News Miscellany

[Crumb]

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[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Def Leppard Drummer Rick Allen Suffers Head Injury In Florida Sneak Attack By Teenager

[Ari]

Prepare yourself for the soon to be onslaught of teenage boys, Mens rights activists and contrarian trolls defending the character of a drunk who doesn’t show up to work and solicits underage fans, against the evils of cancel culture, because the court system didn’t feel they had enough evidence to prosecute his domestic violence charge.

Charges dropped against 'Rick and Morty' co-creator Justin Roiland : NPR

[viscousmemories]

I watched the first episode and a half of Rick and Morty the other day and thought it was dumb as shit. I might have thought it was hilarious when I was younger, and maybe I'd be less critical if I wasn't aware of what a shit-stain the creator is, but I just didn't like it. I think this was the first time I watched it but my memory is frighteningly bad these days so I wouldn't swear on that.

[Ari]

I found it hit and miss, sometimes it would give a good self aware nihilist view on an old sci-fi trope, sometimes it’s scrotums and wanting to date high school girls and I’m pretty sure I know which creator those were from.

[Ensign Steve]

Yeah, FWIW (not much maybe) one of the creators is only half a shit-stain. I'm a big fan of Dan Harmon, and I really like a lot of Rick and Morty. A lot of the jokes are very funny and smart, but I definitely have to turn off the part of my brain that, like, cares about decency and empathy and shit in order to enjoy it.

[beyelzu]

I mostly really like Rick and Morty. The show is smart and hilarious. It’s also dark and nihilistic. I read the article below about a month ago.

I love its mature science fiction story telling. Mature in that it’s aware of Dci-fi and expects the audience to be.

More recently, multiple sources say that Roiland, other than voice work, has not had any meaningful creative presence on any of the series that bear his name. In fact, many of his former colleagues say they haven’t heard from him in years, and when they have, it’s been unpleasant. They note, too, that he hasn’t been on speaking terms with his Rick and Morty co-creator, Dan Harmon, for multiple seasons, and a substantial number of staffers on that show as well as Solar Opposites and Koala Man have never actually met Roiland, even over Zoom.

Justin Roiland: Inside the ‘Rick and Morty’ Co-creator’s Implosion – The Hollywood Reporter

I have also noticed as Rick and Morty has progressed the show has done more and deeper storylines about Beth and Summer. I know that they hired women writers for season three and that Roiland and some of his writers were toxic pieces of shit.

The article goes pretty in depth, I think the show grew out of its kind of sophomoric shock humor beginnings into a real tvshow, and Harmon worked to make that happen. Roiland was almost literally impossible to work with.

I think the show gets better as Harmon asserts control and pushed Roiland out.

I take some comfort in the idea that this isn’t just his creation and he isn’t much involved. Frankly, his voice work can be replaced.

[viscousmemories]

Interesting, I didn't realize Dan Harmon was involved. That makes me wonder why I never went back to Community. I'm reasonably certain I watched many seasons then stopped for some reason. Again though, brain fog is real.

[Ari]

Originally Posted by beyelzu

I think the show gets better as Harmon asserts control and pushed Roiland out.

I take some comfort in the idea that this isn’t just his creation and he isn’t much involved. Frankly, his voice work can be replaced.

I’ve said it before but all of this really puts into context Season 3, from the episode where Rick does a cool but childish thing to avoid family therapy, to Morty seeing through and being tired of Rick’s shit, including outright saying Rick isn’t a good person. I really wonder how much of their own therapy dealing with Roiland is on the page.

[Ensign Steve]

I avoided posting any of this yesterday because the last thing this cis het white male needs is me white-knighting him, but since we're still talking about it and it continues to rattle around in my brain, here goes.

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

Interesting, I didn't realize Dan Harmon was involved. That makes me wonder why I never went back to Community. I'm reasonably certain I watched many seasons then stopped for some reason. Again though, brain fog is real.

If I had my guess, it's because of the behind-the-scenes bullshit with Harmon getting fired as the showrunner for season 4, so that season sucked, so they rehired him for season 5, but it was only half a season, as a mid-season replacement, and then season 6 was on yahoo screen. Remember yahoo screen? Exactly.

Anyway, it's all on Netflix now (minus the one ep where Chang does blackface), and I'm doing a rewatch, following along with the Post Show Recaps podcast. They just finished Season 5 and are on hiatus while all the new TV is dropping (hooray for Succession and Yellowjackets!). The season 5 two-part finale is super meta, and very much reinforces how much I love Harmon's style, even though networks hate it.

I listened to Harmontown podcast around the time that finale originally aired, and he told a really amazing story about meeting Gary Shandling. They spoke about how the network says Community is too meta, and Gary Shandling tells him "Are they still giving that note? They used to say that to Dick Van Dyke on the Dick Van Dyke Show."

Also around the same time, this was during the height of #metoo, he opened one of his podcasts by essentially coming clean about a time in the past when he had been completely inappropriate with a woman who had worked for him, and now he understands how wrong he was and he totally regrets his behavior, etc. Maybe it was damage control to get ahead of a potential story, but he sounded pretty sincere to me. (Then of course all his shithead fans wrote in about why is he being such an SJW by talking about that shit and saying what he did was wrong.)

