#not an article but i decided to post here anyway since i haven't seen anyone else post it

[taminoarticles]

— Tamino, Sahar album booklet, 2022 (x)

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I haven't done one of the Chortle roundup posts in a while, mainly because I just haven't seen that many headlines on there that have particularly grabbed my attention. But when I opened the website yesterday, the two at the top seemed worth a screenshot.

What a combination. I have to admit I've dropped off from following The News Quiz lately, for the first time since I first got into it in about 2009, back in the Toksvig days. Followed it through the Miles Jupp days and into the Zaltzman days.

So you'd think I'd have gotten more obsessed with it as I became increasingly obsessed with Andy Zaltzman due to The Bugle, but it sort of had the opposite effect. The News Quiz feels like a somewhat watered down version of Andy Zaltzman, where I can hear him make a lot of the same jokes he makes on The Bugle that week (not that I blame him, he can't be expected to turn over two sets of material every week), but with certain parts cut, for time and/or BBC radio rules and/or format points. I'd rather hear him in the format where he's allowed to go on as much as he wants with fewer restrictions. And most News Quiz guests who are all that great get invited onto The Bugle anyway, so I hear them there.

In early 2023, I started skipping News Quiz episodes if they featured a TERF or a Tory. By mid-2023, I was noticing how often I skipped episodes, and realizing just how frequently they feature one of those was souring the program in my mind. It's worth noting that zero of the TERF or Tory guests have ever turned up on The Bugle, meaning it's not Andy's choice to have them on The News Quiz, I assume it's a BBC balance thing.

The final straw of a long loosening of that show's grip on me came when those quotes about Graham Linehan's book came out and we were all disappointed (but not, like, completely and utterly shocked) in Richard Ayoade, but Simon Evans had added a supportive quote as well. Simon Evans is one of the Tory comedians who turns up on The News Quiz fairly regularly, and I'd thought of him as someone who will make me skip an episode, but not that bad really, I disagree with him but he's not one of those really hardline right-wing horrible people. Is how I thought of him, until I read that he'd thrown his lot in with the absolute worst of them in the Linehan quote, and then I decided that his regular inclusion on The News Quiz is enough to make me not just skip his episodes, but not want much to do with the show anymore. Like I said, I don't blame Zaltzman at all (if Simon Evans turns up on The Bugle that's a different story, but I can't imagine that happening). It's a BBC thing.

Cancel culture, I know. Sorry, right wing. I'm personally canceling all of you by not wanting to take the horrible viewpoints I listen to every day in serious news and then hear them in my entertainment as well.

Anyway, that all makes that Chortle headline extra hilarious. Picking The News Quiz as their example of anti-right wing bias. I was about to write several paragraphs here about why that is bullshit, but actually it's 6 AM and I have to get up for work soon and I cannot be bothered. Everyone reading this already knows why that is bullshit, and I'm at a point in my life where if anyone doesn't know, I don't want to waste energy explaining it, I just want to not hang out with them. Cancel culture, I know. I'm a big fan of cancel culture these days.

Having said all that, that second headline is really worth a look. This is a bit of a ridiculous thing to say given the subjective nature of the genre, but that stand-up show - the tour that Nish Kumar's just announced (via his mailing list that the Chortle article pretty much just copy-pasted, everyone should get on his mailing list so you can get your comedy news from correctly spelled sources, usual disclaimer that I reserve the right to make fun of Chortle misspelling things even though my Tumblr blog misspells things because no one pays me for my Tumblr blog) - might be the best stand-up show. Like. Of all stand-up shows out there. It might be the best one. Nish might do his tour in late 2024 (following an Edinburgh run, that I desperately hope will include dates in the first week of the festival because I would love to see the finished show live) and then everyone might be able to just pack and up and say "Well, it's okay that the world's ending, because at least stand-up comedy has been done to perfection. We can all move on now." (I mean, except some people on some comedy message boards whom I'm pretty sure won't like him no matter what he does, and also I guess the Daily Mail won't like him no matter what he does for very different reasons, sorry he's not Fin Taylor and some people stand for something, also sorry for dedicating a sentence of my Tumblr post to responding to a message board post I saw last week for which no one on this website has context, I'd say about 5% of my posts these days are doing that.)

I realize this is a weird thing to say about a tour that hasn't started yet, and a show that hasn't been completed yet. But I've heard some of the WIP material, and if you put all that material together, and wrap it around some structure and stuff - which is what I assume Nish Kumar intends to do before touring it as a full hour - I'm pretty sure that's a recipe for the best stand-up comedy show I've ever heard. Absolutely everyone who has the ability to do so should check this show out. I think Nish Kumar's at his best ever right now, and that means a hell of a lot when you consider how much I've venerated his previous stuff. He keeps improving on perfection and I think everyone should just stop bothering making comedy after this one. After I get the chance to gaze upon the eighth wonder of the world in Edinburgh 2024, that is.

