Top Five Fictional Characters You Would Want as a Friend

Have you ever watched a movie and thought to yourself, "Man, I wish I could hang out with that guy"? A great character can make you feel like you have known him for years. You can imagine talking to them and engaging in whatever hi-jinx they get themselves into film after film. These are the characters we would gladly grab a pitcher with.


Kevin's List



#5 Danny Ocean

Mr. Suave. The best long con guy in the game. Even though he is a master criminal and a tad far fetched at times, he would be a great guy to hang out with. He has some very powerful  and influential acquaintances. I guarantee you would never get a bad table at a restaurant or a hotel room near the ice machine with him by your side. He would probably pick up the tab also.

#4 Eric "Otter" Stratton- Rush Chair, Delta Tau Chi

I had to choose Otter on this list. Like myself, Otter is a frat boy at heart and I felt the need to have at least one Greek man on this list full of GDI's. (If you have to ask what is a GDI, you probably are one) I would have gladly joined Delta Tau Chi with a leader like Otter running the show. For Christ's sake, he slayed the Dean's wife! I'd frat hard with him any day.

Stay Fratty, My friends

#3 Trent Walker- Swingers

He would probably be the friend that would piss you off half of the time but that other half makes him completely worth it. He is the kind of friend that picks you up when you are down, whether you like it or not. Bad break up with a girlfriend? Trent is your man. Last second trip to Vegas? Previous mention Danny Ocean and Mr. Walker would be a great pair. Bonus point: He might be the only guy I know that still has a sega.

#2. Hank Moody- Californication

A brilliant author and good friend, Moody is probably the most interesting character on my list. I would love to have deep conversations with him that Trent and Otter could not handle or want. Moody also isn't too bad with the ladies, either. He also has a sweet car.

I'll be honest, Moody's ability with the ladies was 95% of the reason I chose him, I just threw in some BS about deep conversations so I didn't look like a complete horndog

#1 Barney Stinson- How I Met Your Mother

The best character on a show that is rapidly declining. All the other characters are falling in love, getting married, blah-blah-blah. Stinson is continuing his quest to be the most awesome man alive and is succeeding quite well. If Danny Ocean is the master of the long con, Stinson is the master of the short con. He has tricked more women than I can count with gimics ranging from a play book including a fake alias to using magician tricks. Copperfield couldn't even pull that off.  I know I have chosen my friends for pretty shallow reasons such as who would be fun to drink with, and who would be best at picking up girls. Let's be honest, besides childhood friends, most of the people you associate yourself with are just people you happen to drink with and chase tail. Just saying. If you want a true friend, buy a dog or something.

Pain Train's List


#5 Hercules

Being Hercules’ friend who be awesome on many fronts. First, his godly strength would prove to be an asset in any bar brawl. Secondly, as a demigod you would not only get into the hottest clubs and places in this world, but you also get to kick it in Olympia. For women he does not limit himself to mortals either as goddesses want his tail. Therefore, I would be more than willing to jump on what he considers a grenade.

Luckily there were no steroid tests in ancient Greece

#4  Doc Brown

Doc is unquestionably one of the most giving and selfless movie characters in fiction. He puts his life on the line for Marty throughout the entire franchise and not once does he hold it against him. Secondly, a huge factor in my friendship of somebody is how much fun I can have with them. Traveling time and the world allows me experiences that are unforgettable. 

Great Scott! I should not be associating with 16 year old boys!

#3 Harry Potter

Once again Harry would not only prove to be a blast to chill with, but he would also have your back both emotionally and physically. My boy can cast any spell he wants to get me out of or into any quagmire I can think off. Additionally, he always puts others before himself and is willing to work with those of us that are not at his skill level. Furthermore, he is a burgeoning ladies man who attracts intelligent, caring, and gorgeous women. 

