Categories
LEARNING DAY

Trapping Day: The Bigfeets Design-A-Trap Contest 🌭

What’s this? The opportunity of your afternoon. In monster-hunting tradition, we’re taking an undercooked graphic and working backwards. This is…err…

Sure, a template! Yes. And it’s for a contest! A creative one. We’re making, you know…

Maybe later. The cryptid-seduction community’s pretty demanding. Anyone else?

Absolutely not! But we are making strong stuff. Stronger than any Devil Dog, or normal dog, or budget.

I don’t have a better idea! Welcome to the BIGFEETS Trap Contest. The internet’s second anti-sasquatch competition. The first was a ploy by web-savvy cryptids. We’re taking submissions at [email protected], until October 24th.

I’m sure it is. Instead of going down that road, let’s send our worst cryptid traps to [email protected], by October 24th. If you remember the Custom Van Contest, you get the idea. We’ll feature our favorites on the site, and crown one proud entrant Earth’s Worst Monster Hunter.

Ever caught a cryptid? We haven’t. The Mountain Monsters team definitely hasn’t. Let’s keep that streak going. The BIGFEETS Trap Contest challenges every inch of wilderness knowledge. Each gram of paranormal expertise. The less, the better. Remember: if a child can escape it, Bigfoot can’t.

As BIGFEETS listeners or cryptid-worshiping traitors, you know how important non-traps are to defending cows. One working trap would kill Wild Bill. He’d be gone. Mountain Monsters is one mail-order bear trap from tragedy. If you’ve seen an addict lose a leg, you know it’s hard to get a Spelling Bee back on track.

That man needs your help. Simply fill the form above with an ACME Bigfoot trap. I suggest a visual in the Schematic area and text elsewhere, but I’m not your producer. Go where your muse takes you. Just don’t capture, kill, or photograph a real cryptid. That insults Mountain Monsters’ soul.

It’s time to turn it all around. To finally win. To show the world just how little you know about traps. Come put your training in anything but engineering to work. Ideally, nothing. Mountain Monsters may star fake woodsmen hunting faker monsters, but it embraces real ignorance. (Note: Engineers are welcome to betray their craft. We might side-eye your extra syllables, but it won’t impact judging.)

Send your Wumpus Traps to [email protected], by October 24th. You might be the next Buck! The bandana is heavy, but your will is strong.

As a new podcast’s first contest, there are countless frequently asked questions. We’re happy to clear the air.

1900HOTDOG’s podcast recapping Mountain Monsters, an inept monster-hunting show with more episodes than the nightly news. Hosts Robert Brockway, Seanbaby, and Jason Pargin attempt to decipher how it exists. And find answers! Stupid, embarrassing answers. You’ll love it.

Alongside improvised cryptid lore, Mountain Monsters features hillbillies imitating broad outsider stereotypes of hillbillies, an act of triple-theater no one is qualified for. Everyone looks like a retired Yosemite Sam, and acts like a prime Yosemite Sam. Meth cameos.

In the wreckage of this almost-show, BIGFEETS finds inept traps, lazy lore, improv comedy, inept traps, crippling addiction, confused extras, inept traps, and transcendent human beauty. Transcendent human beauty is hard to draw, so this contest’s about traps.

Absolutely. BIGFEETS mocks and celebrates West Virginia monster hunters. Said hunters often present kindergarten-grade traps as foolproof. You’re invited to send the worst trap you can think of, by editing the template above. We’ll showcase our favorites, and crown one winner.

Yup.

I can’t explain how far ahead that puts you.

Confident! I like it.

Nice. Back up all this big talk, and you’ll be the Triple H of filling two-foot holes with water. You definitely won’t catch any cryptids.

You can do better than this. Or rather, worse. But here’s an example of a low-level Bigfoot snare.

Darius has a lot to learn about nontraps. Someone should show him how it’s done.

Intrigued? Of course you are. Submit your beautiful creations to [email protected], by October 24th. And LISTEN to BIGFEETS. Zero cryptids, guaranteed.

Categories
FUCKING DAY

Fucking Day: Send Nudes: Body S.O.S. 🌭

It’s time for the cruelest reality show on airwaves.

No. What kind of cheeseburger garbage is this? American torment technology is decades behind other hells. We’re still stuck on [Dating – Empathy + Computer Host]. That’s barely a half-Saw. Forget our pharma-sponsored hugbox, we’re swimming in international waters today.

