#gags et al.

[gravityrooom]

[gh0sthoodie]

I know this is mean but I desperately need tumblr to stop showing me ads for all the books trying to recreate the “🌈lesbian 🌈necromancers ✨in space✨” marketing hype like please, sir, there is a reason I’m not on booktok

(fr is it me or does the “list of tropes and the ✨✨marginalized identities✨✨enacting them” type blurb just feel deeply disengenous and kinda insulting? Can we write books about queer people as people without selling them as empty lists of identity labels?)

[shoplifting]

Laois's party would see post-Shibuya Incident Tokyo as another dungeon. Tokyo Jujutsu Tech students would see the island's dungeon as a vacation.

[evanthefunky]

I got Monster Prom on my switch last night (thanks Bestie Rose) and played a couple rounds and. I really like the game because. It has magical/mythical/etc creatures as students at a high school, and its literally just a dating sim where you try and get different endings with each of the 6 LI's. Its got short rounds (half or full hours) and the entire thing is just to ask one of the characters out by increasing your stats.

There's no other plot. Sure, there's some fun storylines or outcomes that can happen (my friend said Miranda's serfs try and overthrow her in one), but there's not like. An overarching plot. As far as I can tell.

I like that. Having just watched the Wednesday Netflix show, I kinda wish there was a similar game or show to just read or watch magical/mythical/etc characters at a high school or otherwise just. Go about life.

[ecoustsaintmein]

Poolverine thoughts

So I've just returned from watching Deadpool and Wolverine for like...the 8th? 9th time now? And I have thoughts about how the filmmakers chose to portray the evolution of their relationship -- some of them may already have been pointed out by others on this site, but this is my attempt to summarise them!

Also mostly I'm putting myself in Logan's shoes and writing this from his perspective?

Spoilers below cut:

We know that Wade has always made comments about Logan, even from the first film eg 'whose balls do I have to fondle to get this movie made?'. He might sound like he hates the guy, but obviously there's respect there, and he showed it in a Wade way. We know that by the third film, Wade wants to matter. He wants to be an Avenger, and almost regretted that even the X-Men didn't even want him. He prooobably almost nearly gagged when he spoke in earnest about how Logan has always been viewed as the X-Man in his world, but the respect is there. (And perhaps that's why he doesn't 'hit on' Logan as much as compared to Cable, Colossus et al? And all the 'shippy' comments were made by other characters in the film eg: bartender 'are you gonna fuck or fight?' or Cassandra's 'you two are cute'?)

The song choices when Logan and Wade interact, from AC/DC's Hell's Bells when they fight for the first time (fair, because Logan doesn't know Wade that well yet), to Avril Lavigne's I'm With You ('Take me by the hand, take me somewhere new/I don't know who you are but I, I'm with you') when they're driving in the Odyssey, which again, quite apt? And 'also the line 'take me home' in the Avril Lavigne song, which probably reflects Logan not really knowing who Wade is but just -- going along with the ride, as if asking Wade, just take me home, find me a place for me to belong. The theme of home recurs again and again, which leads one to wonder why it's not so surprising that Logan did end up following Wade home in the end???' Plus, 'You're the one that I want' when they're having that heavy makeout sesh intimate fight scene in the Honda? Let's not even talk about the 'Like a Prayer' scene, which again. 'When you call my name, and it feels like home.' Again. Home.

Which then leads to Logan, who confessed to Cassandra that he 'turned away' when 'they called for him', and he didn't make that mistake again when Wade called out his name at the end. While Aretha Franklin's 'You're All I Need to Get By' plays in the background. Yep.

Let's not forget the fact that Logan, after the fight in the Odyssey (despite all the boohooing and ongoing alcoholic misery afterwards), picked up the photograph of Wade's 'world', and returned it to Wade. Man doesn't want to show or say it during the second and third act but he CARES. A LOT!

Logan repeating Wade's words, verbatim, twice! ('You didn't lie, you made an educated wish'), and 'I'm an X-Men. I'm the X-Men')

Logan telling Wade that he wished Wade would die alone, then ending up making sure that Wade wouldn't have to die alone.

Logan keeping the suit on him at all times, only to have it get destroyed at the climax of the film - which, sad, because yes it's the only thing that reminds him of the X-Men of his world, but it could also be an analogy of -- he needs to move on. And he did! He wanted to be free, and he told this as much to Cassandra, and he did become free, in the end!

On the subject of Cassandra, she promised Logan that she could 'silence everything'. The joke's on her, because Logan found himself trading peace (as silence), for peace (as a chaotic, loud motormouth). He found his home, and it's with Wade.

On the subject of peace and home -- Logan is pretty much an immortal being, and a lot of his issues may have stemmed from the trauma of losing people he cares about, or people who got close to him, even for like 5 seconds (evidenced by ALL THE X-MEN MOVIES). He carried that with him throughout this movie, with all the references of saving the world, saving Wade's world, getting home, etc etc -- the point being, he did it for Wade, in the end (never mind Wade's educated wish that the TVA would restore Logan's past). And despite doing it for Wade, Logan was rewarded by having Wade AND Laura in his life now; both pretty much people who can't die, as part of his family. At least he will always have them -- and isn't that freeing and peaceful enough???

Last but not least -- as a circular thing, I'm going back to my first point. Wade spent the whole movie wanted to matter. In the end, he finds out that he does matter -- not just to his 'old world', but also to Logan. And be it just mutual respect, which then blooms into friendship, fondness, maybe more -- the point is: Wade does matter. To Logan. A character he spent the previous two films talking about despite not featuring at all in those movies. How do I know this you ask? Yes, Logan wanted to sacrifice himself for Wade. But more importantly, he followed Wade home. And at the end, after multiple groans, and frowns, and curses, he SMILED! AND LAUGHED! At Wade's stupid jokes!

