Brian Smith

We joke NOW, but this post made me imagine a horrible alternate 1997 with social media, one where extremely-online "Waterworld" devotees clamored for the failure of every other water-based movie. #ReleaseTheCostnerCut #RestoreTheCostnerVerse #KevinCostnerIsMariner #SellCostnerVerseToBlockbuster

YouTube video by Ancient Reptilian Brain oh flimsy steve

I always loved that someone followed up the original tweet by actually setting it to music -- www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG4S... -- and someone else came along to say, essentially, "You weren't supposed to make the Damon Albarn part the cool part!"

"Ever since I was a little kid, I was ALWAYS a big Three Stooges fan, in all their various incarnations. Except for Curly Joe DeRita, you know -- he lacked subtlety."

GOLD

Mike Nelson on the Satellite of Love, palling around with Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, waiting on Pearl Forrester to reply to, "Well, that sounds GREAT, Pearl. I hope your party is a big success. When does the ball start?", during the early part of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" episode 903, "The Pumaman"

This is as good a time as any to say that Mike's face in "The Pumaman," right after he asks Pearl "When does the ball start?", is one of my favorite little things ever -- just sheer forced niceness after having to sit through Pearl's "I'm SO sorry, but I just COULDN'T invite you" taunting.

Superman
Wonder Woman
Plastic Man

It's Beast Boy, disguised as the Martian Manhunter, in the "Teen Titans Go!" episode "Two Parter, Part 2." They're doing a riff on the "Superfriends" opening, hence the change in art style.

Getting real "Beast Boy from 'Teen Titans Go!' as the Martian Manhunter" vibes from this for some reason. "Watch out, men! 'Get back here, you mens!'"

Casting my vote instead for Fox's earlier try at a teen-focused single-camera sitcom, "The New Adventures of Beans Baxter"

One of my favorite old AV Club comments was a response to a guy griping about the "Trelane/Three Lanes" thing. Me: "I can't believe you would accuse the creator of Sir Apropos of Nothing and crimefighting duos Fite 'n' Madd and Sachs and Violens of indulging in groan-worthy wordplay"

And it JUST now occurred to me (very mild spoiler) that during a portion of those 5 minutes, we hear the theme from "Mannequin."

I didn't get to see "Westworld" until after I saw "Jurassic Park." I knew they shared some basic ideas, but I was NOT ready for another scene in which visitors are headed to the park while a recording announces, "Our teams of engineers have spared no expense."

Pre-Teen Me always liked imagining the dialogue after the "How can we stop them, Captain America™?" "That's OUR secret Spider-Man™!!" inset panel.

"But, Cap...I'm on YOUR side. You need to TELL me how we stop them."

"Sorry, Spidey, that's for US to know."

"What is WRONG with you? *I'm* an 'us'!"

Don't overthink it: what comic book panels/pages live in your head rent-free? Drop four and tag #comicsdna

For one thing, I could have watched the rerun of “Mudd’s Women” on Saturday night without thinking, “She took one of those placebos that fixes your hair and makeup.”

It's the scene in "Superman II" with Zod and Ursa standing in front of a billboard while Zod says, "This...'Super' 'Man'...is nothing of the kind! I've discovered his weakness! He cares. He actually CARES for these Earth people," because I wanted to make a silly joke.

"This 'spicy' wrap is nothing of the kind! I've discovered its weakness. Unbold. It is decidedly UNbold."

...I know this was a stretch, but I've had Superman on the brain lately, GOSH I WONDER WHY

*singing "Ba da ba ba ba, Ben Grimm in It" to the theme of the McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" jingle until the manager of this JCPenney's politely but firmly asks me to leave*

"If you want to think of it in terms you can understand, think of it like a bribe, Mr. President. You're the Deal Guy! Make us a deal."

...SO good

The Mad Magazine version of Freeway was named "Tollbooth," which my mom found hysterical. ☺️

It's Madisynn King (Patty Guggenheim), from the "She-Hulk" episode "Is This Not Real Magic?", on her way to becoming one of the most entertaining and relatable characters in the MCU!

I first read this like you were riffing on Madisynn's "but it's not where you think!", and I thought for one brief glorious moment that we were finally getting a Madisynn King project.

Three comics from February 5, 1960: Peanuts: Linus comes running up to Charlie Brown: "GUESS WHAT HAPPENED, CHARLIE BROWN! I finally remembered the egg shells! I brought them to school, and guess what! MISS OTHMAR WAS GONE!! She's quit her job! SHE'S GOING TO GET MARRIED!!!! I KNEW the egg shells were only a manifestation of a deeper problem!" Pogo: Tammananny Tiger is at the typewriter, talking to P.T. Bridgeport. Tammananny: "You're havin' so much trouble rememberin' the candidate's name, we'll NEVER get out a press release." P.T.: "Politics is a tricky game!" Tammananny: "Fremount's name can be remembered thus: F is for Felix; R is for Rudolph; E for Emmett; M for Moe; O for Otho; U for Ulric; N for Nemo and T for Tippecanoe -- altogether they stand for FREMOUNT." P.T.: "Right! Felix, Rudolph, Emmett, Moe, Otho, Ulric, Nemo and Tippecanoe! Remember them names!" Tammenanny: "NOW you're cookin'." P.T.: "Every last mother's son of them is for FURBUNCH, the people's choice!" Tammenanny looks exasperated. Willie Lumpkin: We're at City Savings Bank, with a forlorn woman: "My account CAN'T be overdrawn!" Teller: "Madam, I've checked it a DOZEN times!" Next teller: "Poor Jones! She's driving him batty!" Next teller: "Women just don't understand finance!" Willie Lumpkin, arriving with the mail: "NO? So how come they end up with all the money?"

