#hell boy reference/parody

[rockrosethistle]

Workin Boys was literally the only thing that saved Hidgens from being flanderized beyond recognition

(Spoilers for Workin' Boys)

So what I think a lot of people don't give much thought to is how much Professor Hidgens as a character has evolved since tgwdlm, essentially becoming a parody of himself.

Think of Hidgens as a character. What are his defining traits?

Did you think about how he is a doomsday prepper who has been stockpiling supplies for 20 years? Because that's how he's introduced in Guy.

Did you try think about how he has a weird relationship with his Alexa? Or did we forget about that?

In fact, for the majority of TGWDLM, Hidgens' main character trait is that he says weird shit with a Doc Brown voice.

The whole concept of Workin Boys isn't even introduced until the last half hour of the show. That's where he reveals his real motivation: to live out the musical he wrote as a young man.

Actually, no, that's not right. Because his motivation was world peace, and Workin Boy's was just a convenient means to that end.

I won't disregard the fact that Hidgens clearly has an emotional connection to the show, but in Guy, it serves as a punchline rather than a driving force.

So now we have this lovely, morally-grey, multi-layered character that we can work with.

By the time we get to Time Bastard, the fandom is expecting a show stopping number reference, so of course we get that.

But at this point, Hidge is still that multi-layered character. Sure, showstopping number gets a callback, but we also get a callback to his strange relationship with robots. They make up an equal part of him as a character.

By the time we get to Honey Queen, we have lost several aspects of Hidgens altogether. He is no longer a doomsday-believing recluse. He is now active in the community and his only motivation is to get his show funded. He brings it up at every chance he gets, and his loyalties lie with whoever is more likely to make Workin Boys happen.

So how the hell do we come back from this?

Well, at first it seems like we're not going to. Workin' Boys (the short film) comes out, and it looks like we're leaning even harder into this aspect of his personality than before. But then we get hit with something we're not expecting: Hidge gets the Ted Spankoffski treatment.

I'm referring to Ted's backstory in Time Bastard, where we learn that all of his actions actually stem from a single, traumatic moment, which in his eyes forced him to alter his behaviour, so as to not go through the same trauma again.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

The backstory we get from Hidgens certainly puts things in perspective. No, it's not enough to explain why his behaviour has been so laser-focused on this one show, but it's a start.

Then comes the part that changes everything.

It's left up to interpretation whether these ghosts Hidge is seeing are actually there, or just hallucinations, but that doesn't really matter.

Hidgens had been through a horrible experience, so traumatizing that he is still literally being haunted by it decades later. For one reason or another, he believes that the only way he can relieve himself of these ghosts is by bringing honor to the loved ones he's lost and telling their stories.

This reveal recontextualizes everything we know about Hidgens as a character. Suddenly, this isn't a story about some guy who just really wants to put on his musical, this is a story about guilt. Of course it would be the driving factor in his life. Look at him apologizing to his boys. He feels like he is slandering their memories with everything that goes wrong for the show.

This is supported even more with the ending.

Henry Hidgens dies with a smile on his face, believing he's finally achieved his goal: to tell the real story of what happened that night.

It finally makes sense as to why we've lost those parts of him--we've retconned the character by revealing that all that simplification of his goals and traits wasn't flanderization at all, but a steady downward spiral of grief over his loved ones. It wasn't Hidgens getting a little too into being a playwrite, it was him descending into madness caused by the inability to please the part of himself (or the literal ghosts, if that's how you interpret it) that believes he's not doing enough.

And if not for Workin' Boys, he would have remained that one-dimensional character.

[asaka-lucy-dr-rc]

Oh! The Kizakura audio dramas! I always wanted to listen to Genocide Jack’s part of the audio but an English translation of it doesn’t exist sadly. Do you know what she said in audio drama? I love to know! Thank you!

Oh yeah! Genocide Jack's part was really great and I wanted to share the content of that part of the conversation, so I'm glad you asked! I've written a transcript below:

<After Kizakura visited Toko at her home and told her that he had come to recruit her as a student at Hope's Peak Academy, they talked for a while, but Kizakura fainted in the middle of the conversation because Toko's house and her own smell were too bad.>

Toko: ちょ、ちょっとぉ！そんな大袈裟に倒れて、埃が…っはっ…ハクシュッ！ W-why are you collapsing!? Collapsing so dramatically like that... the dust... huff... achoo!

Kizakura: えぇっ、手を叩いて褒めてくれるの！？俺、頑張ったよね！？もう、ゴールしても…いいよね… What!? You’re clapping your hands* to praise me!? I did a good job, didn’t I!? It’s okay if I... reach the goal now, right...?* (*The reason he made this comment is because the Japanese word for sneezing, “hakusyu”, sounds the same as the word for clapping hands.) (*This is a parody of a line from a famous game called Air. It is often used among otaku.) Genocide Jack: はぁーーい、パチパーチ！！ってなんでやねん！ヒャハハハハハハハ！ Allllllllll right, let’s give a round of applause!! Wait, what the hell!? Gyahahahahaha!

Kizakura: あぁー！？何何何、どうしちゃったのこの子！？ Huh!? What, what, what’s with her!? What’s going on!? Genocide Jack: ヤァだ、ヤァだー！なぁにそんな熱視線困るんですけどー！ってなぁに！？この子ったら！？部屋に男連れ込んじゃってんのヒュゥーウ！！ Oh my, oh my! What's with those intense stares, I'm embarrassed by your intense gaze! Wait, what’s this!? This girl’s got a guy in her room! Wheeew!! Kizakura: (演技…じゃないな。二重人格か？ただのはっちゃけ姉ちゃんにしか見えねーけど…こいつは何かヤバイぞ…。) (This isn't just an act... Is this a split personality? All I see is an endless amount of cheerful girl... but she looks like danger.) Genocide Jack: でも残念！あんたちょ〜っとストライク逃しちゃってるわ！ファウルボールにご注意くださーい。ってデァハハハハ！！で、どこのどなた？ But too bad! You just barely struck out! Watch out for foul balls! Gya-hahahaha!! So, who are you? Kizakura: (記憶を共有していない…解離性人格障害か。考えられる原因としては、資料にあった母を2人持つという家庭事情だが…) 俺は黄桜公一。希望ヶ峰学園から腐川冬子くんをスカウトにやってきた。君こそ何者だ？ (She doesn't seem to be sharing memories... Dissociative Identity Disorder, huh? According to the files, it could be due to her upbringing with two mothers...) I’m Koichi Kizakura. I’m here to scout Toko Fukawa from Hope’s Peak Academy. And you are? Genocide Jack: うーーん、かっちょよく名乗りたいところだけどぉ、アタシってホラ、有名人だから！ナイショにしとくわぁ！ Hmmmmm, I’d love to introduce myself in style, but, you know, I’m kind of famous! So I’ll keep it a secret for now!

