Death In The Afternoon
Ring Ring, Corpse Phone
“Accepting that death itself is natural, but the death anxiety and terror of modern culture are not.” The Order Of The Good Death, formed in 2011, aims to re-engage the public with the reality of their own mortality, decomposition and all, so as to live a more “death positive” life. If that sounds like a grim foundation upon which to build a podcast, then you haven’t heard Caitlin Doughty, who, along with co-hosts Louise Hung and Sarah Chavez, presents a lighthearted and densely informative short-format weekly series Death In The Afternoon with humor, style, and grace. In this season-one finale, the hosts tackle the privacy concerns surrounding a corpse whose fingerprint was used by law enforcement to unlock his cell phone after his death (due to his suspected role in a recent crime), and whether the funeral home director is legally on the hook for the fallout. In another segment, Chavez illuminates the evolving technology of “neural networks” that could make a Black Mirror episode about digitally resurrecting the dead a distinct reality. Does it extend our grief to engage with active recreations of the deceased? The episode continues at a clip, leaving listeners to file away such big questions to ponder later. [Marnie Shure]
Everything Is Rent
“La Vie Boheme” With Paul F. Tompkins
A good Broadway show sticks with us in a way that few other things do. Perhaps it’s the way it weaves melody, narrative, and character expression into a whole that burrows itself into our heads and stays there forever, or maybe it’s just the joyful abandon of embracing something unapologetically earnest. Whatever the reason, the obsessiveness that musicals inspire in us is perfect fodder for a podcast, and Everything Is Rent is a celebration of Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking 1996 musical Rent. It’s co-hosted by Beth Appel and Sarah Claspell, two Los Angeles comedians who share excellent repartee and a strong command of the microphone. Each episode is devoted to one of Rent’s 40-plus songs and features guest commentary from a comedian and/or “musical theater nerd” (their words) to help them analyze the song in intricate, discursive detail. This is a particularly good episode to hop in on, as “La Vie Boheme” is probably the show’s most recognizable song, and Paul F. Tompkins could talk about ballpoint pens for an hour and still be entertaining. This should be a fun listen even for people only vaguely familiar with the play (like Tompkins). Everyone involved is a delight. [Dennis DiClaudio]
Hey Riddle Riddle
School Runnings
How can you physically stand behind your father as he stands behind you? Placing this puzzle before a group of comedians unable to reason out the answer (standing back-to-back) leads to a set of improv gymnastics that eventually wears down the questioner enough to fork over the solution. Which in turn leads to riffs involving a father-son buddy cop movie where they stand back-to-back on the poster. Rinse and repeat roughly 20 times and you have a full show, though the guessers are occasionally able to hit upon the correct answer. Eventually, a paid puzzle maker shows up to quiz the group with bespoke brainteasers involving movie taglines garbled through dozens of translations. “Her legs over his knees brought a small town with big business,” is one of the harder ones. All that comes after the group tries to unravel the biggest enigma of them all, humans, with each host taking a stab at what their collaborators were like in high school. [Zach Brooke]
Mall Talk
Talbots W/Eliot Glazer
Eliot Glazer delivers a one-two punch of podcast co-hosting this week (see The Need To Fail below) as he joins the women of Mall Talk to discuss the store of his choice: Talbots. Comedians Paige Weldon and Emily Faye fully and gleefully embrace their central thesis that “hanging out at the mall shouldn’t stop at adulthood.” Devotees of Los Angeles shopping staples The Americana, The Grove, and Glendale Galleria, Faye and Weldon don’t let a week pass without at least one trip to the mall, comparing notes about department store expansions, food court options, and the ongoing saga of the Lolli and Pops Sweetness Rewards Program. This week, Glazer discusses his fittingly waspy experiences as a Talbots sales associate, and asks some crucial questions: Why does the catalog feature young thirtysomething women in capes, when said capes are clearly designed for hip retirees? Why do the clothes look “designed for the inertia of menopause”? What precisely is an Orange Julius? He’s shocked to learn about the existence of Talbots Kids, which he surmises can only sell “Murphy Brown cosplay,” and he relays the tribulations of hardline managers. This is the perfect episode to leap aboard this chatty delight of a show. [Marnie Shure]
