Last week on the show, Joel Murphy and Lars were discussing how most of the crazy news stories in this country originate in Florida. Proving their point is the big story this week, which involved a naked man eating another man’s face in a drug fueled, zombie-like attack, which, of course, happened in Miami. The dynamic duo breaks down this story from every angle, giving you the ridiculous Hobo Radio coverage you’ve come to expect.

They also discuss the delay of the new G.I. Joe movie, which has been pushed back nine months, supposedly to convert the movie to 3D. A delay like that is never a good sign, so this week the boys brainstorm ways to fix terrible movies without delaying a film’s release. They also talk about snake handling ministers.

Hobo Radio 224 - The rise of the face-eating zombies [ 1:20:37 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As you already saw in yesterday’s post, the Tumbler and the Bat-pod from the forthcoming Dark Knight Rises were in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor for Memorial Day.

As it happens, we have some DVDs to give away from TVFlashbacks.com, so we are borrowing a page from our buddy Homer McFanboy and doing our first ever Caption This contest, using this cutting room floor photo from yesterday’s Tumbler post.

From our prize bin, we will be giving out season three and season four of Roseanne, season three and season four of That 70′s Show and season three of 3rd Rock From the Sun. So submit your best caption for the above photo in the comment section below and check back to see if you won. (And make sure to check out TVFlashbacks.com since they were nice enough to give us these DVDs to give out.)

To get things started, here’s our humble caption submission: “Batman squares off with his most easily defeated villain, The Clapper.”

If you think you can beat our caption, leave your own in the comment section below.

Update: Thanks to everyone who entered. Here are the winners …

• First Place - ShagEaredVillain: “Sensing his vigilante justice was needed elsewhere, Batman turned and walked away. And though he was mocked, he knew better than to go chasin’ waterfalls.”
• Second Place - Emma: “Never before had Batman found such an enthusiastic audience volunteer to clap out the beat for his encore pasodoble.”
• Honorable Mention -Theresa Gaddy: “The superhero walk of shame. Not a pretty sight.”

Congratulations to ShagEaredVillain and Emma, who both have DVDs coming to them courtesy of TVFlashbacks.com (and to Theresa Gaddy, who wins nothing but our respect).

This Memorial Day, Batman could be seen patrolling the streets of Baltimore with his trusty Tumbler Batmobile and his Bat-pod motorcycle parked nearby. No, this wasn’t some sort of Wire-style crackdown on crime in Charm City. This was part of a nationwide tour to promote the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, which debuts in theaters July 20.

Hobo Stu

Hello everyone,

Working for the Men in Black has to be a really exciting and amazing job, but it certainly has its drawbacks.

No, I’m not talking about the impending end of the Earth at any moment or the constant threat of being eaten by giant alien bugs. I’m talking about the simple stuff, like asking for a raise.

Think about it – you walk into your boss’ office, plead your case and ask for a cost of living raise. Next thing you know, they hit you with a neuralizer and not only make you forget that you ever asked for the money, but convince you that you are an intergalactic janitor who is perfectly happy to make minimum wage.

Here’s what’s new on HoboTrashcan.com this week:

Review – Men in Black 3
Fifteen years after the original Men in Black film hit theaters, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back with Men in Black 3. The latest installment features time traveling hijinks and Josh Brolin playing a young Agent K. In a summer filled with a lot of blockbusters, is this film worth your hard-earned money? Find out in our review.

Positive Cynicism – You know there’s no magic curtain on the Internet that you get to hide behind, right?
Aaron R. Davis would just like to remind the world that even if you are in your own house in your boxers typing things online, you are still “in public” every time you post on the Internet and the words you write have consequences, whether you are aware of them or not.

From the Vault – Murphy’s Law – Guilty of being hot
A study at Cornell University found that juries are more likely to let defendants off the hook in trials if they are attractive. Joel Murphy plans to exploit this information to start a sexy life of crime.

From the Vault – Overrated – Civil War reenactments
You may enjoy brandishing a bayonet and wearing your finest wool period clothing, but Ned Bitters can’t help but think that your Civil War reenactments, which lack any of the real authenticity of war, are incredibly overrated.

Hobo Radio 223 – Hitting bottom
If there’s one thing Hobo Radio is all about, it’s finding solution to life’s most important problems. This week they tackle an issue that has plagued parents since the dawn of time – finding an acceptable word for children to use to refer to their backside. Joel Murphy and Lars discuss whether “butt” is an acceptable term for a child to use or if they should be using something even tamer like “bottom.”

The dynamic duo also discuss 80s movies and their horrible treatment of Asian characters. Long Duck Dong, Shortround and Data are all brought up as the two try to decide which character was the most offensive

- Hobo Stu

Hobo Stu’s Weekly Recap is also available as an email newsletter. To sign up for the newsletter to ensure you never miss an update, send an email to newsletter-subscribe@hobotrashcan.com.

Men in Black 3 is a completely unnecessary installment of a dormant franchise that, to my knowledge, didn’t have a large outcry to get rebooted. And in a summer filled with blockbusters like The Avengers, Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises, it’s ultimately a film that isn’t flashy enough or epic enough to stand out amongst the rest. But it is a perfectly serviceable and enjoyable little film that should leave Men in Black fans satisfied and entertained.

The film opens with Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement), a deadly alien that Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) locked away in a moon prison 40 years ago. Boris uses his newfound freedom to travel back in time to 1969 to kill a young Agent K (James Brolin) before he captures Boris. Once the timeline is altered, K’s partner Agent J (Will Smith) is the only person who remembers the way things originally were, which makes him the only person who can travel back to put right what once went wrong.

Adding time travel to the mix is a fun way to shake things up in a franchise in need of something new. Showing us how the Men in Black organization operated in the 1960s provides some solid laughs, especially when showing the not-very-sleek 60s version of the infamous MIB neuralizer, the “flashy thingy” the erases short-term memory. The film also has some fun with Agent J traveling back to an era when a black man with a suit was treated with suspicion and contempt. Also, the final act has some fun with the nature of time travel and the unintended consequences that can occur when you start messing with the past.

The film’s most inventive creation is Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), an alien who is able to see all possible futures at once. Griffin is an interesting addition to the time travel genre. He knows what is about to happen at all times, but he’s not omniscient. He knows the possible outcomes of any given situation without actually knowing which timeline he’s in. This means that he’s full of more useless information that useless info and he’s occasionally so fixated on what might happen that he misses what is happening. Stuhlbarg plays the role with a lot of charisma and gives Griffin an air of mystery that left me wanting to know a lot more about and see a lot more of Griff.

If there’s one thing Hobo Radio is all about, it’s finding solution to life’s most important problems. This week they tackle an issue that has plagued parents since the dawn of time – finding an acceptable word for children to use to refer to their backside. Joel Murphy and Lars discuss whether “butt” is an acceptable term for a child to use or if they should be using something even tamer like “bottom.”

The dynamic duo also discuss 80s movies and their horrible treatment of Asian characters. Long Duck Dong, Shortround and Data are all brought up as the two try to decide which character was the most offensive

Hobo Radio 223 - Hitting bottom [ 1:08:17 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download