While Survivor caved to protein entitlement, Nippon TV taped famehounds hitchhiking from South Africa to Norway. That’s not a gag, it’s daytime television set free. But Japan’s out too, since England clutches the Stanley Milgram Championship like a birthday gift from Sauron. They’ve turned centuries of imperial cruelty inwards.

Which makes Send Nudes: Body SOS special. Channel 4 canceled it after one season. The proud makers of Watch Porkers Cry and Ugly Bodies/Uglier Souls blinked. We have Channel 4’s benchmark for “too far,” with a name that spares me writing new content warnings:

The subtitle trips me up a bit. Most add a little context or artistic flair. Body SOS just leaves me with questions and dread. A slam dunk for a horror film, but this is…yeah, a slam dunk. Good job, Channel 4. Body SOS is a perfect modern Weird Tales short. The Comics Code wouldn’t approve one page, so something’s gone right.

From here, it’s all wangs and dysmorphia. Treat this article like my nudes: laugh heartily, far from your manager. If the content gets you down, remember that you’ve kept your sins off-air. You’re a modern genius. Flashes of fame are followed by long, silent rides home.

I’d sum up Send Nudes as rubes asking hacks about facelifts. But I’m a Terran mortal, squawking in monkey-language. Let’s see how the Old Gods depict themselves. Each episode features the same glossy opening:

I see. Send Nudes stars the body. That traitor.

The damn thing’s too hairy, unless it’s shedding, but likely both in the wrong places. But you’re fine with it, unless you hate lying. Or, you poor fool, you improved it. Now you own a fleshy faberge egg demanding more attention than your career, sex life, and actual health. A curse ending in Apple Watch ownership.

Everyone but Michael B. Jordan has seen the wrong mirror and segfaulted. And Jordan’s agent wants him to pull a Christian Bale to play Gumby, and then a Reverse Bale to play Idi Amin (it’s a remake). Leaving a week to train for Panth3r: Fine, Killmonger’s Back. The rogue Prince seeks redemption, but his larger, leaner, even more shirtless twin stands in the way.

Channel 4, friend of mankind, felt your pain. Your perfect, nourishing, orgasmic pain. They needed more. Send Nudes is their feast, and our deliverance.

The intro’s read by veteran host Vogue Williams. I’ll avoid hyperbole this time: Vogue Williams is a Reaper. Yes, those Reapers. The immortal race of sentient starships waiting in dark space. In earlier work, she may have seemed fun. That’s Reaper brainwashing.

You might not believe me.

Horrifying, but not quite Sovereign-tier. This sounds like a show that, with two friends, a game plan, and raw willpower, you could survive. Maybe even enjoy, if we share a diagnosis. Then there’s the complete premise.

Fun fact about life: love, mercy, truth, and justice are real. Elusive, but they make cameos. “Try before you buy,” is always horseshit. When you hear it, you’ve already been robbed. Bank apps exist to seal your account after hearing it.

That’s the level of honesty we’re working with. Saline’s the realest thing on Send Nudes. The rest is doctors lying to influencers lying to victims.

Which brings us to the case studies. I’m sorry.

Send Nudes guests occupy a simple chart.

Okay, that’s a lie for framing. I’m gunning for Trevor Noah’s spot, give me a break. An honest chart’s closer to:

The pilot opens with Steven, a part-time pornstar.

Steven enjoys his penis as a friend, but not as a coworker. Gay porn demands steroid figures without steroid side effects. It’s cold out there, but consumers don’t take that excuse. He’s still a lot of fun, and brings hints of light to the darkness swirling onscreen.

He doesn’t represent the show. I’m pairing him with Tom.

Tom also has dick problems, but his inner light is dead. He’s endured twenty-eight years with a micropenis, and doesn’t know that the worst hour is ahead. Tom’s done nothing wrong, and the punishment must be severe and total.

More importantly, Tom captures average morale on Send Nudes. Vogue Williams can sense a guest that’s cried backstage. She then gently piles on questions designed to siphon soul-fuel, as sympathetically as possible. If that fails, she sends the Geth.

The avatars are inspiredly uninspired. They evoke a generation of thoroughly tapped references. Suffice to say, Valve still made games when they looked like this. Starfield’s burning in effigy for mixing lifeless high-fidelity with cheap jank, and it stunts on this. An undergrad squinting at Tom from across the room could do better for a baggie of oregano and a smile.

It’s not the subject. Steven gets a melting Second Life screenshot.

