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DragonCon 2023
In the past I've tried doing meetups at DragonCon, at specific times and places there, and I only ever met one person that way. So I gave up. Now I'm doing it again, but differently. I'm going to be at DragonCon this year. If you're also going to be there, let me know and we can communicate and try to say hi in person over Labor Day Weekend. Nothing huge, just a chance to bump into interesting people and maybe go to related panels or get in board games or the like. I'm going alone and it'd be nice to actually see people that I know (even if just in the MeFi online kind of way).
Helm of Brilliance, 40 Watt
A complete index to the paper issues of Dragon Magazine. That's it. This is just an index; finding the issues themselves is left up to the reader.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE BUBBLE
"A visual science fiction experience that will boggle your mind." "SPACE VISION a step beyond 3-D" This is one of those movies that makes nonsensical and arbitrary things happen, but tries to excuse it by passing them off as mysterious. Well duh, anything's a mystery if there's no possible explanation for it! A plane with three people (one of the a pregnant woman) is downed by a storm, but ends up inside a huge hollow chamber with invisible walls, in which live zombie-like people who go through the motions of their lives. Like The Mask, this was made for 3D, so there's a bunch of in-your-face effects. Unlike that film though, only the 2D version is riffed on here. Joel riffs this one! The subplot has Jonah, Emily and Joel planning their escape, through the gimmick that the Mads, for some reason, can't hear anything spoken in rhyme. I like the episode, but the movie basically just toys with its characters throughout, until the unexpectedly happy ending. Premiered November 11, 2022, in the Gizmoplex.
Grickle!
Grickle is Eisner award-winning artist and animator Graham Annable, featured on Metafilter twice before, that second time by missing, and missed, Mefite oneswellfoop. He worked for Lucasarts and created the award-winning two-game Telltale series Nelson Tethers Puzzle Agent. He's made two books of his frightfully funny artwork, The Book of Grickle and now Eerie Tales From The School of Screams. He has a terrific Mastodon account and a channel of funny/creepy Youtube animations. Favorites: Space Wolf (1:42), The Last Duet on Earth (3:54), The Hidden People (3:27), We Sing the Forest Electric (1:51), The Smartest Dog in the World (4:34), Soup Leprechaun (2:51), Blower (6:13), Pickle Sandwich (3:20), and... Maybellene (2:28, Maybellene was everything, and everything was Maybellene)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE MASK
"THIS IS THE MASK!" (picture of 3D glasses with an angular look) "YOU WILL BE GIVEN ONE ON ENTERING THE THEATRE. YOU WILL BE TOLD WHEN TO LOOK THROUGH IT. When you do, it will make you part of the desire-fuming brain of a monstrous genius of insanity. You will live with the living dead. You will share what no living person has known before." "The greatest thrill since you first saw a picture move! LOOK THROUGH YOUR MASK... IF YOU CAN'T TAKE IT... TAKE IT OFF! The management is not responsible for nervous breakdowns!" Well, huh. That text is from the poster. Evidently, the 'unknown knowledge' and 'greatest thrill' are cheap optical effects... presented in THREE-DEE!! The movie itself has to do with a guy, who is NOT Jim Carrey, driven to suicide by the things his mask shows him, and his psychiatrist, who decides to see what all this insanity is about for himself. This one is NOT a rewatch! Well it is, but I neglected to make posts for the last three episodes in Season 13, so we're going with first-time posts now! It premiered October 22, 2022, in the Gizmoplex.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: H.G. WELLS' THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
Rewatch! In space, things happen. There's a plague and Jack Palance is evil, and at one point his holographic head is gigantic and rotating over the landscape of an alien planet, and there's a really annoying robot that can teleport wherever it wants it seems. H.G. Wells fans, well, won't actually have much to enjoy here, the movie's kind of dull and doesn't really have much to do with his writing. The movie's a mess. Previously.
That giant owl is dynamite
Goblin Bet, akin to Salty Bet (previously), lets you wager pretend gold pieces on the outcome of monster fights. Fighters use their 5th edition D&D attributes. Stats are displayed on the sides of the screen, and you can click on the little question mark by a fighter's stat block to go to a page with information about them. Look out for random special abilities some fighters have, listed at the bottom of their stat block.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE MILLION EYES OF SU-MURU
Rewatch! The only person who can save us from Su-Muru's dastardly army of (gasp) WOMEN is Frankie Avalon. From the creator of Fu-Manchu and the producer of many of the Fu movies, so caffeine is a must for this one. Previously.