I'm probably reading too much into their relationship and how they were written, and maybe it wasn't even Ryan's intention, but goddamn Hugh and Ryan made their chemistry/friendship bleed onto the screen, no matter how they were initially written in the script.

[fefairys]

"There's the Underwood again, which is Doc's typewriter. I'm really not pretending there's much separation between myself and Doc, Lord English, et al. This whole charade is about "dressing up" as a member or leader of this villainous mafia outfit for the sake of explaining things about my own story, which now I am doing down here as well for good measure. It's a critical question of Homestuck: is AH, the "real" person, closer to the self-insert buffoon or the nefarious meta-villains he has created as projections of his antagonistic creative proclivities?"

"Here we see a better-rendered version of myself positioning a shittily-rendered version of myself to begin typing this white-texted excerpt as if he were a stage prop. You could look at this as a funny gag, which it is. I also see it as a visual expression of the textual detachment between the "real me" and the "cartoon me." I myself am just another prop I can play with for whatever creative purposes I have, and statements I might be making. It's just another way of tipping my hand in these otherwise innocuous self-insert segments: nothing is really what it appears to be." -Andrew Hussie

i think this is cool as fuck actually i think a lot of ppl find this whole self-insertion and the way hussie talks about it to be pretentious but i just genuinely find it extremely intriguing the way they toy with the idea of authorship. the way that being the author is comparable enough to being the antagonist that you might as well just put yourself in the story and make yourself the actual antagonist character. bc when u think about it, the author IS the antagonist. they're REALLY the ones making all the bad things happen to the characters, after all.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

I'm sorry I've been haunting your asks lately, but imma do it again.

I think I remember you saying you're a manga person, but can't remember if you ever mentioned watching opla. There have been little changes to character here and there - some parts elaborated on or emphasized and others cut. Is there any change you'd like to see in Buggy, Shanks, or shuggy's story compared to the manga? What direction would you want opla to take for them going forward?

haunt away, anon! i am always happy to get asks, though i don’t always have something meaningful to say in response.

i have seen opla! not posted about it much, but i do have an opla tag. it’s been a while since i reread romance dawn, but shanks feels fairly consistent between the manga and live action, at least so far. buggy, though…

i think the things opla did with buggy are interesting—as @goingbuggy said in their post about opla ep 2, the show really downplays buggy’s greed/treasure motivation and foregrounds the violent paranoia and abandonment issues. and it makes sense! the goofy “buggy’s so treasure-hungry he wanders directly into a marine base” gags won’t play well to the nf crowd, so they might as well lean in on the edgy murderclown vibes.

and on a structural level, since a show like this isn’t going to let us hear character thoughts, buggy has to be more honest in a number of ways (his crew is a place for outcasts and freaks and he welcomes luffy to join them; he says outright that he’s gonna be the pirate king! he’ll be the pirate king and then everyone will love him!!), but at the same time he’s either a bigger liar or deluding himself in others (sorry, shanks abandoned you? how. what definition of abandonment are you using). not sure how i feel about these changes, but for the moment i’m happy to wait and see how things develop.

as for modifications i’d like to see made to the characters or story…

i know they had a young buggy cast for season one, presumably to be part of the roguetown execution crowd alongside young shanks… maybe they can still make use of those guys?

i know, suggesting that opla should do the roguetown breakup flashback in season two when the anime is on season 21 and hasn’t gotten there yet (though i think it’s gonna happen soon? like. within the next month or two?? omg hbd to me) is kinda nuts, but the devil fruit/map flashback doesn’t make sense when they’ve downplayed the importance of treasure in buggy’s motivations, and we’ll be seeing buggy in roguetown anyway. so why not add some emotion to the “if you want to be pirate king so bad, how about i kill you where the pirate king died?” moment? let’s get a flashback to the last execution buggy witnessed in roguetown as he tries to execute luffy!

i can’t think of anything else just yet. opla is so far away from major events involving either buggy or shanks, i’d like to wait and see what modifications they make to alabasta et al before i start to speculate about modifications made to impel down or marineford.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

actually tell me about grima

lolol no Downey? ;) And yess, I am always here for spooky snake man

First impression

I was twelve when I first saw him in the films and absolutely found him creepy. I remember thinking him also a bit wet and sad. But mostly I was like "spooky man alert!"

Otherwise, I didn't think too much of him off the bat. I was very enamoured with Eomer and Eowyn when I was a kid and first watching TTT and wasn't really thinking about anyone else.

Impression now

Well, obviously he is the smallest, wettest, most pathetic weasily snake man out there so I necessarily love him.

He's still a spooky creep. Like, my impression of "spooky man alert" remains present. But I just really enjoy exploring his character now because he is so fun to write. He's sarcastic and mean and petty and pathetic and passive aggressive and obsessive and weird and cowardly and selfish etc. but he's also smart and cunning and clever and a desperate survivor against terrible odds and and all of that bundled together is just an absolute joy to explore.

Favorite moment

In the movies? When in ROTK Theoden calls up to him "you were once a man of Rohan" and Grima has that "please save me; please be good to me; pleasepleaseplease" facial expression. Gets me in the chest every time.

In the books? Probably when he's sassing back at Treebeard. The battle of wits against Gandalf is also a pretty great scene, won't lie.

Idea for a story

I feel like I just write everything that ever comes into my head as it pertains to Grima.

Oh, there is one that I run in my head when I'm at the gym and it's a what-if-Grima-became-king and it's a whole heck of a lot of fun. He's like, good at administrative stuff and running the kingdom but he's cowardly and deeply uninspiring. A less inspiring man is hard to find.