A genuine innovation. Making a pornstar look unfuckable on international tv is a new type of malpractice. Send Nudes wants to be Snow Crash, and lands squarely in Reboot.

The same basement surgeon explains dick sorcery in both episodes. He offers genital scarring, fantastic debt, and every side effect in that horrorcore dick surgery report. And new ones, like “fatty lumps.” His suit matches.

Dr. Wakil sucks. He fades from the season as lawsuits close in.

Let’s be real: you know safe dick surgery isn’t out. When it arrives, no one will have to explain, sell, or defend it. It’ll hit the street like a crossover between Ozempic and crack. You won’t hear any other news until Russian troops reach Manhattan. Specifically Columbia Medical School, to steal our precious junior dicksmiths. If our president’s an inch below average, the end begins.

I’m serious. Open-minded vets will be booked into 2100. Dentists will need answers for “but it’s basically the same, right?” YouTube’s top videos will be “Sterilizing Scalpels,” “Stopping Bleeding,” and “Hiding a Body.” Pray that the procedure’s raw materials are eco-friendly. If fossil fuels safely inflate dicks, look for Martian real estate.

After the good doctor offers to turn a small penis into no penis, it’s time for the main event. Artisanal, farm-to-table pain. The jolt from heaven that reminds us we’re alive.

We send the nudes.

And meet the dipshits.

Send Nudes has recruited fifty of England’s most willing minds. Some are specialist activists, or Instagram warlords. Others are Brandon, an auctioneer with strong opinions on everything but silence. But everyone is after media clips. Lending their dick remodeling advice grace and restraint.

Half the guests are tag teams, like entertainers Lv and Ty. They perform classic Reverse Manzai, where both speakers are loud, clueless dickheads. You can get the Lv and Ty experience by entering a barbershop and ramming the mirror headfirst.

Comedy bushido demands I recognize the best line. Dancer/Choreographer Raheem feels the least pressure to be funny or insightful, and comes closest. He reviews Dr. Wakil’s pitch with “The only difference here is that you’re left with this weird symbol above your penis. Some ancient Ctrl+Alt+Delete.” Excellent.

Another panelist? Miss England.

They send Tom’s micropenis to Miss England. She laughs, and they show him the footage. Of Miss England. Laughing at his micropenis. I don’t follow pageants, and ratings say Tom doesn’t either. But that is a caricature of rejection. This show was produced by Slaanesh.

She says supportive words afterwards, which don’t matter. Because the second Tom stepped out of his comfort zone, Miss England laughed at his penis. A humiliation normally softened by dating Miss England, a thank you note for deluxe members, or the wildest lawsuit of the year. Tom had Vogue.

He doesn’t get the operation. Neither does Steven. For all the madness on display, no one lets a Zoom wall talk them into a dick stent. Hope lives on.

Half of Send Nudes’ victims want breast lifts, which should get old. Which should get repetitive. The same shit keeps happening.

Channel 4 has two tricks.

The first is getting graphic with the surgical footage. Any preteens hoping for their first hit of popup-free nudity will find their treasure. Alongside a half-semester of stitches, scars, and slashing.

A patient med student could make it educational. That’s certainly the mask Send Nudes wears. But Vogue is seconds away from slipping into a carnival barker’s voice. Send Nudes likes how the skin of progress feels, there are just people stuck to it. Leading to a freakshow in denial.

The second trick is nudging sympathy levels. Babyfaces are humble mothers of eight, looking for more confidence at the Bible factory. Not like those deviants on the left side of the alignment grid. To build heels, they set fringe personalities up to fail.

Take Madison, a glamour model from that Margot Robbie flick.

That’s a half-joke. Madison’s into dollification. And gets far more joy out of her digital clone than most. E.g., any.

If you don’t know about dollification, then I covered flash cartoons last week instead. I hope the Bitey of Brackenwood recap worked. In short, dollification makes chasing the Barbie look more literal. It’s bimbofication with a Michael Jordan mindset. Searching it on a Mattel network fries your computer. Dollification may have been possible before the internet, but no it wasn’t.

I’d talk shit, but my personal arc changed after Dante ordered a pizza.

Naturally, they season her segment with a micro-doc about the wildest shit they can find. One Justin Jedlicka, internationally known as “King of the Dolls.” That sounds like a title you invent with an unexpected camera in your face, but Wikipedia’s on his side. Justin’s the Gold Roger of test drive surgery, with an operation count somewhere between Human Revolution and Mankind Divided.