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Hey i really love your blog!!! I just plucked the courage to actually send u an ask fhdjhd but GOSH i love your video edits and your gifs and your meta article posts, you're so articulate and you can explain/describe moments in a way that makes me go "oh wow, i cant believe i haven't seen it that way before!!" Haha ANYWAYS i'm just here to say that i completely agree with what all u said, Free creators might do a lil fanservice here and there for the 25 ships that exists within the fandom's circle, but rinharu's storyline is clearly the most romantic one! And i'd argue it's the one closest to being canon esp after part 1, i mean the fact that they put such an explosive emotional outburst right at the end of the second to the last movie means a lot. It's like reinforcing the fact that this series has always been about them, and everything that has happened only happened either because they met or they grew appart and miss eachother. I kinda feel like maybe.. juust maayyybe there's a chance KA wants to make the ship canon, since it's the last movie and they want to end it on a highnote maybe (bcs honestly i think the only reason they've been holding back is purely bcs of the merch sales, since they don't have a problem showing a wholesome lesbian love story in kobayashi maid dragon) butt i could be wrong, maybe i'm just overly optimistic and delusional, they could somehow ruin it and give an ending that panders to all the ships again 😅🥲, but at least there's a clear-cut guarantee that part 2 would dedicate a large portion of it fixing rin and haru's fight!!! Oohh how can i wait another 6 months now!!😭😭 (sorry for the long ask btw!! 🙏🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️)

OMG thank you so so much!! For watching my vids too! ❤️❤️❤️ It really means a lot to me! Ahhhh wow, thats the longest ask I've ever recieved! 😍 I'm trying to explain myself so hard lol I'm glad its appreciated, bc sometimes I'm like "I don't fucking know how to say this" xD

Well, you know me, I only care for one ship, which is the only one with confirmed info that they're both actually gay and have mutual feelings for each other. There are some other ships in free! I'm fine with (those do not include Rin or Haru in them xD), but I just mostly don't care, bc after reading all the stuff, you can see that in some of those to one the other one is actually like his second option, which I just do not like. Others I just don't even see, bc again to me who witnessed great close male friendships and having two sisters who I'm very close to, I just do not see anything romantic in that.

It's not just Free! tbh, it's like any sports anime these days. They see two guys walking together, it's a ship. And like no one cares if they're just bros. Like I'd get i they did some fanservice fanservice, but like I never saw anyone in Free! crossing the line the way rinharu do. I can without thinking much name you 10 rh moments that no matter how hard you think can't be explain as being bros, but can't name one when it comes to others. I just find some ppl shipping everyone with everyone weird sometimes. It's like western fans see like some eastern actors or singers slap each other ass lovingly and they're like "oh they're fucking" I'm like "yeah, ofc all 500 of them, you're absolutely right". And Free! doesn't do anything even like that, I just do not get sometimes like what moment even brought on some ships. I'm genuinely confused. Albert and Haru? You fucking fell from a sakura tree or smth? I'm...

I'm especially confused when it comes to guys, whose character type is who I call "I only want this one and if I can't have it, then I'm ok" xD. It just always surprised me, when they try to pair up them with someone else, it's like a complete ooc.

I'm also not into this whole "well, if there are gays in this anime, than everyone there is gay". I'm like... huh. It's like with KNB and MDZS I had same feeling. It's like you have already couples there who are canon/borderline canon, why do you need another 10 who don't even interact or just don't even go there? I'm always so confused in those situations. Or like wangxian is married and some are like "no, I actually don't like it, let me write a fic when they're with other ppl". Lan Zhan... being in love or having sex with someone else? Yeah, that's not Lan Zhan, dude, you're writing about someone else. Might as well change the name at this point.

But last time I went to twitter someone had a thread about how if they make s4 of Free! they should mainly explore there Momo's angst (and no, it wasn't a joke), so I'm already like, I'm just.. nothing will surprise me no more. But I'm forever gonna be confused.

Yeah, I eel you about "going there". I mean seeing part of it, it just kinda cemented my confusion, bc I do not get how it can be considered platonic. We were just discussing since yesterday with @freeseafirefly how I now even more perplexed and do not understand how they will resolve it without going into relationship territory. It's just our point here is that like... no one forced them to go there (I mean its not like this whole fandom has some wild expectations or anything already), we were waiting or our usual friendship and swimming and maybe tiny conflict about struggles of pro-careers and some usual rh implications (maybe all the rh gay in dramas as always). Not some pure fanfiction coming to life here haha.

Like why I'm laughing is bc I twice used in my "fics" bringing up him leaving Haru as a force to push the confession, bc there's no way if he adresses this it won't lead to this. And now we not only have this (bc Haru just basically layed it out there), but an actual scene of him playing on their feelings for each other and a literal image of Rin leaving and "taking Haru's heart with him" to the point when he's for the first time in his life openly crying on the ground. And it's not like this scene can be interpreted as anything else, the whole fandom talks same, bc the whole fight was just about them, what Haru said was just about them, there's a literal boom of his heart getting out of his chest, before he falls and now he's heartless.

So our question is like... why go there?

It's like some say that they might still resolve it with "they're special to each other" and swimming, but still like we already knew that, there was no reason to go that far is what I'm saying. And to think that it was planned since forever giving the clues is like... ???

The whole spoon theme also throw me on the loop because like, lets be honest, it's wedding themed. And that part of the interview about part 2 there also made me go...?????? Because I mean, huh?

This is just all in all very interesting turn of events to say the least. I do not see the point of all of this if its not what I think it is, esp after seeing tweets like "even I see a rh wedding and I'm mh T_T". It's just all very unsubtle, that's why we're confused.

Like who knows, maybe we'll really by some magic turn of events get lucky and they really decided that since its the ending, it's okay to go for it. But I also don't wanna to hype myself much, I'm already really happy with it, just bc again, this scene already proves all of my points.

And yeah, I'm sure they'll pander to everyone, bc it's the end and etc and we have to handle everything on the good note and there's a whole line of ppl who's obsessed with us, esp with Haru xD, but like bromance pandering and romance pandering are different things, you know *wiggles eyebrows* and u know who always gets the second one.