So at some point, there's a moment when he has to make a choice of which side Rohan is going to join in on. Like, they're a vassal state of Sauron but there's a chance Aragorn et al will be victorious and the ring destroyed etc. so Grima has to decide where he's throwing his lot. It involves a lot of very fraught scenes with Eomer telling him to be a good person for once in his life and not to be a selfish freaky coward and Grima is like, "but Eomer, all I am is a selfish freaky coward. It's like, my sense of self in three words."

Unpopular opinion

He should have lived at the end of ROTK. I think most of my many, many opinions and thoughts on Grima are unpopular because it's unpopular to have a view of him that isn't inherent condemnation of the entire character. He's definitely one of the one's Tumblr is like "wish we saw him violently murdered on screen for his Crimes and anyone who likes him is clearly disgusting" about.

Favorite relationship

Theoden! Fucking tragic as shit, man. There's clearly such history between the two and, once upon a time, great trust and affection. That somehow went sour. The movies do a good job showing this in ROTK "once a man of Rohan" but the books have Theoden missing Grima's presence and guidance, even as he is navigating a situation that Grima got them into in the first place. Clearly there was affection! Trust! etc.

Love it.

Favorite headcanon

He's just gagging for it where Eomer is concerned. lol.

More seriously - I like my headcanon that he's well traveled. That he fucked about it in his youth - so like fifteen to mid-twenties he was traveling around Gondor, up north to Lake Town, out east a bit and so on. So he's seen a lot of stuff and picked up a lot of stories, lore, wisdom from his journeys and that's seen as one of the benefits of initially bringing him into the king's household. Rohirrim are quite insular and so having an advisor who has seen a bit of the world is a good thing.

[princesssarisa]

Yesterday I saw Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Opera San José. It was a very fun performance, and excellently performed. Here are the details that stood out.

*The production was colorful and basically traditional, but quirky in some ways, which is exactly how I like to see this opera staged. The director was Stephen Lawless, who staged the 2000 Met Don Giovanni (Terfel, Furlanetto, Fleming, et al), so I could predict that it would be lively and clever, if slightly gimmicky at times, which it was.

*The outer walls of the buildings moved back and fourth to take us from the street to Bartolo's house and back. Sometimes, as a gag, the characters would seem aware of the walls' movements, or they would push them back themselves. The Act I finale had the walls literally closing in around the protagonists to reflect the feelings of overwhelm they sang about.

*I was glad to see that the Count was played not as just a stock young lover, but as an obviously silly, melodramatic boy, at least as much in love with his own persona of "gallant lover" as he was with Rosina. Not only did this save him from being bland compared to the other leads, but it was easier to believe that he would eventually become the Marriage of Figaro Count.

*I'm glad to inform @leporellian that Fiorello had a nice prominent role. He stood out visually in a maroon top hat and cloak, with a mustache and glasses, and he stood out as a comic presence, nervously creeping around the buildings and trying to keep the musicians quiet, then passionately conducting "Ecco, ridente" and getting annoyed when the Count embellished the score. He also stayed onstage longer than usual and was actually present through most of the Count and Figaro's conversation. He and Figaro even got into a little fight over the Count at one point, each pulling him in a different direction to hide from Bartolo. And while his final recitative was cut, he still got emphasis at the end of Scene I as the Count delivered his outpouring of romantic excitement to him, while he was forced to listen in helpless annoyance.

*Berta had a nice prominent role too. This production cut the role of Ambrogio, so she was Bartolo's only servant, and obviously a caregiver and confidante to him, but an unappreciated, exhausted one who wasn't treated very well by anyone. She was funny, but it was easy to feel sorry for her too, and her feelings for Bartolo were established in the first scene, as she eavesdropped on his scheming to marry Rosina and then sobbed as soon as he left.

*When the characters sang asides, they often sang them to other characters instead of to themselves. As mentioned above, at the end of the fist scene, the Count sang his rhapsodies of love to Fiorello, while Figaro sang his own rhapsodies about money to his shop customers as he styled their hair. Later, in the "Pace e gioia" duet, the Count sang his asides to Figaro, who was secretly waiting outside the door, and Bartolo sang his to Berta.

*The production included four silent recurring characters: four flamenco-dancing ladies in orange dresses, who served as assistants to Figaro, rallied around Berta to comfort her at the end of her aria, and generally added liveliness and Spanish local color.

*Don Basilio made a silent entrance in Act I, disguised as a blind beggar in tinted glasses and with a white cane and an alms cup. After a passer-by gave him a coin, he privately stood up straight, looked at the coin, and put it in his pocket. This is the second Barber I've seen that had Basilio pretend to be disabled – in a production I saw in Saint Paul years ago, he walked with a cane in Act I and a walker in Act II, neither of which he actually needed.

*Bartolo kept a silver decanter of wine and several glasses on his desk, and various characters helped themselves to it throughout. The Count gulped plenty of that wine as part of his "drunk soldier" masquerade, eventually making him genuinely tipsy, which probably explained why he got too into the role and attacked Bartolo. Berta also drank throughout her aria. When Figaro, the Count, and Rosina were finally preparing to run away, Figaro stole the decanter and cups to take with them.

*There was a bit of a recurring theme of comic gunplay. When the police arrived in the Act I finale, they held everyone at musket-point, and the ever-feisty Rosina grabbed one man's musket and tried to wrest it away from him, but in doing so, she accidentally fired it. One of the flamenco ladies, who was watching from a window overhead, collapsed, and for a few moments everyone stared at her in horror, thinking she was shot. But it turned out she had only been scared and fainted. Later, in Act II, Bartolo threatened the Count and Figaro with a pistol, and actually fired it at Figaro – fortunately it turned out not to be loaded. It was this same pistol that the Count later used to threaten Basilio.

