Bill Murray is playing at my house

December 1, 2010 3:57 PM

"Every year my wife and I throw a party and when I send out the photos I add famous people."
posted by oinopaponton (101 comments total)

Reese WitherspooooooAAH NEVERENDING NECK
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:01 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

that made me laugh a lot, i'm going to give it a go next time I hold a party. Thanks!
posted by MT at 4:06 PM on December 1, 2010

I always feel some small amount of pride when I have never before seen the face of someone who is supposed to be a celebrity.
posted by cmoj at 4:07 PM on December 1, 2010 [27 favorites]

I have to say, about half of those are pretty good photoshop jobs that would trick almost anyone. The Bill Murray one is totally convincing.
posted by mathowie at 4:07 PM on December 1, 2010 [11 favorites]

That's hysterical. Damn, wish I thought of it first!
posted by Jubey at 4:10 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, though Bill Murray at 6'2" is not going to tower over anyone that way unless they're about 5'6" or under. Which they might very well be, I suppose.
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:11 PM on December 1, 2010

I always feel some small amount of pride when I have never before seen the face of someone who is supposed to be a celebrity.

Now I don't feel so bad. Half of them were like 'who?'
posted by fixedgear at 4:12 PM on December 1, 2010

If it was me, I would just fabricate a longtime friendship with Snoop: Snoop smiling with his mouth full of birthday cake, Snoop hitting the piñata, Snoop playing under the Christmas tree.
posted by Beardman at 4:12 PM on December 1, 2010 [40 favorites]

Where's the one with Mathowie???
posted by theora55 at 4:12 PM on December 1, 2010

Most look a little "off", but the McCain shot is perfect, like they just caught him in the middle of a dirty joke.
posted by CaseyB at 4:14 PM on December 1, 2010 [7 favorites]

who're these people?
posted by cjorgensen at 4:17 PM on December 1, 2010

Shit, I've been throwing parties with celebrities then photoshopping wives in.

/doin' it rong
posted by defenestration at 4:18 PM on December 1, 2010 [4 favorites]

At first I suspected some of the photos didn't have famous people shopped in at all. I thought it must be a prank in which he pretends his friends are celebs that have been shopped in and everyone is all like " huh? Who is that, is that the guy from that episode of will and grace? Maybe its that one guy from rubicon." Then I realized I'm probably the only one who would think that was funny.
posted by Ad hominem at 4:19 PM on December 1, 2010 [6 favorites]

cjorgensen, the lady on the right played Bella in the Twilight movies. The women to her left is someone with infinitely more talent.
posted by ZaneJ. at 4:24 PM on December 1, 2010 [7 favorites]

Strike me up as another 'who are these?' for half of them... though I did recognise this and thought it juxtaposed humorously (though it's probably a coincidence)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:27 PM on December 1, 2010

theora55: Where's the one with Mathowie???

Here he is, he just got here, so he still has his helmet on.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:27 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

If I were a celebrity, I'd totally go this guy's house and have my picture taken with all his friends, because nobody would ever believe anybody involved.
posted by xingcat at 4:28 PM on December 1, 2010 [20 favorites]

And I'd be sad to be the friend who got 'shopped out and replaced by Bill Murray's head.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:28 PM on December 1, 2010

If I were a celebrity, I'd totally go this guy's house and have my picture taken with all his friends, because nobody would ever believe anybody involved.

I'm pretty sure I've heard that Bill Murray actually does this. Maybe that's really him.
posted by oinopaponton at 4:33 PM on December 1, 2010 [7 favorites]

Actually, Bill Murray really was there, and he said no one would believe you, even if you took a photo.
posted by Tsuga at 4:33 PM on December 1, 2010 [15 favorites]

Jinx!
posted by Tsuga at 4:34 PM on December 1, 2010

I am very impressed with the quality of most of these. Talent and patience.
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:34 PM on December 1, 2010

Thank God I'm not the only one who couldn't tell the "celebrities" from the regular people. Either this means the photoshopping is really good, or I'm hopelessly out of touch.
posted by CunningLinguist at 4:34 PM on December 1, 2010

And I'd be sad to be the friend who got 'shopped out and replaced by Bill Murray's head.

