hope.

"That's something that I can't disclose, but I will say to keep on the lookout, because big things are happening," he said. 

Big things, Daym? More like they're Super Official.

Photo via Daym Drops/YouTube

Tomorrow, Dec. 21, has been marked as the day the world would end, according to an ancient calendar from an ancient civilization.

The Mayan prediction was given credence by "Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, Chinese doomsday cult members, and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard" who all "confirmed" the world's imminent demise, Gawker reported. Even 30 schools in Michigan closed for the holidays early just in case the calendar was indeed true, NBC reported.

Yet, as has always been the case with theories as to when the world will end, the Mayans were proved wrong as millions of citizens of Australia and New Zealand were still alive well Friday.

"Australia did not see the Mayan Apocalypse. This means no end of the world unless the Mayans knew about the international date line," Benji Dooley tweeted.

Of course, that did not stop Internet communities like social news site Reddit, Twitter, and Tumblr from having some "end of the world" fun. The following are some of the best images, tweets, animations, and videos to grab our attention.

GIF by un-gif-dans-ta-gueule

Photo via Reddit

Photo by Truth Graphs

Photo via Reddit

Photo via feecky-chucker

Main art by Jason Reed

Miiloh and Lilah, a couple of frenchies from upstate New York, are finally at the point in their relationship where they wanted to send out a holiday card together.  The pair put on their finest Christmas attire, arranged the presents around the tree, and had photographer friend Thor Anderson snap the photo a couple of weeks ago.

“We had about five or six really good ones,” said Anderson, “so it was a tough choice.”

In the end, the pups chose a shot that they thought made them look very distinguished, as well as festive.  They had the cards printed at Wal-Mart and sent them out to friends and family this week.

Via miilohthefrenchiebear.

Want to read Reddit but don’t have the time? Our daily Reddit Digest highlights the most interesting or important discussions from around the social news site—every morning.

• Children's author Rob Towner self-published a Christmas book and made it available for free download on Amazon. His first AMA helped the book shoot up to the No. 1 children's Christmas title—so he did another AMA. (r/IAmA)

• A scientist who proposed to his fiancée with PCR gel shares his method. The hardest part: "actually coming up with a good enough excuse to get her to image a gel in my lab." (r/biology via r/bestof)

• Ken Levine, creative director of BioShock and BioShock Infinite, answers your questions. (r/IAmA)

• What's the most trouble I can get in for $5 without hurting anyone? (r/askreddit)

• Would r/atheism be a top 20 subreddit if it weren't a default? (r/theoryofreddit)

• Does the way you sleep (on your side, on your back, on your chest) affect how your bones grow? (r/askscience)

Pic of the day: Yup, it snowed. (r/pics)

Hottest subreddit: r/DeadMatter (1 day)

Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we’re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.

Good morning. We know you’re busy, so we won’t keep you long. It’s probable that you, along with a significant proportion of the rest of the world, have been procrastinating on your Christmas shopping, hate yourself for it, hate yourself for caring, and are gradually sliding into panic mode.

So yeah, on the one hand, you survived the Mayan apocalypse. On the other, now you have to get the chores done. Life’s a mixed bag, eh?

Brad Pitt is also of two minds about this dilemma. Angelina Jolie’s consort made some extra pocket change this holiday season by starring in a famously incomprehensible commercial for Chanel No. 5 in which he stands around wearing a silk shirt and a goat beard, mumbling would-be profundities. A few years ago, he was a lean, mean acting machine, co-starring in Fight Club and telling you hard truths. Put the two together, and you have a perfect microcosm of the slide from young revolutionary to middle-aged corporate cog.

From the Luca DG Tumblr, Brad and Brad have collected 22,301 notes in the week they’ve been together.

The end of the world is upon us—or so the Mayans say.

Some are already taking precautions, but others are sure that it won’t happen; NASA is so confident that the world won’t end that they released a video titled “Why the World Didn’t End Yesterday”—last week.

But maybe the Mayans didn’t mean that the world would literally end. Maybe the end of the world as we know it has been right under our noses the entire time, screaming unrelentingly toward 1 billion YouTube views. Maybe the apocalypse has a name, and its name is “Gangnam Style.”

It just so happens that Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” (a topic that we’ve covered extensively) succeeded in its inevitable world domination on YouTube and became the first video to reach 1 billion views on Dec. 21, 2012, of all days.

Coincidence? We think not.

Psy already had a long career years before the rest of the world was introduced to the Korean rapper (real name Park Jae-sang) and his horse dance on a fateful day in mid-July, and the global population has been captivated ever since.

And, judging by the trajectory of Psy’s YouTube views, which show no signs of slowing down, “Gangnam Style” won’t be going away any time soon.

It didn’t take a Mayan prophecy to foretell the Psypocalypse. Here are 10 perfectly obvious signs that all of us somehow missed:

1) “Gangnam Style” spawned too many covers and parodies to keep track of.

“Gangnam Style” hit YouTube about five months ago and there’s no sign of it stopping. It went the route of “Call Me Maybe” and “Somebody That I Used To Know” and quickly spit out a number of covers. Psy turned his hit song into a duet with HyunA a couple weeks later. It’s inspired GIFs, the name of a restaurant and a Hitler rant, been mashed withother songs, and even a video deemed to have killed “Gangnam Style” did nothing to stop its momentum.

2) It’s Mom-approved—and that's no longer something to fear.

One might think that once your parents discover something on the Internet it loses its “cool factor,” but after we taught our parents how to make GIFs and Mike Song did the horse dance with his mom to over 7.7 million views, that might no longer be the case.

3) It convinced a bunch of celebrities to embarrass themselves on national television.

Psy made an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to teach Ellen and Britney Spears the dance to various degrees of success. Since then we’ve had to endure those awkward tutorials with The Today Show, The Guardian and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, among others, and he even learned a new dance along the way.

4) It invaded weddings.