Kizakura: 有名人？ Famous? Genocide Jack: その希望ヶ峰学園ってお上品な学校に行けばアタシ好みの萌える男子がオーガニックに栽培されてそうジャ〜ン？ もしかしてぇ？あなたは意中の殿方もぉー？いらっしゃるのかしらァーー！？妄想が捗るわぁー！！ If I go to that fancy Hope's Peak Academy, I bet there'll be a lot of hot boys growing up organically just for me, don't you think? Or maybe...? Do you have a guy you're head over heels for? My imagination is running wiiiild!

Kizakura: 意中の殿方って……あぁやべやべ、思い浮かべるな！ A guy I’m head over heels for... Oh no, stop thinking about it! Genocide Jack: いいわ！その一瞬の油断！ふと脳裏をよぎった親友の面影！そ・れ・が！どんどん大きくなっていくからお大事にねェー！！ Perfect! That momentary slip! The fleeting image of your dear friend flashing in your mind! That, my dear, will only grow bigger and bigger, so take careee!

Kizakura: 趣味嗜好がまるっきり正反対だな…腐川ちゃんの方はオーソドックスなラブコメすら嫌がってたのに、こっちはBLまで許容しているみたいだ… Their tastes are completely opposite... Fukawa-chan couldn’t even stand orthodox rom-coms, but this one seems fine with BL...

Genocide Jack: ハァーイ、大正解！アタシはぁ、パトスだだ漏れの貴腐人なので！調子いい時はぁ、視界に入った男をビンゴ方式でゼェーんぶ絡める！ウァハハハハ！ハ…ハ、ハクシュッ！ Ding, ding, ding! Correct! I’m a kifujin* overflowing with pathos! And when I’m in a good mood, I’ll ship every guy in my sight like I’m playing bingo! Gyahahahaha! H- H- achoo! (* This is one of the ways that otaku girls who like BL refer to themselves, and refers to people who like BL even more than fujoshi.)

Toko: へ、あ、あれ…あたし…？ Huh? W-wait... what was I...? Kizakura: (くしゃみで人格チェンジするって、そんな古典的な…。この子、自分を主役にして小説書いた方が売れるんじゃないの…？) (She changes personalities with a sneeze? That’s so old-school... She could probably sell more novels if she wrote about herself as the main character...)

Toko: き、記憶が飛んでる…！あ、あなたまさか、私を眠らせて、無理やり！？ M-my memory’s blank...! D-Did you force me to sleep and then...!? Kizakura: 永遠の眠りにつきそうなのは、こっちの方なんだけど… I’m the one who feels like I’m about to sleep forever...

Toko: な、何よ、殺人鬼に遭遇したヒョロイ殺され役みたいなシケた顔して…！ What’s with that pathetic look on your face, like you’re the weakling about to get killed by a murderer!? Kizakura: (殺人鬼…そういえばあの殺気…。いや、まさかな。) (Murderer...? Now that I think about it, that killing intent... No, it couldn’t be...)

---------------------------

Toko's part is much longer, but this is the whole part where Genocide Jack appears. If you listen to the audio, you'll see that Miyuki Sawashiro's performance is really wonderful, but I hope it conveys at least a little of what it was like!

[simpingforcreamsoda]

I think it would be really funny if everyone who’s made a pseudo intellectual post harassing or justifying hatred of Jocat stubbed their toes all at once. Like seriously it pisses me off so much seeing (hypothetical name definitely in relation to nobody) peewhirlpool on twitter go “um, he’s horny but pretending to be wholesome so people should be MAD AT HIM” like touch grass and grow the hell up. You’re malding because someone drew himself on SFW dates with women from a meme template. Because he made a parody video comedically showing off his fictional crushes. Breaking news fucko, sometimes people are attracted to women. Sometimes, just sometimes, people might want to fuck women. Some people have the desire to have sex with women. It’s so crazy how that works, isn’t it? It’s ok, you can come out of the blanket when it stops being scary! I wouldn’t want some widdle Internet funny man with a cute lil puppydog pfp to learn what a sex drive is! Check your arms for any boo-boos, because I fucking guarantee a song cover of Lizzo’s “Boys” and a panel drawing of two people dancing like in Beauty in the Beast didn’t melt your face off like the nazis in Indiana Jones.

Jumpscare! When I was in elementary school I had a crush on Blaze the Cat! Nah that was tame, wasn’t it? Ok here’s a good one— sometimes I’ll see women in real life and think “wow, she’s super pretty.” Sometimes I’ll even think “Wow, she’s hot.” Lock me in fuckin Alcatraz, pissvortex. Oopsie, said the barely hidden name because like be real who’s reading this besides my mutuals. It turns out when you don’t actually harm or harass people in real life, and respect them as human beings, you’re allowed to have feelings.

Not even sure why I’m so mad about this. Maybe I’m not even mad, maybe I’m just baffled. So many people going after some DND and Final Fantasy YouTuber and not only doxxing him off platforms, but trying to mask it by saying “he gives me the ick! I bet he looks at hentai” (believe it or not, you can look at hentai and it’s not a crime also, but clearly some people aren’t ready for that conversation). It’s not even that you’re making baseless assumptions and forcing what you think is sin on an individual who has not made anything nsfw in these things other than a reference to the couch meme at MOST, those assumptions don’t fucking matter! Like genuinely why do you CARE if Jocat likes women? He ain’t doing shit! You’re pissing yourselves over DRAWINGS! So yeah, washed up tumblr funny guys, and everyone else who participates in this bullshit, honestly just shut your fucking mouth. You jagoff.

Oh and yeah, I know some of you are doing this because Jocat is nonconforming to stereotypical masculinity. Maybe a lot of you. I hope next time you eat a tootsie-pop you cut the roof of your mouth on a crack in its outer layer.

am I missing something? Oh yeah, and then hammers fly everywhere, now it’s a a joke that’ll get me harassed by a site mod.

[terrence-silver]

poly john and terry who acts like kids by triggering each other’s ptsd because of a argument then both seeking beloved’s comfort.

Something tells me Terry Silver and John Kreese don't believe in triggers.

What? These guys right here?

Yeah, no.

