TANcast

Somehow spammers have gotten it in to their tiny little heads that they need to try to flood TANcast with spam comments.

I know admins of real sites will scoff, but 6 months ago we were averaging about 20 spam comments per day. In October we averaged 120 per day before I turned reCAPTCHA on. It’s too soon to tell whether that made a difference, but I think we’re at least back to double-digits. Since it is still coming, though, I must conclude that either there is a way to post a comment without solving the CAPTCHAs (a flaw in the site or the plugin) or else these fucktards are actually solving them.

The thing is, Akismet catches pretty much every single piece of spam posted to the site, even without reCAPTCHA tossing up an extra step. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen something slip through. There is simply no reason to spam us. Nobody will ever see their penis-enlargement come-ons except Tim, Noah, and me, and Noah’s penis is plenty big for all 3 of us.

On the flip-side, Akismet does occasionally flag a valid comment, so Tim tries (and, infrequently, I do as well) to scan the pile of spam for any ham that slipped in. That’s annoying when there’s 20 to check a day. It’s more like a job when the spam really starts to flood in.

My solution is 1-fold: From now on, if your IP address has posted multiple spam comments to TANcast, we’ll just block that IP address.

Forever.

Fuck you, that’s why.

I added the first 2 dozen IPs to our block list this evening, including an entire Class B subnet. An unsurprising number were located in Chinese-owned blocks. It’s probably the same lowlifes that killed my cat.

If I did this correctly, anyone trying to hit the site from any of these addresses should now get absolutely no response from our server. We’ll see if this helps.

If you’re suddenly unable to see the site from your home computer (presumably you’re reading this via RSS or on another machine), some piece of shit spammer fuck has pwned either you or someone on your ISP (and you inherited their IP address). Get your machine checked, then email me your IP when you know it’s not hosting a bot.

My address is easy to guess. Don’t try to spam it; Google has an excellent filter.

This week, comedian Bo Burnham steals our thunder, Tim and Noah review Jackass 3D, the boys do some baby talk, Noah rails against gift cards, Tim rants about his Halloween Costume woes, the great colorless soda debate, Noah learns about the cops, TANcast listeners jump ship, and finally a salute to the rich film history of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[CONTENT WARNING] TANcast features mature language and immature hosts but is NOT a representation of the stand up act of Tim Babb. Listener discretion is advised.

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week Andy pisses and moans about technology, Tim and Noah review “Red,” Tim pronounces “Busby Berkeley” wrong and no one corrects him, the boys search for the illusive Dunkin’ Donuts, Andy and Noah talk video games, Andy pisses off his wife, product placement invades prime-time TV, and Noah takes a poop (in more ways than one).

[CONTENT WARNING] TANcast features mature language and immature hosts but is NOT a representation of the stand up act of Tim Babb. Listener discretion is advised.

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

As featured on TANcast episode 121, here is Noah’s recipe for Tamale Casserole…

Tamale Casserole

Filling:
1 package of ground turkey
1 large yellow onion
2 large bell peppers
1 can diced tomatoes
1 (small) can tomato paste
1-2 tbsp chili powder
1-2 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp ground red pepper
salt to taste Read the rest of this entry »

That’s it. I’m done. I’ve been entering Cracked Photoshop contests for a while now and I have yet to win…but this week was the last straw. The theme of the contest this week was inspired by the Facebook movie, The Social Network. The premise was, since THAT movie was successful, what will be the NEXT website made into a movie?

This week’s contest actually caught my imagination and I made more than a dozen entries. Not only did I not win but only two of my entries were chosen for their top 19 and my best entry was DELETED off the forums by the Cracked editors.

Well screw you, Cracked, I’m not playing your game anymore! You get no more free work out of me. Fortunately for the rest of you, I saved all my entries and I’m going to display them all for you…even the ones that made the Cracked list. (I think that’s against the rules but screw them! What can they do? Take the money away that I didn’t win?) In keeping with true Cracked tradition they are in no particular order of greatness and #1 is definitely not the best…

#15) Hampsterdance.com:
This one was my first entry and actually made their stupid list…at number 14. WTF?!

