supremebve

Dude, are you Michael Scott? Michael Scott is funny because he doesn't understand why it's not OK to be Michael Scott. The reason that it works is because the entire rest of the cast acknowledges that nothing he is doing is OK. The only reason any of his shit is funny is because he has no idea that what he is doing isn't funny, but everyone else is hyper-aware that it's not funny. That is the joke that his entire character is based on. If the rest of the office was laughing with him the show wouldn't work, the reason it works is because everyone else on the show recognizes how offensive his behavior his. The only reason it is funny is that we all recognize that it's not funny. If the show asked us to laugh with Michael Scott, and not at Michael Scott, the show wouldn't work. It is why the dinner party episode is so brilliant. We spent the entire run of the show laughing at this dude, and then we see a glimpse into his home life. We see that he treats people the way people treat him. He see that he actually doesn't know any better.

When the network came out, I watched Starrcade 83 for the first time and came away thinking, I need to see more Dick Slater and Bob Orton matches from the early 80s. Dick Slater is one of those dudes who just blended in with everyone else to me as a kid, but as an adult, I appreciated him much more. He was really smooth in the ring, and could wrestle multiple styles. If you needed him to brawl, he could, but if you wanted someone to get on the mat and work some holds, he could do that too, want to see a picture perfect double underhook suplex he could do that as well. R.I.P. to a really underrated worker.

This is so dope. A lot of people go through life knowing that they have issues and choose to either ignore them or not do anything about them. It takes a lot of strength to look at yourself, realize you have a problem, and decide to do something about it. Thanks for the vulerability, I'm pulling for you.

The Office wasn't on in the Stone ages, it just went off the air 5 years ago. That show is almost universally beloved, because it was able to make racial and sexual jokes that aren't offensive. If you watch the sexual harrassment or cultural diversity episodes, the joke is about how it isn't OK to behave that way. That show was all about how all of that behavior is inappropriate at work, and that's why it was funny. It amazes me how many people think that comedy can't exist without being racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive. Especially when most television comedies haven't been overtly racist or sexist.

Yeah, I don't know what he's thinking, but I'm sure whatever he's thinking is going to result in someone getting their ass kicked.

If I was booking, Jordan Omogbehin would never speak, he'd just stare at his opponents like he is in that picture. He'd be the biggest monster heel in the business.

I have to say, I haven't done any writing about it, but I've stepped my classic wrestling watching up lately thanks to your updating of the list. I probably need to do some of the writing that actually makes me money before I start writing about wrestling again, but I'm getting that itch.

My favorite part is that the kid didn't blink. If Ciampa really wanted smoke, that kid was going to give it to him.

Is Eddie Alvarez trying to set some sort of record for fighting in every possible organization?

I think someone forgot to tell joshi workers that you're supposed to make it look like it hurts, not for it to actually hurt.

Chael Sonnen has to be the worst combination of great wrestler and terrible grappler in the history of the sport. His entire style is based on getting his opponent on the ground, but he has no idea what to do once he gets there.

Honestly, I don't think an actual band can be considered New Jack Swing. I think the thing that makes New Jack Swing stand out is that it isn't the music that funk and R&B bands played. It is spliced together like a hip-hop song. Even though Control is full of live instrumentation, all of it is played individually and pieced together like you'd layer samples on a hip-hop beat instead of hiring a band to play. Listen to "Nasty," from Control and compare it to anything that came before it. I bet it sounds more like the hip-hop of the time than the R&B. The Time is part of the 79-86 era, not the New Jack Swing era, even though they kind of fathered the style. I honestly think the thing that separated the 79-86 era of R&B and the New Jack Swing era is that every R&B artist made a choice to either embrace hip-hop or to not embrace hip-hop. Jam and Lewis, Teddy Riley, etc. embraced it, and created something new. The artists that didn't embrace hip-hop kind of faded away.

I honestly think Janet Jackson is the harbinger of the new jack swing era. Jam and Lewis produced Control and it sounded different than anything else that was going on at the time. Then Teddy Riley started with Guy, Bobby Brown, and Keith Sweat. There is an era where Rick James, S.O.S. Band, and artists of that ilk were at the forefront. Why aren't Jam and Lewis and Teddy Riley in?

There does need to be a bit of a reevaluation of the post-disco pre-new jack swing era of R&B. Other than Anita Baker and Whitney Houston, who is a certified hall of famer from that era? For the record, Prince and Michael Jackson don't count in this particular conversation.