Jokes are simple. They lead you to expect one thing, then deliver the unexpected. Laughter ensues. The brilliance of Wile E. Coyote is how the cartoon executes on this over and over again.
Most of the criticism directed at This American Life comes from its imagined audience: educated white liberals who need stories of slightly-flawed-but-ultimately-good people. TAL is not that show.
Watching a new episode unfold is a bit like watching the San Antonio Spurs run yet another flawless offensive set. Everything is so smartly executed and aesthetically pleasing that it feels like “Oh man, that’s great!” is all there is to say about it.
From $1,000 copies of the Constitution to $75 guacamole bowls to “Grillary Clinton” aprons, the world of presidential campaign merchandise is a strange one, and nowhere is that clearer than on the Internet, where some of our illustrious candidates have launched merch stores that come in every degree of corny.
A room with Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, and Chris Christie in it is a fucking clown show no matter what they are doing there.
“Hi, we’re Third Eye Blind from San Francisco, California, and we’re high as kites.” Stephan Jenkins beams at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion crowd from the depths of his hoodie.
Feeding whole watermelons to large animals and uploading the resulting videos to YouTube is a thing that people do, and it is one of the best uses of the Internet.
In celebration of just how well "ILC" holds up a quarter-century later, we asked some of our favorite writers, from Gawker and Jezebel luminaries, Desus & Mero, to DJs influenced by the show and beyond, to share their favorite memories of the show.
The Mekons aren’t a band in any normal sense, may not exist, and can be accurately described only by using the sort of superlatives that would make most normal people throw up their hands in skeptical exasperation, all of which makes them a problem for those who love them.
Lucky Buddha Beer is beer. Because of the fact that I have had many other beverages definitively known to science as beer (not bragging ... much), merely tasting the Lucky Drink Co. product was proof positive: This is beer. Beyond that meek pronouncement, however, the bona fides of this stuff are somewhat more difficult to establish.
What is bone broth? It's stock, or water boiled with animal bones, meat scraps, and vegetables. You know it as the liquid part of pretty much every bowl of soup you've ever had.
"I took this practice exam cold, with no studying. I also replicated the high school test-taking environment as best I could. Here now are my findings."
Even if the estate's alarming victory doesn't extend a song's copyright from composition of music and lyrics to production quality and "feel" — the judge specifically rejected the latter argument before the case went to trial, leaving the case to be decided entirely by a sheet-music comparison — the verdict is still nefarious.