This week’s question is: What’s your favorite pop culture item on your desk?
Caitlin PenzeyMoog
The A.V. Club office receives a lot of branded merchandise from TV studios—it must be built into their budgets, and that number must be quite high for some shows, because along with the stickers and other cheap garbage, we occasionally receive quality items, like backpacks and Moleskine notebooks. When 2015's Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! entered its marketing phase, Syfy sent us a pack of stuff, which can all be read about in our 2015 “year in swag” feature. I still use the cooler every summer, and the shark bobblehead still resides in a place on honor on my desk, nearly four years later. It’s actually the only piece of studio swag to be on my desk at all, a testament to its bizarre quality. Its whole construction is much better than it needs to be, especially how the shark’s body is shaped like a tornado (but it still has fins sticking out), and the bloodied mouth, open wide for the kill, shows the double row of teeth sharks actually have.
Gwen Ihnat
I dearly love my paper-doll cutouts of the original Replacements, my favorite band, bequeathed to me by former A.V. Club Josh Modell from his own pop-culture-laden desk upon his departure last year. But for more effective life and work inspiration, I have to go with this wall card that just says “You Can’t, You Won’t, And You Don’t Stop,” a repeated line from one of my favorite Beastie Boys (or any) songs: “Sure Shot,” from the 1994 album Ill Communication. When I first saw it at a fun art boutique in my Lincoln Square neighborhood (shoutout to Sacred Art Chicago), I purchased it immediately. I thought about framing it and hanging it at home, but it does me more good here at the office, where if I’m fading mid-afternoon once the caffeine wears off and the lunch carbs set in, I just have to draw on the Beasties’ frenetic energy and remind myself that pausing is for suckers. Sharklike, the only possible option is constant forward motion. Especially here.
Nick Wanserski
By a wide margin, my favorite desktop tchotchke is my Dorbel figure by Jim Woodring. It’s not my favorite for any sentimental reason; it’s just so damn cool. If you’re not familiar with Woodring’s work, he’s most well-known for his comic, “Frank” about a non-denominational anthropomorphic critter who wanders, child-like, through an intense and anxiety-inducing phantasmagoric landscape full of unknowable angels and strange malevolent supporting characters. It’s a creepy enough premise absolutely sold by Woodring’s fantastic artwork. He does the kind of intricate illustration that seems like it would be very difficult to capture in three dimensions. But the Dorbel figure perfectly captures the fear, hunger, malice, uncertainty, and desire that all blend together in his drawings. I’m the kind of person who enjoys clutter and ephemera all around me, but also tend to think about these things very little. They just become a bit of texture in the visual white noise I’m most comfortable with. But Dorbel is just so cool and well-made, he’s fun to pick up and fuck with and look at in a way that no other piece of the anxiety-smothering clutter on my desk manages.
Danette Chavez
A Locutus of Borg figure and Jack McCoy with nunchucks swinging—these are a few of my favorite pop culture things that inhabit my workspace. But truly, nothing beats the homemade Slimer that TV editor Erik Adams’ wife Tiffany gave me. The detail is amazing: Slimer’s overbite is prominent, as are his bulging eyes, and the shading on his tongue is expertly done. He was originally part of a Halloween costume, which is why his ectoplasmic form is fixed around a bike helmet (making it much easier to be worn with some amount of comfort). I’m not even one of the bigger Ghostbusters fans in the office, but since being retired from Halloween revelry, Slimer has become my neighbor in this open office plan, greeting everyone who walks in and keeping watch over the free books and water bottles I get. And no matter what happens throughout the day, when I look up, his expression almost always reflects the way I feel.
William Hughes
Alright, time to get sappy: Although my desk contains a number of tiny pop culture friends—from where I’m sitting, I can see Rick, Luigi, and Mega Man, all just sort of chilling out—my favorite item is easily the most obscure: A hand-made smuppet (that’s a smutty puppet, obviously) from the multimedia web comic Homestuck. Andrew Hussie’s sprawling, ridiculous send-up of adventure games and internet culture was the first thing I ever bonded about with my former fiancée, and shortly after our two-year dating anniversary, she gifted me with my very own copy of one of the felt perverts that serve as one of its running jokes, one that she’d been covertly crafting for months. So now he rests eternally on the upper shelf of my desk, bulbous bottom and dick-reminiscent nose reminding me daily of how much weird, wonderful art the world lost out on when she left it.
