Brian Smith

I wish I could explain why the "Tina Yothers" in the alt text made me laugh so hard.

Final episode of "Batman: The Brave and the Bold". Bat-Mite wants to destroy the show, so he puts Ted McGinley on it; McGinley then plays himself playing Aquaman.

Jared Leto could NEVER

Years ago, I worked for a small-town paper where a reporter submitted the lede, "At least 18 high schoolers were killed and dozens more were injured after a gas leak sparked fires throughout the building...or at least, that's the scenario acted out on Thursday." I wanted to punch her in the face.

I've forgotten everything about it except for one bit where Dennis is on the phone with Elliot and Nina, pretending to be a bluesman's widow, and he (as her) is berating them for loving him: "The man never made no sense! He drank gasoline straight out of the pump."

In my mind, "Inside Schwartz" was the show that salted the earth on the post-"Friends" time slot, but that actually premiered during "Friends" 8th season! It came along AFTER "Union Square," "Daddio," "The Weber Show" and "Three Sisters." (I'm giving a pass to "Boston Common" and "Jesse".)

I love that after the soundtrack for "The Bodyguard" came out, Dolly Parton stopped making gold and platinum albums and started following her interests like this. I can't find the exact quote, but it's something like "I finally got rich enough to make poor-people music."

A Sunday installment of Jim Reddick's comic "Robotman," taken from the collection "Primary Crullers" and found online. Robotman and Monty, the human who'd eventually take over the strip, are preparing for game night. Monty: "I don't want to play any brainy games...no chess. No Scrabble. No Stratego." Robotman: "How about Monopoly?" Monty, thoughtfully: "Umm...OK." Robotman: "Monopoly it is." They sit down at the game table. Monty: "OK, let's see...I'll be the...umm...wheelbarrow." Robotman: "Really? The wheelbarrow? Are you sure you want to be the wheelbarrow?" Monty: "Why? What's wrong with the wheelbarrow?" Robotman: "Nothing. It's just a tad unusual." Monty: "Why?" Robotman: "Well, it's just that most people want to be the racing car or the terrier or the top hat or..." Monty: "Well, I LIKE the wheelbarrow." Robotman: "I've always thought people who choose the wheelbarrow have low self-esteem. Who would want to identify with a wheelbarrow?" Monty: "OK, OK. If it'll make you feel better, I'll be the shoe." Robotman: "Foot fettish." [sic] Monty turns away and folds his arms: "OK, that's it. I don't want to play anymore. You take all the fun out of games with your stupid analysis!" Robotman: "You're right...I'm sorry. Here, let's play something else. Um...how about 'Clue'?" Monty turns back around: "Wellll...OK." Robotman: "'Clue' it is, then." Monty: "I'll be Miss Scarlet..."

So this is how I flashed back to a three-decades-old installment of Jim Reddick's "Robotman" today.

MILDLY RELATED: In the pilot of "Raising Hope," serial killer Lucy Carlyle's request for her last meal is a McRib and a Shamrock Shake. Warden: "That should buy her a few months. Those two are almost never available at the same limited time."

A screenshot from Fox TV's sketch-comedy series "The Edge," episode 1, 1992. Jennifer Aniston plays Julia Duffy in the opening credits for the show's parody of season 6 of "Designing Women."

For some of us, Jennifer Aniston will always be Julia Duffy as Stephanie Vanderkellen as Allison Sugarbaker in DESIGNING WOMEN.

(actually Fox TV's THE EDGE, 1992)

And there was ALREADY a multi-season series called "Doc," and it starred Billy Ray Cyrus! I know this because I would watch TV with my grandmother, which is how I saw the one with the C-plot where a couple shops for a couch, and I'm STILL AGGRAVATED ABOUT IT

I've always loved that the 2002 movie's "The burglar runs out and shoots a waiting Uncle Ben" really spotlights the needless complexity of "The burglar knew Uncle Ben bought a computer, so he cased the joint. That's how he saw Spider-Man before they met, and why he thought they could be partners."

♫ If you like Persis Khambatta
♫ Sporting a head that is shaved,
♫ If you're not into Yoda,
♫ If it's Shatner you've craved,
♫ If you like prototypes of Riker,
♫ And a Doohan who's James,
♫ Then you want "The Motion Picture,"
♫ It's got all the big names!♫

...sorry / not sorry

This silly "Out of Control" bit has stayed lodged in my head longer than important names and dates and passwords:
Manwolf: "I'm Manwolf!"
Dave: "You're half-man, half-wolf?"
Manwolf: "No, I'm all Manwolf!"

From Amazing Spider-Man annual #18, plotted by Tom DeFalco and scripted by Stan Lee, it's Spider-Man punching Scorpion through a wall while J. Jonah Jameson gets his wife and son out of the way in the background. Jonah is saying, "That's it. Keep moving. Don't stop for anything." Spider-Man: "Surprised, Scorpy? Hey, you didn't think it would take me forever to shore up one little hunk of wall, didja? Why couldn't you have taken 'em to the middle of Times Square instead of a lonely alley? Us friendly neighborhood Spider-Men love an audience when we come on like gangbusters." Spider-Man, in the first-person narration box: "Actually, I'm not old enough to remember the 'Gangbusters' radio show, but Uncle Ben used to talk about it. Just thought you'd like to know."

This bit from the Stan Lee-scripted "Amazing Spider-Man" annual 18 always confused me. Did Stan Lee think he needed to write this narration box? Did Danny Fingeroth or Jim Shooter think "We can't cut Stan's old-people talk" and write it themselves? In any event, it took me right out of the story.