Part of me feels they don't even necessarily believe in PTSD in the classical sense either, even though they both clearly have it in abundance; that they (especially John) might very well think it's a bunch of weakling wimp snowflake New Age nonsense people made up to justify their own weaknesses, hang ups and inadequacies and that 'back in the day' people pulled themselves up by the bootstraps. That people pulling themselves up by the bootstraps is what provided the backbone of this great, big country. Bootstraps are what make a soldier a soldier. That a real warrior doesn't complain even if something hurts. That a real man doesn't, in fact. Does pain even exist? Not in this dojo, it doesn't! Make no mistake, Terry Silver believes in this to the very core of his being just as much as John Kreese does, seeing as how they're both people born somewhere in the midcentury and have a midcentury mentality embedded into the very fiber of their beings, so if they're here 'triggering each other's PTSD' from their own point of view, it could be just them hazing each other and shooting the breeze for old times sake. Boys will be boys. They see no fault in it. It's harmless from where they're standing. (Although, God help anyone from beyond of their sphere who tries doing the same to either of them; the vengeance will be swift and fierce. It could be done over something as miniscule as someone merely looking at either of them the wrong way even though they might have done much worse to each other. They can. Others cannot.) They see it as bonding. All of these things are bonding to them. They might be outright laughing and cackling like hyenas while they're doing it and anyone looking in from an outside perspective might just see two men ---- two old friends ---- hanging out, having an awfully good time. And they are. They truly are. They are very much like rumbunctious, happy, hyper kids.

That's the thing about trauma; often times, you don't even know you have it.

Often times, you might even get angry if someone suggests you do.

Hey, for all Terry's concerned, especially in the 80's, he returned from Vietnam trauma-free! He left that crap behind! That crap don't affect him! He only ever references war as hell when it's time to play pretense and deliberately garner sympathy from Mr. Miyagi and Daniel, almost like he's parodying the notion of war being hell and he's only the verge of bursting into laughter the whole time. Might as well be a joke to him, because it is a joke to him. He believes himself above it, in ways. He's untouchable! There's ego there. He's a businessman, a Billionaire, entrepreneurial, charming and perfectly well adjusted and I figure it's only until he actually went to therapy decades later that it was the first time in his life he's actually heard from someone else's mouth that he isn't doing okay and never was doing okay. It just never crossed his mind before that he was anything but an immaculate diamond.

For all John's concerned, on the other hand? Someone merely suggesting there's something the matter with him might downright earn you a death stare at best, because it harkens back to all the times someone referenced his mentally unwell mother as a negative and every time he's heard someone calling veterans unstable in the years since returning from Vietnam --- every time John scoffed at the notion as the stupidest and probably most offensively pathetic thing he's ever heard in his whole goddamn life. What did you just say to him? You implying he's sick in the head or something? That he's damaged? Him!? That he doesn't know his own mind inside out better than anyone else? If anything, he's tougher than most people out there! Stronger! Smarter. He's a survivor! You're an idiot and you don't know what you're taking about and you should go back to Pansyville at Cry me a river street where you belong.

You whiny primadonna, you.

Meaning that by the time they come to their shared beloved for comfort, they merely see it as them doing what all men are supposed to do; what all men do in general --- return to their loved one to be with them. They don't see it as them being weak and needing to be 'helped' in any sort of way, even though they do. They don't see themselves as triggered or unstable. In pain. Upset. Sad. That grip of fingers they have around beloved? Why, it's always been that firm and needy. They don't need a life raft. What makes you think that? They had a fantastic day and they laughed like crazy. In fact, they might be laughing still, eyes all shimmery and shiny with mirth, all while embracing beloved collectively, unsure why they'd think something as silly and as untrue as them being raw about something.

[fantasyfantasygames]

Several Donated Games

I recently had the good fortune to meet Lily Vers at ProseAndCon, a semi-yearly interactive fiction convention in the backwoods of Maine. I mentioned that I write reviews, the next thing I know she hands me a pile of books and offers to buy me a drink if I promise to never give them back. I think she just wanted them out of the house because she's moving. They're not that bad. Well, most of them.

These are short games (well, most of them), so here are some short reviews!

Edge: Blades in the Kill (Hurtful Press, 2021) Long-time followers of the blog will remember HellBlaster and whether I wasn't really sure whether the game was in on its own joke. E:BitK is absolutely in on the joke. The game's aesthetic is part emo, part Hannibal fanfic, part Black Adder. You are a group of serial killer assassins murdering for fun and profit, then getting stiffed on the profit part by your clueless employers who seem not to realize what's going to happen after they stiff a bunch of murderers. Cool stuff: Manages to boil down systems stolen from Blades in the Dark and Kill Edge to their very essence, accomplishing 90% of what they do in 20% of the combined space.

D.E.S.P.O.N.D.E.N.C.Y., A Friendship-Ending Role-Playing Experience (Delta Elf, 2020) Have you ever played Diplomacy? This is Diplomacy in RPG form. One-player RPG form, thankfully. You write the stories of a group of (initially) friends playing a diceless RPG that slowly escalates into a series of alliances and betrayals that eventually leave the entire group and hostile. It reminds me of an Amber game I ran once where people got a little too into the intrigue and backstabbing. Cool stuff: The prompts really get you into the heads of all the characters you make. All your decisions on their part have to come from part of the short backstories you write for them.

Unexamined Fantasy Racism (anonymous, 2018) Hoo boy this one sets you up right from the title and doesn't let up. The book is a 64-page clone of OD&D that provides an absolutely scathing commentary on exactly what the tin says. Anyone who goes on to play a standard D&D (or related) game after playing or reading this one is going to feel real uncomfortable, and for good reasons. I don't think the game is going to get much play, but it's designed more for reading. (See "queerweird" below for another "you might never actually play it" game.) Cool stuff: Never becomes its own target. It's easy to write something like UFR and fall into the "actually doing what you're trying to satirize" trap. UFR instead sets up extremely standard FRPG situations and then slams you right into the exact problem with them.

Hackerface 1999: Don't Roll A Hacker (Crack the Hacker, 2000) I'm not sure who the audience for Hackerface is. It's a parody of Cyberpunk 2020 with references to 1990s floppy game hacking, so you would normally be able to perfectly zero in on the target audience. The game does not treat that audience with any sort of love, affection, or respect, so you come away either not getting a lot of what it's trying to say or feeling uncomfortable. And not a productive UFR-type uncomfortable, just the kind of uncomfortable you get from bullies. Even the hacking rules aren't worth stealing. The book reads like it was written by the kind of person who stuffs nerds into lockers, and how in the hell does that person end up writing RPGs? Cool stuff: The art is pretty great, especially for an indie game in the year 2000. It's done in an extremely stylized approach, with plenty of black ink, chiaroscuro, and anatomy that looks like it belongs on an actual human.