My point? Justin’s on the deep-space fringe of Madison’s outer limits kick. Adding him in post tilts the scale. Channel 4’s circus just needs a flying elephant and three crows I find funnier than I should. Helping guests was never on the table, but now the kayfabe of kindness is dead.

Madison’s avatars meet the masses. Lv and Ty hoot at her current setup, double hoot at a reduction, and half-hoot at an enlargement. A sentiment echoed more patronizingly by the rest of the panel. But the vote plays out differently:

Oh yeah, there’s voting. I left it out earlier, since this show has more hats than animators. But this is a democratic torture chamber. The people have a voice.

Purely advisory. If Send Nudes enforced results, the studio would’ve been raided. Though Vogue’s real body is in orbit.

Today’s vote says “Stay as you are.” With an overall tone of “For the love of God, stop.” Eight percent say to go bigger, which reminds you why democracy gets wacky after a few hundred people. Madison’s taken aback by the show of popular approval/dismay/support/horror:

Has she already reached the monastic ideal of dolldom? Are there no dragons left to slay? Madison faces a Toy Story- level crisis. Or fakes it, I can’t read people. Either way, she might stay an F-cup.

Then the show structure, community pressure, and Vogue’s gentle mind trick kick in.

Bask in the body positivity. The voting’s usually worse.

Institutionally. Only the names and knives change. Among three options, the crowd always picks the path of least resistance. As crowds do—that’s how you get incumbents older than time. For non-dolls, the choices are nothing, standard plastic surgery, and crazy shit. Door two wins. In aggregate, Send Nudes says plastic surgery is like fish or fistfighting: everyone needs a little.

I’d love to call Send Nudes an ad for surgery, or a passive-aggressive diss track. But conspiracy’s in the air, so let me be clear: the makers don’t care about anything. Hatred implies they remember us after we leave the room. When legal asked “will this show hurt people,” the showrunner blew a raspberry.

Parting thought: with this premise, did you assume Send Nudes subsidized the operation? In exchange for your pride? I sure did. Dignity has market value, and clean scalpels aren’t free. The NHS plays nicer than our demons, but half the guests booked round trips to Turkey.

The others can’t afford it. There’s no epiphany. They didn’t find a magic feather full of self-love. They just can’t pay for the tummy tuck Send Nudes spent an hour debating.

Grating.

This article was brought to you by our fine sponsor and Hot Dog Supreme: Harvey Penguini, certified MAJESTIC MEAT by a panel of 52 British criminals.

Categories
LEARNING DAY

Learning Day: Bunnykill 🌭

Don’t worry, Bunnykill isn’t some artless lunatic drawing rabbit murder on the asylum walls. It’s an inspired lunatic animating rabbit murder. That line separates The Matrix’s lobby from a national tragedy. And justifies Newgrounds.

If that rings a bell, I’m sorry about your arthritis. Comedy recaps have reached flash cartoons. You’re ancient, and dying. The dust in your once-vital veins has hardened into disdain for new music. These are the last punchlines before your knees and grandchildren betray you. Enjoy them.

As for infants/mummies: Newgrounds was the mothership for animated violence and pornography. But unlike Crunchyroll, all independent. Zero-Suit Samus vs. Normal Ayane was a labor of love, made with negative hope of ROI. A ruthless voting system trained creators for industries run by demons.

They also had an elite slogan:

Short, distinct, and true. Much too true. Today, we call their worst excesses “internet culture.” Skimming mobile game ideas from Newgrounds kept the laziest, most lootbox-friendly studios alive. Similarly, the flash portal showed how much free-floating talent existed, and how little you could pay them. Finally, low-wit and high-invective game parodies were a generous cultural warning.

In 2006, they picked up a friendlier motto:

Boo. Miss me with that. Alienation was a feature: Newgrounds had gamers attempting art films, art students attempting Mario jokes, and madmen landing art films about Mario. Other sites gave us “Everything, By Everyone” and killed the future. When the last Facebook clone dies, I’m dancing to the Ewok victory song, and posting it nowhere.

Over time, some people got good. The chosen evolved from detention stick figures to expulsion films. YouTube has hints of that, but tends to stunt creative growth at fourteen. And personal growth. And dating habits.

Today, Newgrounds echoes a pre-betrayal DeviantArt. Still a hub for violence and porn, but with blogs and no plans to feed you to SHODAN. We’ll focus on violence today, since my porn tastes are private.