Get ready to start doing the horse dance alongside the “Macarena,” “Y.M.C.A.” and other cheesy dances at the reception, but one couple pulled a JK Wedding Entrance Dance and recruited their family and friends to turn their wedding day into a viral hit.

5) It was the subject of an entire sketch on SNL.

They say you haven’t truly made it until you’ve been parodied on Saturday Night Live, and “Gangnam Style” had that honor on Sept. 15. Psy made a cameo in a sketch in which Bobby Moynihan played the rapper who danced at a hat store at the press of a button.

6) It can subdue young children.

Some parents have finally found the secret to calming their children down or getting them to eat, and while it might make things easier around dinner or bedtime, how long before it starts to subdue the rest of us?

7) Although it was clouded by scandal, it never slowed down.

Psy charmed us with a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) back in October, but he has also come under fire for anti-American comments he made at a concert in Seoul in 2004. One parody of the song has gotten a group of lifeguards fired from their jobs and the Royal Thai Navy apologized for making their own version. A man in England died of acute heart failure after performing “Gangnam Style,” but no amount of controversy can touch Psy’s massive hit, although it didn’t receive any Grammy nominations.

8) It put Justin Bieber in his place.

Psy soon earned a Guinness World Record for the most-liked YouTube video in history and while Bill O’Reilly might not understand it, it only got more popular from there. Beliebers tried to stop the inevitable, but soon beat “Baby” for the most-watched YouTube video of all time, and with it being brought into the holidays, it’s only gotten more popular.

9) Even YouTube's biggest stars fell under its spell.

Even YouTube couldn’t resist the temptation of making its own “Gangnam Style” parody. The video-sharing site recruited Psy and some of its biggest stars to perform the horse dance and lessen the oversaturation that many of us are feeling from “Gangnam Style.”

10) Did we mention it’s been viewed 1 billion times?

“Gangnam Style” got more views in less time than some videos that have been on YouTube since the very beginning. End of the world or not, that’s an impressive feat. Can we please stop playing it now?

Photo via PSY/YouTube

Alllllright, Psy and "Gangnam Style," I think this should just about wrap things up with you.

The decorated K-pop song, now and until further notice featured as The Most Popular YouTube Video of All Time, today became the first YouTube video ever to accrue more than 1 billion views.  

We can only hope the news means that everyone who wants to see it has now had their chance.

"Gangnam Style" now stands roughly 200 million views above the video for Justin Bieber's "Baby," a track that reigned supreme from its advent in 2010 until a few days after this Thanksgiving, when Psy and his technicolor dreamworld deep-sixed the Biebs and laid claim to the YouTube throne forever—unless the world does in fact end up closing up shop today.

If it doesn't, you can be sure to catch "Gangnam Style" at all your baseball stadiums and shopping malls throughout your 2013 and potentially 2014 calendars. The song has grown so ubiquitous within the world of pop culture that it's practically the official alma mater for three state schools and four prisons. One really must wonder when all the madness is going to stop.

Then again, maybe it won't. According to this handy, dandy line graph from our video data analyst pals at ChannelMeter, "Gangnam Style" is showing showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Psy has made an estimated $870,000 and counting from his “Gangnam Style” views alone.

What's that joke about the Mayans being right?

Photo via PsyOfficial/YouTube

It’s late December. All across the country, people will sit down to a warm meal, look up at the family members and friends that surround them—and tell them how disappointing they've been in the past year.

That’s right. It’s time for Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us.

The non-secular holiday Festivus became common knowledge in late 1997, thanks to the Seinfeld episode “The Strike.” Growing up, George Costanza (Jason Alexander) never celebrated Christmas or Hanukkah. Instead, he reluctantly observed “Festivus,” a holiday created by his father Frank (Jerry Stiller) to rebel against the commercialism of the season. The observance, which was far from anything that could be considered celebratory, included such traditions as the “Feats of Strength” and an aluminum pole in place of a tree.

While Seinfeld may have ended, Festivus did not. Its unique aspects and overall blunt disregard for the commercialization of Christmas kept it alive. The Daily Dot compiled a list of how you can get the most out of your own Festivus celebration—every Dec. 23.

The Background

Obviously, any Festivus celebration should start with an understanding of its origin story. While traditional holidays can be traced back to ancient cultural rituals or historical events, the story of Festivus has its roots in the NBC “Must-See Thursday” lineup.

The Seinfeld episode “The Strike” first aired on Dec. 18, 1997, and has lived on since then through heavy TV syndication, Netflix, and DVD sales of the program’s ninth season. YouTube user snuhr chiseled down the episode to only the “Festivus” aspects in the video “George Costanza—Festivus,” which has more than 200,000 views.

The video reveals Frank Costanza’s reasons for creating the holiday, its observance date of Dec. 23, and practices of its various traditions.

Additionally, in his book Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us, author Allan Salkin explores the holiday in more detail. The book includes a study of Festivus’s true origins in the household of Dan O’Keefe, whose son, Daniel, went on to become the Seinfeld writer who immortalized it in “The Strike.”

Festivus Pole

A Festivus without its aluminum pole is like Christmas without a pine tree or Valentine’s Day without overpriced chocolate. 

Frank Costanza selected a bare metallic pole to symbolize Festivus’s refusal to buy into holiday commercialism (and also because he “finds tinsel distracting”). The pole must be made of aluminum, as it has a “very high strength-to-weight ratio.”

The site Festivus Poles sells the holiday’s staple, offering participants the option of the traditional 6-foot model or a smaller, 2-foot-8-inch table model.

The Human Fund: Money for People

In “The Strike,” George Costanza dodges his company’s tradition of expensive gift-giving by making donations to “The Human Fund” in each of his coworkers’ names. Needless to say, “The Human Fund,” whose charitable slogan is “Money for People,” does not exist. When his boss discovers the charity’s non-existence, George blames his tendency to give “fake Christmas gifts” on the fact that he celebrates Festivus instead of Christmas.

