I'm confused - are we upset because the jokes are lazy or vaguely racist?

Thanks for the education!
That's genuinely one of the craziest business models I've ever heard of.

I think you're kidding, but I agree - SLJ is (IMO) a fantastic, nearly institutional character actor. But he's also been a weird throw-in if you wanted to add "blackness" to a film. (He's much more than that as a performer, but I think some of the casting comes that way.)

Yeah, I agree. But the seeming GOAL of the gamesmanship was to mislead the advertisers and get better scores, which would (without disclosure of the story) lead to higher rates. I guess I'm baffled that the advertisers are cool with it. Maybe the gamesmanship isn't effective?

I'm confused - this sounds a lot like fraud? But NBD?

"Berensteined" refers to the Berenstein Bears conspiracy - people of a certain age are insistent (as am I) that the Berenstein Bears are spelled "Berenstein". But, somehow reality disagrees and it's allegedly "Berenstain Bears".

Hova's late career weirdly mirrors U2's to me - more brand than artist, they both put out popular work that lacks nearly everything that ever made them remarkable before. I'm hopeful that 4:44 is a change of pace, but it's been a LONG minute since Jay Z put out a relevant album.

What?

Maybe you are. For me… it's been a while.

What institutions aren't awful?

Fuck. Now I feel like you Berensteined me. I went to at least two Lilith Fair shows and I could have sworn I saw PJ Harvey play one of them. Wikipedia disagrees. I need to go back to my timeline.

Wait, who took over Girls criticism? I thought it was VanDerWerff and then Alston? I have no idea what this story is you're referencing.

Ha. Oddly, that's when people started to leave. But I feel you.

*Puts on reading glasses*
In my day, the AVClub was just a wonderful old-fashioned website where the editorial staff constantly changed and we used to complain about innocent things like stealth advertising, fabricated criticism, and constantly shifting editorial staff. Back in those simple days, we used to hector a…

As a fan of both Lilith Fair and Tool, I love this story. We're allowed to be feminists and also have senses of humor, people. Keenan would be a prick if he insisted he deserved a place at Lilith Fair - just asking to be included isn't really a big deal.

… That's wonderfully colorful but I'm not totally sure I get the idiom. Or do I?

Apparently I do not like this!

Yeah, that sucked hard. Super generic and boring. A friend compared him favorably to Regina Spektor. So, now I need to find a neurologist for my friend, I guess?

Thanks! I'll check out a few of his songs before definitively hating him.

So, it's fitting that Taylor Swift discovered him, I guess? Was he found in her freezer or something?