rubbercat.net

January 3, 2023

HOLIDAY SPECIALS I WATCHED

(Green for first-time watches, red for re-watches)

The Wonderful Autumn of Mickey Mouse – I enjoy the modern Paul Rudish Mickey stuff, but this is the weakest of the four season-based specials they’ve done.

Rugrats: “Channukah” – I respect how very Jewish this is, makes the controversy over Grandpa Boris look silly.

Mickey Saves Christmas – A bit more younger-skewing than I was expecting but that’s on me. Minnie and Daisy are voiced by Kathryn Roebuck (the official replacement for the late Russi Taylor) and Debra Wilson (who apparently is now Daisy whenever Tress MacNeille is busy), both of whom are credited as “Additional Voices”

Rugrats (2021): “Traditions” – Kind of insane how little story there is… Didi is stressed out over the first night of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve being on the same day, and then everything just… works out. I’ve seen a handful of other episodes and I don’t think they ever mentioned Betty is Latina until now.

South Park: “Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo” – Never really got into South Park, this was new to me. It’s alright.

Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special – It’s fine. I’d either forgotten some stuff or didn’t see some of the movies so I kept thinking “oh that’s what that character’s deal is?” and “the dog talks now?”

Rugrats: “The Santa Experience” – There’s so much more going on in this one than the modern one, like there’s multiple subplots happening but it never feels rushed.

Rocko’s Modern Christmas – The version on Paramount+ doesn’t have the end credits at all so it misses the little tag at the end where everyone throws out their trees! What the hell!

Hey Arnold!: “Arnold’s Christmas” – Not to dismiss this very touching and melancholy episode, which is probably my favorite Christmas episode of anything, but why didn’t Mr. Hyunh go to the agency as soon as he arrived in the city. OK, sure, the system is more likely to listen to a couple blond white kids than a Vietnamese immigrant with broken English, but still…

Invader Zim: “The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever” – Hadn’t seen this before. Didn’t care for it. Everything is just… too much.

The Adventures of Pete & Pete: “O Christmas Pete” – Garbageman rules. I like when he’s in the Wrigleys’ house and the camera is tilted like an episode of Batman. Oh to be a villain in an episode of Pete & Pete.

Ziggy’s Gift – I hadn’t realized this Christmas special about the world’s lamest comic strip was animated by Richard Williams. Pretty charming, actually.

A Wish For Wings That Work – It’s lavishly animated but fell flat for me. Don’t really care for Breathed’s stuff when he’s in cutesy-poo mode. I kinda wish Steve Dallas and other Bloom County characters had showed up. Guess I’ll have to wait for the Fox series…

Rugrats: “A Rugrats Kwanzaa” – I never knew they updated the opening sequence to include Dil and Kimi, it sucks! It’s nice that they did this episode but it’s too didactic to be entertaining. Also it’s funny that this episode produced with such cultural sensitivity also includes a slur against the Romani people

The Adventures of Pete & Pete: “New Years Pete” – A joy to look at. It’s regrettable how “shooting things from interesting angles” has become a lost art in the world of childrens television.

December 14, 2022

Mallard Fillmore Watch

A Mallard Fillmore strip in which the title character shares a recipe for the perfect eggnog that consists of pouring eggnog down the drain
12/13/2022

I always knew Mallard Fillmore was an eggnog hater…

December 9, 2022

Twitter Files 1: twitter deleted some dick pics
Twitter Files 2: twitter gave special treatment to libs of tiktok, who is somehow the victim here (?)

This stuff is completely incomprehensible to me but apparently it’s the journalism scoop of the century and you’re an NPC if you disagree. Oh shit, I’ve just uncovered evidence of a senior Twitter executive attempting to influence an election and instituting shadowbans pulitzer please!!!

