Lantern7

Bumping up because Adult Swim will be running the Christmas specials from tonight to Christmas Eve in the midnight-12:30 slot. From Goku & Gohan saving Christmas to the Nerd getting his own holiday adventure. Good times.

Nice work, Sandman87. I hope to see more of you in this neck of the woods in the coming year.

Thinking about would-be teams from Road Rules, I forgot about Blair and Steve from The Quest. They didn't have much screentime, but they were fun to watch when they were on. They also did commentary on MTV.com, and they brought the funny there as well.

Might as well post the other two . . . . .. and add a new crew member (One PIece)

Next weekend, Toonami is holding a marathon of One Piece marathon. I thought I'd repost these posters of the Straw Hat Pirates from when the episodes started airing in 2013. I'll post the rest closer to the date . . .

I don't know when new episodes will air. In the meantime . . . what is your favorite Star Wars-themed sketch? "Empire On Ice"? Ahmed Best reprising his role as Jar Jar Binks? Any of the bits with Darth Vader and the Emperor? How about the fantasy sequences with Boba Fett? "BACK FROM THE DEAD, ASSHOLES!!!" Good times,

So . . . what is the legacy of S31? I think it lived up to the hype for the most part, as long as you sweep stuff like the tribal twists under the rug. If you watch up close without the benefit of editing, I reckon even Kimmi or Keith would've had a shot. If I had to come up with a title for the season in general, it would be "Bloc Party." It should be interesting to see if upcoming casts incorporate that into their gameplay. ETA: Did Jeremy clean up the stain of New Englanders left by Rodney and Dan? I totally forgot that he hailed from Massachusetts until I looked back in the S31 voting thread.

Does anybody have casting ideas outside of TAR? Or anti-choices? It seems that Caleb from Big Brother (aka "Beast Mode Cowboy") is doing the next season of Survivor, and that's causing a ruckus for some. For me, I imagine folks from Road Rules . . . most of the time, the saner folks, those who don't make The Challenge their lives. Christian & Timmy (RR2): I don't remember much from their season, but I know the nudnik from Norway and the corny guy from Pittsburgh hit it off. Timmy called it quits from The Challenge after he wrecked his legs in an Inferno against Abram. Dan & Roni (RR5): Actually, you could pick anyone from Northern Trail and it would be good for me. These two were the most normal, and Dan was a stud on his season and The Challenge, albeit under the radar. James & Theo (RR9): This one's out . . . Theo's too famous from his stints on Last Comic Standing and the hidden-camera show on TBS whose title I can't remember. These two were the definition of "bromance" before the term was coined.

I often compare Camila to Abi-Maria because they're both from Brazil. Also, both massive headcases.

Wow, it's been a year since anybody has posted here. In case you didn't hear, the Merc With A Mouth got into an Epic Rap Battle with Boba Fett . . . . Also, Comics Should Be Good is doing a countdown of Deadpool's 25 greatest stories.

Putting aside that lost people don't appear on milk cartons these days . . . it feels so weird to be validated by Challengers (especially Johnny) about Abram being a psycho. We'd probably disagree on everything else, but the thought of Abram putting Thomas and Cara Maria in shallow graves would unite us. Vince may be a dick, but he's not his cousin. Johnny wrote the book about being an asshole.

Ugh. Had to watch this after going through three hours of Survivor. The first vote of that episode wasn't as complicated as the format change. Why couldn't BMP stick to the format they were using? Or started with the new one? It's needlessly complicated, and I feel no real urge to root for either team. As bad as Camila was, I don't think she was as psycho as she used to be. . . or as noisome as Abi-Maria. On a scale of 0-10, I'd give her a 4. I'll be rooting for Jenna next week, because too much Camila is a bad thing. Of course, that is if the Pit isn't suspended by Tony almost dying. The mission was good, but it could have been tweaked. I would've added five minutes for every flag lost, as opposed to ending the game when one team lost too many players. I'm betting Candice and Tony weren't the only ones that were hurting afterward.

Wait . . . one of the S32 featured comes from Big Brother? Ugh. I don't watch that show, but they keep popping up on Survivor and TAR. SnideAsides . .. wow. That's depressing. However, something tells me the Asian dude from S32 is going to get a lot of screen time.

I had the over/under for how long the finale would take from the Reunion at ten minutes. The finale went into commercial at the nine-minute mark, and the Reunion commenced in eleven. And six people got ignored by Probst (seven if you count Vytas), which was below the over/under I set at 10.5. I totally would've taken the over.

