This is the perfect summation - i used to think that Pete Holmes and TJ Miller were the same person on Doug Loves Movies because they were always imitating each other and neither was famous enough (pre-Silicon Valley) that I knew who they were.

A friend of mine works in video production and had the (mis) fortune of working with TJ Miller and will attest Miller is a rude and obnoxious asshole of the highest order. My friend says he cannot watch SV due to him seeing TJ’s shitty behaviour up close.

It’s a joke. But is it?

I waffle on TJ Miller, he can absolutely seem insufferable but he is a funny guy. I’ve listened to a few of his interviews on Pete Holmes’ (also insufferable but sometimes funny) podcast and he comes off as annoying but intelligent and it’s very confusing for me. I want to like him but I think he’s trying to make me…

I’ve seen a few episodes of the show and after reading these excerpts it has become clear to me the person he was playing on the show isn’t a character but himself.

SEE THIS SHOW

It literally blew my mind and my jaw was on the floor at a few points, and I’m a jaded, hard-to-shock New Yorker. While the torture was quite graphic and excessive (they heavily warn before buying tickets and in the Playbill) the loud noises and lights were probably the most jarring and had the most…

In the 1980s, Richard Posner wrote ‘Amusing Ourselves To Death’, in which he suggested that, with the rise of TV (this was pre-Internet), the U.S. was in much more danger of tyranny via the path of ‘Brave New World’ than it was from a ‘1984' scenario. His point was that ‘1984' required a condition where a dictator…

I saw this in previews a few weeks ago. There were people who brought their young teens, 13-14 years old, and a lot of those families had to leave during the second half. I felt bad for them, but at the same time, if you have any familiarity with the book you know there’s going to be torture.

I can’t recall where it played, but there was a small room (100 seats?) production that set up a bakery in the theatre and made meat pies for the audience every day. Apparently it really did up the psychological effect of watching it.

I saw it in London, in the last row of the mezzanine (I think you call it?) and it was viscerally terrifying. They do not pull any punches. They do not show anything gory (Sarah Kane’s Cleansed at the National was much worse) but they imply it really, really well. There’s a Jez commenter called doittojulia (possibly…

I can understand this phenomenon. Personally, I’ve always spoused the notion that, by default, human beings are built with a mental trigger, a kind of safeguard for the species, one that causes our minds and bodies to react negatively in the presence of human suffering, specially physical suffering. It’s a stronger…

In the book, cages are placed on the face and head of the victim. Starved rats are then placed into the cages. You do the math.

People make a big deal out of Bing-Bong. I thought this was part of the maturation process - letting go of Bing-Bong shows that she’s going through a different stage in life and is a normal part of growth. It’s not to say that people who still remember their imaginary friend are abnormal- I think it’s not a biggie.

Usually I avoid the hell out of anything that’s labeled “torture porn” but I’m genuinely curious how they are managing to freak people out with a stage performance.

This is something thing my dad always said to my mom before they made it into a movie- if it was movie about a guy that kills people and makes them into pies and my dad asked my mom to go see that movie she would never even consider. Put it on broadway/in London and add some music and it becomes a cultural…

Is it flaunting literary privilege to say that anyone going into a production of 1984 without some idea of what they’re going to see deserves what they get?

Well that’s murder which is fairly simple in terms of an act.

I could barely handle Bing-Bong’s death when I took my kids to Inside Out! This sounds PTSD inducing. Hard pass.

Wait till the musical comes out.

My first thought upon reading the headline was “King in Yellow on Broadway, great” and my second was “and I’m not not even surprised at this point.”