Jimmy Hasse
My favorite piece of pop culture fanfare on my desk is also its newest edition: a Dilophosaurus bust based off the one in Jurassic Park. A friend pre-ordered it for my birthday gift back in April 2017. We both forgot about it until a few weeks ago when it suddenly withdrew $120 from her bank account and she texted me that I’d better still be into this shit. I am very much still into this shit. Seeing Jurassic Park the summer before fourth grade is easily my favorite movie-going experience to date, and of all of the dinosaurs in that movie, the Dilophosaurus is the coolest. Not that it is in any way based in reality—Steven Spielberg admitted that he threw science out the window when inventing his movie’s Dilophosaurus. It spits venom and frills out like a cobra, two awesome things that are not in any way suggested in the paleontological record. And that’s fine. Having this next to me at work where I get to make art for a living is a constant reminder that I’ve never really grown up.
Erik Adams
The other day, I walked out of the A.V. Club conference room and spotted Jimmy treating his expertly arranged, smartly curated treasury to a feather dusting, perfectly illustrating the differences between the museum of high-end collectables on his desk and the homely neighborhood hobby store that’s thrown up on mine. I’ve always been attracted to pop-culture ephemera, the older the better, and the KonMari worst-case-scenario that surrounds me as I type is a bricolage of TV reference books, Simpsons action figures inherited from departed colleagues, and a small army of Funko Pop! acquired personally and/or adopted after we struck the A.V. Club Live set. (Say what you will about their oppressive ubiquity, or the flattening homogeneity of their design—how else was I supposed to get a toy version of Maury The Hormone Monster?) There’s also a number of childhood playthings that I’ve held onto long enough that they’ve achieved a pseudo-antique status, like my weathered ghost trap accessory from Kenner’s Real Ghostbusters line. Long disconnected from the pneumatic pedal that opened and closed its glow-in-the-dark doors, the item occupies a place of pride in a small shrine to the (now unnecessarily polarizing) franchise, atop VHS copies of the first two movies and an external hard drive I’ve nicknamed The Containment Unit. You can read that as an additional Ghostbusters nod or an unconscious admission of guilt over my cluttered workspace—but the Funko Slimer who’s rising from the trap (mere feet away from his papier mache likeness) suggests the ultimate winner in the battle between loving collector and remorseful hoarder. I could probably stand to dust more, though.
Sam Barsanti
I have no less than 20 pop culture tchotchkes on my desk, and while the one item that will never leave its place of honor is the expensive Masterpiece Optimus Prime Transformer that I bought the first time I actually had money, I’m going to have to give the edge to my happy family of Porgs. Oh sure, one is a Lego, some are scaled to the standard Star Wars action figure size, some are off-putting little Porglets, and one is a Pez dispenser, but I love them all equally. Whenever I’m feeling down about how crushingly bleak and miserable the world is, I can look over at my little family of space birds, put them in funny tableaus with my other desk toys, swoop them through the air like they’re flying, and then briefly forget about whatever new bad thing is going on. Plus, Porgs are goofy looking, with their perpetual frowns and dead shark eyes, so I like having a little collection of things that someone else might think are awful.
Alex McLevy
I don’t know how it’s possible to pick a favorite out of the pop-culture nonsense we all choose to line our workspaces with; I can only assume that, much as I just did, everyone else here basically closed their eyes, pointed at random, and picked whatever was nearest to where they landed. Which is how I pushed past my little bobble-head Thanos, miniature Superman, and Rick & Morty statue, until I arrived at my Ms. Marvel “Embiggen!” foam fist. Like many people, I was instantly charmed by Kamala Khan, writer G. Willow Wilson’s reinvention of the character, and her signature shout was not only a nod to one of the best Simpsons references of all time, it was a delightfully dorky embrace of the kind of geekiness usually reserved for the people who read comics, not the superheroes themselves, at least in such a mainstream book. Looking at it when I sit down each day is a nice reminder of the upbeat and good-natured attitude it’s possible to have in this world, which is pretty essential when your job involves looking at what people on the internet have to say about pop culture. I would say its presence has resulted in me being roughly three percent less dispirited in 2019, which may not sound like much, but feels like a lot when you need to summon optimism in the face of, say, your corporate overlords. Sense of scrappy resilience: Embiggen!