*During the "Buona sera" quintet, everyone slipped bribes to Basilio to leave, not just the Count, with Rosina even giving him her earrings. But Figaro finally had to chase him away by spraying him with a crude insecticide sprayer.

*During the "Temporale," Rosina cried herself to sleep on the harpsichord bench and dreamed of "Lindoro" and Figaro drinking together and laughing at her.

*During the "Zitti zitti" trio, the in-universe reason why they didn't hurry down the ladder when they should have was that Rosina kept bringing out suitcases and other belongings she wanted to take with her, even a pet canary in a cage.

*During the finale, Berta finally got a reward for all her troubles: Figaro and the fandango ladies took her behind a screen and gave her a makeover, replacing her dowdy clothes with a bright yellow flamenco dress and styling her hair into flowing curls. So in the end she danced happily and confidently (though still a little clumsily), and finally flirted openly with Bartolo. Unexpectedly yet pleasantly, Fiorello also showed up at the end to join in the final chorus of well-wishes to the lovers.

I'm so glad I went. :)

@leporellian, @tuttocenere, @supercantaloupe

[pluckyredhead]

hello! was curious if you have any knowledge of the blue and gold run (by dan jurgens et al)? i came across it discounted on google play and have no idea of its quality so thought it might be worth asking

It's not great, alas! Absolutely nothing of importance happens to the characters, there's zero growth or change of any kind and nothing exciting in the way of action scenes etc. Which is fine for a comedy book if the comedy is funny, but...it's not funny. There's a running...god, "gag" is too strong a word, but thing, I guess, where Skeets is livestreaming their antics and people are commenting on social media, but Dan Jurgens doesn't seem to know how social media works or what people sound like on it. There's another running "gag" where there are fangirls following them around and one of them keeps calling Booster "Boostie" and that I guess is supposed to count as a joke? Because she does it nine hundred times. It's never funny. It's just cringe. I hate to use the word cringe but it really applies here.

So yeah, it's not offensive or anger inducing but it's also not really worth spending money on unless it's REALLY discounted. It's not horribly bad, it's not good, it's just completely empty as a comic.

[jafanadis]

The Jade Owls - Miri - The Marketer

Full Name: Majani Tefaye

Nickname: Miri, Hera, Cleopatra, My Queen, Ohime-Sama

Age: 22

Gender: Female (She/Her)

Orientation: Aro Ace

Height: 5’7

Species: Otacaian (Enalla)

Nationality: Azifan

Occupation: Businesswoman, Marketer, Captainess

Alliance: The Jade Owls

Alignment: Protagonist

Theme Song: Rich Girl by Gwen Stefani

Character Song: No Tears Left To Cry by Arianna Grande Instrumental

Voice Claim: Disgust from Inside Out (Mindy Kaling and Lisa Lapira)

About

The self-appointed Co-Captain of the Jade Owls. Having grown up in a privileged new money noble family in Azifa, she accompanied them across the planet, being involved in her family’s seedy businesses committing fraud and scams. Like her mothers and sisters, she reveled in the money she stole from unsuspecting victims to satisfy her own wants until one day, she was betrayed by her sisters during a sting by the Jithran Guards and was subsequently arrested and scapegoated by her family. She had been on a prison ship owned by The Jithran Senate when she was involved in a jail break in which the prisoners stole the ship for their own. Now wanted Barratry (ship stealing), in addition to her own crimes of Racketeering and Fraud, she is now the co-leader of The Jade Owls and mainly acts as their marketer and “face”. Any clients who wish to do business with the Owls must meet with her.

Personality

Russell describes Miri first and foremost as a queen bee. She is sassy, blunt, judgmental, bossy and short-tempered. She is talented at being deceitful, only acting professional and ladylike when it suits her. As a result of her upper class upbringing, she can also be a bit whiny and complains a lot of being in situations she doesn’t want to be in. Deep beneath this façade she can be pretty kind and sensitive but chooses not to show this side of her as she believes kindness and sensitivity are weaknesses, and very deep down she harbors loneliness and feels no one can understand her truly.

Miscellaneous

Miri speaks with an accent which, to Human ears, sounds a bit like Singaporean English (like the actress Michelle Yeoh or the politician Aung San Suu Kyi)

Russell equates her to the Greek Goddess, Hera, or the Egyptian Greek Queen, Cleopatra.

Miri has the ability to use Electrokinesis. As a result, she can detect radio signals using her antennae, shape and manipulate electricity, summon thunderbolts on a stormy day, tamper with certain electronics, temporarily stun her opponents, recharge the Eizo Power Crystal which powers the Falaina and she can even become a living defibrillator.

As a result of her Electrokinesis, she has some minor telepathic and empathic abilities.

Despite her powers, Miri is the weakest member of The Jade Owls in terms of endurance and strength. She has a soft and delicate body and she can fer hurt pretty easily and as such she stays behind on missions sometimes.

Extremely evealing clothing makes her uncomfortable.

Unlike most Enalla, she’s not a huge fan or artwork or poetry, in fact, she hates it.

She joined the Jade Owls because she craves validity in her life, and as much as she says otherwise, she deeply cares about all her teammates, though she’d rather gag herself than openly admit it.

Her family own slaves and servants.

She enjoys Haltane Candies, latest fashion trends, and jewelry.

Using her wings, she can fly at high speeds high in the air, she keeps her wings folded into scrolls when not in use and she has holes in the back of her clothes for her wings to go through.

Like all Enalla, she has a big thorax which gives her the appearance of having a bustle.

With her compound eyes, she can see much better than most of her teammates.

Otacaia, and all of its characters, species, races, information, et al © Jafan Adis, 2022-2024, All Rights Reserved.