That said, I have centuries of action movies saved in a folder called “Homework.” Newgrounds deserves some credit as a gateway drug for punching. Many of you were active users, the memories are just locked behind a trigger phrase. Let me help.

Recess. Computer Lab. Line Rider. Pop-up. Hentai. Suspension. Recess. Computer lab. Site blocked. Boredom. Facebook. Brain death. Cambridge Analytica. Imperial decline. Terminate Mark Z.

Anyway, Bunnykill.

On a mortal site, I’d recap Madness Combat, a crossover hit among guidance counselor regulars. But you’re Troom Troom survivors, so I have to cut deeper. Bunnykill took Madness Combat’s gimmick (side-scrolling mass murder) and replaced humans with rabbits.

Yes, rabbits.

Black-eyed, floppy-eared, bushy tailed rabbits.

I don’t know why, and I don’t have to. Grant Morrisson said kids are sharper audiences, since they take weirdness in stride. I see it. As a wordy class clown, I never asked why the endless assassins were rabbits. They just were. Now, as a taxpaying clown, I waste valuable rabbit-killing time with questions.

The author “Mottis” has no one to answer to or impress, so he could just like rabbits. Or despise them. Their shiny black eyes might inspire ageless hate, with animation alone keeping him off Greenpeace’s Most Wanted list.

Maybe it’s branding: plenty of artists remade the Crazy 88 fight without money or feet. Bunnykill bet that adding rabbits stood out enough for coverage twenty years later. Advantage, Bunnykill.

For my money, rabbits soften the genre. The taboos around pet-murder are strong, but flimsier than those for neighbors. Dogs are a likely exception, but I’ve never owned anything larger than a football. And after this article, I can only buy pets in international waters.

Now, Bunnykill’s a deep pull. I think only three other people saw-

Nevermind.

So far, I’ve played keep-away with my attitude towards Bunnykill. Is it finger-wagging time? Are we looking at our shoes and reflecting on animal cruelty? Pushing web culture’s nose in a carpet stain and saying “This is why you don’t get Beetleborgs?”

This kicks ass.

Or at least peaks high. We’ll walk through Bunnykill 3, the crowd favorite. The first Bunnykill is a bit of edgy fluff. You can see an unmedicated spark, but the creator’s still figuring out keyframes.

Bunnykill 2’s better, but it’s not in space. The visuals are smoother, the music’s almost listenable, and the fisticuffs pick up the rapid pace uniting Superfighters, Japanese Spider-Man, and pre-McMahon Nakamura. It’s just held down by gravity.

Bunnykill 3’s on the moon. I can’t waste your time elsewhere.

You’ll notice the same hero/survivor in each shot. This walking PETA shelter’s name is Snowball, which doesn’t matter. You’re better off memorizing Steven Seagal quotes. Just know that he’s the white rabbit, a color that stands out against chrome and gore.

How’d Snowball get from Nameless Karate Forest to Named Karate Moon? Also irrelevant. Bunnykill entries have negative continuity, which is correct. Retaining Bunnykill lore is a cry for help. Returning viewers should think “Ah, so I didn’t dream this.”

Granted, there’s an opening crawl.

Absolutely not. I refuse. We live in the future, with video timelines and streamlined rights. And Mottis misspelled “threat” twice. Only comedy writers will remember “Doctor Sludge,” while the sane world jumps ahead.

Bunnykill 3’s the first time I can tell Mottis likes rabbits, and not in the Lola Bunny sense. He finds this spin cute. Which is still wholly deranged, but a much nicer asylum. Take this guard napping through the local apocalypse:

Or Snowball’s reaction to peeling a gun off a fresh corpse stack:

That’s an “Oh boy, pellets!” face. Or at least intended as such. Snowball’s based on the animator’s pet, adding a hint of love to the Wuxia plot armor. I get that. My first manuscript was called Mr. Claws Goes to Congress, and parole won’t let me summarize it. Mr. Claws and Snowball had a lot in common.

Again, Bunnykill 3’s best asset is speed. Snowball’s lasered his next victim before your brain or conscience processed the last kill. I could crack wise about no one having arms or two character traits. But this is, again, basement cinema. Using Adobe software, which actively resists mankind.

By the time the cliffhanger comes around, we’ve beaten an NFL game’s body count:

As for events, Snowball covers a space sequel’s bases: find a lightsaber, riff on the Death Star infiltration, and try robot murder to keep things fresh. The robot murder doesn’t go too well.