No Seinfeld-loving philanthropists have set up an actual “Human Fund” charity since the episode’s 1997 airdate, but you shouldn’t let that stop you from giving out your own “fake gifts.” The site webpageaboutnothing.com features a form that, at no cost to you, will allow you to create your very own “Human Fund” certificates.

If you feel that your recipient is not deserving of such attention, the website Festivus Web provides more generic cards for download.

Airing of Grievances

The "airing of grievances" is one of Festivus’s most popular aspects. During the practice, you tell everyone in your company how they have disappointed you in the past year. In “The Strike,” Frank Costanza exemplifies this by telling his son’s boss that his company “stinks” before losing his train of thought.

Today, thanks to the Internet, more people than ever can hear about your gripes.

Festivusbook.com contains a form where users can submit their own grievances or read those created by others. A paper form can also be printed out and used thanks to Festivus.biz.

On Twitter, @SeinfeldTV, the program’s official Twitter feed, asks users to share their grievances. Additionally, @festivusweb, which is not affiliated with the show, will retweet the best grievances marked with the hashtag #airingofgrievances.

The Festivus Dinner

Unlike the massive turkey that serves as a centerpiece every Thanksgiving, the food choices at traditional Festivus dinners are far more unremarkable. 

According to Festivus Web, the Costanzas served their Festivus guests a dish smothered in red sauce, narrowing it down to either spaghetti or meat loaf. The site suggests a list of foods featured on “The Strike” (such as bagels or subs), as well as other episodes of Seinfeld, as possible Festivus dinner items.

The site Festivus argues in favor of spaghetti, but stresses that the Festivus dinner can be anything that “has never worn feathers.”

Feats of Strength

In “The Strike,” Frank Costanza claims that Festivus does not end until the male head of the household is pinned to the ground. This is done through a tradition known as the Feats of Strength.

While wrestling is the preferred method to carry out the Feats of Strength, Festivus Web provides a list of various alternatives. These include arm wrestling, a staring contest, and even beer pong.

On Festivus.biz, the head of the household may print out a Feats of Strength challenge card if he wishes to approach the tradition a tad more formally.

Happy Festivus, everyone!

Photo via snuhr/YouTube

Actor Dante Basco has as many roles online as he does onscreen—actor, fan favorite, and famous fan. Beloved by fans of Spielberg's Hook, the animated series Avatar, and the epic webcomic Homestuck, Basco's popularity taps into a convergence of fanbases.

Last week his latest film, Hang Loose, began streaming directly to fans. Basco and costar Kevin Wu, better known as Internet celebrity KevJumba, are hoping these same fans will turn Hang Loose into a success; and—with any luck—into a crucial milestone for Asian-American cinema.

If you're one of those fans, then you probably know Basco best as Rufio, the magenta-haired, mohawk-sporting leader of the Lost Boys in Spielberg's Hook. To fans of the popular animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, he's the voice actor behind the haughty but lovable Prince Zuko. Or perhaps you know him as the most famous fan of Andrew Hussie's massively popular webcomic, Homestuck—where his Hook character, Rufio, has appeared multiple times as a featured character, not to mention his entirely new character, a troll dubbed Rufioh.

Earlier this year, Basco joined Tumblr and started reading Homestuck at the urging of his fans, unaware of all the meta-references to his character that awaited him within the text of the comic. When Hussie found out Basco was reading, he began leaving cryptic notes for the actor on the homepage of his website: "HELLO DANTE"; YOURE DOING IT MAN; "YOU ARE MAKING THIS HAPPEN."  He even referred to the event in the comic itself. And fans flocked to Basco's Tumblr to watchhisreactions as he read.

Meanwhile, Basco has been busy with his other fandom: Last spring, he delighted Avatar fans by returning to voice Zuko's grandson in Legend of Korra, the hit continuation of the franchise. The role of Zuko was played by Dev Patel in M. Night Shyamalan's notorious attempt at adapting the franchise into a 2010 film for Paramount. Basco was unconnected to the widely publicized controversy over the Paramount production's whitewashing of most of the main cast and the subsequent fan protest that came to be known as Racebending.

But the campaign did hit Basco where he lived; as a Filipino-American actor, Basco is all too familiar with the rarity of quality parts for minority actors.

A desire to level the playing field and represent the Asian-American community was the impulse behind the creation of Basco's production company, Kinetic Films. A comedy set in Hawaii, Hang Loose is "a cinematic amalgam crossing Weekend at Bernie's and The Hangover," according to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, where Basco and Wu snagged awards for Best Actor and Best Newcomer, respectively. The film's trailer, featuring an intro by Basco and Wu explaining why they made the film, has racked up almost half a million views on YouTube.

On Friday, Hang Loose began streaming directly to fans on the movie's website. The Daily Dot was eager to talk to Basco about the film, as well as the importance of creating diverse content in the world of online media. Along the way, we touched on Avatar, Psy, Jackie Chan, and of course, Homestuck.

DD: One of the driving forces behind the idea of Kinetic Films is the Asian-American community doing it for themselves instead of waiting around for equal representation that's clearly not going to happen.

I can’t complain. I’ve actually had a great career in Hollywood. I’ve been a working actor my whole life. But I also see where we’re at and what could be improved. Back in the ‘90s, when we did The Debut, there were a handful of really great Asian-American films that came out; and we thought, this is it! This is the time! Hollywood’s gonna see that we’re cool, that we’re a community that needs to be catered to. And it just never happened. I think in the back of my mind, [I felt] like Hollywood would start making parts for us, but that hasn’t been the case. What it really comes down to is making films for ourselves, putting out images that show the reality of minorities in America.

DD: Do you feel like there’s been a regression since the ‘90s in terms of representation?

I don’t know if it’s a regression—there’s definitely been things like the controversy over the Asian-American character in Two Broke Girls. We’ve come so far, but it’d be great to have images that counter that, to have young leading men who don’t have accents that aren’t the brunt of the joke. Even "Gangnam Style"—as great as that song is, its popularity cements the idea in people’s minds that we’re all foreigners.