Katie Rife
My desk sits next to Erik’s and is also covered with years’ worth of accumulated pop-cultural detritus, the pile of which is growing slowly but steadily enough that I expect our desks will eventually fuse together into a Katamari of nerdery big enough to block out the sun. A lot of it’s horror-related, like the Phantasm ornament I ordered for my Christmas tree but never made it out of the office. And some of it’s promotional items, like the pregnancy test I got in the mail promoting the movie Prevenge that’s been gathering dust on my desk for two years now. But the thing on my desk that’s been here the longest, and I love the most, is the can of Star Wars Spaghetti-Os that I’ve been hanging on to ever since Alex McLevy brought it back from a midnight fact-finding mission to Target for Force Friday all the way back in 2015. I don’t know why, it’s just really funny to me—as it clearly was to Alex, since it was his goal to bring back only the crappiest leftover crap from that particular sci-fi themed consumerist orgy. The “out of this world shapes!” bathed in sugary tomato paste and chemicals inside the can technically expired two years ago, so I’ll never open it. But I’m happy to have it sitting there looking at me as I type away, reminding me not to take all of this pop-culture stuff too seriously.
91 Comments
I only ever had one pop culture-y thing on my desk. it was an Evil Monkey thumb drive that was gifted to me by my sister, who was unaware that I have never watched Family Guy. I actually had to google “angry pointing monkey” to realize where he was from. Also it was only like 1 Gb so really not even a practical tchotchke.
I think the Destiny 2 branded fidget spinner I have here is the definition of pop culture.
My favorite pop culture item on my desk is Saved by the Bell’s Screech, even though he keeps struggling and knocking everything else off it.
I hate it when my Screech gets on my keyboard when I’m trying to work.
Jesus, man, just use a sock.
Newfoundland rum no doubt./s
Have you considered hanging him over your desk on some sort of a pulley system? He’ll be more out of the way when you have to work yet still visible, plus trying to pull himself up against gravity will help wear him down.
I wish I had a desk.
This. F’ing “next gen” workplace. I have a locker and a game of musical chairs everyday, hoping to find a station with a working monitor. And I work in the LAW DEPARTMENT OF A LARGE PHARMA! Goddamn consultants.
Though I am quite fond of my Kurt Vonnegut Secular Saint candle, my Pink Freud coffee mug still in its box wins hands down. Both are gifts from a college friend I’ve stayed in touch with.I also have a pair of Freudian slippers courtesy of this friend, but they sadly don’t fit on my desk.Have all the Freud stuff because in our English department, I was the best at identifying really uncomfortable phallic symbols in both literature and life, including 43 in our office. And Pink Floyd is my favorite band, so obviously the mug wins.
I got rid of all my figurines a few years ago, but I still have my Little Big Planet 2 and Lord of the Rings book ends.
Along with a bunch of Funko figures, I have several Godzillas from the various movies throughout the series. But my favorite as of late is a Gamera figurine which my son insisted on buying me for my birthday after I balked at the price in the retro toy shop. I have this undying love for cheesy early Tokusatsu monster movies from Toho and Daiei studios.And one of my co-workers gained my undying admiration when after seeing the figure sang the MST3K “Gamera” theme song. Gamera is really neat! He is filled with turtle meat! We’ve been eating Gamera!
I have a funko figure of Mercy from Overwatch on my desk.I don’t care how many times you’ve been nerfed, you’re my guardian angel!
I NEED THAT EMBIGGEN FOAM HAND I NAMED MY CAT KAMALA AND EVERYTHING
The die cast Millennium Falcon I’ve had since 1979, duh.
i have a can that once held dead parrots. they were not delicious. i put pens & pencils in it now.
A Mayor doll from Nightmare Before Christmas, whose head you can turn so he’s either a) beaming with avuncular glee or b) horrified. Since I’m the mayor of our town, it seemed particularly apt. And yes, I’m talking the desk in the mayor’s office in our town hall.