Of course, I'd gladly give up my place at a friend's party if it meant I could head-swap Murray in Ghostbusters. I'm surprised that nobody's come up with a realtime face-tracking replace-your-favorite-movie-star app for Kinect, but I guess it's still early yet.
posted by Strange Interlude at 4:36 PM on December 1, 2010

These were pretty good, and the one with Snoop made me chuckle. Good on him.
posted by mosk at 4:39 PM on December 1, 2010

I think my favourites out of these are the ones where the celebrity isn't even the main subject. Like the Brad Pitt and Al Gore ones, for instance.
posted by arto at 4:40 PM on December 1, 2010

The Keanu one is particularly good.
posted by shakespeherian at 4:40 PM on December 1, 2010

also, at first I thought Bill Murray was Colin Mochrie. I am a horrible, horrible person.
posted by arto at 4:41 PM on December 1, 2010

I like that Brad Pitt is walking out of the frame, while Jennifer Aniston's solo-cupping it up in the center of the shot.
posted by padraigin at 4:44 PM on December 1, 2010

This guy's site is neat. Previous post.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:46 PM on December 1, 2010

Ok. Fine. Here you go.

1. Bill Murray (center)
2. Keanu Reeves (center)
3. David Beckham (left)
4. John McCain (left)
5. Reese Witherspoon (left)
6. Possibly Shia Labeouf? I don't recognize him with the beard (left)
7. George W. Bush (left)
8. Al Gore (third from left, body obscured)
9. Jennifer Aniston (center, black jacket, looking directly at camera)
10. Lindsey Lohan (center)
11. Snoop Dogg (center)
12. Barack Obama (center)
13. Laurence Fishburne and Gina Torres (two at left)
14. Kristen Stewart (right)
15. Jonah Hill, Zac Efron, and Vanessa Hudgens (three in center)
posted by mhum at 4:50 PM on December 1, 2010 [5 favorites]

Yeah, some of these are really tight.

The McCain and "never ending neck" are the only off ones, IMO. The graininess that just isn't there in McCain kills it, and Reese, well, damn, that's some neck.

They really stand out only because the rest of them are just so damn good.
posted by cavalier at 4:56 PM on December 1, 2010

Mhum, Thanks for the help, I didn't recognize half of them either. But then again, I don't do any celebrity worshiping.
posted by TiHara at 5:00 PM on December 1, 2010

What's up with the mullet on Bill Murray? Under his right ear. Photoshop disaster?
posted by punkfloyd at 5:01 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

A great idea, and I'm also glad I had trouble identifying the celebrities by appearance and (in some cases) had to go by the bad 'shop.
posted by davejay at 5:04 PM on December 1, 2010

Heh, Lohan's still on her feet.
posted by Duke999R at 5:06 PM on December 1, 2010

Haha I just realized Britney is in the Lindsey Lohan shot as well. Very clever.
posted by Jubey at 5:06 PM on December 1, 2010

And Jennifer Aniston pops up again behind Al Gore. Look for her hair over his shirt.
posted by Jubey at 5:09 PM on December 1, 2010

Interesting. it was apparently at least partially the context that made some of them difficult to recognize. I thought Keanu was just some guy and I was supposed to recognize the guy on the left. Also, David Beckham looks like shit.
posted by cmoj at 5:10 PM on December 1, 2010

There are a few more photos in the original gallery.
posted by filthy light thief at 5:15 PM on December 1, 2010

Jubey: Haha I just realized Britney is in the Lindsey Lohan shot as well. Very clever.

Haha! I didn't even think to look for more than one celebrity in that photo.
posted by mhum at 5:23 PM on December 1, 2010

I'm surprised by how many people say they can't identify the "celebrities" in the photos. I mean the majority are either the elected leaders of our country, or actors and actresses who have starred in dozens and dozens of big films over the past twenty years.