DD: You've stated that you don't think Psy's success is an indicator of advancing opportunities for Asians in the entertainment industry.

Not really. He’s great; he’s a great talent and a great personality. But the most famous Asian-Americans in American media are Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Psy. Kinetic Films wants to tell stories about us, about people who are born and raised in this country, and who are part of the fabric of this country. “Gangnam Style” is cool, but that’s not what we are.

DD: Do you feel like the overwhelming support for projects like Avatar/Korra, or hallyu (the Korean wave in general) have opened more avenues for minorities in the entertainment industry, or do these not fix the real problem because they aren’t authentically Asian-American?

Not yet. But my real belief is that if we can give lead roles to Asian-American actors, if we can create stars like KevJumba and AJ Rafael from the next generation, then money is a great equalizer. It brings weight to the argument for more representation. If we can prove [that there’s a demand for Asian-American film], then we’ll have more lead roles.

DD: I have to ask about [the failed fan campaign against whitewashing in the Last Airbender film], Racebending, because as painful as it was, since then, we've had so much visibility and attention given to the subject of whitewashing in Hollywood—the fact that "racebending" is a word, for example.

It’s illegal to hire or fire anybody because of their race, appearance, or sexual orientation, but in Hollywood, ironically, it’s the reason people will hire or not hire you. Depictions of race have changed so much since, like, the ‘50s, where white people just played every race. But the pendulum swings both ways: I’m Filipino-American. If I had to wait for a Filipino role to come out to get work, I couldn’t eat. There are barely any roles out there. It’s a grey area. I think the best thing is that we’re aware of it. The conversation about racebending helps a bit, but most of all I think it’s a really empowering conversation for ethnic actors, and helps them level the playing field.

DD: What was your reaction when you got asked to return as a voice actor for Korra?

It was definitely a huge surprise. I love being part of the Avatar family. It’s great to see [creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino] continuing the franchise and taking it to the next level, and pushing themselves to do even crazier ideas.

DD: Do you think you’ll have an even juicier role next season?

Hopefully! I have no idea what they’re doing, but they always keep me in the loop.

DD: Hang Loose is getting all kinds of attention from a convergence of fanbases that are coming together to support the project—your own fans, Avatar fans, Homestuck fans, fans of KevJumba.

It’s a new time. It’s a new world. It’s the idea we came up with, going directly online, to take the film directly to our fanbases—matching them all up and giving something that we hope they’ll like. It’s so experimental, and the response has been great so far. It’s just a different time. It’s like when YouTube came out for musicians and they could market straight to their fans. This is the first time I’ve seen filmmakers bypass studios and distribution companies and going, no, we’re going to make stuff straight for our fans. Because my career’s been so long, I have fans from different generations and different genres—film, television, animation. We don’t know how it’s going to turn out. Put that together with KevJumba’s army of a fanbase and our desire to come up with a story that appeals to the Asian-American community, and it should be very interesting.  

DD: Have you ever had a night like Dante's and Kevin's in the film?

I’ve had quite a few nights! You know, our relationship was a lot like the one in the movie. I guess I’m the young vet around town, especially in Asian-America. I’ve had quite a life. To be a celebrity, as a person in this town, as a producer, and as an actor. Even in Hawaii, it’s kind of nice. So there’s a big brother/little brother thing. And the great thing about the movie is that there’s so much I learned from Ken about the whole process and continue to learn about how the new world [of Internet media] is working. And I want to think he learned a lot of things from me about old media, "old" Hollywood: What we do, how we make movies, and how we write, our process. It’s a great partnership.

DD: Do you feel like the Internet has influenced that at all —your style of filming and production? Obviously it’s influenced your style of marketing.

I think it’s influenced everybody. It’s a great equalizer and a new art form, whether you’re using it for movies, music, or art. If you really work at it hard, you can really find your audience, tap into it, and make stuff for them—and realize that you’re a part of it, too. It’s not like you’re above your fandom. We’re fans of everything that our fans are fans of. It’s a different relationship between you and your audience.

DD: Speaking of which, can you talk a little bit about Homestuck?

Homestuck is—if you don’t know, it’s an online webcomic...

DD: Oh, I know, I’ve read it.

Oh, you’re a Homestuck?

DD: Yeah!

Awesome! So, I got wrangled into Homestuck. It’s the story of my whole social media [experience]. First of all, I wasn’t online, ever. I was telling Kevin and AJ [Rafael], you know, man, I’m not online. They were like, "Dante, Google yourself. You’re online." And so if you don’t cultivate your own online persona, you’re just leaving it up to, whoever, to do it. That kind of scared me, and they got me to really start doing Twitter, Facebook, and so on. After I got my YouTube channel and my Twitter started growing, a lot of people were like, you need to start a Tumblr. This one girl named jhenne-bean said, you’d have a thousand followers by tonight. I’m like, alright, I’m going to just follow you guys and listen to the fans. I did, and she was right: By that night I had over a thousand followers, and it just kept growing.

And then after a few hundred of my subscribers were like, “You need to read Homestuck because [Basco’s popular character from Hook] Rufio makes an appearance in it.” I did. And when I started reading that, all of a sudden I had over 40,000 followers watching me live-blogging my reading of Homestuck. It’s so crazy! It’s one of those things you can never imagine happening, and then it just happens and it’s the neatest experience and I’ve never ever been a part of. I’m having a great time.

Illustrations by Andrew Hussie/MS Paint Adventures; photo by Aja Romano

DD: Did you contribute to Hussie's Kickstarter?

Yes. That thing’s amazing. It’s crazy. I’m inspired by that all over the place. And even [Homestuck creator] Andrew Hussie’s written me, and we have this weird relationship through Tumblr and online, and he’s created a new troll [one of a group of characters in Homestuck] that takes my typing quirks and personality. I can’t even get my mind around it all right now, but we’re still in the middle of it.