I went looking up my hometown newspaper archives when I found out it carried the Stan Lee/Dan DeCarlo strip Willie Lumpkin from the very beginning...and the comics page of February 5, 1960, is a perfect illustration of why Willie Lumpkin could never last.

...EL HOMBRE DE LOS MOLECULOS

A parody of an actual "Feel Old Yet?" Flickr-style post from 2012 (the original said, among other things, that Shrek 1 and Monsters Inc. came out "11 years ago," Miley Cyrus "is engaged," and the Powerpuff Girls came out "14 years ago"). It's done in the same typeface and everything, except it reads: SHREK 1: Came out 24 years ago MONSTERS INC: Came out 48 years ago MILEY CYRUS: Recently turned 84 years old POWERPUFF GIRLS: Last episode released in 1912

It was ever thus

“Cougar Town” gave the world one of my favorite meta jokes, when they renamed the ex-husband’s boat to The Sea Story. “Nothing of consequence ever happens over in The Sea Story, but dammit, we always have fun.”

This gave me a flashback to 2000, when a friend was showing me how his desktop was connected to the internet for 30 minutes at a time via a free dial-up service provided by the nearby ABC affiliate. "I'm sure NetZero is better," he told me, "but I prefer to give my business to local companies."

YouTube video by hosta mahogey's hoagie hut Parody Logos/Vanity Plates from Tim and Eric Awesome Show

I love that when Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim became "Jim and Derrick" for an over-the-top MTV/Spike TV parody episode, they knew that they needed to end it with way, way too many production companies.

I just saw the movie and I HAD to search for "3 months" on here, because that's the one time element the intro notably skips (3 years ago was Superman's debut, then 3 weeks ago was the invasion attempt).

Then we get told, over and over, how long Lois and Clark have been dating...

The newest trailer makes me hopeful that he's still technically a Boomer. The oldest Gen X'ers are 60; Hank mentions his retirement (I can't see him retiring before Social Security kicks in at 62) and that he's been drinking beer for 40 years (if he DID start before age 21, he wouldn't tell Bobby).

From Newsweek's 2003 Oscars roundtable, published in February 2003, when Catherine Zeta-Jones was about 7 months pregnant: REPORTER: Do directors tend to be blunt when your performance isn't up to speed? Catherine, what was Rob Marshall like on the set of "Chicago"? CATHERINE ZETA-JONES: He'd be very honest, and I completely trusted his judgment. There's one scene where I was on the table dancing. I kicked my leg as much as I could, and he said to me, "It doesn't look like you can kick." You know? And my legs are just about to collapse. At that point it was 3 in the morning, and... REPORTER: And you were pregnant, right? CATHERINE ZETA-JONES: [Laughs] No! What do you mean?! Did I look goddamn pregnant in the movie?! Didn't you see my skimpy outfit? The weeks of waxing? [Laughter] REPORTER: Oops. KATHY BATES: [To the reporter] You're finished in this town, babe.

There's so many things online (and some commenters here) saying she was pregnant while she filmed "Chicago," but principal photography ended a year before she had her baby. Plus, in 2003, when she did Newsweek's 2003 Oscars roundtable, she strenuously denied being pregnant during filming:

July 1996: In response to a Kurt Busiek Usenet post that began, "just for fun, let's postulate that there's a line of twelve 'UNTOLD TALES OF' books," I, Brian Alan Smith, picked a writer/artist combo for "Untold Tales of Giant Man & The Wasp": "Giant Man/Wasp: Busiek on words, John Romita Jr. on pictures." Busiek responded: "Ooh. Me and JR Jr. on Hank & Jan. Cool. You'd see the Living Eraser make a return appearance faster than you could say, uh, something that would take a while to say but not very long."

I just had a flashback to one of my favorite-ever Usenet interactions, from July 29, 1996 (were we ever that young?):

John McAndrew, as quoted in "SCTV: Behind the Scenes" (1996) talking about the Emmy Awards in 1981 or 1982, the book isn't really clear: "The night the show was up for an Emmy, the award ceremony had been running an hour with the usual stilted patter from the presenters and polite laughter from the industry people crammed into the Pasadena Civic Center. Then the lights went down and you could see on the giant monitors Eugene (Levy)'s promo, "Perry Como: Still Alive After All These Years." Eugene/Como is lying across a sofa singing, "I Like the Night Life, I Like to Boogie." He goes on to do a couple more numbers and there are comments by bogus concert-goers saying they thought he was "a little too hyper." By this time you can hardly hear what's on the track because the laughter and the applause in the Civic Center is so loud. It finishes and the lights come up and there on the dais is Perry Como, live and in front of millions of people, the subject of SCTV parody, standing there laughing harder than anyone else." A photo of Eugene Levy as Perry Como is at lower left.

Finally an excuse to show my favorite story from the invaluable "SCTV: Behind The Scenes"!

From Merriam-Webster online, the word history for the modern meaning of "logged out" shows that it dates back only as far as 1979.

I genuinely laughed at this, but I am also An Old who doesn't know when to shut up, so I have to tell you that "log out" wasn't a very well-known term then. (I'm imagining Disney promoting a 2025 Tron as "Lit beyond lit, slay beyond slay" and grandparents reading their papers like, "...the HELL?")