📦boy of Scottish Fold 📦
On July 10, 2008, Youtube user mugumogu uploaded a video of their young cat Maru, but it was a collection of clips posted on January 11, 2009, with "まるです," "I am Maru," that made him a superstar, with over 26 million views. One of the first internet cats with a sizable following, last month, Maru celebrated his 16th birthday with fellow housecats Hana and Miri. Here's to a long and happy life of playing with boxes and sometimes embarrassing moments.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE BATWOMAN
Rewatch! Not The Wild Wild World Of, this is just The Batwoman. In fact, The Mexican The Batwoman. She follows the natural career upgrade path south of the border, from luchador to superhero. Her mission is to stop a mad scientist from creating a race of fish people. Bats and fish: natural enemies. Previously.
Decrapifying Youtube
If you hate how Youtube's home page is lately full of clickbait thumbnails and titles desperate for you to load them, you might want to take a look at DeArrow, written by Ajay Ramachandran (Chrome, Firefox), an extension that can replace them with crowdsourced alternatives, or in their absence provide de-emphasized titles and random thumbnails. Ramachandran also produces SponsorBlock (Chrome, Firefox), a crowdsourced system for skipping past the sponsorship ads in videos, as well as the non-music portions of music videos.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: GAMERA VS. JIGER
Rewatch! We return to the life and times of our favorite flying giant turtle monster. Gamera protects Expo '70, held in Japan that year, from a monster attack. This is the longest MST3K episode of all, since they were required by the licensor not to cut it. It's also been less than a year since the first time we saw it. It's one of a small number of the first generation of Gamera films that the original run of the show didn't cover. (Another is Vs. Viras.) Previously.
Clup into the Blobtrix
A sludge clapper never chubs a bubble, or at least that's what I'd murm if these keeblies scruffed a skimple a sun in their ivies. Zee Bashew is back, with a cartoon depicting every crunchy dystopian RPG.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: DEMON SQUAD
Rewatch! Joel Robinson returns to the SOL to riff this movie about a private paranormal investigator who works the seedy demonic underworld of Mobile, Alabama. It's a bit like Constantine, and while it's very low budget it's a fun movie! Released in 2019, at the moment this is the most recent movie MST3K has done. Of particular note, a couple of months ago the makers held a Kickstarter to make a sequel and appealed to MSTies to help fund it, and they were successful! Previously.
Another stroll through the Google Graveyard
killedbygoogle.com lists 285 projects, services and pieces of software that Google has terminated during its history. Let's look back at some of them.
"I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell is THAT?"
Kid Leaves Stoop breaks down what we know about The Simpsons style guide, a long internal document that defines the surprisingly rigid way the characters are depicted in the modern show, and have been for decades, but weren't in the Tracy Ullman shorts or first season: The Simpsons No-No Sheets. (Youtube, 23 minutes)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: DOCTOR MORDRID
Rewatch! Emily and her bots are handed this Doctor Strange knockoff (word is it was originally written as a Strange movie), where an occult wizard guy, who also owns an apartment building in New York, fights evil by the behest of a pair of giant eyes. Not actually too bad, this is one of a genre of MST movie I like to call a very indie film, although not nearly as indie as something like Manos or Carnival Magic. Previously.
Rest in Violence
Blaseball is shutting down after The Game Band concluded that it wasn't sustainable. They had been tooling up for its third age, titled the "Coronation Era," and had planned mobile apps as part of the experience. They even came out of siesta for a brief time, only to go right back into hiatus after deeming their effort not up to the quality they were aiming for. Laid off staff are being given severance pay, extended health care and help in finding work. The news on: Destructoid, Rock Paper Shotgun, Gamespot, The Verge.
40 Years of Natty Novelties
Archie McPhee, Seattle novelty store, wholesaler, manufacturer, and mail order purveyor of weird gifts, the "Outfitters of Popular Culture" with catalogs cool enough to be collected by the Smithsonian, sellers of rubber chickens and devil duckies, is 40 years old. The Seattle Times did a short piece on them and their history. Some of their catalogs are collected on their website. They got a blog, and a podcast called "Less Talk More Monkey" (iTunes, Google Play), which explains why, for awhile, PayPal wouldn't let them sell tardigrade-themed merchandise through their payment service.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: MUNCHIE
Rewatch! While a sequel to the horror movie Munchies, Munchie has little to do with it, and isn't even a horror movie, but a fantasy comedy about a kid who gets a magic gremlin-like pal, voiced by Dom DeLuise, who tries to help him out but keeps messing things up. This is a notably bad movie, compounded by terrible special effects for Munchie. Good luck with this one. Previously.
