I like the play on this in "Mr. Robot," where the V-influenced Monopoly Guy mask used by Mr. Robot is revealed to be from an especially trashy zero-budget horror film, not actually a pointed satire on the upper classes.

TRUE SHOWBIZ TALES #23: I did "Godspell" this past summer. If you've never seen "Godspell," or if you've never seen it done well, what you need to know is that there are only two characters. Jesus and Judas (who is also John the Baptist). Everyone else in the cast plays some variation on themselves or a character…

Killing Grandpa.

It's a pretty perfect fusion of the 60s beat-pop aesthetic with the 90s jangle-pop aesthetic, though. It's clearly of the decade that gave us "Roll to Me" and everything by Jellyfish.

Wait… "Hey Santa" as in "Hey, Santa Claus, ye coont, where's me feckin' bike?"

John Malkovich, though… Hmm.

Here's a list of not necessarily ideal people, but people I'd like to have heard audition:

The Ocean's 160,000 method of heisting is just to overpower with numbers. All 160,000 physically band together and tear the building down with their bare hands, crush the safe with their combined weight and make a getaway by outnumbering the state's military personnel. No matter how many get mowed down, for every…

No, Manolo Blahnik is a well-regarded scientist turned sitcom actress with questionable homeopathic beliefs.

Oh, you're back! Hope all is well.

Okay, now how about a futuristic update of the story, when artificial intelligence turned actual intelligence has been created in a computer system. The Programmer, tiring of the whole thing, decides to back up his favorite creations and wipe the system clean.

Oh please, Arthur Reade is about as street as Pat Boone. Kid thinks he's Hey Arnold but he's more Caillou.

That's the pseudo-Fellini movie musical about Francis of Assisi with a score by Donovan, right? I remember some scene from that eerily haunting me as a child.

She's gonna convert me in my Chevy van.

There's a great Oglaf about that, but I'm on my work computer, so I can VERY MUCH NOT link you to that.

My favorite Childish Gambino song.

It was Gaston that killed the Beast. Luckily he respawned as Prince Adam before it was too late.

Yeahyeahyeah!

"And the cat eats the baby with a silver spoon…"

TRUE SHOWBIZ TALES #22: In high school, I performed as Berger, the secondary lead in "Hair," opposite a fantastic young actor with gravitas and presence, and little to no singing ability. Unfortunately, he was cast as Claude, who sings a LOT of songs. The director, not willing to lose his brilliant performance in the…