And everyone else in the room clapped, I presume?

Peaked in obedience school…

Yeah, I mean there’s not a big huge punchline, but this was clearly a bit of a general send-up, and also prodding at a very specific “Tim Tebow” type of muscular Christianity.

That type of Christian man is big and strong, but also extremely manicured and soft-spoken (even while saying the usual heinous shit) and “effeminate” by certain heteronormative standards. The look and vibe lends itself to fairly easy jokes about men who are closeted or so naive they don’t realize they’re closeted, which will needle some and maybe give others food for thought. Anybody who’s spent time in the Bible Belt will have met the dude in this comic, and maybe his wife.

For a while it was four, but then Nazi Spanish Inquisition pope died.

Very cool, but is anything as cool as that Space Wars Computer Space cabinet in the same scene?

LOOSEN UP!

We’re too close!

Are those OG '83 Return of the Jedi sheets, or a re-release?

Okay, I’m willing to accept that we generally shouldn’t decide that our personal lines in the sand can serve as meaningful differentiators between art and not-art. By the same token, don’t expect me to be particularly impressed by a (mostly) photorealistic composition just because you spent 30 minutes fine-tuning your prompt. If I’m not appreciating your skill and the time you committed to your vision, the bar for the impact you need to make is that much higher. For me, most AI art falls flat on that front as well.

Maybe someone will be the breakthrough artist that shows the rest of us luddites what a genuinely beautiful interplay between drafting a prompt and massaging an engine will look like, but (1) even that person is something other than a painter or a photographer, and (2) I don’t think we’re there yet and may never be.

I like that, though I might consider that rhyme, alliteration, and especially repetition also aid retention by requiring less data to be committed to memory as-is. References to other works are also very much a shorthand for cramming pre-existing memes (in the Dawkins sense) into less “word-doing.”

I dunno. The whole thing breaks down pretty quickly, as most analogies between mental and computational process do, but it’s fun to think about.

Adults also make a face with how much it’s a copy of Frozen’s premise.

Definitely very similar, but it’s different enough, I’d say. It sort of makes explicit that there are cultural repercussions to imposing Elsa’s burden on everyone, that embracing individuality can ironically create a stronger sense of community, and then, in splitting Elsa into Rumi and Jinu, it allows for parallel redemptive tracks, one who never had a “Let it Go” first act moment at all and suffered because of it, and one who really thoroughly bought into the anti-social aspects of it but is then gaslit into thinking they can never be anything better.

If we can do the Hero’s Journey a thousand times, we can do Elsa’s every few years, especially when the rest of it is changed up and fun. I do think there’s a world where K-Pop Demon Hunters comes and goes without making any waves, but the songs are all earworms and it hit at just the right moment, apparently.

Kit Secord from the one-season Rocketeer reboot for little kids.

Kipo (And her dad) from Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.

Nemona from Pokémon Violet (and Friede from Horizons), plus a talking Pokédex that ended up too clunky to bring anyway.

Various levels of authenticity versus ease of assembly/comfort, and I’m proud of them regardless, but I’m tired, boss. Thank fuckin’ Christ that Nene Kusanagi from Project Sekai actually has a factory-made costume.

Sounds like he’s made peace with its living on in forks as well. Nice to see he’s doing okay.

Even the AI generated animated eagle at the bottom of the page is like, “WTF is this? Why are you even looking at this bullshit? This is all a terrible idea.”

Yup. I also liked this, but I’m trying hard not to just quote the whole thing back, because it’s all good.

Their wealth insulates them from friction so effectively there’s no incentive or pressure for them to develop an imagination, or diversify their knowledge to the point where an imagination might emerge on its own. I can’t think of a better argument for a humanities requirement than a billionaire being asked “how do we know what is real?” and responding with “cryptographic signatures.”

Thanks, Richard.

I learned to shoot at Boy Scout camp when I was about 13. We shot .22 long rifle and 20 gauge shotguns. Many of my friends hunted (never appealed to me) and learned even earlier.

Gee, I wonder which political party they belong to…

More than a dozen mayors from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and hundreds of municipal officials have been arrested in recent months for alleged corruption…

Yup, there we go.

And a specific dudebro lifestyle look (Jeep, Oakleys, Salt Life, “Hit the gym”, GIJoe haircut) that generally corresponds with “I’m not really MAGA, but Joe Rogan says….”