#2 Benny-The Jet-Rodriguez

Can he cover your back? Hell ya! Death craving dogs don’t bother him. Does he genuinely care for his friends? Hell ya! We all know how he was a big brother to Smalls when he needed it the most. Would he be somebody to hang out with? Hell ya! He invites his friends to play baseball everyday. Would he be fun to have a beer with? Hell ya! I can picture him straight bar hopping at indie bars on Sunset in Silverlake after he gets yet another walk off steal. Can he kick some ass if needed? I have no doubt. 

#1  Ryan Atwood

For anyone that followed the O.C. religiously, this choice makes sense. We craved to be inserted into the drama, exploits, commraderie, and love of the O.C. family. Ryan can kick your butt, outscore you on the IQ, and save your life. He will cause you heartbreat, give you an ulcer, and ultimately put your life ahead of his. The love he shows Sandy, Seth, Marissa, Summer, and Kiki is truly without measure. He does this while pulling all night benders and joining underground fight leagues. What a man! What a friend!

Corey's List

#5 Tony Stark

The filthy rich, debonair, charismatic playboy doesn’t have many close friends, which only means that his inner-circle is ripe for cracking. One of those rare movie characters whose quips leave you thinking “wow, that was 100% the right thing to say,” he is your ticket into any party in the world, and his Malibu bachelor Mecca is better than anything I could even conceive.

#4 Cool Hand Luke

Fun to drink with, busted for having a little too much sauce and ripping the heads off of parking meters (honestly, who hasn’t had the urge?!?) Suave enough to pull ungodly numbers of chicks over to whatever table we’re sitting at, and a bona-fide Christ-like ringleader, as evidenced by the following he gains in the slammer. The kind of guy who backs you no matter what and never backs down from anyone else (50 eggs as proof).

Pictured: Badassness

#3 Indiana Jones

A man who needs little to no introduction. Adventurous, witty, and educated. An absolute pleasure to discuss the philosophical ways of the world (huge in my book) or travel to the four corners with. Bonus points for getting to hang with Daddy Connery. Offset by negative points of hanging out with Son LeBeouf.

This is what a tenured professor should look like

#2  Tyler Durden

Perhaps the most controversial member on this (or any) list. I do realize destructively psychotic (not to mention imagined) Durden was in Fight Club. But on the other hand, he absolutely gave Edward Norton’s character life. He turned him from a lost loser of epic proportions into a cult hero who felt alive for the first time in his life. I wouldn’t want to surround myself with multiple characters in the Durden mold, but having one guy around to spice things up would keep you on your toes, and, like Norton, alive (well, not literally, but you get the idea). Bonus points for being the guy men want to be and women want to bed. Great line.

#1  Benny-The Jet-Rodriguez

Best friend you could ask for growing up. Friend to the cool kids (DeNunez) and the not (Smalls). Any kid that loved baseball growing up went to bed on more than a few occasions wishing he was Benny (ask them, I guarantee it). Got to tell legendary stories about 4^th of July night games, Squints and Peffercorn, running from the Beast…Led a childhood that we all wish we had been a part of to some extent. And shit, the dude made the major leagues. Good friend to have. Heroes get remembered, but Legends never die. 

The face of immortality 

T-Jack's List

#5 Falcor (Never Ending Story)

Growing up as a kid and watching this movie, I always wished I could have falcor as a friend.  He is a huge protective dog that protects the people he cares most about.  Furthermore he flies and talks.  What could be better than man’s best friend flying through the clouds with the capability and know how to protect in the fashion he does.

Also included with friendship: Posh Spice

#4 Buffy Sommers

A sexy woman that kills vampires for a living.  I could only imagine having Buffy as my friend.  She looks good in tights and even better while killing vampires in them.  I frequently watched this show and crushed on the main character as a young lad growing up.

#3  Mickey O'Neil (The Pikey played by Brad Pitt in "Snatch") 

After watching this movie, who else would be better to go out with out on the town.  He loves to drink and nobody would talk mess because he will lay you out with one punch.  