[adultswim2021]

Superjail #2: “Superbar” | September 28, 2008 - 11:45PM | S01E01

Superjail! It’s back, baby! The darling of The Night of 1000 Pilots roars back onto our small screens. Glad to have it back; It’s been a very long time since I’ve watched through this show, and I’m not entirely positive I saw every single episode.

Superjail is formulaic. But, it’s also very, very funny and well animated, so you rarely feel how formulaic it is. Jailbot apprehends the recidivist Jackknife who commits crimes in the real world. Jailbot brings Jackknife to Superjail. A Thematic story unfolds that builds towards a big fight filled with violent sight-gags. Jackknife is seen escaping in the background. Repeat. 

In this one, Jackknife is at a carnival on a pier, where he darts a guy in the face to steal the carnival prize and tries to make a getaway on a rich family’s speedboat. Jailbot shows up in boat form and takes Jackknife away. 

At Superjail, the Warden wants to ask Alice out for a drink. For this to happen, he needs to build a bar in Superjail, which he does. This hearkens back to Bar Fight, Christy Karacas and  Stephen Warbrick’s 2001 short film that is set in a bar where a crazy fight breaks out. I’m pretty sure I mentioned this on the write-up for Superjail’s Bunny Love pilot, but it’s basically a prototype for this show.

The Warden gets jealous when Alice agrees to meet him at Superjail’s new watering hole, but brings a date; a prisoner she wants to bone. The prisoner is not there on his own accord; in fact he at one point bites his own head off to free himself from bondage when Alice ties him up at the bar. Despite now being a severed head squirming around on the bar counter, the Warden still tries to drunkenly pick a fight with him.

One of the bar patrons is disgusted by the condition of the men’s room (where a pile of naked prisoners are playing a lewd game of Twister), so he enters the pristine and empty ladies room. He gets fed up with an animatronic wall-display of the Warden and punches it, which puts a hole through the wall. That’s when he finds out that Superjail’s Seagate is just on the other side of the bathroom, and he enacts a plan to escape through it. 

Jared, a recovering alcoholic who is cruelly shoved into the role of Superjail’s bartender, winds up getting a drop of alcohol on his tongue which triggers a full-on relapse. He bitterly goes into the Warden’s office while puzzled on hooch and starts pushing random buttons, one of which open the seagate, causing the ocean to rush into Superjail’s bar and spurring the episode’s customary themed melee. This involves Jellyfish, Swordfish, Tridents wielded by mermen on sea horses, piranhas, et al. The part where the squid squirts so much ink it fills the entire screen is really cool. The show is very good at mixing up the visuals to keep things engaging. 

Jackknife escapes, and he creepily visits the teenage daughter of the rich family, in a final scene that looks like it’s more from a horror movie than a comedy. It’s difficult to watch comedy of almost any significant vintage and think YOU COULD NEVER MAKE BLAZING SADDLES, I MEAN, SUPERJAIL TODAY! But the show’s spirit is so fun despite it’s unpleasant-on-paper subject matter that it’s difficult to get truly mad at it. I said a lot of this in the Bunny Love. This applies to Alice, the walking trans joke. As misguided as some of that humor may seem today, I get the sense that the creators of the show like her as a character, and she's rarely (if ever) misgendered by her co-workers. It's not perfect, but it's not nothing.

There’s also a new prisoner guy, I think. He’s the guy who punches the hole in the wall. Maybe he was in “Bunny Love” but I remember thinking “oh, this is the main character on this show, now” the first time I saw this. He sorta seemed like an attempt to make a likable main prisoner guy. It’s the one added element to this show that felt like the biggest evolution from pilot to series. It’s fairly subtle, but it stuck out to me. It sorta makes the show feel more like a sitcom and less like an artsy-but-funny short film like Bunny Love does. 

Stray stuff: I think my favorite joke on this is when Alice shoves a plate of hot wings into a prisoner’s face, and it melts his skin off, so he dunks his whole head into a big barrel of bleu cheese to cool off. The Twins are in this, but they just sorta observe. At one point they go shirtless, and you can see they have quadruple nips. Didn't catch a Sealab 2021 reference when the prisoners were observing the underwater civilization, which I consider to be a good thing, fuck Sealab.

This episode is very good, and if it were my introduction to the series I’d probably be pretty impressed with it. But I feel the same way watching this as I do watching Robocop 2; that it’s about 80% as good as the original, but the original is one of the best things ever made, so it’s still satisfying. 

EPHEMERA CORNER:

MAIL BAG:

KON writes:

The Robin Bain bit (specifically her being nude and uncensored on DVD) never quite sat right with me because it seemed like it was by design a way to get easy-access nude tits into the hands of every 12 year old boy. Though I guess most kids would have had smartphones or at least unfettered internet access by then. And I didn't complain when the Whitest Kids I Like did it. Still, weird!

Yes, I agree! I think it's weird and suspicious when a show that doesn't have a built-in outlet for sleaze suddenly has sleaze in it. Not that I am saying nude female presenting nipples are SLEAZY, per-se, I just mean they are when Seth Green is involved.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: December edition

hi all! while I already did my roundup for every book I read in 2022 and included the books I read in December, they still haven't gotten their own special little recap because the last few days of 2023 were crazy hectic and I didn't have the time. now that I'm back in the office (barf, gag) with hours to kill, let's rewind and look at the year's last batch of books!

what I read:

The End of Policing (Alex S. Vitale, 2017) - excellently concise and thorough breakdown of why policing simply is not beneficial or even practical for the communities it allegedly serves. strongly recommend, I highlighted so much.