In the first half, at least. Seven minutes were uploaded as Bunnykill 3, Part 1. Then the creator fucked off for two years.

Life gets in the way. That’s a risk anywhere, but particularly common in amateur animation, professional comics, and campaign promises. The alternative’s artistic prison, and that tends to break people.

Bunnykill 3, Vol. II hit in 2007, after earthbound terrorism’s defeat. But the threat persisted in space. We open with Snowball looking good and dicked:

Honestly? Nice breakthrough for a Flash rampage. Few things dilute action like invincible leads. Mercifully, Bunnykill 1’s final boss shows up to steal the kill.

I hear you: he resembles Snowball with sunglasses. But he’s actually Snowball with sunglasses and two guns. That’s two hedgehog’s worth of changes, or at least a half-Luigi.

The logic within the short? Jack-all. But RPG rules were a given on Newgrounds. You beat the boss, you got the summon. It’s the closest users came to understanding friendship. Naturally, the rest of this fever dream’s a tag match.

Bunnykill’s disturbing if your sanity fills a thimble. But I enjoy watching someone on the fringe grow, high art or otherwise. And violence. But mostly independent creativity. With beheadings.

Luckily, I only saw this during my most formative years. Bunnykill’s audience just aged into possible presidents, but it’s out of our systems now. Just hand over the nuclear codes and sleep well.

Conservative parenting must be tough, being human culture’s dead weight and all. Now imagine finding this on the kids’ devil-box. You’d pay an exorcist’s installment plan. The well-meaning amateurs at purity camp wouldn’t be enough.

Now Newgrounds animators have their own kids. The site turns thirty in two years. Which reminds me: I’ll die eventually. Maybe even soon! Time to get started on a pyramid. I was worried about all the whipping, but now I’m thoroughly desensitized. I just hope I reach as many minds and watchlists as Bunnykill.


This article was brought to you by our fine sponsor and Hot Dog Supreme: Greg Cunningham, who died playing Line Rider. Some say if you put your ear to a Dell you can still hear Mrs. Tabbett give him detention.

Categories
NERDING DAY

Nerding Day: American Romance

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Categories
PUNCHING DAY

Punching Day: A Big Bad BeetleBorg’s Christmas

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Categories
NERDING DAY

Nerding Day: Law & Order SVU’s Gamergate Episode 🌭

In nerd camp, they said “the medium is the message.” That’s from Marshall McLuhan, founder of a chain store. Or media theory, I wasn’t sleeping much. And I didn’t truly get this quote until the Gamergate episode of Law and Order: SVU.

This couldn’t be a play, mocked in a movie. Or a comic, mocked in a more self-conscious comic. It had to be primetime TV, and I had to mock it here. Thanks for making it possible. You’ve made a huge mistake.

Three of you might not know about SVU. Impressive, since it’s our largest export behind corn and planet death. Staying pure takes work, and I hope that your mountain training in pre-Gracie martial arts is going well. Be careful leaving the village to fetch water: it’ll definitely be on fire when you get back. Consider your master dead already.

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is a police procedural, in the same sense Waco’s a sunny town in Texas. True, but you’re dancing around a few content tags. The team specifically deals with sex crimes/child crimes/cartoon terrorism, in the hell version of New York exclusive to excellent action, decent noir, and bad reporting.

It’s an elevated reality. You can visit it by buying thousand dollar headphones, streaming a police scanner, and then blitzing inhalants like you’re debating Hillary in an hour and have no idea why everyone’s letting it happen. Or by watching SVU.

It makes for traumatizing viewing/web comedy, so look out for that. I don’t just mean your past. SVU can inject phobias from headlines, past lives, and pure imagination. My second-favorite episode took on a hot button issue: teen deathmatch wrestlers pushed to kill by love triangles with women pretending to be 14 (after skipping around the foster care system for twenty years, keep up), via murder-techniques from AP Bio. But we’re not here for silver.

The first thing to know about SVU? It’s 24 seasons long. We’ve lost all plausible deniability. Any of us could have stopped it by now, with half the effort it took to pin Jim Crow on Awkwafina. It’s not NBC’s show, it’s our show. The royalties offset your taxes. I’m playing Panicked Witness #3 this week, and they expect your next script by Thursday.