"Peanuts," Sept. 13, 1964. The first topper panel features Charlie Brown frantically running from a swarm of cursive letters; the second topper has him attempting to write lowercase b's, c's and d's in cursive, and muttering a rare lowercase "rats!" when they're not perfect. Panel 3: Charlie Brown struggles his way through writing capital letters A through N in cursive. Panel 4: Charlie Brown crumples the paper in frustration: "RATS! I just can't do it!!" Panel 5: Linus arrives: "What's the matter, Charlie Brown?" Charlie Brown: "I can't write like the teacher wants us to.." Panel 6: Charlie Brown shows Linus his cursive workbook: "Look at this book..see how nice all the letters are? I can't write like that! I never will be able to write like that!" Panels 7-9: Linus: "Of course you can't, Charlie Brown...neither could the person who wrote this book. What he did, you see, was take the best letters and make photostates of them. Then, from these photostats, he made a paste-up of the whole page, and printed it to look like it was done perfectly. You are a victim of studio technique." Panel 10, Charlie Brown looks straight at the reader: "Whom do I sue?"

One of my all-time favorite Peanuts strips is one that I barely understood as a kid beyond the basic "It's OK to be sad, don't be so hard on yourself" message. Later, I read it as "Adults will flat-out lie to you;" today, I read it as "I letter my own comic, and I have contempt for those who don't."

"Pearls Before Swine," November 2005: Pig: "Well well well...if it's not my old nemesis, Annie May, the sea anemone...I see you're back to even the score." Annie May: "That's wrong, Pig. I want to bury the hatchet. I no longer want to be your enemy." Pig: "You'll always be my enemy, Annie May, the anemone." Annie May: "No, Pig...and to prove my goodwill, I'd like to offer you a two-night stay at a luxury hotel that features air-conditioning, an indoor swimming pool, and free movies, including Japanese anime..." Pig: "How DARE you try to bribe me with amenities like anime, Annie May, my sea anemone enemy." Rat, from out of nowhere: "ENOUGH!!!"

I'd still consider "Pearls Before Swine" one of my all-time favorite comic strips even if it had ended with this installment from almost 20 years ago.

Jonah and the bots' reaction to Munchie's reveal (GPC, to the others: "Get out of here! I love you too much! Run! I'll take one for the team! What's going ON?!?" is MAYBE the hardest I've ever laughed at a "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

When "Independence Day: Resurgence" came out, I genuinely wanted a cameo appearance by the dog from the first movie, and a little hand-wave that the alien technology had life-extending properties that only seemed to work for dogs. Wink to the audience, like, "That one dog will never, ever die."

My first thought upon seeing that in the review was "Oh, Silvestri did the music for the 2014 remake?" but, no, that was Pedro Bromfman.

Top Shelf Announces 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1988"

*gets exasperated at the non-enticing preview image for this link, but then feels relieved that an April Fool's gag from 2010 is still on the internet at all*

At left, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mitch Trubisky wears a padded helmet as he calls signals in a drill during an NFL practice in Pittsbugh in a June 7, 2022, file photo. At right, Charlie Brown wears a scooped-out pumpkin for a helmet to win the big motocross race in 1975's "You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown." (Left, AP/Keith Srakocic; right, courtesy Lee Mendelson Film Productions, Bill Melendez Productions and whoever else owns this Charlie Brown special these days)

...and just like that, both preseason football AND "You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown" are ruined for me.

A 2009 "Joyce and Walky" strip by David Willis, also found online in a 2021 upload at https://www.itswalky.com/comic/pie-chart/ . In panels 1 and 2, Walky holds up a pie chart: Walky: "I've made a pie chart that displays, organized by frequency, your most common utterances while we watch TV. This small piece over here is 'I missed that, what did they say?' This other small piece is 'Can we go back? I missed what they said.' This big piece is you asking me to explain stuff we don't know yet 'cuz it will be answered later in the story." Joyce counters with her own pie chart: "I've made a pie chart that notes where you'll be sleeping for the next week." The pie chart is a giant, unbroken circle that reads "Park Bench".

Tagging @damnyouwillis.bsky.social for full credit on this somewhat-related* "Joyce and Walky" strip.

* I will take any excuse to share this strip with anyone

YouTube video by Testador de Conteudo Powerless Opening Credits HD

Dang it, you're making me watch the intro to "Powerless" again.

My favorite detail about the intro is that Sherman Hemsley specifically wanted to be shown locking the car door with his key after he got out, because he thought it was a good habit that would help prevent people from locking their keys in their car.

I was 51 last year when I attended a "Name the Artist" contest where one of the songs was "Funkytown." The guy on stage asked us, "Who's that artist?" I don't know how many people yelled "Lipps, Inc.," but I yelled "Lipps Incorporated!" and, I swear, the LOOK that guy shot me...

Thank you so much!

Sincere question: I have a vague memory of a Comedy Central promo where Crow was hooked up to electrodes to be conditioned to say he liked to watch either MST3K or Comedy Central, but first he stumbled through "I like to watch 'Baywatch Nights'" before being electrocuted. Does this ring any bells?

YouTube video by silentboob Family Guy - Fingernails for cash

OH MY GOD IT'S REAL

Looks like the album track of "You're Not Drinking Enough" is ALSO missing, but he DID allow a live version from 1985, which makes the complete absence of "Building the Perfect Beast" even MORE notable.

Fun idea:
Use this site to find your account's score and then find a matching review out there on the web for any media of your choosing.

bluefacts.app

...well. This is humbling.