"That was really the day the Lisa died"
From the Verge -- Lisa's Final Act: how Apple invented its future by burying its past.
Text introduction - the video, Lisa: Steve Jobs’ sabotage and Apple’s secret burial (30 minutes). The beginning fills in the history of the Lisa and Steve Jobs' involvement with it. The part some of you might be interested in begins with Chapter 5: The Lisa Professional.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: BEYOND ATLANTIS
Rewatch! Some ne'er-do-wells seek to steal a fortune in priceless pearls from a island tribe who are the last remnants of an undersea race. Things don't go well, but at least everyone is laughing in the end! A highlight of the season, the movie starring Sid Haig as archetypal scumbag East Eddie. Previously.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: ROBOT WARS
Rewatch! One of a dwindling number to go at this point. It's one of those sci-fi movies whose grand vision of the future is largely today but like with multinational consortiums and giant robots. There's even a major location that's just a normal town circa the movie's making, passed off as a preserved ghost town and tourist location. Warning, there's an appallingly misogynistic character who's intended by the movie to be seen as a lovable scamp. Feh, meh, pleh, bleah. Previously.
Use Your Claws Luke
A new Engineer's Guide to Cats, on the subject of Cat Future Technology, with bonus reenactment of Star Wars with cats. A lot of other feline-focused film frivolity can be found on klusmanp's Youtube Page. (Engineer's Guide to Cats previously, again, also.)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA
Rewatch! When Dracula threatens to revive and threaten the world of the living, who can stand against him? That's right, El Santo, the famed luchador, and his time machine. Roughly half of the movie is an extended flashback that could almost work as a Hammer-style horror movie, but then we return to the present and a wrestling match plays a pivotal role in the plot, of course. Episode 1301 is the first episode of the Gizmoplex era. It's only been a year since the original Fanfare post on this episode. Previously. We have gotten word that there will be a Season 14, but we have no details at this point.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE
Rewatch! Remember Cave Dwellers? Before Cave Dwellers there was Ator: The Fighting Eagle. This movie. The only character the films have in common is Ator, played by a sizable quantity of O'Keefe. The generic fantasy setting seems to be mostly different too, similar, but modulated differently. Ator's love interest/sister gets newted in a flashback in Cave Dwellers, so don't get too wrapped up in her fate here. Other than that it's standard barbarian-type shlock, a bit more skin and pseudo-Conan lore on display than in Cave Dwellers, and it moves a little faster. It's the last episode of (beat) The Gauntlet, the end of Season 12, and the end of the Netflix era. Previously.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Biden's Border Policy
This week.... Matthew McConaughey's had a five-and-a-half-hour-long "The Art of Livin'" Virtual Live Event that was bonkers. In the UK, they prepare for Charles' coronation despite facing serious economic problems. And Now: Is Matthew McConaughey OK? Main story: Biden, and the ways in which he's failed to live up to his campaign rhetoric regarding immigration, like the continued abuse of Title 42, a public health law, which began under Trump as a way to prevent access to immigrants and asylum seekers was began under Trump policy golem Stephen Miller, and which Biden has notably failed to stamp out." And Now: Wait, Did Tucker Carlson Know This Was Coming? (Statements Carlson has said on Fox News that could be seen to refer to his recent resignation-probable-firing.) On Youtube. (20 minutes) Finally, an update over the ads fo Radiant Plumbing and Air Conditioning, who makes strange and wonderful toilet-themed parodies of big movies for commercials. Last month LWT challenged them to make a toilet-themed commercial parody based on a movie of their choosing. They accepted in brilliant fashion, and the movie choice was, of all things, Magnolia. What they produced, awesomely, was... Magtoiletolia.