DD: Was that also how you met Kevin Wu? Through online interaction?

I met Kevin through AJ Rafael. He's another big YouTube star. He's a very conceptual singer-songwriter. They have a similar relationship. One night, I met Kev at a bar, and we're all having drinks, and I'm so inspired by these guys that that night I was like, "Kev, we're gonna do a movie together."  He talks about it, too, sometimes. Like, "I can't believe I met Dante Basco in a bar in Laurel Canyon, and then months later we're in Hawaii shooting a movie." Everything just came together.

Photo via Dante Basco/Facebook

DD: You're doing at least three more movies together?

Yeah. So the first three are all set in Hawaii. Manna is a comedy written by Kevin Wu and Justin Shawn. Our other film's a drama called Paradise Broken. It's about the dark side of Hawaii; I play a pimp and a heroin addict in Waikiki. That's been to film festivals and won awards. And then I'm finishing writing a new movie called Red Roses, which is a musical written around AJ Rafael's album, Red Roses. So what we're trying to do is finish four films every year, a musical, comedy, drama, and action. And if we can pull that off, we can really create an Asian-American genre that has never been done before on a consistent basis.

DD: Did you make a decision to film in Hawaii for financial reasons or was it partially a decision to support the Hawaiian economy?

There's two reasons that we film in Hawaii. One, my partner, James Sereno, has the biggest commercial house in Hawaii. He has a USC grant, so after building a successful commercial house, he wanted to do a movie. He reached out to me as being one of the more popular faces in the community, and we got along so well, I said that we'd have a bigger impact if we did a slate of films instead of just one. He loved the idea.

The second reason, for me—if you've never been there, Hawaii is run by Asian-America; it is Asian-America. It's 85 percent Asian-American; it's pan-Asian-America. We run Hawaii. The mayor, the leaders, the bankers, the waiters, everyone; when you go to Hawaii, you're in America, but everyone is Asian. So that's a powerful thing. I always tell people from the mainland, if you're Asian-American, and you've never been to Hawaii, you need to go. If you're Filipino, Chinese, or Japanese, it's different than going home. Even when I go home to the Philippines, I'm American. Everyone knows I'm American. I was born and raised out here, I don't speak the language, and as proud as I am of being Filipino, I love being home, I'm still in another country. I'm still a foreigner there. When you go to Hawaii, it's a different feeling: You're not a minority, and you're still in America. It's a very powerful feeling.

Not only that, if we do a story in Hawaii, the odds that two people in the movie are Asian is a 90 percent chance. Woody Allen does movies about Jews on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. That's his world. I took that same mindset: Let's do movies in Hawaii. We don't have to explain why anyone's Asian. It's just, this is what Hawaii is. I think that's a powerful subliminal statement that we can make.

DD:  What do you hope the response to the film will be?

My biggest thing is, I want to make an impact. Of course we want to become a success and make money and keep going, but the bigger picture is to impact the industry: to create something that was never done before. The Asian-American genre has never existed before in Hollywood. To do something like that in an industry this big is a powerful thing, and I think it's a worthy thing to try to accomplish.

You know, in the last few years of my career, I've been getting a bunch of achievement awards, role model awards, for being a prominent Asian actor for the last few decades. I always graciously accept them, but part of me wonders: What did I really do? I just was an actor that managed to be able to keep working in a very hard and competitive business. And I guess that's admirable. And I understand that's valuable for a lot of people in the industry, but I didn't get it.

But then one of the other award-winners came up to me after the awards ceremony. He's a lawyer, and a doctor, and he does clinical research, and he's amazing. And he said, "Mr. Basco, I'm a big fan of your work, I've followed your whole career. You don't understand how important your job is, how much you help widen the scope of what people think of Asian-Americans today."  

And that really impacted me. As an adult, we're looking at legacy and how we can improve the world in what we do. And what I do is act, and this is how I can help open the doors for actors in my community, and go, look, this wasn't here when I got here, but I can bring that here for the next generation. I meet all these Asian-American actors who want me to tell them how they can succeed; and it's hard to look at a young actor coming up and go, "Hey, in my generation, it was just me and John Cho."

It's our job to try to make things better for the next generation, and this is what I came up with: Let's create a production company. Let's show Hollywood that we can make money, and great films, great art, and stars for the next generation. We can employ the next generation, of not only actors and actresses, but also writers and directors and crew members. I told Kevin, if we're not going to do it, who's going to do it?

DD: Last question: Who's your favorite Homestuck troll?

My favorite troll... it's gotta be Tavros; he's my dude. That's an easy pick for me. Kanaya is my patron troll and I really love her also. Who's yours?

DD: Karkat!

Karkat's cool. Kanaya's my patron troll, and I gotta love her for that, but then she's gangster! I mean, the chainsaw all of a sudden? I'm like, yo, that's my patron troll. But I will forever be close to Tavros, just because of [the connection between Tavros and Basco's character from Hook], Rufio. I know that the new Rufioh troll came out, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

DD: I've seen him on Tumblr. You look great!

I was a part of it, but now I'm part of it in a new way. It's just like a time continuum, this weird evolution of my part in Homestuck.

Hang Loose can be purchased and viewed online at the film's website.

Photo viaDante Basco/Facebook

The world hasn't closed up shop, but hell may have frozen over. Scott Bradlee, the brains behind the delightfully soulful Motown Tribute to Nickelback, has finally released the septet's debut album on Bandcamp. 

Called Motown Tribute to Nickelback, the seven-song collection arrives highlighted by the New York troupe's Motor City–hued remakes of Chad Kroeger classics like "Lullabye," "Photograph," and the eternally fantastic "How You Remind Me," the song that initially sent Kroeger to stardom. 

The album comes on the heels of a successful summer Kickstarter campaign crafted by Bradlee, an Astoria, Queens, musician and composer who came up with the idea for Motown Tribute to Nickelback after Nickelback was selected to play the halftime show at Ford Field during the Detroit Lions game Thanksgiving 2011. 