Recognizing former presidents of the USA isn't exactly celebrity worship. I mean really.
posted by Maude_the_destroyer at 5:24 PM on December 1, 2010 [8 favorites]

Drop Dead Funny.
(it's been years since i said this...)
You WIN at Internet today!
posted by djrock3k at 5:28 PM on December 1, 2010

I knew a student newspaper editor years ago who liked photoshopping Leon Trotsky surreptitiously into photographs of demonstrations, but none of his work was anything as good as this.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:28 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Bonus points for the effort to put Fishburne and Torres in the mirror to the right, although I think it makes the photoshopping more obvious.
posted by shen1138 at 5:29 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

What's up with the black area that cuts into Vanessa Hudgens' face?
posted by emilyd22222 at 5:33 PM on December 1, 2010

Maude: dozens and dozens?
posted by ODiV at 5:35 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

#9 also has Brad Pitt (far left).
posted by jamaro at 5:37 PM on December 1, 2010

That's kind of fun; I expected it to be a lot more douchebaggy for some reason. Go, that man!

I am a little bemused by people taking pride in not having particular bits of information. Is all that extra non-entertainment-news space in y'all's heads taken up by really useful stuff like which wild plants are good to eat and which are poison, or is it like my head which is full of information just as useless as the identity of Jennifer Aniston--but somehow considered by some people to be "classier", like the major battles in the war between Stephen and Matilda or the Köchel numbers of all the Mozart symphonies?

And I'm not even going to fucking get started on the pop song lyrics. My head is stuffed with the lyrics to what seems like every crappy English-language pop song ever written, starting in about 1850.
posted by Sidhedevil at 5:43 PM on December 1, 2010 [15 favorites]

These are well done. The Al Gore shot is perfect. What makes them work is the addition of shadows.
posted by davebush at 5:43 PM on December 1, 2010

Is Al Gore someone I'd need to have a TV to know about?
posted by found missing at 5:46 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

What's up with the mullet on Bill Murray? Under his right ear. Photoshop disaster?

Eh, I noticed that too. He probably didn't feel like meticulously painting in the background from memory. Especially after drawing all those clipping paths. He did a phenomenal job, and this must have taken forever.

These are well done. The Al Gore shot is perfect. What makes them work is the addition of shadows.

And matching the faked shadows to the real shadows perfectly. He nailed it.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 5:47 PM on December 1, 2010

jamaro: #9 also has Brad Pitt (far left).

Damn, another one I missed. I really have to admire the dedication of this guy, sneaking in extra celebrities to beef up the gag even when they're not necessary.
posted by mhum at 5:52 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

that was the creepiest thing ever. the one with al gore is hilarious.
posted by liza at 5:53 PM on December 1, 2010

emilyd2222: What's up with the black area that cuts into Vanessa Hudgens' face?

Honestly, I think that's just her face. She has a kind of prominent, square chin. Compare here. Also, it's a bit of a weird angle.
posted by mhum at 5:57 PM on December 1, 2010

theora55: Where's the one with Mathowie???

Right here!

With bonus Cortex!
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:57 PM on December 1, 2010

I am a little bemused by people taking pride in not having particular bits of information.

Some of us are incapable of recognising such people as "our mother" and "our best friend of 20 years" in unusual situations or with a haircut and as such see a pile of party photos containing only strangers, Reese Witherspoon and Barack Obama. I knew I should find some of these people familiar, but I didn't even get a "hey! it's that guy!" for any of the others.

(This also makes facebook very inconvenient when you cannot recognise photos and half the women you knew as a teenager have changed their names on marriage. Who are all these people? Oh, that's my cousin.)
posted by jeather at 5:59 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

The inherent goofiness of this delights me.
Also, I feel somehow politically vindicated by George W. looking like a total fratboy.
posted by SaharaRose at 6:01 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

I knew a student newspaper editor years ago who liked photoshopping Leon Trotsky surreptitiously into photographs of demonstrations,

My (lack of) god. That's brilliant for so very many reasons. Not least because it suggests that the photographic universe observes a sort of Law of Conservation of Trotsky.
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:15 PM on December 1, 2010 [14 favorites]

George, wait until you consider further evidence on the matter.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 6:20 PM on December 1, 2010

