Things with More Appeal.19

The League started on FX two or three weeks ago. I wasn't too jazzed about it, mostly because I don't give a shit about fantasy football, and It's Always Sunny has been turning me off since season 3 (the self-congratulatory arrogance and "wackiness" is nowhere near as funny as the honesty and plausibility of the first season, but that is another post, entirely). I decided to watch The League anyway, because Nick Kroll.

It turns out, The League is fucking awesome. I can't say that I'm ROFFL (Rolling On the Floor Fingerbanging, Laughing) incessantly, but I almost never have that reaction to any comedy show-- even when it's an extra hilarious ep of Two and a Half Men!

Quite honestly, The League is great because it isn't trying to be over the top, setting-otters-on-fire-funny. It's just consistently brave and edgy, and they don't "wait for it" after a character delivers a choice line. They throw away jokes that are funnier than anything on Family Guy or The Nanny or whatever it is the kids are into, without dwelling on it because on The League there's always another funny line immediately. They don't need/don't have the time to beg for the laugh or shove in your face that they're COORS LIGHT SNOWBOARDS EXTREME COMEDY. The show knows it's funny, but not in an arrogant, pleading way. It's dope.

The characters are still anchored in reality, they're just funnier than people are in reality, which is why it's definitely fun and worth it to watch a TV show about them. So, yeah, join The League: You'll feel like a winner!*

*Sorry.

How Was Your Fucking Turkey?

I hope you had a not entirely unpleasant Thanksgiving holiday, and that you weren't denied the four day weekend by being called into work. I almost was, but the evil boss' plans to screw me out of yet another day off were thwarted by a handy, albeit unimaginative, lie about being out of town. Hooray for dishonesty fueled by self interest! Plan B was pulling the race card.

LTNA's holiday was the customary celebration of corpulence, repressed resentment, friends and football. There was a bounty of bottles of beer, and plenty of pot-laced pastries pounded (pumpkin bars to be precise!), all of which apparently left me disoriented and in a Seuss-like dementia.

Of course, all of these were mere opening acts for the headliner: turducken (pictured). Yes, the friends with whom I spent my holiday decided to go even more balls to the walls than we have in past years-- which I will say have been truly impressive in their own rite-- and embraced the gluttonous spirit of the holiday threefold. Turducken, in case you aren't familiar, combines the glory of three different kinds of meat into one gastronomic masterpiece. The three meats, as you may have guessed, are of course turd, duck and chicken. Delicious.

Of course I'm being ridiculous. Turd is for vegetarians, and not qualified as a "meat." Turducken is actually a turkey with a duck shoved up its ass, with a chicken shoved up its ass. They partially de-bone each bird to achieve this, and adding a layer of stuffing (we went with cornbread) between each bird, just in case there was any doubt about this being the greatest invention ever.

I have to say I am now a turducken convert. There's no going back. I will no longer be slumming it with the plebes, choking down holiday dinners of birds stuffed with fewer than two other birds. In fact, I may have to continue to upgrade yearly, defying the laws of physics and good sense by adding yet another bird to the mix. Make fun all you want, but I'll be laughing last when I die laughing/of four simultaneous heart attacks in 2017, while feasting on turgoduckmaguikenantidgeonck. I imagine I'll be wearing a tiara.