Gravity and Escape Speed
XKCD has recently done a couple more interactive posts, both oriented toward exploring 2D space in a gravity-based universe: Gravity, and Escape Speed. The first is a fairly laid back region to explore; the second starts your ship out fairly limited, and you try to find upgrades, get enough speed to leave your starting planet. The first is mostly just something to look around, the second feels more like an actual game, with lots of upgrades and fun collectables to find.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: KILLER FISH
Rewatch! The penultimate episode of "The Gauntlet," MST3K's abbreviated 12th season, and second Netflix season. It's jewel thieves vs piranhas this time. In the episode's plot (there kind of is one), Dr. Erhardt is back and seeks to scatter the ashes of Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank in outer space. Previously.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Cryptocurrencies Again
This week.... Scotty Campbell, one of the Tennessee lawmakers who voted to expel two of his Democratic colleges for protesting against gun violence, was revealed himself to have sexually harassed at least one intern, and resigned his seat. The right flips out over an Instagram influencer promoting Bud Light because she was a trans woman. Main story: Cryptocurrency again, a look at three of the biggest collapses of recent months: Terra, Celsius and FTX. On Youtube (24 minutes). And Now: A Look At A Few More Of Jim Cramer's Great Calls.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE DAY TIME ENDED
Rewatch! Some things happen, or do they? One of the most nonsensical movies in Mystery Science Theater 3000's ancient pantheon of nonsense. As oneswellfoop wrote, "It's like all the temporal paradoxes over the entire run of Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Irwin Allen's Time Tunnel, the Back to the Future movies and the episode of Babylon 5 where Babylon 4 reappeared all converged on one isolated location and didn't have clue what to do next so they ordered pizza." The episode has the return of J. Elvis Weinstein as Dr. Erhardt! Previously.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Farm Workers
This week.... Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota spoke at a NRA forum, claiming that it wasn't just a bunch of old white guys, to a crowd composed almost entirely of old white guys. Texas judge Kacsmaryk suspended the FDA's approval of a key component of medication abortions 23 years after the fact, using terrible reasoning to do so (MeFi). And Now: Did You Know Action News' Robert Grant Has A Fucking Dairy Allergy? Main story: Farm workers (Youtube, 25 minutes), most of whom in the US are foreign-born and undocumented, are badly treated, work in dangerous conditions, are woefully paid, and can legally be as young as twelve, and yet are incredibly essential to agriculture, which is messed up. The closing segment (of a parody "Farming Simulator 2023") was narrated by Nick Offerman.
Welcome to Crab Fragment Cay
Internet lore tells us the story of Cheapass Games, founded by prolific gamemaker James Ernest in 1996. Their gimmick was, they printed small and cheap games, sold in small folders, that came with rules and maybe a board and cards. You would then supply all the other parts yourself: tokens, dice, play money, playing cards and other commonly-available parts that you could scavenge from other board games you might have lying around. In 2020, Ernest reentered the publishing industry with Crab Fragment Labs, offering an array of both pay-what-you-want-to-print and paid-for-physical products: card games, board games, quick-playing and easy-to-learn pub games, solitaire games and a wide assortment of the best of the old Cheapass Games, in Cheapassic Park.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: LORDS OF THE DEEP
Rewatch! People find a hyperintelligent lifeform in the ocean, and it's turning people into blobs! The opinions from MeFites the last time this one came up ran the gamut. Some were happy that it was a genuinely bad movie instead of a knockoff like 1201 and 2; someone mention that is a knockoff, of The Abyss; some liked it; some found it DULL. There's a fun during-movie song in this one, with a psychedelic tone.Previously.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Homeowners Associations
In the aftermath of yet another school shooting, children gathered outside the Tenessee courthouse chanting "Fuck Bill Lee!" due to the grossly underwhelming response from Republicans to the shooting, who expelled two House members because they had the temerity to side with the students. And Now: It's Easter, The Most Terrifying Time Of The Year." Main story: Homeowners Associations, much-hated, often-tyrannical groups that 29% of Americans must live with, a figure that's rapidly growing because over 80% of new homes are covered by one. They have been called "the most significant privatization of local government responsibilities in recent times." They sometimes function like small governments, but without any of the strictures that governments have. They can be astoundingly petty, and that's not even getting into how they can be the tools of racists. It's just one more way that people often get screwed over in the United States. On Youtube (25 minutes). The piece is concluded by a short segment depicting what it would be like if HOAs were forced to tell people what they may be in for. For people 35 or younger, who likely will never even be able to own a home, LWT has prepared an alternate story, A History of Chuck E. Cheese, a 28-minute video that can been seen at lastsqueaktonight.com.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: ATLANTIC RIM
Rewatch! The Asylum is an infamous studio I'm a bit conflicted about. It's true, I've seen a lot of their films, despite finding it challenging to make it through a lot of them. Many of them aren't what I'd call good. But they continue to make movie after movie, even after all this time, despite it being a difficult craft, doggedly doing what they want no matter what people tell them. I admire that. And they made Z Nation, which people generally liked. Well, this is more typical of their output: a movie based loosely upon, and named similarly to, a big-budget movie, released straight to disk. This one has pretty unlikable characters. It's the second movie of "The Gauntlet," MST3K's short 12th season. Previously.