Read the rest of this entry »

This week Andy plays video games, Noah sees the Social Network and Turtles Forever, Andy is close minded about polygamy, and Tim tells you how to stop an acquisition of your company.

[CONTENT WARNING] TANcast features mature language and immature hosts but is NOT a representation of the stand up act of Tim Babb. Listener discretion is advised.

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week the TANboys tackle the great nerd debate of our generation: Who would win if the Star Trek Universe fought the Star Wars universe. Ladies, this episode will surely make your panties moist…oh wait…no…well, only if you pee yourself because your man is locked in the bathroom arguing with his iPod.

[CONTENT WARNING] TANcast features mature language and immature hosts but is NOT a representation of the stand up act of Tim Babb. Listener discretion is advised.

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Day 30

I can’t begin this blog without first acknowledging the effect SModcast and Kevin Smith in general has had on me. Andy, Noah, and I would not be doing TANcast were it not for SModcast. Kevin’s inaccurately titled “Jersey Trilogy” provided many hours of fun at the TANhouse.

But a while back, SModcast had quite a few misfire episodes (almost as though they were stooping to TANcast quality). The fun banter and odd ball stories were getting shoved aside for the recurring themes of pot and hockey. I think it’s taken a noticeable uptick recently, but I very much remember being disappointed in SMods for quite a few months in a row. Well I wasn’t the only one who noticed this. Apparently people had left some comments saying so both on the SModcast site as well as Kevin’s View Askew message boards.

Yeah, big man, we’re talking about you and you can’t stop us. What now?

Among these comments were people who shared my opinion that the Tell ‘Em Steve Dave (TESD) podcast had now surpassed SModcast in comedic value. So I guess people were leaving posts saying that TESD had replaced SMod as their favorite podcast. Kevin reacted by getting his panties in a twist…

Um… why rank them at all? And why let us know who’s jockeying for which position in your heart? That’s tacky.

I think we’d all rather you just kept it simple and said “Thank you.”

Oh…I didn’t realize that the only appropriate response was to worship at the alter of Kevin. Granted, I’m no fan of negative comments, but if you put something out there, it’s going to be reacted to. You can’t get butt hurt at every little comment…especially when you own a million dollar home in LA and are famous for making movies.

I didn’t say any of this, because I was not moved enough to do so. Others however apparently have more passion and/or more time on their hands and refused to drop the issue. At which Kevin “Thick Skin” Smith (not a fat joke) had this to say… Read the rest of this entry »

Day 29

Back in July, my wife and I went to Walt Disney World for the first time! I talked about it on episode 109 of TANcast and I talked more about it on episode 11 of the Mr Frank’s Wild Ride Podcast.

But the big plan was to do a bunch of videos about it for my Tim Babb’s Kingdom Comedy series on YouTube. But it’s been over a month and…well…I’m still working on it.

The weight of my failure is heavier than this.

Read the rest of this entry »

Day 28

(I end up doing a lot of blog “sequels,” don’t I?)

The casting website that knew me so well last time is at it again. Apparently they were on a spree today because I got three e-mails from them in under an hour. Here they are in order of appearance:

Your TCF profile matches three criteria for the following role: Woman with Lap Top

Gender: MATCH
Ethnicity: MATCH
Age Range: MATCH

Description: GOOD COMEDIC ACTOR. FUNNY DIALOGUE TO BE PLAYED STRAIGHT.

In case you missed the description, it says they want the part to be played straight. So naturally you sent the part for a woman with a laptop to a guy. Yeah I can see how that’s the perfect part for me to play straight.

No matter how hard you try, you can’t Ctrl Alt Delete this image from your mind.

Read the rest of this entry »