I wonder how many of your constituents have seen the movie… 😉
Not many, it seems. 🙂
Soooo jealous.
I have a toy original series Star Trek communicator on my desk. I bought this thing years and years ago and I have an attachment to it. It gives me emotional security.
Like many of you, I have a ton and it’s a tough call. If this weren’t limited to tchochkes and included the pictures on my overhead bin, my head might explode before I could choose from my picture of Kimba the White Lion and a clipping from the local paper of exactly the same still from Blow-Up that I had in my high school locker. Tchochkes are easier, and thus there is a clear winner.It can only be the Godzilla figurine that was left in the lost and found of one of our library branches when it closed. Once they decided there was no chance of the owner coming back, the branch librarian gave him to me. Sure, it’s not as nice as some of my Godzillas at home, but something about the way I acquired him makes him extra special. What’s even better is that among my many hedgehog figurines was one just the right size to stage my dream battle, Godzilla vs Spiny Norman.
GOZDILLAS FOR THE FTW *high fives*
Is the hedgehog still looking for Dimmsdale?
Always
Aww. I have one of those carved village buildings too 😀
Mine is my 2002 Final Fantasy desk calendar, which is functional again this year.
My favorite pop culture item is a gift from my best friend – a TARDIS USB 2.0 Hub, that makes the TARDIS sound and the light atop the Police Call Box flashes whenever a USB device is plugged into it. I rarely use it any more since my current desktop has mostly USB 3.1 ports, but I still have it plugged in just to sometimes hear it prepare to take off…
Oh, I got that one as a gift, too. Pretty nifty, though I ended up putting masking tape over the light on top.
I’ve got a TARDIS cookie jar on my desk. I had to take the batteries out because hearing the materialization noise everytime something brushed it got old.
My wife bought me Doctor Who Yahtzee, which has a Tardis in lieu of a dice cup that’s perfect for holding around 15 Pilot G2 pens and Sharpies. It’s the perfect combination of dorky and functional.
I have a framed embroidery of Peggy Carter with the words “I Know My Value” that hangs on the wall of my office next to my 5- and 10-year plaques from work.
Fun game, but the fewer who can identify my desk in real life the better.
Nice try.Everyone knows A.V. Clubbers work from sofas.
My talking Edna Mode figurine.
You all have alot of cool toys 🙂 Pics: Port Richmond Philadelphia neighborhood, bathroom door, & artwork. Bunch of construction/road work. Gotta be minimum of $10million contract, etc. That’s all. Good Bye.
A model of the General Lee–duh.
My Hieronymus Bosch action figure
I love my She Hulk die cast metal figurine.
Neat!
I just wish I could get the picture to load
When I worked at Mattel my desk was a tasteful minimalist oasis compared to the mountains of crap other people had collected over the years. Most of the stuff I received as thank-yous from higher ups and brand managers was collectors stuff that ended up supplementing my income via eBay.The one thing I had on my desk was the $1 Hot Wheels version of the Animated Series Batmobile. Really what else do you need?
I love how the one person bragging about not having a bunch of toys on their desk is a person who worked at a toy company.
Oh, not me! When I worked for Topps for six months, I’d ask if I could get whole sets of Movie and Television cards because my best friend collected them. (No sports cards, though.)
I remember my boss called in a bunch of us to look at the back art sketches of characters in AMERICAN GLADIATOR, and what we could do to make their scowls less intimidating – I suggested sticking a kitten or puppy in their folded arms to look more protective! (No, they didn’t go for it.)I enjoyed that job, and if it hadn’t been an almost two-hour subway ride out to the Wilds of Brooklyn every day I’d have told my Temp Counselor I was interested in making it permanent…
I worked at a comic book store for 8 years, so I have collected a metric ton of fun nerd shit over the years, but one of the weirdest things I ever displayed was a hockey puck I got at a Weakerthans concert. They made a label and logo for a fictional hockey team, the Winnipeg Weatherthans, and my eyes lit up when I saw it. I think they were surprised to find such an enthusiastic hockey fan in Orange County, California (Booooo Ducks). It made an excellent paper weight.
I have a “Miami Vice” mug (just beneath the official “Miami Vice” alternate jersey the Heat wore last year) that people seem to really enjoy seeing. It’s my favorite show, ever!