Reverse Obitfilter
An age is passing before our eyes, a time that had never been so media saturated. We've lost a lot of people in the internet age, from Abe Vigoda to Betty White. The Mystery Science Theater 3000 official forums has a thread on old stars who are still around that's worth celebrating, while we can! Still with us are Dick Van Dyke (97), Mel Brooks (96), Bob Newhart (93), Willie Nelson (89), Gene Hackman (93), James Hong (94), Harry Belafonte (96), Sir David Attenborough (96), Roger Corman (97), Norman Lear (100!), Norman Jewison (96), Tony Bennett (96), Jimmy (98) and Rosalyn (95) Carter, John Astin (93; Gomez Adams! Sean's father!), Mamie Van Doren (92, on Twitter though sometimes NSFW), Tony Bennett (96), Hal Linden (92), John Williams (91), then there's Carol Burnett (89), Julie Newmar (also 89), Joan Collins (also also 89), and Willie Mays (91).
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Solitairy Confinement
This week.... France experiences unrest after Macron submits a plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. And Now: The Last Remaining Sliver of Morality in Tucker Carlson's Head Tries To Give Him Some Advice. Main Story: the massive inhumanity of solitary confinement in prisons, a practice that the Supreme Court in 1890 ruled made prisoners "violently insane," and the reliance placed upon it by the U.S. prison system now, no matter what euphamism is used for it. On Youtube (20 minutes) And Now: Nobody Reports The News Like FOX 26's Isiah Carey. Finally, Last Week Tonight presents their newest character (a year early): Mickey Mouse!
PU (Pendulum Undoing)
Pannenkoek is the person who's been doing the A-button Challenge in Super Mario 64, and along the way has made a number of extremely geeky, but also informative, videos on Mario 64's internals, that explain a number of computer science principles along the way. You know, the person who brought M64's Parallel Universes (PUs) to our knowledge. He has a new video, on crashing the game in Tick Tock Clock by walking into a corner at the right moments (1 hour 12 minutes), and in this one they speak!
Mystery Science Theater 3000: MAC AND ME
Rewatch! A disturbingly malleable, bubble-gum-like alien and their family get stuck on Earth and befriend a wheelchair-riding boy in this notable box-office failure. Chris Pratt seems to like it though! Season 12 ties Season 7 for the shortest season of MST3K. This is the first episode of "The Gauntlet," a series of MST3K episodes designed to be binged, although that'd be over nine hours of riffed film, so good luch surviving that. Unlike the previous episodes, I only posted each MST3K episode from Season 12 once, so less of a retread this time! Previously.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: AT THE EARTH'S CORE
Re-rewatch! Once again, it's the last episode of Season 11, the first Netflix season. People go to the center of Edgar Rice Burroughs Earth and meet dinos and cavefolk. It's Growler's first episode, and the episode of Kinga's ratings-stunt marriage that never ends up happening. It ends on a kind of cliffhanger, but Jonah's okay, he's outside the SOL in a space suit. Previously and again.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Timeshares
This week... it's slightly possible that maybe it could occur that Trump will be arrested soon, and he seems to be taking it "well." The fallout from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank continues. And Now: For St. Patrick's Day, Local News Did What They Always Fucking Do. The main story is on timeshares (on Youtube, 26 minutes), or as they're sometimes rebranded now, "Vacation Clubs," or "Vacation Ownership Plans." People are pressured to buy them on vacation, salespeople have diminished responsibility when they lie about them, and 85% of timeshare buyers come to regret their purchase, which are often subject to a "non-cancellable perpetuity clause," that can be an outright burden on the people they're left to in estates if they don't fire a disclaiming document within nine months. As the show tells us, timeshares suck, and companies that claim they can get you out of timeshares suck more. The show welcome's back John's "wife," Wanda Jo Oliver, to tell us about her new "company," Timeshare Exit2, which "has over 9.3 billion customers, and a 200% satisfaction rate!"
Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE CHRISTMAS THAT ALMOST WASN'T
Re-rewatch! Santa is gonna be put out on the streets (floes?) by his landlord, a Mr. Prune, unless Mr. Whipple can save him. Don't squeeze the Charmin! Previously and again.
Faster Than Light Newsfeed
I've mentioned it in past posts, but now there's a Youtube list of 633 30 to 60-second episodes of the first SyFy Sci-Fi Channel original series, FTL Newsfeed (IMDB), a commercial-length glimpse into the future, from the past when cable networks could actually be cool in their attempts at branding. It begins with an hour-long video containing the Sci-Fi Channel's pre-launch promo footage, so you'll have to fast forward to get to the first episode. After that each is over quickly, and it's easy to watch several in a row. FTL lasted for over four years, and the entire run does not appear to exist online, but transcripts of all the episodes exist on a pretty extensive fan wiki.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: TANF Misuse
This week... News on Dominion Voting System's defamation case against Fox News indicating that neither Fox's hosts nor Rupert Murdoch believed Trump's claims of election fraud, with Tucker Carlson being captured in a text as saying, "I hate him passionately." Tennessee passes a drag show ban, because that's the biggest problem facing the state? The anti-LGBT bills come by way of Lt. Governor Randy McNally, who as it turns out has been commenting on social media about racy photos from a gay male influencer. And Now: Happy International Women's Day, From The Men Of Local News. It's as awkward as you think it is. Main story: TANF (on Youtube, 23 minutes), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. A lot of athletic (for some reason) celebrities are involved, but that obscures the fact hat the $77 million dollars that were misspent in Mississippi caused real harm. But Mississippi is far from alone in abusing the federal TANF program, with states ranging from using it for scolarships to well-to-do families to crisis pregnancy centers to literally nothing at all. Ugh. And Now: The Humble Beginnings of Rachael Ray.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: CARNIVAL MAGIC
Re-resuffer! Welcome back to the "Manos" of Season 11: Carnival Magic. Alex the chimp can talk, sorta-kinda, but not about anything interesting. His owner Markov is a cut-rate magician and hypnotist that for some reason everyone seems to deeply respect or despise. Probably the worst movie of Season 11, and one of the worst ever made. But at least Mark Hamill appears in this episode in a host segment! Previously and (ugh) again.
Mr. B.I.G., R.I.P.
Bert I. Gordon (homepage), a.k.a. "Mr B.I.G," prolific filmmaker who made many a Mystery Science Theater 3000 film, has passed away at age 100. Farewell, and thanks for all the flicks!
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Ron DeSantis
This week... leading off with the main story, on Ron DeSantis, who has been doing a lot of horrible things as the governor of the US State of Florida, trying to position himself as the Republican nominee for President over the head of that other horrible person. And Now: Jerry O'Connell's Wife is a Scorpio, And He Needs Help. A final word on the TV ads of local business Radiant Plumbing which includes, among many others, Mister Scream, The Toiletnator, The Toilet Exorcist and... Toilet Dune. Last Week Tonight challenged Radiant Plumbing to make their next commercial based on their prompt sight-unseen, in exchange for a $10K food bank contribution, and Radiant Plumbing has already agreed, in classic fashion.
The Hole of Cartoon Badness
The Best of the Worst Cartoons Ever was an episode of the early Cartoon Network show Toon Heads, it is said to have been unaired for posing several Hanna-Barbera productions as bad in some way. It had been preserved by animation historian Jerry Beck (who co-wrote it) and recently uploaded to YouTube by Jerico Dvorak. Here it is, 43 minutes of tremendous cringe.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: WIZARDS OF THE LOST KINGDOM II
Re-rewatch! In contrast to the movie of the previous episode, which was quirky and had interesting characters, this movie is sometimes cited as one of the worst of Season 11. It's a meandering fantasy that reused footage from four other fantasy movies, into a plot that doesn't make much sense. Despite the title and an attempt to tie it in with the previous movie at the start, it really has nothing to do with the first Wizards of the Lost Kingdom except it also had Roger Corman as an executive producer. Previously and again.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Artificial Intelligence
James O'Keefe was removed from ethics-challenged right-wing ambush muckrakers Project Veritas over allegations of misusing donator funds. And Now: Mike Huckabee's Show Looks Like Fun. Main story: Artificial Intelligence, the dangers it poses and the ways that it falls short, for now at least, of its promise. On Youtube (28 minutes).