Pop Culture Happy Hour
We Celebrate Our Favorite Christmas Songs
Christmas songs get a lot of hate, and rightly so. Many “classics” are tired as hell, and some modern offerings inspire far more contempt than holiday cheer. But what if you want to like Christmas music? It does have a lot to offer when the festive mood strikes, or if you’re particularly interested in the endless reinvention of the Christmas canon. Covers abound in this celebration of personal holiday favorites, whether it’s Carly Rae Jepsen’s considered rendition of “This Christmas,” Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst delivering a more troubled “Blue Christmas,” or Todrick Hall going toe-to-toe with Thurl Ravenscroft’s iconic “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” There’s plenty of room for vintage offerings as well. One host applauds the almost anti-Noel “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” which is defined by absence rather than abundance. Another singles out “Silent Night” for similar divergence from typical aggressively cheerful fare festooned with jingle bells. There’s also a lot of love for the closest thing to a contemporary classic, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” If that’s not enough to warm the frostiest heart, also note that nobody debates “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” thank god. Do you hear what they hear? [Zach Brooke]
The Need To Fail
Eliot Glazer
Eliot Glazer is many things. He’s a writer, performer, and producer who originally went to school to study opera. He’s the brother of Broad City’s Ilana Glazer and has deep comedy roots in both New York City and Los Angeles. He’s also an openly gay man. But try to confine him to any one of these boxes and you will run into trouble. The topic of pigeonholing or being pigeonholed comes up again and again on this episode of The Need To Fail—improviser Don Fanelli’s podcast all about, you guessed it, failure—and that’s because it’s a recurring theme in Glazer’s professional and personal life. While he struggled to find his voice and get a foothold in a frigid industry, he would repeatedly run into people trying to tell him what or who he is. Glazer also bristles at the rigid categorizations men throw around in the gay community, dictating what type he is or who could find him attractive. Anyone with creative aspirations will be able to relate to Glazer’s struggle. And if you’re just interested in comedy hot takes, there is a pretty great chunk where he talks about Napoleon Dynamite “ruining everything” by surrendering awkward humor to the mainstream. Truly, struggles come in all forms. [Dan Neilan]
Villains
Killmonger From Black Panther
2017’s Black Panther stood out from the rest of the Marvel canon for a lot of reasons, but chief among them was the depiction of Erik Killmonger by Michael B. Jordan. As we said on this very site, Killmonger provided Marvel with its first emotionally complex and utterly human villain. That, combined with Jordan’s magnetic performance, created the perfect foil for Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa. In the latest episode of The Ringer’s podcast dedicated to cinema’s greatest villains, host Shea Serrano sits down with writers Chris Ryan and Kara Brown to discuss what it is about Killmonger that made audiences love the guy they’re supposed to hate. The high point of the episode comes when they turn to the question that plagued social media for weeks after the film’s release: Was Killmonger right? The fact that that question is even worth considering is proof that we’re dealing with a special kind of villain here. Obviously, you’ll want to have seen Black Panther before listening to this podcast, and even if you have seen it, you might as well watch it again. It’s still on Netflix, FYI. [Dan Neilan]
59 Comments
Odds on whether the “hate” for classic Christmas songs is widespread, or just a deliberately contrarian hot take by Internet pop culture nerds.
Everyone probably has a few they can’t stand. For me, that would be “Hey Santa”, “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree”. But, yeah, I think you’re onto something with the deliberately contrarian thing. I don’t think it’s possible to genuinely “hate” a genre of music defined soley by it’s subject matter
I wouldn’t call any of those “classic”
a deliberately contrarian hot take by Internet pop culture nerds
—The A.V. Club.
Brother, you said a mouthful.
Your mom had a mouthful last night.
Dang – I haven’t seen one of these in a while.