Glitterati (Oliver K. Langmead, 2022) - a book that was so infuriatingly close to being one of my favorite books of the year, until it shot itself in the dick in the last quarter. Glitterati starts out as a Vantablack-dark comedy absolutely skewering ultrawealthy celebrity influencer paparazzi aesthetic culture, and for most of the way Langmead does an admirable balancing act making out protagonist, Simone, utterly reprehensible in his alienation from anything human and sincere while also making clear that Simone and people like him are fundamentally hollow, miserable shells. (one detail that sticks with me so clearly is the mention that Simone loved playing the cello, but gave it up because he was too afraid of getting calluses.) when I say that Langmead fumbled massively by (spoilers) writing a happy ending pseudo-redemption arc for Simone I'm not saying that out of some asinine belief that it's Morally Wrong to show bad people growing and changing because that encourages readers to emulate their bad behavior; I just think this novel really seemed like it had something to say and then balked at the last minute in order to conform to a more conventional narrative structure. it's disappointing, reader. I'm disappointed.

Bruce Wayne: Fugitive (Greg Rucka et al, 2002) - Fugitive isn't as strong as the preceding Murderer by a country mile - it feels much less tightly organized, and meanders on a bit too long - but frankly all of that is worth it for a scene of Bruce Wayne sincerely apologizing to his family for being an insufferable bitch who's unpleasant to be around 99% of the time. while I was reading Murderer I made a post about how I can't fuck with much of Batfamily fanon and Wayne Family Adventures-style writing that posits the Bats as generally well-adjusted, endlessly supportive, and excruciatingly aware of their various troubles, and I think this is why: the moments of emotional vulnerability feel so much more satisfying when they're extracted from a rotten mess of misunderstandings rather than the default.

Even Though I Knew the End (C.L. Polk, 2022) - C.L. Polk is one of those authors who has my attention immediately whenever they drop something new, and this novella did NOT disappoint. a crisp and stylish noir murder mystery following a lesbian couple navigating the forces of heaven and hell through mid-century Chicago, this story begs to be devoured in a single sitting.

Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice, 1976) - I wanted to like this book so much, and I do like parts. but the high highs are contrasted with low lows, and sometimes Louis' incessant whinging had me skimming for pages at a time. I'm afraid that my love of morbidly depressed bisexual vampires with complicated family dynamics won't be enough to keep me reading, Anne.

The Sandman: A Game of You (Neil Gaiman et al, 1991) - this isn't my personal favorite Sandman arc, but I think it is maybe the most iconic and honestly? deserved for Wanda alone. much like Season of Mists, there's a compelling point to be made here that some of the best Sandman stories are the ones with as little of the actual Sandman as possible. love the grumpy bastard, but sometimes you need a nice long break from his shit.

America Is Not the Heart (Elaine Castillo, 2018) - a last minute entry that stole my whole heart. you may recall me absolutely swooning over Castillo's essay collection, How to Read Now, that was released earlier this year, and I'm so glad I decided to seek out her novel so promptly. America Is Not the Heart is a gorgeous coming of age for a 30-something doctor from the Philippines remaking her life after being released from a prison camp and moving to California to live with her uncle's family. she bonds with her baby cousin, she develops a big fat crush on the local faith healer's granddaughter, she remembers how to have friends. it just painfully beautiful in a lot of ways and got me so good; I can't recommend it enough.

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color (Ruby Hamad, 2020) - a lightning-fast, brilliantly organized read that dives DEEP into the impact of racist colonial laws around the globe and how they contribute to misogynoir and other forms of racialized misogyny today. there's a particular motherlode of information about the sexual politics of interracial sex under colonialism and slavery - the dehumanization of Black and brown women considered perpetually sexually available to white men, the demonization of Black and brown men seen as sexual threats to white women and white supremacy by extension, the difficulties of knowing if any interracial relationship could truly be considered consensual under such conditions. I've got several books on the intersection of sex, sexuality, and racism on my to-read list for the year, and this felt like as good a place as any to start.

what I'm reading now:

Jade Legacy (Fonda Lee, 2021) - I'm so excited for the conclusion of the Green Bone Saga, even though this book is like 700+ goddamn pages long. I truly cannot extend enough thanks to the person who ruined my reading poll by doing the exact thing I told everyone not to do and complaining about one of the options; it made me read Jade City immediately and I've loved every second of the series since.

Shit Cassandra Saw (Gwen E. Kirby, 2022) - very cool short story collection, one of my favorite covers ever

what's next:

Catwoman: Lonely City (Cliff Chiang, 2021) - Cliff Chiang's striking art was one of my favorite parts of Paper Girls, and I'm beyond excited to see his illustrations for a one-last-heist story about Selina Kyle

Where It Rains in Color (Denise Crittendon, 2022) - splashy new sci-fi and one of the only 2022 releases that I couldn't get my mitts on before the year was over!

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (R.F. Kuang, 2022) - I'm going to be so real: I've had R.F. Kuang's Poppy War series sitting on my TBR forever and wasn't in any particular hurry to get around to it, but seeing white bookstagrammers complaining about this book's """"reverse racism""" made me more interested in reading it than literally any actual marketing campaign could have.

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 3,234

AH: Pull up to the old underwood.

Got a lot of typing to do. Hope the ribbon holds up.

I should probably bust out that shitty drawing of myself again so I can type as quickly as possible.

Author commentary: There's the Underwood again, which is Doc's typewriter. I'm really not pretending there's much separation between myself and Doc, Lord English, et al. This whole charade is about "dressing up" as a member or leader of this villainous mafia outfit for the sake of explaining things about my own story, which now I am doing down here as well for good measure. It's a critical question of Homestuck: is AH, the "real" person, closer to the self-insert buffoon or the nefarious meta-villains he has created as projections of his antagonistic creative proclivities? Here we see a better-rendered version of myself positioning a shittily-rendered version of myself to begin typing this white-texted excerpt as if he were a stage prop. You could look at this as a funny gag, which it is. I also see it as a visual expression of the textual detachment between the "real me" and the "cartoon me." I myself am just another prop I can play with for whatever creative purposes I have, and statements I might be making. It's just another way of tipping my hand in these otherwise innocuous self-insert segments: nothing is really what it appears to be.