While I don't know if I'd dub it a "classic," but S31 was memorable. Jeremy got all ten votes and won for his family. Kelly channeled Greg Buis. And the Blue Fairy made Spencer a real live boy! Oh, and only six players got the cold shoulder from Probst: Kass, Shirin, Monica, Kelly, Peih-Gee and Woo. That's below the over/under of 10.5 I set in the Speculation thread. Way to surprise me, Probst! Next season looks nuts. I wouldn't have been surprised had somebody from S32 stormed the stage. "I WON! I SHOULD GET MY MONEY NOW! I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WAIT FIVE MORE FUCKING MONTHS TO GET IT!!!"

Looks like we're only having nineteen contestants tonight.

Adult Swim isn't affiliated with Disney, but they're going a run-up to the new Star Wars movie. They're airing the hour-long episodes of Family Guy over the next few nights, as well as the first two specials from Robot Chicken. They're not airing the third special, which is a shame. The one with Luke and the Wampa might be the darkest sketch the show has ever done.

I'm still getting graphic novels and trade paperbacks from the library. I picked up a volume featuring Geoff Johns' early work on The Flash. He did a lot of decent character-building with Wally West . . . and he wound up junking it all for Barry Allen, who should have remained dead after Crisis On Infinite Earths. I would expect a similar collection line with Mark Waid's take on Wally . . . but since Waid is not with DC Comics anymore, that's not going to happen. Pity, especially since most of his run on Impulse reminds uncollected. I have to share . . . the subtitle to the second volume of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is "Squirrel You Know It's True." ETA: Remember when I couldn't recommend Empowered? Now it's been serialized online. For free.

I forgot about the two toads from the original anime. Nice to see that the yellow guy is still dubbed like Mr. Hankey from South Park. And man, they grew up big. While I'm thinking about it . . . why would anybody want to be Orochimaru's vessel? I know Sasuke wants the power to kill Itachi and he'd be willing to sacrifice his future to make that happen, but that doesn't explain the girl's motivation. Also . . . what is Bacchikoi? Here are the credits at normal speed . . .

Saw the finale today. Didn't feel like a waste of 22 weeks, but I can see how it could be underwhelming. So Michiko isn't Hatchin's mother? Then why did Hatchin uproot herself and her rambunctious son to meet her? Good anime. I think you'd have to be in tune with Brazil to really "feel" it. Interesting that Samurai Champloo is replacing it in the Toonami lineup, since the ongoing plot also involves finding somebody who's hard to track. ETA: I liked Adult Hatchin. It felt like the end of Moral Orel, where a kid growing up with all sorts of bullshit in life grows up to be well-adjusted.

More statistics . . . here are the final TAR27 leg averages: 3.33 Kelsey & Joey 2.08 Justin & Diana (second-best average among second-place finishers (Eric & Jeremy, 1.75)) 4.44 Logan & Chris (tied for fifth-worst among third-place finishers (Ray & Yolanda, Brent & Caite, Mona & Beth)) 5.27 Tiffany & Krista (tied for second-worst among fourth-place finishers (Nick & Vicki)) 4.30 Denise & James Earl I think the legacy of this season is Justin, Justin, Justin, and Justin. Oh, and Justin. I wish we got a better sense as to who Diana was, but that's the package we got. I figure a parallel can be made with TAR6, in the sense that nicer teams wound up biting the dust early. I don't mean TMZ . . . they would made an average season worse if they outran the Cheerleaders. ETA: What about TAR25? The two races tied in terms of strengths of the final three teams. You had overachievers (Misti & Jim/Justin & Diana), the steady performers (Adam & Bethany/Kelsey & Joey) and overwhelmed wild cards (Amy & Maya/Logan & Chris). Or am I putting too much focus on stats in general?

I hope everybody is having a happy holiday season. I got some shopping done today. I'm going to turn 40 next week. I'm bummed that there's been a lot of stuff I've yet to do. Anybody else see the TAR finale? As somebody with thin skin, I don't know if I'd apply for the show if I found a partner. After seeing Justin get reamed, I don't know if I could take haters, even if they are justified.

Never heard of that. Has TAR won in the past? And I'm hoping Phil gets some hardware before the show is over.

Lessons learned: If you're going to send a mystery to Mike Tyson, remember to send a backup pigeon in case the first one dies on his way to the coop. Also, it's hella weird being a real-life "Jason B" when the show's title is "Jason B. Sucks." And the word "shit" is still randomly bleeped. I hate that.

Still not feeling it. Maybe the team decided to try one big story, as opposed to several bits. It was amusing in places, but there weren't any heavy LOL moments. And since Jim Hanks had been on the show before, I figured that was him voicing The Polar Express guy. Favorite Nerd Holiday Adventure: going to Narnia or facing the inferior live-action Grinch?