Wow, that intro. Jan, you are the lifeblood and quite possibly the future of this site. Everyone says so. Literally everyone. Even the Queen.
For real, you're a treasure, and I wish there were some way to do the anime trope where a supporting character absorbs all the main character's injuries so they can go on and fight the evil villain fresh as a daisy. In the absence of that, please take care of yourself and believe in the us that believes in you.
This was a long time coming but a great send-off to the written review which has clearly (d)evolved in significance over all these years.
But count me among the bittersweet, because what are you going to do with all that writing talent now? And then there's the implication/realization that this critique extends beyond written reviews and into more general concepts. I distinctly remember going into my GOTY document a while back and thinking "Wait... why am I even doing this?" and never touching it again.
First, that was some great editing/production by Jess.
On a more depressing note, I've never been more convinced technology evolves (and/or is perverted) faster than humans adapt to it. I often make the joke we won't see another series of Black Mirror because actual society finally caught up to the dystopic fiction focused on this gulf (and the show's creator eventually said something similar about how he wanted to do more lighthearted stuff now). Same with The Onion basically running out of material in late 2016.
I'm probably in the minority for liking these darker episodes more than the lighter ones, but turning the lens on this stuff is appreciated nonetheless.
Can someone who actually works at Giant Bomb confirm whether the reaction was genuine? The fact that people can't tell whether the confusion/bewilderment was a bit is part of the problem here. Because different people seem completely convinced about both possibilities, and either is entirely believable, like some kind of Schroedinger's Content.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD - someone please clip the Dan questions like "what happens when we eject all the lava from the core of the earth into space?" or "what if: jet egg with propeller" and send them all to Neil deGrasse Tyson for follow-up. I need legitimate answers to Dan's absurd questions.
Not that I condone visiting Dan's intelligence griefing upon any human, but Randall Munroe would probably be a more responsive target.
REALITY TV evolved into NEVERENDING INAUTHENTIC SOCIAL MEDIA NIGHTMARE!
This whole shitshow (family vlogging, not the actual TVOS show) is terrible from both ends and dangerous in all directions. The desire/pressure to turn on a personality you can't risk turning off for an audience that invariably includes people who develop an unhealthy perception of long-distance intimacy that is in actuality unrequited is one of the most toxic combinations we've developed as a species. Yes, this applies to celebrities of all types, but the more your celebrity (read: entertainment value) is based on personal rather than professional aspects, the more insidious this poison becomes and the less likely you'll be able to remove it from your system without damaging yourself. Orders of magnitude worse when you're a child who can't consent to it.
Someone likened this episode to "Last Week Tonight" but this is exactly the kinda shit I wanted to see them cover. I'm not the ideal audience by any means, and I know the show is generally more lighthearted, but check out how deep (if not depressing) some of these comments are. There's some really awful "banality of evil" shit in this world, and knowledge is power you can arm yourself with for self-defense.
So, kudos for helping expose part of the dark and gross underbelly of the Internet on this one. Except this isn't even the underbelly—more like polyps and warts that developed on its scaly hide. By no means am I suggesting they try to cover the worst parts, although stuff that seems obscure but is actually really popular and just happens to be off your radar seems very much in the spirit of this show. Like those machine learning "cartoons" where Spider-Man gives Peppa Pig a root canal and gets eaten alive or some shit. [Edit: Oh, hey! Tam mentions this in the YouTube pedophile conversation that starts around the 30:00 mark.] Those were bad. Bad enough to make YouTube get off its lazy ass and start filtering the content or modifying the algorithmic suggestions, unlike say, the various radicalization rabbit holes that still exist.
DoctorFaust's comments