The campaign, which reached its funding goal on July 9, raised $3,294 and allowed the group to record Motown Tribute to Nickelback, which sounds just like the description within the album's name would imply.

Hosted on Bandcamp, the album comes free for your streaming pleasure and available for download at the end-of-the-world sale cost of $7.

Photo via A Motown Tribute to Nickelback/Bandcamp

With more than 72 hours of footage uploaded every minute, it’s physically impossible to keep track of the content on YouTube. But in YouTube Guide, the Daily Dot will curate its five favorite finds for each workday.

1) Nerdist, “12 Awkward Days of Xmas”

Got your five inappropriate thoughts in mind? Jim Henson’s Miskreant Puppets bring us their version of the “12 Days of Christmas,” and it’s as much a pain to get through all of the gifts as the original—although these presents are more entertaining.

2) Scott Kinmartin, “Mayan Cat”

We thought the Mayans predicted the end of the world on Dec. 21 and while that isn’t the case, we just missed the bigger picture: the calendar is part of a cat that possesses supernatural power and just took over the Nyan Cat. Simple mistake, really.

3) TheTrailerCats, “Dogs and Cats Living Together”

Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Bill Murray paint a picture of what the end of the world will be like like in Ghostbusters, but imagining the last one—”dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria”—yields some adorable results.

4) World Wide Interweb, “The 50 Best Viral Videos of 2012”

The 50 biggest viral videos of 2012 are rounded up in one video, including a bad lip dub, the Rebecca Black of holidays, a songified debate and biggest viral hit of the year playing in the background to ruin it all.

5) HenriLeChatNoir, “The Worst Noel”

Henri can’t stand the holidays, but soon he is visited by the Cats of Christmas Past, Present and Future in a Christmas Carol homage that leads him to realize that a philosopher life will leave him friendless and he should appreciate that he is alive and not a dog.

Photo via Nerdist Channel/YouTube

If you’ve ordered a kitten from Amazon for Christmas, chances are it will arrive a few days too early, thanks to a computer glitch at the online retailer’s fulfillment center.

“Ideally, we wanted the kittens to arrive on Christmas Eve,” says Wanda Triller, a spokesperson for Amazon.com. “But we’ve had a lot of complaints that they’ve arrived three to four days early.”

“I ordered Baloo as a Christmas present for my wife,” customer Sean Ninan tells The Fluffington Post. “But he came too early and it’s not like we could have left the box unopened until Christmas day. I’m all for priority shipping, but this is ridiculous.”

Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we’re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.

What does “Nyan” actually mean?

It means awesome.

Most of us, when faced with a weekend alone, would accomplish little more than some cleaning or a TV marathon.  

Nyan people are different.

Using nothing more technically sophisticated than Post-It notes and a working knowledge of memes, redditor DeAg_Star has turned a simple, rather dreary, apartment into a rainbow-bedecked nest of Internet awesomeness that cannot cease to delight, amaze, and confuse all visitors.

Although that guy in the comments pretty much nailed it. “Adderall is a hell of a drug.”

While Marty, the real-life Nyan Cat, passed away last month, this gesture makes a fine tribute.

Submitted on Friday to Reddit, it’s received 7,945 upvotes and 283,604 views on Imgur.

Podcasts soundtrack your road trips, liven up your commutes, and number in the unimaginable thousands. Each week, Podspotting brings you interviews, commentary and general gabbing on some of the best and most fascinating dispatches from the new audio frontier.

If you have a spare moment or two—a long train ride to work, an hour-long lunch break, or a lazy Sunday afternoon—then Aaron Lammer and Max Linsky, the men behind Longform, would like to share a story with you.

Well, more accurately, stories. There’s the one about the two American astronauts stranded onboard the International Space Station without a ride home, more than 300 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, after the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. There’s another about the prolific (female) Texas bank robber who dresses as a (male) cowboy for her heists before making a tragic last stand. And there’s the one about the 14-year-old who achieved nuclear fusion—the youngest person to ever do so.

That’s just a start. Since 2010, as the founders of Longform.org, Lammer and Linsky, both 31, have shared more than a 1,000 nonfiction stories from outlets ranging from old-school institutions like Vanity Fair to digital outlets like Gawker and The Awl. The site serves as an easily navigable, endlessly fascinating repository of the very best examples of longform journalism, a nearly bottomless treasure trove of great writing.

In August, alongside fellow cohost Evan Ratliff, the journalist and cocreator of the multimedia publishing company Atavist, they launched the Longform Podcast.  A weekly discussion with some of the writers behind Longform’s best stories—from Esquire’s Chris Jones and Texas Monthly’s Pamela Colloff to The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates—the podcast features smart, wide-ranging conversations. Though it’s likely to be of particular interest to aspiring writers and journalists, Lammer and Linsky are trying to craft a podcast that appeals to a broader audience.

“Just to be totally transparent, WTF with Marc Maron was a big influence on us,” offered Linsky, in a Skype conference call with Lammer. “I don’t think people who listen to that show listen to it just because they’re stand-up comedy fanatics, or comedians themselves. I think there’s a certain interest in how people do their jobs and how they develop. I don’t think our show is as entertaining (as WTF with Marc Maron) because we don’t have comedians on it, but there’s people beyond the professionals who are still interested in how the job of writer and journalist works.”

And although that job—and the entire notion of longform journalism—is one that’s often seen as imperiled in an age of online slideshows and short-form blog posts, since founding Longform Lammer and Linsky have seen more and more outlets take on the kind of in-depth, 2,000-word-plus journalism that was once largely the province of traditional media.

“Aaron and I talk about this a lot but I think we really are in something of a golden age for readers,” Linsky said. “There’s more great writing available, for free, and in your pocket, then there’s ever been in the history of the world.

“With the podcast, we kind of demystify the bylines and the process a little bit. Whether it’s Gawker or Vanity Fair, these stories come out incredibly polished, and you don’t get a sense of what it took to produce them. I think at its core, that’s what we’re trying to to: get the process to a point where how these stories were created is not so mysterious.”