[subjectively-objective]

If you're a Scooby-Doo clone, and I'm a Scooby-Doo clone, what's left of us? (A blind opinion on the reasonably forgotten Goober and the Ghost Chasers)

One of many clones made to cash in on the success of Scooby-Doo throughout the 1970s. Goober was less successful than most, only managing 16 episodes before it was canned. The series follows a trio of ghost-chasing teens and their wacky dog as they chase ghosts for their magazine, Ghost Chasers Magazine.

Ted (left): The Fred of the group. Drives the car, and uses his alliterative equipment in his Apparition Apparatus Kit to do most of the investigative work.

Tina (center): She interviews the ghosts, and presumably writes the stories for their magazine. She seemed a little braver than Ted, willing to stand her ground and continue her interview until the ghosts get within arms reach.

Gilly (right): Their Shaggy ghost photographer. He is completely oblivious to danger; willing to let ghosts actively grab him in order to get his shot. And even berating Goober when he tries to save him.

Goober (dog): Ok, we got to him; the title character. The creature that would become Scooby-Two. He's ugly, he's annoying, and he completely lacks all of the charm of Scoob. Except when he does. Then you see through the grime placed upon him and see him for what he is. Goober.

What sets him apart from Scooby? His cowardice. While that is a Scooby trait, Goober et al. uses it to contrast his human companion's oblivious bravery. Usually having to drag characters away from danger. He also randomly turns invisible. There is 0 explanation for this, but it is often used for a "you thought he was there, but it was just his hat" gag. Otherwise, it was just done to save on animation.

You may notice some, er, recognizable music in this clip. The show has an original soundtrack, but the earlier episodes would sometimes recycle tracks from Scooby-Doo.

Unlike Scooby-Doo, Goober can’t talk except to the audience. Which he does in the most nonsensical fourth-wall breaks ever conceived. Like, sometimes they are just humorous asides, but most of the time they make absolutely no sense.

Like every "teens hunt ghosts with talking animal" series, the teens need a vehicle and boy do these teens have a vehicle.

I honestly don't know what this is. It has six wheels, an open driver's seat, the front kinda looks amphibious. Is this a military surplus vehicle the kids got? A custom creation? Are the middle wheels just decorative (a fashion statement I completely understand)? Does it have a marketable name? The world will never know.

Now onto the show itself. The first thing we see is the opening and it is desperately trying to evoke feelings of “Scooby-Doo”. Kids walking in vague corridors, ghosts and skeletons appear, dog runs away, dog says his one liner, kids show their ‘unique’ personalities.

There are two problems though. First, the only kid whose personality is shown is Gilly, and he is only shown to take pictures of ghosts. Second, the dog’s one liner is stupid. Scooby has his “Ruh-roh”, a funny modification on “Uh-oh” which can be used in any instance. Goober? He’s got “Who’s afraid of ghosts?” (Hint: It’s him. He was just running from them) and “This is ridic-alic-alic-alic-alous”. The first one makes no sense in the context of the intro, and the second makes me want to violence.

The typical episode was, well, it was Scooby-Doo. There's a mystery, they solve it. Except, Goober mysteries often involve actual ghosts. Which brings some added uniqueness to the series. Every episode also had a “If you didn’t x, and I didn’t x, then who did??” moment. It was never funny, but their insistence on using it (sometimes more than once an episode) made it wrap back around to hilarity, and a moment I was genuinely looking forward too every episode.

They also made the gang absolute morons who struggle to complete a puzzle with four pieces left.

Ok, that's a typical episode, but what about the quality Mark? Quality seems more important than formula. Of course it is Steven, you absolute fucking moron. That's what I'll discuss right after this segue.

Most of the show (almost 75%) is just blegh. Not bad per se, but so bland and so nothing I struggled to get through them and believed writing about the series to be impossible. There was just. . . nothing there. The first eleven episodes were absolutely nothing. The kids showed up, there was a ghost (either real or fake, it didn't matter), they would split up, group A finds and flees from ghost, group B finds and flees from ghost, repeat until 17 minutes of footage, then yada yada over the solution, and roll credits.

When I say 'yada yada' I mean yada yada.

All but one of these first eleven episodes had a guest star. With eight of them 'guest starring' the Partridge Family from the show of the same name airing at the time. Calling the Partridge Family 'guest stars' is like calling Vegeta a guest star. They are in half the episodes and play integral roles in each of them (as integral as they can given the episodes were nothing).

The most egregious example is episode five. The episode has the Chasers and Patridges (except the two youngest Partridge kids who exist to be told to wait outside the plot) stuck on a pirate ship haunted by two ghosts. The ghosts, Dink and Dunk, offer entertaining banter. And the “d” alliteration throughout the episode is fun, but the entire episode is “don’t ring the bell or Dunk will wake up and be mad!” *someone rings the bell* “Hide gang!” *Dunk goes to bed* Repeated 3 times. Ending when the gang finds the island where Dunk hid his treasure, something Dink mentions they should do several times throughout the episode. However, the gang completely ignores him and only happens upon the island Dink couldn’t find for 100 years. If the episode had just been the gang helping Dink find the island while Dunk is mean it would have been great (well, it would have been ok).

As with all cartoons at the time, there are a number of small errors throughout. From Gilly wearing his camera after it had been stolen, to minor discolorations. However, there's one really glaring error in episode 11, see if you can spot it.

Ok, I've talked about the bad first episodes, but what about the one's after 11? Well, about those. . . the five episodes after the Partridge family left are great. Like, way better than the first 11 episodes. There were real mysteries with clues and twists. The Ghost Chasers all do things in the episode. There are actually memorable gags and scenes. It was a magical shift in tone and quality.