Funko Pop Darryl Dixon (w/crossbow) and Rick Grimes.
This sits above my computer tower. I press the button for daily advice, like
“I would be happy to offer any advice I can under the understanding that when I have some, I’ll let you know.”or
“If there is no rational justification for this course, then be irrational.”or
“Let’s make sure that history never forgets the name, Enterprise.”
Scrooge McDuck’s Moneybin piggy bank that says “grazie” when you drop a coin in.
I got a “Trumpy, you can do stupid things!” mug autographed by Frank Conniff & Trace Beaulieu on my desk. Those guys are the nicest, bestest celebrity dudes I have ever met.
This baby right here. Cool as hell. I actually keep it polished.https://www.amazon.com/Jada-Comics-Classic-Batmobile-figures/dp/B01M3XOKA5/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=batmobile&qid=1553983705&s=gateway&sr=8-7
I don’t have a lot of detritus on my desk, but I have a few toys on my “shelf of heroes.” My personal favorite is my Ruth Bader Ginsburg action figure.
Seriously? Would like to see 🙂
She, too, can be yours for the low low price of $19.99. Worth every penny. https://shop.fctry.com/products/ruth-bader-ginsburg-action-figureOn my shelf, she stands next to Captain America and Chief Hopper from Stranger Things.
She is exquisite. Too bad she and The Cap can’t share an embrace ;)And I would love a photoshop of RBG holding Thor’s Hammer.
I have a Thor mini-Funco pop, but sadly Mjolnir isn’t detachable so I can’t let RBG play with it.
I’m crying right now.Thor AND RBG! This girl has real tears, ya’ll!
It is delightful. With the sound off 😉
I only have one pop culture item on my desk, but it would be my favourite regardless: it’s a small plush Totoro holding a leaf over its head, given to me for Christmas by my girlfriend. Some people recognise it, some don’t and ask about it, most don’t mention it at all, but I always enjoy when I’m asked about it and get to talk about the joy that is ‘My Neighbour Totoro’.
My wife has the two smaller plush Totoros sitting on a shelf with her other favorite stuffies behind her desk, and the giant Totoro propped up in the corner.
I have 2 things:
1. I bought a mini inflatable arm flailing tube man on amazon and it brings me too much joy. Here’s a link if you want it: https://amzn.to/2OHWOZ3
2. As a manager I wanted to make fulfilling orders a little more unique so I created “SFOZilla” (Godzilla holding a pencil that says SFOZilla) on it. As a joke for my manager who loved the idea, I printed out a picture of Godzilla from the old movies and signed it “To my biggest fan, Godzilla <3" and framed it. My boss thought it was mildly funny but it honestly brings me more joy than anything.
This is also a bonus, but my coworker created a custom made noise box with buttons that make different sounds and that lives on my boss’ desk. It’s brought all of us way too much joy.
This is so local I’m not sure it counts as “pop culture”, but I would have to say the one and only shoe I’ve gotten from Krewe of Muses in nearly a decade of being at their parades. It’s dripping with pink marabou and glitter.
I have an old bottle of Britney’s Curious perfume on my home desk. It counts! And it’s perfect.
A glow-in-the-dark Kuchi Kopi figure from my brother.
I feel inspired now to give it little costumes to wear.
Most of my pop culture ephemera is at my house. And there is a ton of it.All I’ve got on my work desk is a small Tom Hardy standee, my Nancy Pearl Librarian Action Figure, and a Destiny Ghost I 3D printed last year.I also printed a little fucktopus, but that’s not really pop culture related.
Not in exactly the same vein, but I have Lance Henriksen’s personal script from Millennium Season 1, Episode 1. It has a -ton- of handwritten notes, doodles and the like. Bought it from a charity auction a long time ago.Always have been a huge fan of his and loved that show in particular.
Fun game. I have: #1 a Criminal Penguin figurine from Wallace and Gromit (The Wrong Trousers) from KFC, 1993; #2 an Aquateen Hunger Force Russian doll set (because I love Carl); #3 a VW Fast that they used to give you with a GTI; #4 Various McD’s Happy Meal toys, incl. the Wizard of Oz figurines and some Minions.
