As David Cross’s character Tobias in the Fox cult TV favorite “Arrested Development” found out, the Blue Man Group is not a support group for sad men.

Just ask James Srodon of California, who filed a lawsuit with the Cook County Circuit Court, indicating that he was not a “willing” participant with the Blue Man Group during one of their infamous audience participation bits.

The Blue Men used Srodon for a bit in which they used an “esophagus cam” in Srodon’s throat and projected footage of the inside of someone’s stomach on the stage screen.  Srodon alleges that he did not want to participate, and the Blue Men forced the tube with the camera down his throat, and that the tube was covered in food and other disgusting debris from the theater floor, as well as blue paint from Blue Man hands.

The injury lawsuit seeks $50,000 for battery, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.  Srodon claimed in the suit that the camera injured his mouth, throat and dental work.

A man from Arizona has filed a patent with the US Patent Office for an “energy weapon protection device,” which from the diagram he provided with his application, consists of a jacket made of non-conductive material that won’t allow the Taser attacks to jolt the wearer.  I.e., we’ve got Taser-proof clothing.

No word yet on whether or not people who wear this crazy outfit can be cited for “excited delirium” before they get tased.  In fact, the fashion police might be more appalled by this set of threads than any law enforcement agency.

If you did any shopping at the mall or other retail store over Christmas, you probably experienced the headache of shoppers jawing away on their cell phones in store aisles, in line for the cashier and generally all over the place.  It can get quite uncomfortable when an oblivious cell-phone-talker starts airing personal business over the phone while ignoring those in his or her physical presence.

Common courtesy (and probably common sense) dictates that if you have to take or make a cell phone call, you should move to a more private location than a bustling retail store.  But in this day and age, don’t be surprised if a bit of common courtesy confuses the heck out of people. 

Take the case of Elizabeth Beeland, a holiday shopper who stepped out of a Best Buy to talk on her cell phone, forgetting her credit card at the cashier’s desk.  The ever-vigilant Best Buy clerk, surprised by Beeland’s beeline for the door, suspected she was fleeing the scene after using a stolen credit card, and called over a police officer to confront her.

According to the police report that officer Claudia Wright filed, when Wright confronted Beeland outside the store, Beeland was “verbally profane, abusive, loud and irate.”  After warning her to calm down or face arrest, Wright shocked Beeland with a Taser.  Security video of the incident shows Beeland backing away and trying to avoid the officer, then falling to the ground as the Taser strikes.

Officer Wright was not disciplined for using the Taser on Beeland.  The Chief of Police defended Wright, saying that Beeland was disobeying an officer’s orders and that the Taser was a better alternative to another weapon.

Beeland has reportedly hired a lawyer and is looking into the possibility of an injury lawsuit, since she was not behaving violently or attempting to flee from the officer when she was shocked.