The AVC reminds me of Mulaney's bit about junior high kids, who he finds terrifying because they will make fun of you in an accurate way. When an actual or intellectual equivalent to a 9 year old on youTube calls you a "stoopid niger fagg," it's hard to take it personally.

Every Gathering is a mix of ICP's friends and the kind of people who are playing the 5 pm slot at a mid-sized city's summer festival/block party.

From a legal perspective, I'm not sure that's true. Spending your campaign donations on non-campaign-related stuff means that you acquired the money under false pretenses, which, again, is fraud and legally actionable.

Ben has a throwaway line about diverting campaign funds to pay off Dan and Amy, which is probably fraudulent. I agree that it's a bit of a reach and a probably unnecessary item intended to add stakes, especially since Selina is supposed to be very personally wealthy.

Me too, maybe neck and neck with Jonah at his peak.

This is a function of modern comics, though. The Silver Age looks surprisingly unified because 1.) continuity was still in its infancy, and 2.) at Marvel, most of it was scripted by one guy.

I used to work for a radio station, and I can think of a half-dozen more likely scenarios here than "a bunch of people shut off their radios when they heard that the singer had lady bits." The only piece of concrete data he offers here is an unverifiable observation that most of his stations' databases don't have a…

I try to approach all the song and dance numbers in Bollywood and other regional Indian cinema as a cultural feature that I probably don't have the proper context to judge, but there's no way around the fact that it's a 5-10 minute act break so the cast can sing the themes to you.

It's odd conceptually because it's essentially an equipment showcase. There are a few scattered "listening stations," but I'd argue that standing in a crowded hallway anchored to a pair of headphones isn't really the ideal way to experience a record. Music doesn't lend itself to museums the same way as some other…

This is why I've always had some respect for the man, despite the often valid criticism and the fact that I sometimes disagree with him. Comics — really the arts in general — are full of egomaniacal loudmouths who complain about everything, like if the internet had a real job, but almost none of them have the courage…

This is the part that really amazes me. Most reality shows end up rewarding dicks with no shame, but it's rare to see it encoded into the actual published rules like that.

Indeed. I disagree with a couple of points in the review, but especially about the tags. This probably isn't in the show's top two or three seasons, but that end slot has become a venue for some consistently great, off-brand humor.

Also, Joffrey was a psychopath who'd consistently order a round of murder for looking at him funny. Tommen can be made to change his mind by a stiff breeze. I can totally believe that Joffrey would have had everyone rounded up and killed on day one, but that a doofy, good-hearted kid who looks about 13 would balk at…

Wait, really? A plane ticket to London is all it would take?

HItman gets overshadowed by the more ostentatiously in-your-face Preacher or the much grimmer Punisher or War Stories, but it's still probably my favorite Ennis book, certainly of the longer run stuff. Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium is one of the top two or three most fun things I've ever read in a comic book,…

I always find it funny that a lot of writers' ideas about what would make an ideal mate is a person having no interesting qualities, hobbies, or outside interests beyond their singular fascination with their love interest.

Well, surrendering to the internet's love for wild speculation, I would guess it's more the creators indulging her than CBS. The Good Wife's a critical hit, and it apparently does pretty well with rich people, which CBS likes. Nevertheless, its ratings have never been great, and it probably couldn't survive the…

Yeah, the humor there would be how badly it potentially fucks the whole concept of promoting a movie. You might be okay on a legitimately good project, but on Smurfs III or whatever, basic questions like "Are you excited about the film?" and "How does this compare to the first one?" are suddenly unanswerable.

I think it's more a great representation of what kids' shows feel like to a parent who ends up watching them over and over for an evening. For everything fun thing that works for both kids and adults, there are a half-dozen shows that, when you're half paying attention to them and trying to maintain sanity, just seem…

Eh, I find that to be a pretty believable moral stance, if not totally justified Most of us have many products that we only acquired so cheaply because of exploitative labor practices, lots of people know the Superbowl leads to a spike in child sex trafficking and the NFL shelters domestic abusers but still watch…