The reason I mention that story specifically, is that it seems that Harmon has the capacity to grow and learn, in a way that his former colleague does not. Like bey said, when they got Roiland out of the writers' room, and a few women into it, the show vastly improved (though the shithead fans feel the oppsite). Remember that R&M originally spun off of a Channel 101 cartoon where a child literally sucks an old man's dick, repeatedly. R&M S1E5 introduces Mr. Meeseeks, which is one of my absolute favorite bits, but in the same episode, Morty gets sextually assaulted in the restroom. They played it straight and people are like "this is not funny" and the creators were like "it's not supposed to be funny, it's a sexual assault of a child" and it's like well yeah, brah, then maybe leave it out of your cartoon?

My point is, if you're turned off by Season 1, you probably should be, but the later seasons get a lot more interesting, playing with concepts and stuff and not just a bunch of edgelord "jokes". Again, not that I feel the need to champion this very popular show, but if you ever felt like checking out the later stuff, it does get a lot better than what you saw in season 1.

Originally Posted by Ari

I’ve said it before but all of this really puts into context Season 3, from the episode where Rick does a cool but childish thing to avoid family therapy, to Morty seeing through and being tired of Rick’s shit, including outright saying Rick isn’t a good person. I really wonder how much of their own therapy dealing with Roiland is on the page.

Not to spoil your interpretation (artist's intent blah blah blah etc), he has specifically said that was about his drunk, unreliable mom.

[fragment]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

My point is, if you're turned off by Season 1, you probably should be, but the later seasons get a lot more interesting, playing with concepts and stuff and not just a bunch of edgelord "jokes". Again, not that I feel the need to champion this very popular show, but if you ever felt like checking out the later stuff, it does get a lot better than what you saw in season 1.

Is season 1 skippable?

[Ari]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Not to spoil your interpretation (artist's intent blah blah blah etc), he has specifically said that was about his drunk, unreliable mom.

Oh yeah, it’s mostly musings as not everything revolves around Roiland, although if I had a writers room of not-famous people who had to deal with a drunk unreliable authority figure, I certainly wouldn’t out them by suggesting a story about a drunk unreliable authority figure had anything to do with their specific situation.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

If I had my guess, it's because of the behind-the-scenes bullshit with Harmon getting fired as the showrunner for season 4, so that season sucked, so they rehired him for season 5, but it was only half a season, as a mid-season replacement, and then season 6 was on yahoo screen. Remember yahoo screen? Exactly.

Aha, that rings a bell! Same category of reason I never saw the last season(s?) of Arrested Development.

[LarsMac]

My brother was a fan of the Rick and Morty stuff. He used to quote them when we were at a pub getting toasted.

Once, the Bartender at this place in DC was a fan. They spent half the night running rifs on various episodes. She ended up taking him home (or, was it he ended up taking her home, ???, ) and I was left to find my way back to my hotel on foot.

When his liver gave out, and we were sitting with him at the hospice, he would become conscious for a while, but then he'd start quoting shit from an R&M episode, and drift off again.

Last thing he said was something about he wasn't going to be the one to figure it out.

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by fragment

Is season 1 skippable?

I would say so. I think if you have the general idea that the show is about Sci-fi genius, his family and a bunch of high concept sci-fi rigamarole you can jump into almost any episode.

I think just starting at s2e1 or s3e1 would work or most season’s ep 1.

There are some arcs, but the show likes to do a reset at the end of seasons with the first eps establishing a new status quo.

[BrotherMan]

It's probably true of just about any fandom: The show is rarely as awful as their worst proponents. (See: Breaking Bad, Star Wars)

[ceptimus]

Originally Posted by fragment

Is season 1 skippable?

In most shows with multiple seasons, Season 1 is usually skippable. Season 1 has to be good enough for Season 2 to be commissioned, but the scriptwriters and actors are still finding their way, developing the characters and storylines.

This is known as, "The Riker's Beard Effect."

[Miss Shelby]

Busy Philipps trolls Gwyneth Paltrow's 'half day of skiing' quote

[Ensign Steve]

Busy Philipps is hilarious.

[Miss Shelby]

This cuts extremely close to home for me. It's my first cousins niece by marriage.


Coroner identifies 25-year-old victims in Shawnee neighborhood double homicide

[Miss Shelby]

2 children orphaned by gun violence in Louisville over the weekend

Here's an update. Two little babies have no parents now.

[Miss Shelby]

posted in wrong thread

[JoeP]

It's parliamentary election day in Finland, and it's nail-biting neck-and-neck rinta rinnan stuff.

The incumbent SDP and current Prime Minister Sanna Marin have the most votes - just - but are short on seats despite the large proportional-representation constituencies. The right wing Kokoomus is doing better in seats - and the racist nationalist Finns Party are disturbingly close.

56.4% of votes counted. Another hour or so before things become clear.

[JoeP]

It's been called, by the state media though not officially, for the conservative bunch. Racists remain disturbingly close but not forecast to be in power.

[LarsMac]

In the "What is wrong with this picture" category,

Wandering in Facebook, this morning,
Reading some fright winger rant about the Bud Light "wokening", this comment stood out:

"If you don’t stand for nothing you’ll fall for anything."