With that in mind, Podspotting asked Linsky and Lammer to share some of the lessons they’ve learned so far. Think of it as Christmas gift for all the writers out there—advice on a range of subjects that every writer and reporter will have to do battle with at some point, from two men who have sat down with some of the best the world has to offer.

1) Procrastination: Everybody does it.

Max Linsky:“I’d say procrastination has come up in almost all of our interviews. It’s actually been pretty heartening to hear these veteran, incredibly talented magazine writers talk about how hard it is for them to actually get going on their stories. The flipside to that is that lot of the folks we’ve talked to have described the moment that they’ve finished a story as stressful, too. The sense of satisfaction lasts for about a minute. And then they’re almost immediately filled with dread about how they’re going to find another story again.”

2) Breaking in: It’s hard to do, so be persistent.

Aaron Lammer: The biggest thing I’ve heard so far, the real theme, is failure. The most consistent theme across all of the episodes is that, for everyone, constant failure comes before any real success. A lot of people have said, ‘I lived on kill fees for five years. I busted my ass trying to get assignments and it was years before I even got something.’ Particularly for people who are on the older end; I think there’s less kill fees out there now than there were at one point. And among younger people, we hear a lot of ‘I wrote something for free, and it was an interesting moment when I realized I put months of my life into something and got no money from it.’ I try to take a nonjudgmental view of writing for free. ... Some people have written for free, and it’s led to great things for them. But other people have written for free and felt used, like they got a bad deal.

ML: One consistent theme is definitely immense struggle and trial and error. Another is that most of the people we’ve talked to knew they wanted to be doing this kind of work. It was a very clear goal in their minds. I don’t think you can really get through the first part without the second part. It’s tough to get through the crap if you aren’t really, really passionate about doing the work.

3) Finding stories: There’s no silver bullet for discovering great stories.

AL: That’s something where I’ve found the most diversity of how people do it. There’s certainly people who just seem to have an uncanny knack for it. For other people, there’s certain times when they accidentally find a story and it’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, where you’re like ‘I was investigating this missing painting but I uncovered a murder mystery!’ Some people are just able to find these stories with several dimensions, and there’s a lot of ways that happens. … We had one writer on who just followed a bunch of local RSS feeds and tried to pick up on stories that were fascinating or weird or like there’s something more behind them.

ML: I think people have a lot of different approaches. One common theme is that people seem to put themselves out there, whether it’s sitting on RSS feeds every day, or going pretty far down the line on stories that ultimately don’t work out. People have all kinds of different methods. Jonah Weiner said something to me about how it’s important to have friends who aren’t on the Internet all day. If everybody is online all day they’re all seeing the same shit. If you have some weird friends who just know about weird stuff … that’s turned into some stories for him.

4) Pitching: If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

AL: One thing I know is, we’ve talked to people who wrote amazing stories that started as a rejected pitch from someone else. So I’ve definitely learned that someone rejecting your pitch does not mean that it won’t, ultimately, be a success. That’s something that’s been echoed by a lot of the people we’ve talked to: the piece that defines them, that put them on our radar, was something they had to shop around a lot, and that they had little support for.

ML: I’ve also been struck by how many of these pieces are assigned. I think one of the places that the podcast can go, and I know Aaron’s really interested in pursuing this, is talking more to editors. It’s been interesting how, for people who are on staff at these magazines, how many of these iconic pieces that they’ve written were simply assigned by an editor. … When we think of great journalists writing these stories, we think of these guys just sitting outdoors on a cliff, watching the waves crash against the shore, thinking of something brilliant, but often times it’s just someone at a desk in New York just telling them to go do a story.

5) The reporting process: You need to know when, and how, to listen.

ML: I think it’s a universal truth that these people we’ve talked to on the podcast are all fantastic listeners. And almost all of them can speak at length about listening and about how you get people to talk and open up. Most of them seem to take the approach that they need to give a little bit of themselves to the people they’re interviewing, in order to have their subjects give anything back.

AL:: What’s really struck me is that all of the people we’ve talked to, the personality type that’s necessary to succeed is somebody who naturally gravitates towards interviewing and research. You can be a procrastinator and you can occasionally fail, but if you don’t have the desire to do the research and the reporting, you probably won’t succeed. Most of the people we talk to are obsessive about research. They overresearch stories and, if anything, spend way too long on them. I haven’t talked to anyone who’s like ‘You know, I wish I could outsource my reporting and just do the writing.’ Everyone is very passionate about the first-person process of collecting information.

Photo via @Longform/Twitter

With more than 72 hours of footage uploaded every minute, it’s physically impossible to keep track of the content on YouTube. But in YouTube Guide, the Daily Dot will curate its five favorite finds for each workday.

1) Comediva, “How the LOLcats Saved Christmas”

The famous poem “‘Twas Night Before Christmas” is retold through the eyes of an Internet darling as the LOLcats have to save Santa (and with it, Christmas) from the grasp of one Grumpy Cat.

2) Lance Ford, “Django Unchained & Blazing Saddles Movie Trailer Mashup!”

Grab your beans and take a seat. Lance Ford reimagines Django Unchained just in time for its U.S. release with a Mel Brooks classic, and this time Sheriff Bart and the Waco Kid are out for blood.

3) BuzzFeed Music, “‘Rolling in the Deep’ - Amazing Handbell Cover”

One New Jersey high school handbell ensemble puts their talent on display as they cover Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” using only handbells.

4) Roman Atwood, “Christmas Elf Prank - Scares and Cares”

A couple of pranksters dress up as elves and decide to mess around with people about town, but along with being naughty they show that they have a nice side as they hand out presents to young children.

5) DustFilmsOriginals, “Man Of Steel - Trailer (Homemade Version: Shot-For-Shot)”

You have to have a large budget or special effects to make a trailer anymore. A recreation of the most recent Superman teaser using lookalike actors, a bathtub, various voices for the score, and action figures show that the homemade touch can still bring excitement to a film.

