As I typed out the "045" in the subject line of today's post, I wondered to myself as to whether I'd really been typing out three digits-worth for the numbers on all of these articles, not really believing that I've ever intended on doing this long enough to actually reach the hypothetical Culturology 100. I mean, I'm not even halfway there (though I do look forward to hitting 052, which will mark the first full virtual year (not including unnumbered not-really-culturology posts--which don't really exist, as such)). And then I remembered, Nick set the first few posts up for me, until I got used to the way the backend of Audioshocker worked (I think I've got a full handle on Audioshocker's backside now), so it was he that determined that three digit places would be best for my work here. Ambitious, but I've scanned around, and I think the only other article group that uses three places is the Podcasts themselves (given the fact that they're actually in three digits now). Other articles also uses the number symbol, "#," to indicate their number, which Culturology eschews--I'm clearly way too classy for such things.
If this were the military (or even a marching band), or an office, or anything else, really, there might be some chain of command through which I could take these concerns--an officer to whom I might say "Excuse me, Sir, but I fear that my postings are being held to a double standard." But it's not, so we're left just to read what are perhaps the shallowest, least consequential (though still trademark) self-referential introspections yet made by the internet's only non-Russian-speaking culturologist. But, after 045 posts, perhaps that's what you've come to expect (where I've just been lowering my expectations (and my average word counts)).
Now on to other things that I'm good at writing about: cartoons! I took some time out from enjoying Miami's first cold front of the fall to watch the new Simpsons Halloween special (their 20th, which means something, I suppose), though the anniversary probably should have been celebrated in a way which included some of the classic Treehouses of Horror (such, as, say, Four, and Six). The Horror-Treehouse episodes were long a bastion of funny in the unfunniest seasons of the Simpsons (Seasons 10-19), but I had even stopped watching them until last year--which was a promising but terrible year for the "ToT". Mostly, I was in front of my TV and figured what the hell, might as well watch it again this year.
But really, I don't even feel like being that negative about what was an uninspired and nearly joke-less Halloween episode (still better than last year's since last year's was, like, inspired, but did a terrible terrible job at it's inspiration). Why? Because I still dislilke the Family Guy family of cartoons (which have otherwise taken over the once-diverse Fox Sunday evening cartoon spectacular) so much that I'd rather pretend that I think the Simpsons are funny then say anything else. So my loyalty to the amazing funniness of the first 6-7 seasons of the Simpsons (and my nearly savant-like depth of referential ability to those episodes) continues unscathed.
Though this isn't really a tenable position. In fact, I feel myself in a very similar position to the one I was in back at the beginning of the summer with late night television shows (having tuned in for a while to check on Conan O'Brien's transition to Late Night), where it all just kind of sucks and I wonder why I've been watching it in the first place. I think, though, as much as I continue to determine that the few places in mainstream television that seem to still have an inkling of quality in fact have lost that inkling (for instance, on Nick's recommendation, I check in on Craig Ferguson's show for a couple of weeks, but his schtick got old really fast). Seems like maybe they're making pretty good shows over there on the HBO, but I don't have cable. But, as much as I am hereby renouncing further attempts to discuss the merits of television cartoons until further notice, I'd also like to notice this as a distancing of the culturological project from the internet concept known as "hating" (which was probably clear for a while now, going back to the classic arguments about irony from last year).
It's not my fault that so much stuff sucks. But I don't bask in that suckage. Essentially, I think that it sucks how much everything sucks. The ad-wizards making TV these days must be the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked. I've just got my fingers crossed that when I get to 35 years old (and cross that demographic barrier), suddenly things will be funny or good to me that I would have never concerned. In the meantime, though, all I've got for laughs is the Super Haters.
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