The husband of our financial advisor does stressed wood models of scifi items: The Enterprise, Millenium Falcon, X-Wing and TIE fighters, Klingon ships, and even some non-SF, like the Hubble telescope. It’s amazing stuff. For my birthday a couple years ago my wife got me the Discovery One from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it is so great. It also had to be moved from the desk since it’s like 2 feet long and I have a second scanner there right now.
Does a Rubik’s Cube count?
I have a tiny figurine of Teddy Pierce from Community’s stop motion episode, Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas. It sadly doesn’t squeak when it walks, but I keep it out year-round anyways.
I only have three pop culture items on my desk and they are collectively my time machine collection – the TARDIS (in mug form), the BttF DeLorean, and the Harry Potter Time Turner. I wish there were more time machines I could include but there just aren’t many available on this scale.
If only he’d shut up…
My favorite (and really only) desk toy is a little stuffed Bulbasaur I’ve had for nearly 20 years now. He’s cute and he has a little hidden pouch inside of him (he was full of candy when I bought him).
An ALF puppet that I got in a Burger King giveaway back in the 80’s. Then it’s either my talking Taco Bell Chihuahua or my Cayde 6 figurine… Or my Major Kusanagi and Tachikoma figurines from Ghost in the Shell. Somewhere under all that is my computer.
The pop culture repping at my desk is…a weird spread (mix of xenomorphs and Gundam. Do with that what one will.)
As far as on the desk, it’s probably the Assault Kingdom figurine of the Zeta Gundam. One part I like the design in general and one part retooling the positioning every now and again is a nice little focusing exercise.
Workspace in general, that goes to the replica Nostromo bowl I use for heating meals in on some shifts.
I have a statue of Hypnotoad from Futurama and the POP! figure of Tsuyu “Froppy” Asui of My Hero Academia riding on it’s back.
Where do I begin?
My favorite Pop Culture item IS my desk. They filmed the Beach Funeral Home scene from Summer Rental at my dad’s funeral home. You can see a picture of my grandfather on the wall above the receptionist desk when John Candy first walks into the building. When my dad retired and sold the property, I got the desk and a few other pieces of furniture.
I work for a Catholic health network in Louisiana. One of the first things I bought when I started here was this:He’s seen here holding the baby from our first office king cake, so it’s a little bit Christceptiony.
That’s a tough call. I’d say it’s a toss-up between my Funko Pickle Rick (the one with the rat guts “suit” but without battle damage) and my Lego BrickHeadz Stormtrooper. I have to periodically purge my desk of this stuff when it becomes apparent that the non-work stuff is taking over. I think the previous MVP item was a Mega Man helmet.
Mine is a cross between my red Swingline stapler and the 8-inch tall figurine (pose-able arms!) of Gossamer (the big reddish ‘Monster’ from Bugs Bunny cartoons…”Month-ters are such INTeresting people”) that I got at a Warner Brothers Studio Store (remember those?) in the early 90’s. Both of them get a lot of comments, which is nice, but really they just give me a little smile when things are stupid-crazy.
Mine is a cross between my red Swingline stapler and the 8-inch tall figurine (pose-able arms!) of Gossamer (the big reddish ‘Monster’ from Bugs Bunny cartoons…”Month-ters are such INTeresting people”) that I got at a Warner Brothers Studio Store (remember those?) in the early 90’s. Both of them get a lot of comments, which is nice, but really they just give me a little smile when things are stupid-crazy.
My Red Swingline stapler.
Picture of my 4 month old son, dressed like Yoda, having his picture taken with Kane Hodder. Incidentally, my son was born on Friday the 13th.
Probably none of them because any momentary happiness is destroyed by a reminder that rampant consumerism is the reason that companies across the globe are using up resources and creating pollution thats destroying the planet just so I can have some useless wank on my desk to remind me of some trivial piece of pop culture that made me happy that one time and is now being mass produced by artists who’d rather make a clever homage than original work…but if I have to choose…then I’d say my collection of Sega themed Hot Wheels cars.
Just this little guy:A Vault Boy bobblehead that came with a special edition of Fallout 3.
I work in the town hall, so I try to keep things discreet and not appear like the overgrown man-child I am.
Don’t tell anyone, but I have action figures of Darth Vader and Boba Fett in a drawer. Kinky.