Rob McElhenney makes Mac’s hesitation one of those improbably affecting character moments that Sunny wields so expertly. After the others sneer that he’ll retreat back into the closet now that he’s won, McElhenney’s look of clear-eyed relief is genuinely heartening

Well, "plenty" is a stretch, I think, but my point was that there was more room for transgression in cinema at that time. Things that weren't even considered transgressive at the time probably couldn't even get greenlit now (look at Rob Lowe's comments in Random Roles about The Hotel New Hampshire).

I wonder if anyone has done a study on things like this. For instance, do people subconsciously not think they own a book until they've paid for it? Is that one reason why, despite sites like Project Gutenberg, Penguin and Oxford World Classics and (especially, because it doesn't contain notes) Signet continue to make…

I think I can see what you mean. I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of King's. He has one talent any writer should envy and aspire too: description. He makes you see what he's writing, clearly, distinctly, on the movie screen of your mind, and this a rare talent even (maybe especially) among our "serious" writers. But…

Maybe, but did you ever see the film version of The Story of O? Hardly the "real deal," and cinema was far more transgressive in the 70's than it is today.

Yes. And it takes obstinacy and ego to get into print on that level. You have to believe you're great no matter what anyone says. I think this is true in all the arts.

There was zero undercurrent of respect for his prose for at least the first twenty years of his career. Seriously. Trade reviews may have said "this will sell" but the man was considered the most cliched hack in the business, manipulating an obvious formula (his critics never actually could define that formula) for…

Speaking as a writer, who knows many writers, what matters is publication and audience. James has a huge, responsive, supportive audience. All the cheap shots do is direct more people towards the work. I doubt many writers care that they are "laughing stocks" to some self-selected elites. It never seemed to bother…

Done with your one-handed typing?

The AV Club contextualizes Trump's tweets now. Because they refuse to shirt their duty in covering the vast world of entertainment.

How did his blonde hair get so black? Nature is mysterious.

Keep going. Your comments are valuable to everyone.

I love this whole situation. I'll never read the books or watch the movies, but that this woman got the whole world to buy her trilogy after it being available online for free, and then a major film series gets made in which she, a movie nobody, exerts absolute control over the product and it's a hit…this is like…

You're still responding! I'm supposed to be the one taking it all so seriously, and you're deep in psychoanalysis of my character. lol

Still Smokin' is probably the one I remember most fondly, despite the pronounced homophobia. The absurdity of their being mistaken for Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds and the E.T.: the Extra Testicle bit still make me laugh when I think about them.

And yet people insist p.c. is not a thing…

I sort-of agree. It isn't a well-directed movie, and it isn't consistently funny, but it's easily their best movie and it's the rare movie vehicle for a stand up act that follows the rhythms of a stand up routine—one segment vaguely related to the next in an easy going way, and the various treads of ideas somewhat…

lol You're still responding. But you don't care at all. Lol.

But you still need to comment, HD. And I'm the one whose supposedly taking all this so seriously. lol

Look to your own posts, HD.