I can attest to that.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:24 PM on December 1, 2010 [6 favorites]

the only thing more annoying than celebrity worship is the "am i supposed to know who this is??" brigade.
posted by nadawi at 6:36 PM on December 1, 2010 [8 favorites]

There are a few more photos in the original gallery.
God, I hate it when Robert Pattinson shows up stoned to my holiday party.
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 6:43 PM on December 1, 2010

Really decent Photoshopping, though it really needs a Chris Walken to feel, well, complete. I might have to whip one up...
posted by dbiedny at 6:55 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

I understand the urge to shop celebrities into the snapshots from a party. But why would you choose Not Mr. T when you could have chosen Mr. T?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:07 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

is there a lego version of this?
posted by kitchenrat at 7:09 PM on December 1, 2010

God, I hate it when Robert Pattinson shows up stoned to my holiday party.

GAH WHY IS IT SO PINK.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:10 PM on December 1, 2010

I'm surprised by how many people say they can't identify the "celebrities" in the photos. I mean the majority are either the elected leaders of our country, or actors and actresses who have starred in dozens and dozens of big films over the past twenty years.

Some of us are from other countries (yes, there are some!) and not all of us watch films by "size".
posted by fish tick at 7:15 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

George W Bush was unknown in Canada.
posted by found missing at 7:21 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

[x] Too Hip for Celebrity Recognition
[x] Not a USian you insensitive clod
[x] Fake, this is Photoshopped!

Come on people..work with me here.. how many more horse-->glue mantras are we going to drop in this here beautiful thread starring James Van Der Beek?

(Okay, so I faked the third one)
posted by cavalier at 7:29 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

i mean, if you hate the culture of celebrity, why even come into a thread where the lead in is "...famous people"?

i don't care about a vast majority of the things posted here, but i don't know that i've ever felt compelled to go announce that (and if you comb my history and found i've done that, i assure you i was being an asshole that day and apologize).
posted by nadawi at 7:39 PM on December 1, 2010

theora55: Where's the one with Mathowie???

Greg_Ace: Right here!

With bonus Cortex

Sweet baby jesus as a mod... forget this Everett Hiller, who's obviously just a third-rate photoshop hack... Greg_Ace, those are the most extraordinary photoshopped pictures I've ever seen- I mean, your work is utterly flawless! Everything- the shadows, the lighting, the way you created realistic-seeming reflections in cortex's glasses- that's the kind of attention to detail even the most sophisticated photoshopper misses. ILM or Weta need to hire you post-haste, young man!

I mean, if it weren't for the obvious "tell" that the mods and No. 1 never actually leave the safety and solitude of Skull Island- much less to carouse with the hoi polloi- I'd almost think those photos were real...
posted by hincandenza at 7:52 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Aw, shucks! *blush*
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:57 PM on December 1, 2010

Yeah, you caught me, those were totally 'shopped. But I swear, this one wasn't, not one tiny bit!
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:59 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

I knew who they all were.

Even the non-celebrities.
posted by iconomy at 8:06 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

There are a few more photos in the original gallery.

Yes, I was disappointed that the beautiful Nathan Fillion one didn't make the cut for this post.
posted by adamdschneider at 8:17 PM on December 1, 2010 [4 favorites]

the pics are obv shopped, nice try OP
posted by jeremy b at 8:17 PM on December 1, 2010

I have to say, about half of those are pretty good photoshop jobs that would trick almost anyone. The Bill Murray one is totally convincing.

You don't think he's in sharper focus than the other two?
posted by John Cohen at 8:48 PM on December 1, 2010

This is very silly. Thanks for posting it.
posted by ph00dz at 8:48 PM on December 1, 2010

Man, Trotsky used to be kinda good looking in a crosseyed, inappropriately intense sort of way.

Okay, so I've got a type.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:54 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

I don't do any celebrity worshiping.

Is that what I've been doing by watching movies and following major national elections?! OH MY GOD, it's like Scientology or something! I didn't even realize it!!!!
posted by Brocktoon at 9:10 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

These are well done. The Al Gore shot is perfect. What makes them work is the addition of shadows.

That, and matching the red-eye.

