Appreciation Fest / Review Sliders™

A smash hit on Broadway!

The Book of Mormon [SPOILER ALERT, I suppose]
There's only so much I can not love a major Broadway musical (Tony Award-winning, even!) featuring a "Hakuna Matata"–style song about fucking God "in His cunt."* Hasa Diga Eebowai, everybody!

Who would do such a thing to Tom Hanks?!

Punching Tom Hanks
Although the writer, Kevin Seccia, "is an improbable mix of the blandest aspects of at least two lamentable cultures" (Andy Richter), this book is just crammed full of brilliant comedy writing the way you cram a goose full of— OK, I'm just going to stop myself right there because I'm not going to stop eating foie gras and I need to compartmentalize.

the great Jon Benjamin

Jon Benjamin Has a Van
I've watched to the first commercial break of the first episode of Jon Benjamin Has a Van, and I have decided that this is my favorite television show. I am not entirely serious, but much less so joking.

When I was 13 I loved Wolverine.
Twenty years later, I love Magneto.
(When I'm 43 I'll probably love Forge or something.†)

X-Men: First Class
Best X-Men movie ever? Certainly the best-ever fifth movie in a series. [I said as much to Lauren Donner, and she said thanks! So FUCK YOU!] I loved the X-Men between the ages of 11 and 14, let's say, and I think this movie captured what was great about the comics better than any of the other movies did. The only rival is the second one. (Magneto's escape scene in that one is about as good as anything ever.‡)

In conclusion, here's a picture of Los Angeles:

* As a friend pointed out recently, there's something wonderfully liberating about writing God's personal pronouns with lowercase Hs. Just as calling Jesus "Jesus Christ" is not a neutral thing but in fact an endorsement of Christian theology ("Christ" being not a name but a title, meaning Messiah), capitalizing the H in "His" is a sign of respect, not a grammatical rule. So, for the record, I'd like to note that if I ever capitalize that H, nine times out of ten it's for the comedic effect (the comedy of acting respectful when you're not being: e.g.).

† 43-year-old me is an idiot.

‡ Including the Beatles and fellatio.