This turned into a longer post than I thought, so I'm going to split it in half. Tune in next time.

[abbyzenken]

Alright you people.... SPLITTER GIRL HEADCANON EXPLOSION TIME!!!! :3

In my days of using Tumblr but I have never posted headcanons nor think much about tuem... but splittet girl is making my head full of tjem so here we go

1 . She is roommates with chemical girl. Splitter really loves annoying the shit out of her and even calls her "chemical-X" (funny powerpuff girls reference... eeheheheh);; on a side note, they live on a duplex

1.1 Some stupid shit Splitter really LOVES to do is push bowling balls down the stars, blasting very shitty music and so on ^^ To annoy her roommate even more, she blasts this super shitty "song", at max volumne, not even bothering to turn it off nor be even more quiet; she just sits there and dances like a drunk lady. Hell, she will even laugh like a bitch (song link below, view at your VERY own risk, it is so fucking shitty oh my god someone please take away this guy's suno activies)

• Speaking of this... she dances like an idiot^^

...anyway I apologize for putting a shitty """song"""... back to what I was ramblign about

2 . Splitter girl REALLY loves doing parodies of children's books and those fuckass AI ""songs"", and oh boy are they so fucking funny;; She made alot of parodies of the shitpiece linked below

3 . Her room is just a bunch of wires, cables, chargers and whatever the fuck,, Weevil said that she'd have a shitty depression room but I personally think it would be shittier. There would be posters of badly drawn stickmen, unorganized wires under her bed and so on

4 . Speaking of the stickmen,, she draws like Brewstew:pp she also watches Brewstew alot because it suits her humor and gets a super good laugh ay them,, not to mention has merch^^

5 . She has VERY shitty hair. Like it is all knotty and shit, super hard to detangle that someone, regardless if it is her roommate or somebody else, has to make her go to a super professional hairdresser

6 . She makes ramen when she is SUPER high. When I say super high I mean like, a fucked up combination of someone smoking a blunt, Lindshey Lohan and an extremely shitty person. When making ramen, she would put all sorts of random bullshit - makeup, olives, anything, INCLUDING wood and metal. And then she dumps it all into the toilet and. fucking clogs it. And then her roommate would wonder what the hell happened and who made knock-off fairy dust and calls a plumber to fix that shit

7 . Unironically plays knockoffs of well-known games. Like instead of "Uno", she would play a very shitty knockoff called "Cnuno". I'd like to imagine that she just brought it one day and shoved it on chemical girl's face. It went like this :

"HEY GIRLIE!!!! LOOK WHAT I BROUGHT!!" "oh, that's nice^^ what is it, the game uno? "Oh Chemical-X, it's better! Do you wanna play... THE SHITTIER VERSION CNUNO?^^" "...what the FUCK is a Cnuno?!"

8 . Fast typer. Like in her journal entry she has so much spelling mistakes (such as "me/.", "norma;l" and so on). Not to mention she would also not put a comma where needed, and would put all caps letters when making a sentence sometimes (sOmethign lik;e This; yes I am typing like splitter just for this example)

9 . She absolutely LOVES getting drunk and going to sobriety tests. She would hope that her table will be the drunk table and if it is, she will scream so fucking loud and immediatly get as much as she can, and on the sobriety test, she is absolutely fucking shitty

10 . She and chemical girl would go to the same school and would share some of the same classes^^ For example, they would share woodshop class - chemical would be extremely good at it, meanwhile splitter sucks ass at it

That's all I have^^ I will share more splitter headcanons and possibly of the other girls (including chemical) tomorrow, so please look foward to it:3

[mywifeleftme]

363: R.E.M. // Murmur

Murmur R.E.M. 1983, IRS

Some Short, Disconnected Statements on the Matter of Murmur

1. Insert the following into Waring blender

The Velvet Underground, Pylon, the Byrds, Gang of Four, Patti Smith, the Feelies, Joy Division, the Method Actors, Big Star, the dB’s, the Monkees. Press “Blend” button. (I’ve never owned a blender; I don’t know what the buttons say.)

2. Easy formula for a great band

Having one temperamental genius songwriter guy sounds kind of hard to maintain. Have you considered simply getting four people who are really excellent and distinctive at the respective things they do (at least three of them great singers), who all write well, get along, lack substance abuse issues, have good taste, and modest egos? Why don’t more bands do this?

3. Notes on the early discourse

A lot of the things people wrote back in the early ‘80s to champion this band were dumb as hell. R.E.M. weren’t good because they didn’t use keyboards or synths; pop music didn’t need to be returned to its "honest" folk-rock roots; giving them a thumbs up for not wearing flashy clothes and makeup is dork behaviour.

They were good because they made weird music that derived organically from their time (early ‘80s), place (a college town in the South), and selves (bright, independent, adventurous, sincere, ¼ gay).

Anyone who listened to Chronic Town or Murmur, with their post-punky murk and lyrical references to Laocoön and Marat, and thought to themselves, “As yes, the second coming of Roger McGuinn, this will put those effete new wavers to flight,” was an idiot.

4. Veteran of the psychic war

Somewhere around age 22, R.E.M. took over the mantle Metallica had held as My Favourite Band in the World Forever and Ever, and I proceeded to be almost as annoying about them as I had been Hetfield and the boys. I posted a lot about them; rigged “best music” polls on random message boards I didn’t even post on in their favour; cornered people at parties; crowbarred them into playlists; grumpily chose to dislike bands I saw as stealing their shine; etc. etc. Some (some) of this is maybe cute in retrospect, but really: don’t be like this about music. If you love a band this much, learn how to play their songs on an instrument; write a few poems; paint something. Worst case: review them.

5. Learning nothing, 2024

6. Athens: Lyrics & Enunciation

The matter of what exactly Stipe was singing on the early R.E.M. records was a subject of intense speculation, and eventually, parody. Some of the mystery’s in the mixing, some’s in his Georgian accent, and some’s in his enunciation (never quite as mushy as people claimed, but not exactly Ella Fitzgerald either). But most of it’s in the arbitrary decisions he makes with regard to syntax that cause even accurate transcriptions to seem implausible. Stipe is probably a little bit autistic, which goes some way to explaining the impressionistic intuitiveness of his words, and also went to art school, which fetishizes that sort of thing, but he was always shy of people seeing the words to something like “Sitting Still” on the page because he thought he might be exposed as a nincompoop. “Up to par and Katie bars / The kitchen side, but not me in / Sitting top of the big hill / Waste of time sitting still,” goes the chorus, according to at least one gnostic sect, but the important passage is the one everyone agrees on, when the stream of impassioned babble releases into a howled “I can hear you / Can you hear me?”

