Contributor, The A.V. Club. Reid's a writer and editor who has appeared at GQ, Playboy, and Paste. He also co-created and writes for videogame sites Bullet Points Monthly and Digital Love Child.
Clad in the traditional black cape and spiky circlet of mourning, Madonna appeared at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards to pay tribute to Aretha Franklin. The show’s producers, we assume, wanted to memorialize Franklin, marking the loss of a musical icon by having another famous singer reflect on a remarkable…
Over decades of TV episodes, Homer Simpson has earned an important place in pop culture. A picture of his lightbulb head immediately creates a warm, pleasant sensation: he is a generation’s ur-Dad, he is charmingly stupid, and he’s reassuring in his familiarity. Regardless of The Simpsons’ recent quality, his cartoon…
When Billy Corgan isn’t cavorting with supernatural entities and fighting the influence of youthful, globalist, social justice warriors, The Smashing Pumpkins’ frontman finds time for his other great hobby: starting beefs with just about anyone he can think of. Unfortunately, he may have just engaged an opponent…
Britney Spears’ 1998 breakout hit “...Baby One More Time” is so deeply embedded in the cultural consciousness of its era that it’s almost impossible to remember what its lyrics actually mean. Britney’s loneliness is killing her, yes, and she has a lot of thoughts on babies, but what, exactly, is going on with the…
Starting a game of Tetris is one of the great meditative experiences. The blocks fall gently from the top of the screen, waiting for the player to guide them into orderly rows. Arrange the blocks properly and neatly enough and they blink out of existence, the screen ready for more tidy constructions. It’s a process of…
Summers, as we all know, are for hula-hooping and twisting to some really boss surf rock with the gang. If you, between gulps of malted milk at the soda shoppe, ever wonder where these traditions came from, you’re in luck: The Royal Ocean Film Society has put together a video all about early ‘60s beach party movies.…
As welcome as the decision of pretty much every internet media platform to purge Alex Jones’ putrid breed of “truth-telling” from their systems may be, some people out there are not so thrilled. No, we’re not just talking about Twitter, stalwart protector of the very worst forms of free expression—we’re talking about…
The weed devotees over at Reddit’s r/trees are usually posting about the kind of stuff you’d expect. The front page today, for instance, features this diagram showing why getting high is better than getting drunk, a meme image about world peace with a cartoon of a stoned turtle, and photos of giant buds.
It’s 3 p.m.! Let The A.V. Club briefly make use of the waning hours of your productivity with some pop culture ephemera pulled from the depths of YouTube.
Jaden Smith, the young actor, musician, artist, and starchild of the endless cosmos, is known for tweeting fascinatingly bizarre nonsense. Somehow, even amidst the oceans of indiscernible garbage and bot-ridden missives barfed onto Twitter each day, Smith stands out. He is king of Mystery Mountain, figuratively…
Donald Trump Jr. isn’t shy about the things he hates—things like accurate descriptions of socialism, Hollywood being mean to his papa, legible depictions of Barack Obama, and, last but far from least, visible skin imperfections.
The rise of the internet dog is something only the most prescient science fiction authors could have seen coming. For many years, cats ruled the digital world so completely that an alternative reality was simply unimaginable. Watching them play keyboards or stalk their owners in video after video, the idea that they…
It’s 3 p.m.! Let The A.V. Club briefly make use of the waning hours of your productivity with some pop culture ephemera pulled from the depths of YouTube.
Tom Cruise seems to want nothing more than to encourage his thetan onto its eventual trip to Venus by endangering his body for our amusement. This is fine because, as we all know, supporting a dangerous cult in its quest to enrich itself and torture its wayward members means the afterlife is nothing to fear. It’s also…
Now that he’s spent multiple years playing buff soldier guys in patriotic films and TV shows and enjoyed success as director of A Quiet Place, John Krasinski is ready to return to the role that made him famous: The Office’s resident camera-looking, prank-playing, shaggy-headed Jim Halpert.
1997's Event Horizon has developed a reputation as a disturbing horror movie. If you, for example, watched it at a tender age, youthful eyeballs glued to a big CRT in a darkened room while your parents were out of town, you likely take this fact for granted. Childhood hero Dr. Alan Grant stalks around naked, covered…
It may be hard to imagine in the midst of this awful, sweltering summer, but it will be autumn soon. As the season changes, we can look forward to the return of all sorts of annual traditions: pumpkin-flavored drinks, Halloween, crisp days walking next to russet-leaved trees, and, most revered and ancient of all…
It’s Monday and, because it’s Monday, you may still be shaking cobwebs out of your brain, looking out at the week ahead with a vague sense of horror at everything that lies in front of you. Something deep inside may be recoiling at the prospect of the distance between now and the next time you don’t have to get up and…
Within the next few years, every celebrity will have played a superhero. It’s simple mathematics. Between Marvel, DC, and anyone brave enough to try to introduce non-Marvel and non-DC characters to the current cinematic landscape, there is a role out there for just about anyone who’s ever been famous.
The clear highlight of Who Is America?’s premier was the final segment: a nauseating series of interviews with American gun advocates, eagerly endorsing programs like arming preschool-aged children with firearms. Among the writhing snake pit featured in this part of the show, one particularly notable serpent, the…