Hell, one of the episodes inspired me. The effect for the villain in episode 15 talking looked super cool and I am definitely stealing it for something.

The first eleven episodes feel like someone wanted to make the next Scooby-Doo. From the restrained quirkiness of the dog, the usage of guest stars to drum up early interest, even using its music. They wanted the next Scooby-Doo so they took everything they could from it and added celebrities, and they failed. Not spectacularly. There was no spectacle, there was no reason to take note of it. It just failed. Nothing worth remembering, nothing worth revisiting.

But those last five? Those feel like someone wanted to make Goober. Sure, it's bones were still Scooby-Doo, but it was no longer only wearing a different skin. It had different flavor. The ghosts being real was no longer a gimmick used to disguise yet another villain scaring kids off their lawn. They were used as actual characters in the episode. From minor gag appearances to being a major antagonist or red herring.

Of course, the quality of these episodes is severely limited by the time and audience they were written for. They are good compared to the preceding eleven episodes, but compared to a modern television series they are middling. The reason I call them great is because of the promise they show. The promise that the series could have come into its own identity if given the time and freedom.

Goober wasn't good. It was a lazy excuse to cash in on the latest cash cow. It being forgotten was a reasonable outcome for what it was, but not a deserved one. Regardless of the soulless reason for creating the show and the awkward execution in the first three quarters of it, people put effort into it. They put their minds into it. And the fruits of their minds deserve to be remembered. Because, regardless of its poor execution, Goober has good ideas hidden within it. The mystery solving teens not being brave or cowardly but oblivious to danger. Hunting ghosts not being a hobby but a livelihood (which could be used to explain their willingness to be near dangerous ghosts. Can't pay rent if you're dead or if you don't get the picture. Might as well try for both). The dog being the straight man and voice of cowardly reason to the humans. The ghosts being malevolent, benevolent, or just plain evolent.

These concepts are worth revisiting and reimagining. Not as Goober 2, but as something else. Something new, building upon those brilliant ideas squandered by the original trying to fill-in Scooby-Doo's shadow. Something combining those ideas with their own to make a new, greater story. That's why nothing deserves to be forgotten. Forgetting someone's work is to slow the evolution of the human imagination. People grow from the stories they hear, even ones rarely spoken.

[isfjmel-phleg]

I recently acquired a collection of the Reign of the Superman arc, and there were some concept sketches in the back, including Kon's design, which features some interesting notes from artist/co-creator Tom Grummett.

Mike: This design is an amalgam of what I thought were the best elements of those 'napkin sketches' we talked about. Any comments or suggestions are welcome & appreciated. Personally, I think this looks great! In addition, an independent poll (mine) of 10-16 year olds I know rated this outfit as 'cool.' --Tom

I love that Grummett ran the design past young people to verify if it was indeed sufficiently cool. This ensemble is 100% certified 90s youth-approved.

Some of the ideas for the earring include 1) a small 'hoop' ring 2) a 'stud' type earring 3) a 'Superman' symbol (although we'll only see it in extreme close-ups)

Note that at this stage there is no mention of the earring's being a replacement for a tag, which would first appear at the end of Kon's arc before his solo. The hoop was a suitable option, I think. Generic enough for him to acquired for himself easily but with more interest than a stud. I can't see Cadmus equipping him with a special S earring.

Superboy will 'layer over' his basic uniform with 'accessories' like the jacket, sunglasses[,] ripped jeans, et al. For two reasons 1) to satisfy his own sense of 'style.' 2) to hide out from Cadmus search teams. These outer layers will tend to get shredded or busted away in heavy combat.

The jacket and sunglasses became part of the iconic look, but ripped jeans were never a thing, not even when he's in civilian clothes. Hiding from Cadmus never happened either; in the final version, they track him down the first day but chose not to take him back quite yet. Everything was still in development at this point, and it's interesting to get a glimpse of what other directions the creators could have gone.

Note to Karl/Mike: If we assume Superboy generates the same aura that his adult counterpart did, his Cadmus-made Superboy outfit will be indestructible. However this property would not extend to his leather jacket, which, like Superman's cape, will tend to show some wear and tear. I visualize a scene where Superboy survives a massive explosion in an attack. And savagely retaliates to avenge his jacket! ("You goons ruined my jacket! I'm gonna kill ya!") Since Ma Kent isn't likely to be sewing leather jackets in any quantity (if at all) they'll be harder to come by than Supes' capes ever were. --Tom

Grummett's visualized scene got incorporated into the final story! And became a running gag. Kon ends up getting a seemingly endless supply of replacement jackets from the news station that's using him, at first. But it's rough having no mother with sewing skills to keep one supplied with clothing!

Some thoughts about 'Project Superboy'... If we run into a timeline problem with a Superboy running around within a week or two of Supes['] funeral (and having Pa Kent's life hanging by a thread for too long a period of time), we may have a way to get around it.

Suppose we say that 'Project Superboy' was begun when Supes was apprehended by the Hounds and brought to Cadmus for study[.] (This was in one of Jurgens' issues, I'm not sure which number) An analysis was done on Supes that formed the basis for the 'Superboy' experiment, which was, by the time of Supes['] death, already underway, with a Superboy in progress. When Cadmus later took Supes['] body after the funeral, a further, more detailed analysis was done. The results of which were used to enhance the Superboy subject, and further accelerated his development.

This suggestion was not used. In the final timeline, Kon was developed to adolescence in under a week after twelve previous attempts failed. However, it's clear that Grummett has given this a lot of thought, and his suggestion for justifying the seemingly too rapid timeline fits plausibly into established information. This is a collaborative process, with writer and artist jointly building character and story.