Later on, when he would sing more clearly over airy arrangements, with the lyrics neatly printed in the booklet, he’d occasionally try one of those old sound-over-sense moves and embarrass himself (“Leaving New York was never my proud” still rankles). But Murmur’s eternal elusiveness is in the way fragments of sense catch your ear from out of its sleeptalk glossolalia:

“The pilgrimage has gained momentum” “Conversation fear” “Lighted, lighted / Laughing in tune” “Hear the howl of the rope / A question” “A perfect circle of acquaintances and friends / Drink another, coin a phrase” “Shaking through / Opportune” “Take oasis” “Heaven assumes / Shoulders high in the room” “Did we miss anything?”

7. Permission to be arbitrary

I remember sitting in the basement of my college house with my old hometown buddy Brad (mostly a metal/classic rock guy), playing him “Shaking Through” and explaining one of the things I love about old R.E.M. is that it’s great music to yell to. I don’t know how much he really got it, but we were drunk and it’s a catchy song, so we howled and made keening, wordless, Stipean noises along with it and the next few until one of my roommates came and asked us to keep it down.

Also: one theory for why cats purr when they’re injured is that the vibrations somehow reduce pain and encourage healing. From many experiences humming these songs while wrapped up in headphones and bedsheets in the middle of a day that’s passing like a kidney stone, I can confirm.

8. Note on the modern discourse: Influence?

Black Francis, Kurt Cobain, Bob Mould, Steve Malkmus, Bob Pollard, and Thom Yorke loved R.E.M. So did, to his own apparent consternation, Metallica’s Cliff Burton. Still, you sit down with someone and listen to those musicians with the goal of showing them the R.E.M. influence (don’t do this, why would you do this?) and it’s honestly pretty oblique. Most of the bands who directly aped aspects of R.E.M.'s early sound were at best pleasantly minor (see Captured Tracks’ Strum & Thrum comp), and the ones who seemed to be listening most closely to their ‘90s efforts were not who you want.

Their ultimate influence was probably simply showing what an art-first, indie-adjacent rock band could accomplish by sticking to their guns and bending the system to their desires instead of being bent by it. They were like a Velvet Underground for the college rock era, except everyone talented who heard them was inspired to start a band that didn’t sound much like them. They always used their spotlight to introduce people to other bands and, when they really got huge, they modeled how to deal with success. There don’t seem to be many R.E.M. stories, Peter Buck’s airplane incident aside, about them being anything other than kind. That’s a fundamentally less exciting type of influence than most other “great” bands have. But I do think it’s kinda cool they were the wise old heads for an entire national movement of alternative music.

8b.

Of course, it still bugs me people don’t think they’re cool. Murmur at least, should be considered cool. And Reckoning, mostly. Chronic Town for sure. Some of Fables. Am I crazy for saying some of Monster and New Adventures even? I’ll stop. I’ll go on.

9(-9). The music

They were a pop band, they were an art band; they sounded like children, and like craggy old men buried in kudzu weed; natural and pretentious; date-stamped and timeless. Decide yourself. Happy 41st birthday Murmur.

363/365

[samobservessonic]

I will not be having this marxio bros disrespect, stop hating on my funny electricians/j

Seriously, tho, aside from just the obvious mario parody, I find grouchio's sass and sarcasm funny. But I can understand that the base joke of the Mario bros mixer with the Marx Bros could get kinda old quick

Yeah, I'm absolutely giving my thumbs up to people who find them funny, they're just not for me. I do think Grouchio is the most entertaining of the bunch tho! It just makes me wish they'd been based on the Trotters instead - Grouchio & Chico already have that Del Boy & Rodney dynamic, the third guy doesn't do much anyway, and it'd make the Brit pop culture reference more direct. Plus you could've made them pigs But it's easy for me to sit here years later and say things like that. Hell, if StC had been a bit later, you couldn't had them be based on Jim & Anthony Royale - this kind of duo just works and appears a lot in British media. I'm just not a massive fan of the Mario/Marx bros flavour these guys had

[formula-fun]

I listened to every song named after current f1 drivers (so you dont have to)

Max: some of these are hype songs a la pitstop boys, and most of the ones that aren't are pretty odd lowkey. A couple are literally just his entire life story rhymed and set to a beat which gives me Homer vibes so that's kinda cool. Some are...kinda weird. 6/10 Special mention to Max verstappen by Abad 33. Man wrote a biographical rap, amazing

Checo: the same 3 bands that write all the max stadium chants are also writing checo ones which is kinda sweet! a lot of these are directly about him rather than namedropping him--he has a higher ratio of these than other drivers. Also not just rap/dance tracks, some are more traditional Mexican music which is awesome. Overall no skips here, 9.8/10 Special Mention: Checo Perez by Alan Y Roberto

Charles: most of these are along the lines of "im sexy and fuckin cool and i feel like charles leclerc" but the vibes are there. have heard at least 3 that reference Max or make ver-stop-him type puns. Also several modern epic poetry vibes and a few kinda slow ones, very him. 8.2/10 Special Mention: Charles Leclerc by SAE. The one by Alexander Lewis is also kind of a mood but a little more hype

Carlos: some really lowkey beats here, kinda chill not too aggressive. The only issue here is I can't tell if theyre about him or his dad and they're more namedrops than bios so it's hard to tell. 6/10 for that reason but special mention for Carlos Sainz by teme

Lewis: can confirm Lewis Hamilton by geezy is a mood lowkey but based on the line "swear i drive like a ferrari, I'm all about the wins" I think maybe geezy does not watch formula 1. These are good though! Lot of bops in here. a LOT of songs abt this man. 9.5/10 Special mention for being the only one on this list to have a song he sang in, shoutout to Pipe feat XNDA

Pierre: he actually has a couple but some of them are weird as hell. Weirdly enough every one I've found is in English, maybe because Gasly is really easy to rhyme in English? not sure. 7/10. Special mention to Pierre Gasly by FeldaLeaf, featuring the classic line "Pierre Gasly driving the Tauri, bitch I'm the alpha I got people coming for me"

Lando: actually thought he'd have more but he only has a couple. One is a hype song and the other is his roller coaster one. Overall fun but not hits. 5/10 Special mention: Let's Go Lando! by Pitstop Boys

Valtteri: has quite a few which all have car noises and radio clips and are pretty heavy/hard rock. These feel like they maybe came from the Mercedes era because they're just generally full of rage but i kind of love that for him. 7.6/10 Special Mention: Bottas by Arcangel, which is only slightly about him but is heavy as hell

Fernando: please just go listen to El Nano by Melendi, this is the happiest fucking song ive ever heard in my entire life. It's from the Renault era and it sounds so 2000s and i had to translate the lyrics but theyre SO cute. when he gets in his renault? Magic alonso!!!!! <33333 he honestly has the best music so im giving him 15/10 hands down but please know its mainly because of El Nano

anyone who was not listed isn't on here because I found no songs named after them, very sorry (parody songs written from the perspective of certain drivers not included). Takeaways from this exercise: there is a lot of bad self-produced rap on spotify, some of it is pretty good, and in general people are writing music about this sport like its the fuckin Iliad or something which I think rules. In conclusion, thank you for reading and please stream El Nano

[seeminglyseph]

It is a little wild sometimes seeing Invincible the superhero series being written about as like... "new and innovative" or something... because I did absolutely read the comic in 2010, and there were multiple trade paperbacks at the time.