I’d say it’s gone mad over time. But season one has a Wall Street extra murdered in a bondage dungeon. As grounded, low-stakes filler after a flight attendant murders a judge laundering money for the governor. That’s not the premise. He kept her husband in prison in exchange for sex, which isn’t the premise. He had the same deal with dozens of women around the state.

Madness.

Let other John Mulaney impersonators deny it: I embrace my sins. I watched endless afterschool hours of Copaganda: Dead Escort Edition. The Dayles preferred TNT to talking. And I’m pretty sure we had a Nielsen box, or Nick Cannon would be unemployed, Wendy Williams would be panhandling, and Tyler Perry would be a cartoon skeleton with a tin cup.

The second key fact: it’s merged with the cast. Ice-T is, to millions worldwide, an actor dabbling in music. More Americans mourned Detective Munch than national prosperity. Cameos by the former male lead are holidays in homes that still pay for cable. Finally, in an industry without loyalty or memory, Mariska Hargitay has built a fortress outside of time. She has more control of the show than the network. Think CM Punk, without the disorder.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the funniest writing about SVU. That’s this collection of fake SVU summaries, which I’ll covet like Salieri until I die cursing God. I hope you brought a closing style parody, because I’m unarmed.

We’re in the show’s youth: season 16. Before stock plans for cast retirement, death, and career growth. It’s about Gamergate, which gets easier to summarize each year. Watch: Bud Light backlash, but for any women existing. Bang. By 2030, I’ll have it down to a vowel.

Three scenes in “Intimidation Game” matter. The first opens with some ass-covering:

Are you friends with a lawyer? Are they the late type? Write this on a napkin, and you’ll summon them like a familiar. It’s the easiest surprise party or divorce paper handoff you’ll ever plan. Just avoid glass doors, they run headfirst.

The legal teflon fades to a convention. I should say gaming convention, since events exist for cars, careers, and keeping cancer treatments expensive. That’s alien to me. Cons are costume contests and costume contest harassment. Gamer Detective Ice-T’s there with his full set of non-gamer coworkers, which is almost weird enough to miss Gamer Detective Ice-T. The dialogue heals my dead heart.

I love that this still happens. It has to be either pandering or tradition; more NBC writers play Lootbox Master than finish film school. We laugh with stilted gaming dialogue, and seek death when shows namecheck XCom.

Well, that’s my theory for the writers. Outside-going actors might have different rules. Take this detective:

She is in hell. But it’s not necessarily the con: she might have a Black Flag tattoo.

On that note, a developer has the misfortune to be the first civilian on camera. Making her a victim, corpse, or terrible extra. I’d say she’s our Zoe Quinn (Gamergate’s Franz Ferdinand) stand-in, but they had a disclaimer. This is an original character. She fell from Dick Wolf’s forehead, fully formed. And now meets this charmer:

One tension drives “Intimidation Game.” Can SVU out-stupid reality? Because this line is idiotic and perfectly accurate. Not-Zoe parries with old virgin jokes, which also scans. Flamewars reteach War Games’s main lesson, forever.

Next is an SVU specialty: artless juxtaposition. Each episode has to work in a pitch-black felony while staying on cable. Today, while Ice-T geeks out over a Tribes recolor, the typecast incel above strikes. The game commentary sounds like this:

I had to read that twice, which feels like karma. The plot sort of revolves around Kill or Be Slaughtered, a doomed Unreal Tournament parody. It mostly gives us something to cut to during assault. Sixteen seasons of discretion shots wear an editor down.

Now, this bit isn’t my point. But since SVU has four minutes for VR jokes, I have one for story wank. In real life, no one knows what’s going on next door. I know that, you know that. But in pulp action–any detective that quips counts–your heroes look like failures. Our entire cast hoots at MineWatch: Reach while the only crime they fight unfolds. It’s like watching Batman text through clown murders.

Bad look. Solid political cartoon.

Eventually, a detective gets around to checking out the crime scene. Fake E3 is compelling, but the plot cart can’t push itself. When she asks the victim what happened, we get the most response in tv history. You pick the adjective.

“They leveled up.” Breathe that in. Swish it around. Pretend to understand hookah, and impress your friends. Then tell me how this aired.

Here’s how I learned about brick jokes. At twenty, I thought that pun was this scene’s low point. At twenty-five, I thought it was trivializing sex crimes. At thirty, the final stage of wisdom, I know it’s the full cast still watching Quake demos. The villains try to represent gaming’s worst, but our heroes nail wasting your life on Twitch.