I think most Americans agree that pretty much all Christmas music is shit. Britain, however, loves both them and charity albums. Brits have awful taste in music.
[[citation needed]]
There’s a playlist of the UK’s year-end top singles from the past century on Youtube somewhere. It’s terrible.
The best selling single of all time in the UK is Candle in the Wind ‘97. The second best selling single is “Do They Know It’s Christmas.”
The best selling single of all time in the US is “White Christmas” as performed by Bing Crosby.The second-best selling single of all time in the US is “Candle In The Wind 1997″.The differences are stark!
Welp, I’m a corncob.
Do They Know It’s Christmas was written by someone who knows even less about Africa than the guys from Toto. It’s not just stupid and trite, it’s WRONG.
I don’t think these count as Christmas carols, but anything by Mannheim Steamroller makes me want to take a dump in everyone’s Christmas stocking. Each Mannheim song I hear is worse than what it precedes.
My hate of Christmas songs comes from working retail for nearly a decade. I can appreciate that there are good Christmas songs like Christmas in Hollis by Run-DMC, Father Christmas by The Kinks, and even that Last Christmas song by Wham! to name a few. Just that when you’re working at a soul crushing job and living paycheck to paycheck knowing that something as simple as a flat tire or getting sick can ruin you financially you want to punch the throat of everyone singing happy Christmas songs over the speakers.
I always wonder this time of year how in the world the internet is flooded with hot takes on how bad “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is, yet nobody ever seems to throw “Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime” on their worst song ever list.Being a Beatle doesn’t give McCartney a free pass to unleash that dreck on the world!
(Simply Having) a Wonderful Christmastime makes everyone’s worst Christmas song list. If it’s not on the list, it’s assumed that everyone already knows it’s the worst, bar none.
Spoken like someone who’s never heard Christmas Shoes.
On the list, sure. Topping the list? No.
clearly you weren’t on av club last christmas. hating on wonderful christmas time was 95% of the content.
I mean, how can you listen to a song like the original “Christmas Baby, Please come home” and not feel a smidgen of warm and fuzzy (even though its not a particularly happy song, but Darlene Love sings the holly jolly shit out of it)
I love Christmas music. There are good and bad songs, but the only objectively awful one is (Simply Having) a Wonderful Christmastime, which is not only the worst Christmas song ever written, it’s the worst song, period.
Every year the musically illiterate AV Club posts some nonsense about Christmas music. I pity the throngs of people who’ve been bombarded all their lives with pop novelty garbage Christmas albums, including shit songs that go all the way back to 50s rock & the Beatles, that they disparage the whole idea of Christmas music — having no appreciation for either the beauty of carol singing or the 1940s classics (like Have Yourself a Merry…, which any jazz musician can tell you is a standard for good reason). Go to Spotify or whatever, find a crooner or a jazz trio or an acoustic guitarist or the King’s Singers, and hear what they don’t play at the !@#$^@#$ mall.
I’m not a big fan of music from the 1940s in general, but for whatever reason I love all the old classic Christmas songs. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” etc. Basically, if Bing Crosby is singing it, I’m in.Newer/modern Christmas songs barely impinge upon my consciousness at all, so I’m not even aware of them enough to hate them. The sole exception is The Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping,” which I love.
I’d say the confounding factor is that most of those people are also miserable loners with poor relationships with their families and want to kill themselves when they hear the lyrics to most Christmas songs
Hey Riddle Riddle is so much fun. And probably the most catchy theme song in all of podcasts.
Sometimes I feel like they’re a bit TOO antagonistic, mainly JPC. He’s like the Travis McElroy of HRR. But overall I’ve been enjoying it and have been listening since the beginning (can’t say no to more Chunt AND riddles/wordplay. It’s a great combo for me. Now if they could somehow incorporate crosswords, it’d be perfect.). It’s a great podcast for listening to while walking beside a cemetery and smoking pot, my basic standard these days.
I should have gone to their live show last week since I live in Chicago too but neglected to get tickets in time. 🙁
Hey, I love christmas music. It makes me feel all Christmasy. And frankly, we all need a little christmas, right!?