I mean, I know full well "I read the comic" is a useless phrase because The Boys is also coming out, and the comic for that is just as dated and I avoided it for the most part because I liked DC Comics and didn't want to read Ennis' unhinged gore porn. DC was going through its Dork Dark Age that needed commenting on that is fully lost in commentary now, I feel like a madman trying to explain that now that like... "I mean I think this is around the same time Teen Titans decided to bring back the Wonder Twins, Wendy and Marvin from the old cartoons, including their Wonder Dog, only it turns out the dog was a monster who ravaged and mauled them to a bloody mess. Marvin is killed on the panel, and Wendy is gravely injured and paralyzed from the waist down. She got an Oracle moment in a different book with a more optimistic tone, but that was far from the original intention, or the only Teen Titan killed in a gory and gratuitous way on the pages of Teen Titans. The comic most likely to be picked up by children because of brand identity."

I fully stopped reading DC Comics because of Lian Harper back in the day... like. Then they rebooted the universe so it fully didn't matter but like. It very much confuses me when I hear like... "it's so innovative to see superhero media where it's fucked up."

And like. Clearly, the only superhero media you are consuming is MCU movies or spinoffs. That's the shit that I was pretty sure these comics were commenting on. That's the hell Frank Miller built for us.

Injustice: Gods Among Us came out in 2013. How are we still acting like "Superman but bad" is the most shocking concept. Anthony Starr's acting is fucking stellar and I do enjoy most of Kripke's writing. I did my time in Superhell. But like... I mean the fact that the Seven are a Justice League parody and The Boys have to bed over backwards to try and parody Marvel is like... man, this was written when someone else was on top, and now modern audiences are mixing metaphors because the DC references just aren't relevant unless sexy Harley Quinn is in it.

I have a migraine and maybe no actual point... I don't want to return to the era of pointless gratuitous violence in comics. Like I said, it made me stop reading because any time I even started to get attached to a character, they were brutally murdered or went through something traumatic and changed or left or were sidelined or something. It was just... exhausting and stressful. And paying money to be stressed out and disappointed was like... not fun or interesting. I think a lot of The Boys fans are experiencing that with this most recent season, which feels authentic to the comic experience. (A season four event is very close to a real-life trauma for me, so I'm making a mental health decision to not watch it at the moment. But I am watching fans spiral into disappointed rage. It's interesting...)

Anyway, this has been a rant about Superheros that doesn't really go anywhere. I think I'm gonna go smoke a blunt for this migraine and the stress. I'd suggest people broaden their horizons since like... there's been grimdark superheroes forever, but it's like... it's a mostly miserable slog through various fluids and rushed art and bad plotlines that go nowhere. And most people probably got revealed to be sex pests at a minimum by now because the industry appears to be full of monsters... I'm very tired.

[343guiltyshark]

hello shark. my biggest hyperfication a few years ago was the (penguins part of the) madagascar series. boy was I excited when netflix made an original show all about the lemurs that was animated like the movies and everything.

boy was it so weird

so I don't know how much you know about the little brown one, mort, he is obsessed with king julien's feet and in all apparences before this show, was just a weird comic relief/heel. He was very dumb and foot obsessed and that was the joke

then came the show All Hail King Julien

Mort is centuries old. Mort sometimes disassociates between personalities or "different Morts" inside his head, one of them being his grandmother who knows secrets to the universe. If Mort drinks coffee, Smart Mort takes over his body and suddenly he speaks with a trans-atlantic acent and knows literally everything. Mort's brain is actually a pocket universe where several deranged Morts lay relatively dormant for most of the show, until the Apoclypse happens and Mort has to go inside his own head to fight them back from clawing their way out into the world. He then has to fight his grandma Mort to the death in this head pocket universe.

An inventor man on the island creates a cloning machine, but it turns out that it is not cloning people, it is bringing in versions of them from alternate dimensions. Morts come out of it. Apparently there is one single dimension that is solely populated by Morts. at this point in the show, they are all referred to as Morts, he may be a lemur but he is his own species now. The Mort dimensions is lead by a Mort who is a Ghangis Kahn parody, Morticus Kahn. He leads every mort in the dimension like they are a hive mind.

So much shit happens in this show like penguins of madagascar was just about silly ninja secret agent penguins doing weird stuff. All Hail King Julien starts off as a funny, raunchy-humored at times show that is both more childish than it's successor, but takes on really weirdly complex themes for a show like this. The first season is like LOL JULIENS DUMBBB LETS DANCE TO EDM ALL DAY YAYYYY and the rest is about how mort is god and death and hell incarnate

I have never seen anyone talk about this and it lives with me forever because What The Hell Was I Watching??? I don't even know if you know anything about Madagascar but I saw you mention the lemurs and this happened.

this show put lemurs in my head

well I watched the Madagascar movies as a kid & I quite enjoyed the penguins (i have been kin assigned kowalski many times in the past). and I have heard whispers of mort’s dark truths. but this is wonderful information to have you are truly feeding my brain on this wonderful night. thank you

[instantpansies]

figured i'd post this goofy drawing now that the recipient has seen it. fanart for @rufusrant's IMPECCABLE beatles my immortal parody fanfic "My Georgemortal" on ao3. it's one of my favorite fics of all time, it's so funny and full of absurd obscure beatles/rock references, i'm completely obsessed and would 100% recommend!!!

"Hi my name is George Harrison and I have long dark brown hair like the King of England (that’s how I got my name) with purple streaks and red tips that looks like a duck's arse and chocolate brown eyes like tree bark and a lot of people tell me I look like Dhani Harrison (AN: if u don’t know who he is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to Roy Orbison but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my fangs are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a rocker, and I go to a recording studio called Abbey Road in England where I’m a Beatle (I’m twenty-one). I’m a teddy boy (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Savile Row and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a black shirt with extra grease and hair gel smattered down it and a black leather jacket, black drainies and black combat boots with fire on them. I was NOT wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow because I am too beautiful for that. I was walking outside Abbey Road. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was not very Hare Krishna about. A lot of mods stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them." PLEASE IT'S SO GOOD GO READ IT NOW!!!!