#2  Indiana Jones

This guy drank from the holy grail, travels all over the world, and is an educated person.  Furthermore, he carries a gun everywhere he goes but uses as a secondary weapon to his whip.  This man is the S-H-I-T

#1 Jack Bauer

Need I say more?  I shouldn’t have to, but I will.  He saves the world every season in just 24 hours.  I definitely have a man crush on Jack. I have composed this list imagining our night on the town.  Could you imagine Jack Bauer, Indiana Jones, Mickey O’neil, Buffy, and T-Jack flying to a bar on the back of Falcor.  Then we walk into this bar together.  Heads will turn, and if we don’t like the looks we receive heads will role.

Which list would you most want to hang out with? 

Till next Tuesday...

Top Five Best Sports Moments

Sports are magical. Sports can bring an entire school, city, or even country together. Sports memories are some of the most fond memories we can have. Even if the event took place when we were young, we can still remember every little detail about where we were, who we were with, and mostly, how we felt. These moments, for one reason or another, are our top five moments.


T-Jack's List

5. Kirk Gibson hits pinch-hit walk-off Home Run in 1988 World Series
 

Kirk Gibson with two injured knees saw only one plate appearance during the 1988 World Series.  Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth with one runner on and falling behind 0-2 he worked the count back to full.  The runner steals second and on the eight pitch of the at bat, Kirk Gibson launches one of the most memorable and replayed walk off home runs of all time.  Even a Giants fan should respect this play in sports history. 

4. Joe Namath guarantees victory as an 18 point underdog to the Colts during Superbowl III. 

As a member of the AFL they were not even supposed to put up a fight against the unstoppable Baltimore Colts.  Upon receiving his AFL MVP he stood at a podium and guaranteed his New York Jets team would win the 1969 Superbowl.  This victory has become one of the largest upsets in sports history. 

3.  Hank Aaron hits 715th Home Run

September 29, 1973 would become a night to remember.  Many sports fans, of this age, still remember where they were when Hank Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth as the all time home run leader.  Aside from the racial tensions that were expressed by fans and other players leading to this plate appearance, Hank Aaron dethroned the great bambino and secured his place in sports history.

2. Jesse Owens wins four gold medals during the 1936 Munich Olympics

Jesse Owens went to the Berlin games in 1936 with the dream of winning a medal and competing for his nation.  Adolf Hitler went to the games to prove that the Aryan athlete was superior to everyone else.  He even went as far to use propaganda depicting African Americans as an inferior race.  Jesse Owens won four gold medals (100m sprint, Long Jump, 200m, and 4 x 100m relay).  Needless to say Jesse Owens winning these four gold medals was the eventual cause of the Nazis losing WWII.  Thanks Jesse

1. The Miracle on Ice 

A bunch of college misfits come together and do the unthinkable.  Playing against a polished and professional USSR who was considered unbeatable, a bunch of college amateurs beat the worlds best at their own game.  Furthermore, a weak prior to this mach the USSR beat the United States 10-3 in a friendly leading up to the 1980 Olympic Games.  This is what also caused the destruction of the Soviet Union and the United States victory during the Cold War.  Thanks guys for all the hard work.

Pain Train's List

5.  Pain Train with the walk off squeeze - April 2008 vs. Stanford club baseball

At first I was going to make my top 5 moments all about myself, but I decided to only go with one. I was coming off a ridiculous streak where I had hit the go ahead run in like 3 of 5 games but this time I got the sign from the coach to lay one down as the runner was sprinting home. I flailed at a shoulder-high pitch, put it down and the runner scored. This capped off a game where I also hit a home run, made a toasty diving catch, and gunned someone at the plate. No single play could describe me as a baseball player more, the selfless dirty underdog who loves to compete. Chicks dig the bunt. 

Re-enactment of the Pain Train's Glory Days

4. Pedro throws down Zimmerman

Am I the only one who has not forgotten about this? Only in sports can a 70 man still think that he has “it”. “It” being the strength to beat the crap out of someone else. What makes this one of the best moments in sports is that Pedro has the audacity to toss down this feeble old man. This just shows us the ferocity of rivalry and competition between two hated foes. They don’t even spare our great-grandfathers. 