Right this very minute!
Speaking of not debating “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” I was listening to the She & Him christmas album, and I guess I never noticed that they switch up the male and female parts on that record (and when performing it live). Does that in any way make it better? Or is it equally as bad?
Can’t be as bad as Zooey Deschanel’s singing! Hey-ooooh!
You shut up, Sir!
I think it does make it (somewhat) better, but the fact that it makes it better also reveals that the problem isn’t really the song itself, and more the cultural context around the song. If that makes any sense…
I feel like if you thought the song was problematic, it doesn’t make it better, and if you didn’t think the song was problematic, you think this makes it better for those who think it’s problematic. and you also maybe find those people who think this makes it better to be somewhat hypocritical. man, this is exhausting.
I’ve heard people invoke this in defence of the song (I heard someone say, “what if it was two guys!”), and to me that somewhat misses the point of what’s problematic about the lyrics. It’s that one person is persistently pressuring the other into intimacy, while ignoring several overt indications that they don’t want it, in a scenario where there’s a power imbalance (a woman alone with a guy at his house). The guy/girl dynamic is certainly a big part of the power imbalance, but it could be just as icky if it was a female boss pressuring a subordinate male employee. I don’t care about people listening to the song; people very rarely pay attention to music lyrics, and even less often do they make any sense. The essence of a song is much more about the tone and melody, and (depending on the rendition), Baby it’s Cold Outside is usually a cutesy, fairly upbeat song, that implies the woman is just being coy, rather than succumbing to date rape because she’s afraid of what will happen if she says “no”. But if we take away the tone and melody, and just talk about the lyrics (which is not how songs work) then there are problematic things that I think warrant recognition.
“while ignoring several overt indications that they don’t want it,”People who say that are always ignoring the several overt indications that the “prey” in question absolutely DOES want it, and is inventing feeble excuses because it’s what’s expected of them by the mores of the time the song was written.
Friend, I get that that is a possible interpretation of the song, but you are wading into very treacherous waters, in general, anytime your argument hinges on “overt indications that” one “DOES want it.”
Not at all dangerous waters, if one is familiar with the song, and the context in which it was written. It’s only people who don’t understand the context that get it wrong. Tediously so.
“I get that that is a possible interpretation of the song” – no, it’s the correct interpretation. It was originated by a married duo as a charming sketch of being coy. Alternate takes are understandable, given that not everyone knows the song’s history, but they’re still objectively wrong.
People like to cling to this “reasoning” without aknowledging that those “mores” that demanded sexually interested women to feign propriety and and demanded sexually interested men to “just” play-act the role of the tenacious sexual aggressor ARE STILL SUPER FUCKED UP and certainly aren’t an argument against the song being dated garbage.
“Dated”, certainly. The “garbage” assessment only comes from your inability to properly contextualize the song.If you can only judge art by the standards of the current day, you are severely limiting the amount of art you’ll be able to enjoy, not to mention rendering yourself virtually useless as an appraiser of artistic merit.
Yeah, as I said in a different post, the male/female dynamic doesn’t do anything to assuage the concern of people who already thought it was problematic, and it doesn’t really bolster the argument of those who don’t feel it’s problematic at all. But I suppose if you’re going to perform the song regardless, this is the better way to do it.While I don’t love or hate this song, I do feel it’s a shame that we may lose lose a fairly popular secular, seasonal winter song, but have to keep listening to songs about Holy Nights and shit.
What? O, Holy Night is one of the greatest songs ever. All the tenors know what I’m talking about.
The best Christmas song is Father Christmas by The Kinks. Father Christmas, give us some money
We’ll beat you up if you make us annoyed
Father Christmas, give us some money
Don’t mess around with those silly toysBut give my daddy a job ‘cause he needs one
He’s got lots of mouths to feed
But if you’ve got one I’ll have a machine gun
So I can scare all the kids on the street
That one is up there for me, but “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues (with Kirsty MacColl) is my favorite.
