Binged the show, and seeing it in rapid-fire, the watchphrase for the entire series is ‘deux ex machina.’  So many times, one could literally predict the narrative of the next episode or so from whatever aspect or development they conjured up to reference moments prior.  The content kind of falls into one of two bins,…

I didn’t assert that an actual secret handshake was going on. My point was, if you don’t know what people are reacting to, it appears that way from the outside. The fact that people were reacting positively to what turned out to be gibberish that simulated foreign dialog vindicates that sense by those in the home…

I completely reject your interpretation of ‘what’s actually going on.’ It’s unwarranted and insulting for the purpose of couching derision in the guise of oppression. The point is, if you DON’T SPEAK whatever language is being spoken or simulated, how do you know ‘what is required’ to ‘get’ the joke? The point is, Bad…

I don’t necessarily characterize it as ‘us v them,’ and I think that the protestation that ‘a lot of it wasn’t even really Spanish’ reinforces what I would say is a closer critique.  There was a sense of imposition that ‘hey, the joke tonight is that they’re going to spout of Splangl- . . . ish gibberish, and…

I think two things are at play. One, the term isn’t used enough in clear situations to have a strong consensus meaning. This gives rise to an ambiguity to meaning arising from the ambiguity regarding the actual gravity of the thing being described itself. Non plus itself derives from Latin/French to literally mean ‘no…

I think people have an instinctual [wrong] impulse to assume that hoi polloi and ‘high falutin’ have to share an etymology.

That’s how I am about Wings.  When I was watching it in real time broadcast, it was as good as sitcoms get, and then you don’t find it in syndication and it lapses from your consciousness.  Once or twice a year I recall ‘gee I wish I could dial up a Wings marathon.’

The first season had a lot of promise, that seemed to suffer from scattershot editing. The writing and performances in specific scenes were pretty great, but from episode to episode you had this nagging sense of ‘hey weren’t there a bunch of story threads that were really important that are now dropped and forgotten?’…

Fargin Bastage

I would love for a genre, not so much of ‘cinema’ per se, with all those attendant market and setting expectations, . . . but a new genre of ‘augmented audiobook’ to arise. This felt like a glimpse into Anderson’s experience of reading the book, and it seems like a valuable genre to explore. A reading of the prose…

Actually dug my grandmother’s plot with dad and uncle back in the day. And there is surprising value in the act. It’s arduous and both solitary and communal because you can’t do it with a crowd and can’t do it alone. It’s an act of service and a time to reflect simultaneously, and I’m grateful I have had that to carry…

Offer this, not as chastizement. As soon as I saw the title and the author, I knew what was in store. I offer this as perspective on a question people ostensibly have been asking be answered. But when people talk about cancel culture, this article highlights some key aspects. A lot who deny its existence or effects…

John DeBella

This is what is so frustrating about passive-aggressive shifting ‘takes’ on stuff like this. I’ve been on board with Whoopi’s position of the day on this for YEARS.

Chief’s footage of Bev chewing gum. . . 

The best executed bit of the episode was Charles’ ‘you’re still here? . . .’ when Oliver fires Broderick. Just subtle enough that you had to register it when he continued the bit a beat later, and just aggressive enough to show that Charles had been simmering on that retort for a while like some sort of Costanza.

““Kristen Schaal is a genius”

Never would have guessed Big shared urination procedures with Butters.

I thought raised ranch and split level went out with Boomer knees.

All good fun, so long as every is honest that all this mishegas of poring over every line and inflection to snark over what cataclysmic aspiration the author ‘really’ means is the same energy as Ben Shapiro rambling for hours about the messaging of the Barbie movie.