3. Namath being Namath

We all know the high school quarterback who is still basking in the glory of 15 years ago. Heck, the boss even immortalized it in a killer awesomely bodacious song, “Glory Days”. Without fail, that quarterback has put on some LBs and usually has a drinking problem. But who knew (besides everyone) that retired athletes have a similar complex. So I offer up a question, “Who is in you Joe Namath All-Stars”?

2. Softball player carried around bases by losing team

Now I know this will be hard to believe especially in the brief snapshot I have presented of myself, but I truly believe this was a top moment in humanity. At the highest levels of sport, we see truly amazing displays of competition, sportsmanship, and athleticism. When taken to the extreme we get epic games where we feel lucky to have participated or watched. After a game of this caliber, there are no losers (as sappy as that sounds). Thus was the case in this game. As the player hits a walk-off home run she injures herself and can’t run the bases. Therefore the opposing team carries her. That is the highest form of competition and compassion. This is why we play sports, to better our selves.  P.S. how could this happen at a place where people are getting injured for drinking too much 4-lokos. 

1. Autistic kid gets in basketball game, drains multiple threes, and crowd goes nuts

Watch the clip and your faith in humanity is restored

Corey's List

5. Ali-Frazier I

Deemed by publicists at the time as “The Greatest Sporting Event in History,” it had everything that you could possibly conceive in a championship fight. Two of the greatest heavyweights of all time, both undefeated, representing greater causes (Ali the anti-Vietnam counter-culture of the 1960’s and Frazier the conservative, All-American visage), held at THE sporting venue of the 20^th century (MSG) and an epic fight that lived up to its billing. Ali’s first loss, Frazier’s greatest win and the catalyst for two more all-time classics, Ali-Frazier II and the Thrilla in Manilla.

4. Secretariat wins the Belmont by 31 lengths

Everything is bigger, faster, stronger and more athletic now than it was in the past—except there has never been a horse like Secretariat. We lose sight of how important horse-racing is as a sport to this country, but that is only because we haven’t had the “super-horse” to hitch our emotions to. For decades, the ponies were THE sport of the blue-collar, working-class Americans, through the Roaring 20’s, the Great Depression and beyond. People who had witnessed few spectacular things watched the greatest horse of all-time thrash the field by 31 lengths (1/16th of a mile) in running the fastest 1 ½ miles…ever…to this day. And oh yeah, it salted away the most prestigious trifecta in sports, Horse-Racing’s triple-crown at the same time.

No Need for a Photo Finish in this Race

3. Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech

Perhaps a bit of personal bias here, as Gehrig is one of my favorite baseball players of all-time, but doesn’t the “Luckiest Man” speech belong here? The best baseball venue of all time, the most prestigious team of any sport, ever…one of the real rags-to-riches stories coming to a tragic end, one of baseball’s best players, best people, and real heroes (along with 70,000 others in person and millions others over the airwaves) humbled by something so much bigger than the sport itself. Gives goosebumps…every time.

2. 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship 

Another of those “way-more-important-than-the-game” moments. Texas-Western’s all-Black Ballers upset Adolph Rupp’s Caucasian court-goers at the peak of the 1960’s Civil Rights movement. Paved the way for the modern era (outside of Duke).

1. Miracle on Ice 

 Only because any list that does not include this as the greatest sports moment of all-time immediately MUST be docked significant points. More story-lines than you could imagine and too many to list. College kids take down the most intimidating team in the world, America over the Soviets at the pinnacle of the Cold War. Motivation for several full-length films. Instant celebrity for kids who would never have tasted it. Al Michaels’ call going down in history as the BEST sports call of all-time. And the hands-down, 100% best example ever of how sports can transcend everything else, and unite people who have only an affinity for a team and unadulterated joy in common

Suck it, Pinkos

Kevin's List

5. Cal Ripken Breaking Lou Gehrig's All Time Consecutive Games Played Record

This moment came when baseball needed it the most. Baseball had just gotten done with a strike that left most fans disenfranchised with the game. Your normal working class American is not going to understand or justify million dollar athletes bitching for more money. The fact that the World Series was canceled was a final straw for fans, or so they thought. It took Cal Ripken, the epitome if hard work and dedication. The personification of America's drive and unwillingness to quit. That victory lap around Camden Yards was magical. Only someone like Ripken could have broke Gehrig's record. Ripken had a Hall of Fame career, but his finest achievement was saving baseball. 