And you can feel free to take the word some find offensive (out of context it surely is) and change it to “maggot” or “braggart” and it still works fine (or change the line more to “You’re cheap and you’re haggard.”as MacColl herself did for Top of the Pops.)
First of all, shut up, Zach.Second, Mariah Carey’s AIWFCIY is terrible.Third, King’s College Cambridge carols and lessons 4 life. “Life sucks, thanks be to God.” EPIC BOY CHOIR EAR OWNAGE!
Christmas carols might actually be goodI came here to voice my outrage at this trolling, clearly-wrong headline, only to discover that Carly Rae Jepsen has a Christmas song, and of course it’s buoyant and delightful because everything she sings is buoyant and delightful.So now I’m just going to go grumbling into the corner where I’ll continue hating all other Christmas music
I hate 99.9999999 of all Christmas songs. Most are either maudlin or Yaaaaay! Life is awesome and if you don’t love Christmas you are a loser! However, one song I DO like, and one that would probably end up on most peoples suck list is “Step Into Christmas” by Elton John. It’s happy and fun without being mindless and I have personal happy memories attached to it, going to Vegas for the first time in Christmas 2000 and it was playing on the radio while I was driving up the Strip.
““La Vie Boheme” is probably the show’s most recognizable song”This was clearly written by someone who has never seen Rent, and doesn’t know that “Seasons of Love” is from it.
Hell, I’ve never seen it, and know Seasons of Love. For some arcane reason it’s on the Christmas music playlist at work.
No. No, they’re not. A dozen covers of the same eight songs, played back to back, from the last week of November to the end of December, is *not* awesome. They’re awful, and December is a month of auditory hell. If you want to listen to that drivel, that’s your business, but keep it to yourself, thank you.
If anyone is interested in listening to a blend of off-beat Christmas tunes and music that simply evokes winter then this is the playlist for you:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qEVL04F1TY0f1u1IxPpvS
As an atheist and borderline misanthrope who worked a lot of retail and has heard more Christmas music than most likely everyone here combined I have to say, what a load of infantile shit. There’s a ton of perfectly fine Christmas music out there (though none of it past the mid sixties) and I and a hell of a lot of people I have zero in common with enjoy it just fine. Pull your heads out of your insufferably derivative, precious-as-fuck-indie-loving assholes, quit obsessing over your tiresome little “new golden age” TV shows and your fanboy movies and grow up.
I love Christmas music. What I absolutely can’t fucking stand is radio commercials that take a pre-existing Christmas jingle and jackhammer all their ad copy in without the slightest hint of attention paid towards meter or art.(Example, to the tune of Jingle Bells)Honda sale, Honda sale / Low APR no financing / Drive off the lot in a brand new Honda car / Great gas mileage come on down to Honda, hey!I’ll find whoever writes these and make them pay
Happy Honda Days, B Town!
The worst example of this is the Hess Truck theme song. Yes, Hess, the oil/gas company always sells a toy truck around Christmastime every year. And the song they set their jingle to? “My Boyfriend’s Back.” Yup, it’s not even a Christmas song, and it has nothing to do with trucks either.
Re: “Everything is Rent”A podcast seemingly already made for me… and they bring in PFT?!?(Faints onto Ikea Balkarp.)
Actually I just found out my cat is dying and had a hysterical reaction that wasn’t just about missing her, but around the fear of death in general, euthanasia, seeing her dead that I realized was caused by just this: “Accepting that death itself is natural, but the death anxiety and terror of modern culture are not.”She’s 14 which is elderly for a cat and has a wonderful life. She was not going to live forever anyway, as NOTHING DOES. We’re all dying. It makes no sense to be so afraid of something we can’t stop. So, thanks for this – it touched a nerve today.
Christmas songs are good? Even the rapey one? Or the one that celebrates animal enslavement (Jingle Bells), or the one that endorses child soldiers (The Little Drummer Boy) or the surveillance state (Santa Claus is Coming to Town)?
Just about the only thing left is this one amazing song that should offend no one: