Sam Hyde

Bayou Bomber Contra Sam Hyde

Many of this blog's readers will be aware of comedian Sam Hyde. He's spent his career straddling the line between the rightward edge of the Overton window and the mainstream. He's also something of a Jack of all trades, having crashed a TedX talk, had a now-cancelled show on Adult…
January 29, 20246 Comments
Suburban Hip-Hop

Of Hip-Hop and Corporate Pop

Yesterday, over at the Z Blog, the Z Man took up the thread of this blog's posts on the death of rock music and Cultural Ground Zero. Approaching these related phenomena from an alternate angle, he gleaned some new insights. Not discussed is the culture of the managerial class. The…
January 26, 20246 Comments
Black Pill

The Black Pilling of the Masses

Every once in a while, I like to lower the velvet rope and give regular readers a sample of my premium material. Today's post previously appeared as a Patreon and SubscribeStar exclusive. If you like it, please consider subscribing. My cherished neopatrons and I were discussing how corporate studios' refusal…
January 25, 20248 Comments
nostalgia jukebox

The Nostalgia Jukebox Effect

Nostalgia for pre-Ground Zero pop culture is a subject that comes up a lot on this blog. Pining for the awesome 80s and rad 90s is such a defining feature of Generation Y that this cohort is almost solely responsible for the glut of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles retro action…
January 18, 202416 Comments
Who Killed Rock and Roll

Who Killed Rock and Roll?

Shock rocker Marilyn Manson may have been rather tame and boring in hindsight. But in retrospect, it turns out that he did make at least one true observation. Rock and roll is in fact dead. And it died right around the time he was singing about its demise. If you've…
January 17, 20244 Comments
Pizza Hut Classic 1

Generation Y’s Real Café 80s

Most people reading this will be familiar with the 50s retro diner, in concept if not by firsthand experience. This style of restaurant gained popularity in the 1980s as Baby Boomers neared middle age. Savvy restaurateurs figured out that appealing to that generation's nostalgia for the 1950s culture they dismantled…
December 29, 20236 Comments
Uncle Buck

Comedy Classics: Uncle Buck

Since we're in the Christmas season, I thought it fitting to give my regular readers a peek behind the VIP curtain. Please enjoy my previously Neopatron exclusive review of the John Hughes classic Uncle Buck. More than 30 years on, Uncle Buck retains its status as a John Hughes comedy classic. Besides…
December 28, 20233 Comments
Final Fantasy VII Test 0

FF7: The 1st Unfinished AAA Game?

One of the stranger zombie memes still circulating in this year of Our Lord 2023 - a time rife with zombie memes - lazily holds that video games are just toys and gaming a mere hobby. A quick look around the cultural landscape soon reveals that notion as reductive. Vdya…
December 21, 202323 Comments
Death Cult Mouse

Defeating the Death Cult

Hot off the press! Or on the electron superhighway, as it were. Mere hours ago, I joined pop culture commentator and rosary warrior John F. Trent, lately of Bounding Into Comics, on his new show The Trent Report. John is on a mission to save Western culture from the Death…
December 6, 20234 Comments
simpathetic devil

Simpathy for the Devil?

The sympathetic devil trope has become such a mainstay of popular fiction as to be a Pop Cult zombie meme. Audiences - even pro writers  - now take for granted that a demon could choose to do good or even repent and gain salvation. Few people see anything weird about…
November 28, 202320 Comments