Photo via Comediva/YouTube

This ho-ho-holiday season, have Santa Claus give your loved ones a personalized phone call.

Google has once again made its well-wishing tool available for anyone who wants to spread some holiday cheer tomorrow. Users can schedule a Christmas phone call from Kris Kringle to any North American phone number (sorry, Europeans) by simply entering a couple of questions on the site.

Santa will ask you for your name, date of birth, and the recipient of your message. If your name, like mine, is somewhat ethnic or unusual, Saint Nick will ask that you give him an alternative.

You can choose to be called anything from "bro" to "superhero."

Naturally, I went with "ninja."

Next, it will ask you to provide the recipient's information, including name, place of residence, their relationship to you, and occupation. Much like the name option, Santa gives you an array of professions to choose from, including "Elvis impersonator."

Because Santa's down with political correctness, he also gives you the option of which holiday the recipient is celebrating.

A couple of questions more, and voila! You're done. Call scheduled.

As previously mentioned, Santa Claus won't call anyone not living in Canada or the United States, but he will shoot them a personal message via email or, if they're one of the 10 people using it, Google+.

Photo via Google

If your Christmas gifts stink of weed and whiskey tomorrow morning, blame it on ol' Santa Claus.

Between cutbacks at the workshop and keeping track billions of wish lists via social media, Santa kept himself sane by venting on Twitter under @Santa_St_Claus.

"We tried 'tweeting' in the 1800s with carrier pigeons, but we'd just find a bunch of frozen birds on our lawn in the spring," Santa told the Daily Dot in an exclusive interview.

It's going to be a hell of a long night for the man with the big red coat, but Santa was kind enough to muse about who made the naughty list, most popular gift this year, and what the chances are of the world surviving a zombie apocalypse.

Daily Dot: If your mall was the world's last hope to defend against a zombie apocalypse, how doomed would we be?

Rest easy boys and girls, if you must know, ‘Seal Team 6’ was actually our Tactical Counter-Terrorism Elf Division. I think we can handle some decaying mindless fools...whether they're Zombies or members of the Tea Party.

DD: In terms of gift receivers, how old is too old?

Well, octogenarian Betty White wrote me a letter asking me to deliver ‘my gift’ early, her chimney was pretty beat up so just I came in her back door. That answer your question?

DD: What's the worst-case scenario for kids like?

These kids today are worse than ever. Newsflash teens: taking a slutty picture with an Instagram filter does not make it art. Quit showing skin for ‘likes.’ At least the last generation did if for money so they could buy their own presents.

DD: What is your pre-flight ritual like?

Santa is a Jack and Coke man. Papa likes his whiskey. And usually I bring a pound of ‘tree clippings’ with me, but this year I'll make a pit-stop in Colorado...pretty sure their cookies will keep me flying high.

DD: What has been the most popular gift request this year? What do you make of it?

The most popular gift for three years running has been Justin Bieber. I'm sorry girls (and creepy old guys) I cannot kidnap anyone, duct-tape their extremities, and put them under your tree regardless of how good you've been.

DD: Any surprises on the naughty list?

Tim Tebow. If you only knew how many hymens he's broken with that ‘I'm saving myself for someone special’ routine. Focus on breaking more tackles Tim and maybe you'll get the start.

DD:Lindsay Lohan had a pretty bad year. What's it going to take for her to get her name on the nice list?

It's not looking good. Let me put it to you this way—even if she donated her kidney to a Children's Hospital, I'd still only get her an iPod shuffle.

DD: After countless years of marriage, how do you and Mrs. Claus keep the magic alive?

We have an open relationship. She knows one night a year I visit the houses of billions of other women, and unload my sack. In return, @Mrs_St_Claus gets all the elf action she can handle. No threat to me, luckily they're all hung like elves.

DD: Any new additions to the sled this year?

We installed a Lojack in case it gets stolen, it's not like I can walk into a police station and file a claim.

DD: Any last thoughts about this holiday season?

The reason for the season is LOVING one another, just be sure to pullout...your decorations, wear protection...on your hands and head, and always have Plan B...in case of a mistimed delivery.

Photo by Britt Selvitelle/Flickr

Like every year, Dachshund pup Tiger procrastinated with his holiday shopping. He woke up on Christmas Eve more than a little stressed.

“I told him to just get Amazon gift cards for everyone,” says Chelsea Teller, a source close to the situation. “But he panicked and left for the mall. Poor dope doesn’t know what he’s in for.”

Via viking.

Start your week right with the Daily Dot’s Morning Mashup, the best music remix from around the Web. Turn up your speakers or pop on your headphones, and bring the funk.

Wham! Psy! 1984 meets 2012.

No, you’re not as old as you think. … OK, you actually are. You remember Wham!

“Last Christmas” was a huge hit for the George Michael–fronted 1980s ambiguously sexual hair band Wham!

And "Gangnam Style" is … what it is, the definitive 21st-century jam.

Putting them together is nothing but pure win. DJ Paolo Monti has managed the rare century-transcending masterpiece. Shut off your nay-saying frontal cortex, connect with your boogie-happy lizard brain, and just enjoy.

Screencap via Wham!/YouTube

Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images every morning. Now we’re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.

Merry Christmas! We won’t keep you long. We’ll just present this GIF from us to you, which you may then post to Google+, Twitter, your blog, and (with lesser impact thanks to contentious GIF-disabling technology) Facebook with the appended note, “GPOY.”

After you open all your pressies, of course.

Tom Mathieson is a 21-year-old artist (when did all the GIF artists get so young? P.S. Get offa my lawn) from Stockport in the U.K.

He’s also extremely adept at capturing moments of heightened emotion, which is a fancy way of saying, basically, “GPOY Christmas Morning!”

In related news: What did you get me? 

GIF Tom Mathieson/ChristmasGifs.org