Yeah, that was one of several picks at which I thought "There's no way there are fewer than a hundred shows better than this one."

Cartoons featured: Beavis & Butt-head, South Park, and The Simpsons. I'm done.

I'm more happy about Michelle Obama's appearance in Stephen Colbert's blanket fort. "When I grow up…I wanna be Joe Biden."

My mom did me as Finn the Human, George Bailey, and Barry from High Fidelity.

For a while, I'll probably often quietly start singing "Back in the nineties, I was in a very famous TV show…" with a single tear running down my face. Another animated obsession, here I come.

Speaking of Cohen, I forgot something very important a few days ago in our discussion of "Hallelujah", when I said that the only good covers were Jeff Buckley's and John Cale's: Bob Dylan used to do a kickass version of it live: https://www.youtube.com/wat…

Eh, he's a bit of a last year's man.

Well, in addition to finally making journalists actually angry at him, I think Trump's whole "I finished the birther controversy" thing gave Colbert his balls back: https://www.youtube.com/wat…

I just caught a little bit of an episode of Match Game, which was hosted by Alec Badwin, whose guests included Jack McBrayer, Kristin Chenowith…and Sarah Palin. I was almost tempted to watch the episode, just to see if everyone made it to the end without getting hurt.

Oh, hell yes. That scene where the interviewer is calling him on his bullshit is unbelievable; he just sits there, with that smirk on his face, but you can see in his eyes that he's falling apart and desperately trying to keep his cool because it's all he has left. A truly, truly great performance.

I agree that a certain level of quality in the animation itself is necessary for any animated work to have an impact; that's a given. My point was that I don't feel that there's a standard that isn't being met these days; I have never watched any of my favorite recent animated shows and thought "You know, I might find…

No, but the symbol of all that is good and pure in humanity is considerably less in Cage's wheelhouse than a crazy stunt motorcyclist vigilante on fire with a skull for a head.

That's an interesting take on things. I suppose I think of animation more as a form of storytelling than a visual art. I'm more of the view that the animation should serve the content, and so in some sense be invisible, suspending your disbelief enough to make you forget that the motion you're watching doesn't…

Not even when put to incredibly moving use during the sad-end-of-act-two part in Shrek?

Can't we just get Cage back to play him? He's been a huge fan of Ghost Rider for decades and always wanted to play him; it's not his fault those movies were lame. Pair him with an MCU writing operative who knows what they're doing and you've got a stew going.

Eh, Jeff Buckley's holds up, and John Cale's is close to great. Everyone else's sucks though.

I'm not sure I see your point. What would be some examples of animated works you feel don't have this level of compromise?

Still strikes me as polishing…well, if not a turd exactly, like a piece of leftover meatloaf that's been in the fridge for three days. Nothing horrible, but terribly remarkable, and certainly not something that can be substantially improved with all the polish in the world.

I think I was kinda going for a jazz thing (Lounge Lizards via Daniel Pinkwater), but that works too.

Right!