Everyone seems kinda stoned at this party.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:13 PM on December 1, 2010

Twenty years and more ago, my brother used to do the reverse of this: as a film student, he had a good eye for film grain and lighting, so he used to redub videocassettes with what one might call special editions. Here is Animal House three seconds longer than it used to be because of a couple of extra shots -- perfectly lit, perfectly shot -- of him drinking and dancing to Otis Day and the Knights at a toga party; here is Star Wars with a brief shot of him in spacer gear in the cantina; here is Jaws with a couple of seconds of him splashing in the tide at Amity Beach.

It got to the point where I used to barely notice this; when a TV camera by chance happened to cath him and a couple of friends in the crowd at Live Aid in 1985, it scarcely registered with me until I recalled that about a billion people were watching the broadcast and he could not have faked that.

I sometimes wonder where all those videotapes wound up... did people who picked them up fourth-hand at a garage sale for fifty cents ever notice a weird shot of an unnamed extra for a second or two that they had never notices before?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:50 PM on December 1, 2010 [12 favorites]

Oh, well played.
posted by pseudonymph at 12:14 AM on December 2, 2010

A lot of you must get your exercise by jumping to conclusions. I was just thanking someone for naming all the people that were Photoshoped in the photos. I admitted that I didn't know half of the people, but that doesn't mean I didn't recognize the ones that make a difference to my life. I just didn't recognize the sports figures or younger movie actors. It seems like some of the group thought I was putting people down because they knew all the players. As someone who is old enough to be eligible for Medicare, I just don't keep up with the newer movie actors. I wasn't trying to insult anybody or try to act like I was too good to know all the people in the photos.
posted by TiHara at 12:21 AM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

pseudonymph, who all is in that? I just assumed it was Fuzzy Dunlop...
posted by kalimac at 12:45 AM on December 2, 2010

kalimac, take a look at the person to the left of the girl with the green balloon. Recognise that fine and luscious pompadour?
posted by pseudonymph at 2:25 AM on December 2, 2010

kalimac, it's Conan O'Brien sitting on the floor.
posted by Anything at 3:38 AM on December 2, 2010

Ohhh...and I thought we were supposed to be focused on NPH in one-quarter profile.
posted by kittyprecious at 4:13 AM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Man, I would love it if Leon Trotsky showed up at one of my parties.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:49 AM on December 2, 2010

There's something wrong with Jennifer Aniston's hair.
posted by anniecat at 6:52 AM on December 2, 2010

I never even noticed Conan sitting on the floor. I was assuming that the massive chin belonged to Quentin Tarantino. Now you are telling me it's NPH? Is this something you'd have to have seen Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle to understand.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 7:07 AM on December 2, 2010

Trotsky used to be kinda good looking

Stalin too.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:17 AM on December 2, 2010

kalimac, take a look at the person to the left of the girl with the green balloon. Recognise that fine and luscious pompadour?

Also, is that Quentin Tarantino in the foreground on the right?
posted by chundo at 7:57 AM on December 2, 2010

No, if it is a celebrity, it is definitely NPH. You guys wouldn't know Tarantino's chin if it came up and bit you in the face.

That happened, once!
posted by adamdschneider at 8:00 AM on December 2, 2010

Stalin too.

Looks way too cheerful and extraverted. I'm just not into that.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:41 AM on December 2, 2010

Stalin too.

If looks could kill, he'd be responsible for millions of deaths!
posted by pardonyou? at 9:11 AM on December 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Too much SNL...I thought Al Gore was Darrell Hammond.


I'm only a little bit ashamed.
posted by heathergirl at 1:47 PM on December 2, 2010

John McCain is eating that beer.
posted by Israel Tucker at 4:30 PM on December 2, 2010

I wonder if anyone's pointed out to them that the only black people at their parties have been Photoshopped in.
posted by Grangousier at 4:40 PM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wonder if anyone's pointed out to them that the only black people at their parties have been Photoshopped in.

It's a party, not a show on CW. What are they supposed to do, cast for diversity?
posted by sweetkid at 11:14 AM on December 3, 2010 [3 favorites]