[tsuki-sennin]

(For some stupid reason, Tumblr refuses to show my reaction to last week's episode of Donbros on search results. However, it can be freely read here for your entertainment! We now return to your regularly scheduled brain melting.)

The greatest union of all time is about to occur. I have no further preamble, let's just fuckin' get right into it!

Spoilers, I guess...

-We're still far beyond your comprehension, huh Sononi?

-Awwww, Sonoi do a paint :)

-You did it :)

-"When the hell did I do that?"

-Sonoza's so proud of you Haruka :)

-God, I'm gonna miss this OP soon.

-Let's not dwell too much on the future though!

-Miho is not a gamer.

-Tsuyoshi certainly has an

-Interesting sense of what someone'd be interested in.

-"Yo, whaddup?"

-"We need Juto knowledge."

-"What are they, some kinda Super Sentai!?"

-"Haha, you really been spending a lot of time with your wife huh buddy? :)"

-Y'know Tsubasa, when Naoki Shiina freed you, the Juto that copied you didn't instantly die.

-I think that might be how they resolve the Natsumi/Miho/Crane Lady situation.

-Ooooooooh, that's right! Somebody's lying here.

-"You guys are noobs anyway."

-Ah, looks like Jirou's going home yet again.

-"I miss my girlfriend. Wanna meet her, Tarou-san? And my dad?"

-Tarou :D

-"Rumi cute <3"

-RUMI GONE

-OKAY

-THIS JUST GOT REAL CREEPY OUT OF NOWHERE

-"Ohhhhhhh, this guy's crazy." -Tsuyoshi Kijino, the absolute last person on Earth who should be saying this about somebody else's love life.

-Oh, here we go

-This HumaGear-looking dude must be this week's Hitotsu-ki.

-I think I've gotten way better about identifying Sentai references, so let's see if I get this one.

-Okay, I'm 100% sure those robots on the folder are Bioman-colored. Lines up with his boss looking like Doctor Man. Incidentally Bioman was a series Haim Saban previously considered adapting all the way back in 1986, a good few years before the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. It, naturally, didn't get off the ground at all (neither did an idea from Stan Lee to adapt Sun Vulcan), but was the origin of the character Alpha-5.

-And after that, you had the simply titled and completely Saban-univolved "Dynaman", which was basically an Abridged-series style gag dub that aired on the USA Network and Nickelodeon from late '87 to early '88. I've never seen this parody before, but I assume that, since it's late 80s Nickelodeon and they renamed Emperor Aton to "Bernie Tanaka", it would've been riotously funny at the time.

-"Chief! Am I your little pogchamp?"

-"Huh? Oh, yeah sure, whatever man."

-Poor man just wants some praise. Must be a former gifted kid.

-Looks like Miho decided to go on.

-Here comes Sononi!

-Kill her.

-"I don't wanna stab my fiance!"

-"Do it, bitch boy!"

-Ooooooooh, girl bringin' out the shade.

-"In the name of my beloved Natsumi, the black dog will chomp down on the crane!"

-"Awwww, how cute! The doggo thinks he's gonna kill me!"

-Ah, right immortal. Don Clan has an annoying tendency to make their stuff TOO strong.

-I have to wonder just what goes through Momoko Arata's head whenever she's brought in for InuBro scenes.

-Ooooooh, Sononi. Having thoughts?

-Oh shit, Tsubasa's throwing down!

-Murasameeee!

-Thing I learned yesterday. Murasame is, naturally, a reference to Nanso Satomi Hakkenden, which was the name of a sword with the power to control the waters. It'd make sense he'd naturally gravitate towards somebody named Inuzuka.

-Ooooooooh, somebody's dead!

-Oooooooh, nooo!

-Sononiiiiii!

-Hello, Tarou!

-"Humans are delicate little creatures. Same things that make them laugh, make them cry. Something that you'd never get."

-Thank you, Crane Lady, for your... somewhat twisted affection for our kind.

-Ohhhhhh noo, here comes the wife guy.

-"Sononi. What the fuck, man?"

-Well, that's messed up.

-Ah, yep, Sonoi and Sonoza are here.

-"Get out, nerd!"

-YO WHAT THE FUCK GUYS?

-She's your homegirl! Your bestie! Your sister! The one woman who isn't either completely horrified and/or enraptured by your presence!

-"The dog man..."

-Oooooh, Tsuyoshi's about to kill someone.

-Genuinely.

-Ohhhhhh, she's becoming a hell of a lot like the Don Clan, huh?

-Sonoi, honey, I think you're projecting a little.

-Yeah, I knew you can't do it.

-You boys :)

-That's it, let your hearts make the decision.

-Inuzuka Tsubasa did wound somebody's heart.

-"What the fuck do I do...?"

-Oniga Parking Garage.

-It's time for a duel to the death.

-Kijino's having a serious fit.

-I guess their identities haven't registered yet to each other.

-Jesus Christ, this should be completely stupid and asinine, and yet...

-Sononiiiiii!

-And she's down!

-Even Kijino's horrified.

-Ah yep, praise man. Right on cue.

-Companion time!

-Avatar Change!

-Matsuri-da!

-LET'S FUCKING GO!

-Holy shit, Tarou

-He said a nice thing :)

-Sononi :(

-Oooooooh, I recognize this set up.

-It's identical to how Yuka died at the beginning of Faiz.

-C'mon girl, don't slip.

-Noooooooooo :(

-Nooooo

-KAITO YOU GOTTA HELP US MAN

-He's almost completely back at square one.

-Fuck, man...

-Hello, Auntie Yuriko.

-What's up, Haruka? I only mentioned you once the whole episode!

-Bedtime?

-Inuzuka Tsubasa! He was with us all along!

-Wanchan! Pupper!

-We're takin' it outta town!

-The sight of our next grand battle! Quite possibly our grandest contest of strength yet!

-S

-SONOGO AND SONOROKU

-Oh, everybody's together! Right after Tsubasa said he never wanted to see Sononi again.

-Two villages!

-A whole squad of assholes all ready to pound down!

[booksopandah]

Eric by Terry Pratchett (Discworld 9)

This is the shortest Discworld book by far. I think it counts as a novella at this point, being just 155 pages. I read the version without illustrations, and really didn’t feel that I missed anything without pictures, but a lot of people really enjoy them, so pick what works for you.