Half of the investigation is sane-ish. Jock detectives get confused by gaming slang, and Ice-T defines it. No matter how many times the script says Detective Fin Tutuola, your brain says “Hey, Ice-T.” In this episode, he cosplays Navi. It’s magic.

He explains Not-GamerGate as “In their world, a developer’s like God, and some guys aren’t ready to give a girl that kind of power.” Infinitely cooler than “Billy hasn’t gotten laid since Mass Effect 2.”

Ice-T still has zero range after sixteen seasons, so his loading screen tips sound a lot like his sex crime reactions. He either suffers gaming, or gets too much out of work. Either way, he’s the only one that can navigate the dark forest of frog memes. A trail leading all the way to the basement.

Our villains met online, because of course. Ice-T explains “RedChanIt” to the squares, which sounds like a name I’d mock. Nope. I’m very down with sabotaging Reddit’s IPO by stapling it to 8chan. Watching Spez reach for nothing and fail is art. Only this episode’s peak can compete.

Namely, the second scene that matters. Walk with me. I like loose metaphors, so I need you to know this is very literal. No curveballs.

Incels threaten Not-Zoe’s boss, Not-Anita.

Not-Anita holds a defiant press conference.

Not-Anita gets kidnapped by incel commandos.

Said incels evade our present, armed, and forewarned heroes.

The incels hijack a Times Square billboard.

Revealing Incel Bane.

That’s unedited.

I lied. The villains aren’t 4chan lurkers: they’re Batman villains. “Intimidation Game” is off the rails by SVU standards, which existed until now.

One word taps how fucking stupid this is. I try to avoid it, because it hurts people. It’s from a very specific era, and targets a specific lifestyle. And they’ve suffered more than enough. But I have to.

This is sublime.

This is stupidity bigger than me. Bigger than my imagination. It’s a cannonball into the Grand Canyon. It’s daggering on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It’s stealing fire from Zeus to light a fart. And it relies on such narrow experience. No one above sixty or below ten on Sep 5, 2023 will truly understand. We are the last keepers of this moment.

Yet it’s real.

New York, like all zip codes, has crime. Organized crime, sex crime, muggings, campaign finance graft, short sells, the Hudson Yards honeycomb, more campaign finance graft, the works. I heard there was even a terror attack. This is still a cartoon. When SVU says “ripped from the headlines,” they mean Detective Comics.

I hope MLG reactionaries stick to spree killing. If they organized, we’d invade every OPEC member with a Playstation. Browsing Twitch would put you on a list the NSA actually checks, instead of the rusty file cabinet with aliens and future mass shooters. Valve headquarters would set off Geiger counters for miles. Gamers would learn, for the first time, what it’s like to be oppressed.

There’s more.

The unit tracks Incel Bane to his headquarters. I think it’s below Arkham, but he might have a Phantom Zone co-op. Either way, they corner the League of Assassins on a rooftop. One noble soul turns from the darkness, fifty minutes, two sex crimes, and one terrorist attack in. There’s hope for everyone.

Neither do I, man.

Our look at game culture ends the only way it could: an FPS sequence.

If you’ve seen Doom, you know this is a mistake. If you can spell tone or sexual assault, you know this is a mistake. That knowledge is an anchor. All knowledge is an anchor. You could make Law and Order: Special Victims Unit instead. Your brain’s burning generational wealth.

Ice-T comes to the rescue, thanks to a solid diamond contract. They keep the FPS gimmick going, hoping to suffocate critics with laughter. It’s an excellent plan. I’m writing this from the ER.

That’s not my line. Ice T says it after shooting the world’s eighth angriest NEET. The music says tragedy. The dialogue, fan wiki, and sex dungeon rescue directly preceding this say tragedy. My eyes say Team Deathmatch, and the nurse says “breathe.”

“Can SVU outstupid reality?” Please. SVU’s writers could out-stupid grass. They could out-stupid the entire primary, on or offstage. They could out-stupid themselves on an all-lead diet. They are the Gods of vacuity. Right now, their script coordinator’s opening a jar with his teeth.

That’s why we’re short on cop jokes today. This episode’s too dumb for them. SVU aspires to copaganda, but you have to read books to misquote them. The “Intimidation Game” writers are still working on Green Eggs and Ham. I’ll be sad when they finish it.

If you’re interested in learning more about post-thought, feel free to audit my fall course:

Game on, friends.


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