Pure Class

4. Red Sox Winning 2004 World Series

86 years. An entire lifetime. That is how long New Englanders went without their beloved Red Sox winning a World Series. People were born, lived their lives, and died without seeing them win a title. They truly did believe that they were cursed. What made things worse, their hated rival won over 20 titles during that span. Even though the ALCS was probably the most exciting playoff series of all time, the true magic moment came during game four, when that final out was recorded. I was only 18 at the time, but understand how important this moment was. I skipped an evening history class that I needed to graduate high school in order to see the second half of the game. Totally worth it. 

3. Boise State Beats Oklahoma on Trick Play

The game the BCS wishes never happened. The BCS was built on the idea that only a couple of conferences and a small amount of teams could compete for a national championship. Only the historic, prestiogious programs can compete on that level. Small conference teams with tiny football budgets didn't have the talent, the coaching, or the resources to compete with the big boys. Until 2007. Boise State, with it's tacky blue field, had developed into a great program. This was their first chance in a BCS game, against a former BCS Champion, Oklahoma. This was the  BCS throwing the mid-majors a bone. They thought, "OK, we'll throw Boise State into the Lion's Den, get destroyed, and they will never complain again." That was all fine and dandy, but Boise State had other plans. After executing one of the most amazing plays anyone had ever seen to bring overtime, things looked grim when OU scored quickly. But Boise State scored a touchdown and shockenly, decided to go for two and win the game. History was made the ensuing play. 

Could have been the most awkward "NO" ever

2. Tiger Woods Wins 1997 Masters

Once again, I chose a moment that changed it's sport forever. For hundreds of years, Golf was a rich, white man's sport. People of color were not golfers, but caddies or greens keepers. It was the final frontier of desegregation and equal opportunity. This was the status quo, until Eldrick Tont Woods came along. A child prodigy, Woods played in his first PGA event at age 16, and turned pro before completing college. In 1997, Woods not only won the Masters, the most prestigious tournament in the world, held at the most prestigious golf course, but destroyed the competition while breaking color barriers. Woods showed an entire generation that golf could be cool, and you didn't need a roman numeral behind your name to enjoy it or be good at it. I was 10 years old when Tiger won and later that summer picked up my first golf club. I still play to this day and have had countless memories on the course with my friends. Programs such as "First Tee" started up around the country and taught the game to kids of all races and backgrounds. Thank you, Tiger. 

1. George W. Bush Throws out First Pitch at 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium

I don't care about your politics. I don't care about how you feel about W. I don't care if you think 9/11 was a conspiracy or that the CIA lied about the WMD's. This was one of the best moments in sports because of the circumstances and what it meant to the country. This was barely one month after the worst attack on US soil ever. The country was in turmoil. . There was talk of canceling the rest of the baseball season, that sports were not important during a crisis. But American refused to back down. People realized sports is not life, sports can make life better and bring people together. America needed its pastime more than ever. The Yankees, one of the symbols of New York, was playing in the World Series just a few miles from where the towers fell. In game 3, our President and face of the nation, proudly strolled out to the mound with an FDNY jacket, and threw a perfect strike. I am not going to be silly enough to say that him throwing a strike brought the country out of despair, but it was a proud moment for all of us. I still get goosebumps every time I watch the video. 

There you have it. Some real great moments there. Except for Pain Train's, that was lame. Please leave your comments below, including your own top 5.

Till next Tuesday...