This is a parody, of sorts, of Faust, except that the new titular character is a 13 year old boy, looking for world domination, the most beautiful woman in the world, and immortality, which is about what you would expect from a teenage boy getting into demonology. The main issue is that rather than summoning a demon, he summons Rincewind out of the Dungeon Dimensions. Shenanigans ensue, including a Dantean journey through hell, a trip through time and space, and a few fun interactions with various demons.

It’s a cute book, and has Rincewind at his most bearable so far, in my opinion, as is the Luggage. The historical references, the cliches, and some actually really neat worldbuilding for the Disc, getting to meet a Creator. It’s not the best, but it is a lot of fun — see wizards’ opinion on demonology for a sample:

“… Any wizard bright enough to survive for five minutes was also bright enough to realize that if there was any power in demonology, then it lay with the demons. Using it for your own purposes would be like trying to beat mice to death with a rattlesnake.”

Enjoy your reading.

[wrestlinghistorywithkay]

Say His Name and He Appears: Counting Down My Favorite Joe Hendry Songs

Hello All My Awesome Readers! Before you ask , you did read the title of this article right! I will be counting down my favorite Joe Hendry songs! Joe Hendry has been one of my favorite wrestlers to watch recently. He is a talented wrestler and one hell of a musician. I laugh every single time I hear his songs.

#5 - Edge’s Bitch

I couldn’t stop laughing when I first heard this one. This song was done for Matt Cardona in 2023. Hendry debuted the song in TNA after Cardona and his tag team partner , Brian Myers , lost in a tag team match . The song is about how Hendry says Cardona will always be Edge’s bitch , referring to his time in WWE. It also included Myers and Chelsea Green, Matt’s Wife. The music video is also hilarious too.

#4- Backstreet’s Back Parody- I know wrestlers will and try to do anything to get booked. But , I have to say , this one is one of my favorite ways a wrestler has gotten his name out there . Hendry talks about how he professional and punctual he is when he goes to shows. Plus , I really think that this one really shows his talent as a singer and also a cool way to get booked.

#3 - I Believe in Joe Hendry - This is most well known song. It is also his entrance music for TNA and NXT. This one first debuted in 2019 when Hendry was wrestling in Ring Of Honor . Hendry wanted to make a song where he wanted fans to participate. The cool thing about this song is that it went to the top of the charts , beating out artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift. I will admit , it’s on my playlist.

Honorable Mentions :

Joehemian Rhapsody ( Bohemian Rhapsody Parody )

Hendry Ball ( Wrecking Ball Parody )

Local Hero ( My Hero Parody )

Pokémon Intro

Cheez-It Champion

#2- Jack Jester’s In My Room- This one is too funny to me. It is a parody of the Venga Boys. The video for this song is even funnier. I couldn’t get it out of my head the first time I heard it and I will never be able to. When I watched this entrance , I could tell that Jack was trying so hard not to laugh. He was even fist pumping to it as well.

#1 - I’m Drew - This one is a parody of Eiffel 65. It came out when Drew came back to Scotland and went back to ICW. I love it because I love Joe and Drew , and I also thought it was super cute and funny. Drew also confirmed that he had to hide his face behind his hair to prevent fans from seeing him laugh because he was a Heel. This means that he was a bad guy and was supposed to be angry that Joe made the song about him. Thus, they praised each other in different interviews.

My Final Thoughts:

I love Joe Hendry. I think it’s so unique how he uses his musical talents to stand out in the ring . I also think that he is a great wrestler as well! I’ll be going to WRESTLECADE and I hope that I will get to see him there. I saw online that he will be there for TNA and a meet and greet. What is your favorite Joe Hendry song? Let me know!

Love You All,

- Kay

[adeadhorse]

Another ask is that

How do you think Chase would’ve reacted to Logan’s anger management message? Given it was all over the web he must’ve found out in some way or form.

Tho to me; this episode is pretty much non canon in my book. Most of s4 is off but this is the episode that doesn’t even feel like Zoey 101 the most out of all them: Zoey, Dustin and James are completely terrible people in this episode, Logan even at is worse moments (besides webcam) is nowhere near as bad in this episode (tho what Zoey, Dustin and James did was worse) and Quinn and Lola are idiots. Not to mention the events of this episode are never mentioned again (if it was a show like SpongeBob it would be fine but for a show like this it’s kinda a big deal)

Sorry for rambling about how terrible this episode is, I just wanted to ask you if what think Chase would’ve thought of all that since no one else did. Hope all is well!

Honestly, I have never thought about it before, but good point.

I am also going to ramble, but please keep in mind that I have barely watched the episode because I hate S4, so my memory is pretty hazy.

Anger Management as a whole is indicative of what's wrong with S4, which is the genre change. It's one thing to no longer dip your toes into full drama because your actual main character is no longer there, but it doesn't even go back to the previous vibe of S1 or S2. Instead it goes full Drake & Josh, which had way more pop culture references from the start like Oprah and the Dr Phil parody, and makes sense because George Doty is running the writing instead of Dan, and George did a lot of D&J writing, especially in S4.

So the whole thing is based on Alec Baldwin's voicemail to his daughter which would have happened only a month or two before filming, but like...why put that into a kids show. Who is the target audience here. There's no commentary on anything anyway, and it feels weird to do an episode about how yelling at children is wrong when you're on a Dan Schneider show and that's his entire thing, so the whole thing is just mean-spirited.

That said, it's still just an exaggerated, worse version of an established plot device, which is to take some sort of 'revenge' on Logan. He was always presented as a kind of antagonist, so the payback was often deserved in some capacity. Chase was also very often the deliverer of it in some capacity; the rat down his pants in Zoey's Tutor is probably not deserved (and is arguably questionable), but I don't mind it, probably because I actually kind of like Chase's meanness in S3. So I would argue that how James behaves is pretty much how Chase would act in the same situation, especially if he'd just started dating Zoey. The issue is that James just comes off as being an arsehole because he has none of the established history with Logan that Chase does, and I'd argue that Austin and Matthew have none of the same chemistry and affection that Sean and Matthew had, which I think helped make some of the revenge plots feel more good-natured.

In terms of how S4 actually happened, I think it's likely that Chase would have reached out - both to provide payback idea to Michael and to be like "dude, what the hell is up with you?" to Logan. That said, he'd likely also just been told that the girl he's in love with started dating his replacement (I know this isn't confirmed by canon, but I maintain one of the boys would have told him), so I think it's understandable he'd keep his distance. Especially if he's clinically depressed.

In conclusion, S4 is bad and this episode is bad and it's a lot easier to ignore than to consider it canon (and it's always right to shit on S4).