November 29, 2022

Me laughing at Elon Musk repeatedly bungling Twitter and then remembering that’s where my posts are

October 31, 2022

monster tier list

tier 1
skeletons
ghosts

tier 2
witches
vampires
frankensteins

tier 3
zombies
werewolves/wolfmen

tier 4
goblins
mummies

October 7, 2022

grimace

I thought it was a bit weird that the Clerks cartoon referred to him as “The Grimace” instead of just “Grimace” but that’s how the official McDonaldland Specification Manual refers to him as well

September 20, 2022
Dagwood being robbed at the gas pump

Blondie, 9/16/2022

Cosmo talking about being robbed at the gas pump

Shoe, 9/20/2022

Tough times in the funny pages… stay safe out there
September 8, 2022
my poem

new poem I wrote


August 29, 2022

Updates on several projects:

  • I have started a quest to watch every movie in the Blondie Cinematic Universe at the rate of one per month, at least until I forget about it, or I have to go out of my way. I figure if I’m going to make jokes about it, I should at least watch it. I bought an ebook about the films (a bit too glib about the multiple suicides, imo) and I’m doing a little research into the comic strip. So far I’ve reviewed the first and second movies. 26 more to go!
  • August 19 is probably the most deep cut my Simpsons timeline project will go. The other Simpsons’ birthdays are in the show or can be extrapolated from the show, but as far as I can tell, the only specific date ever given for Maggie’s birthday by an official source is a calendar from 1993, which dates it as August 19, 1985 (why 1985? Beats me). I discovered this from the Simpsons Archive, and I considered asking people who owned the calendar to take a picture of it for me, but decided I’d rather have a physical version of it myself. I found it on eBay, where it was being sold by my internet acquaintance Mike Sterling, which felt very serendipitous. Also, years ago August 19 was acknowledged as Maggie’s birthday by the official Simpsons Twitter account but they later claim it’s January 14, and I have no clue where the latter comes from.
  • Pleased as punch that Better Call Saul has provided me with an opportunity to update my long-dormant Ask Jeeves blog.
August 10, 2022
A garish, colorful living room with bright primary colors. Framed pictures of Donald Duck can be seen in the background.

Kind of obsessed with this former Disney executive’s house, which the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute identifies as “Wacky Pomo”


July 7, 2022

Two things I came across whilst writing this article:

1. This is a solid gag from the new Minions movie, specifically referencing Mad #50 where one side congratulates John F. Kennedy on winning the 1960 election, and the other side congratulates Nixon.

2. There’s an inside joke in a recent-ish Mr. Burns book: his family tree includes Simpsons writer J. Stewart Burns (via)

An image of Mr. Burns family tree


June 27, 2022

minor updates

  • let’s dance – This is an old AnimeJihad thing that never quite worked the way I wanted it to. Also your browser probably doesn’t allow autoplaying audio so you have to enable it in settings to experience the full *~artistic intent~*
  • I made some minor tweaks and updated the tags on my tumblr and I’m very happy with it now
  • 2021 – I hadn’t done an album collecting ephemera for 2021 so here it is. I didn’t really make much that year.


June 26, 2022

Disclaimer from the end credits of Queer Duck: The Movie

Very funny to have a gag with the Queer Eye guys in a Flash movie being released in 2006 and then be like “your 15 minutes are up”

June 20, 2022

Happy 19th anniversary to rubbercat.net… for some reason I always think it’s on the 21st. Being a webmaster has been a weird, solitary pursuit – nobody really makes sites anymore, the first question people ask is if I make money from it because the concept of doing it for fun is unfathomable (don’t get me wrong, I’m not going turn down money… here’s a link to my ko-fi page), and the phrase “webmaster” itself is considered archaic. Recently I came across the Yesterweb, a community of people who make personal websites and embrace the aesthetics and values of the old web. The sites they’ve been creating have been inspiring and I want to rededicate myself to being a webmaster. Um I don’t know how to end this post and I’m running out the door right now, so thanks for reading.

June 12, 2022

Why is the clock so small on this thing??? How is the UV index more prominent than the d*mn time. There are two other clocks but they’re for different timezones I guess in case you are driving across the ocean to Europe

June 7, 2022

I joined Truth Social and was immediately auto-followed by over 100 bots (that number has since dwindled to under 60)


May 21, 2022

Rotating Google +1 buttonI trust you are following the vast network of rubbercat.net/simpsons social media offshoots? Here’s some updates and thoughts on those platforms:

Twitter – I’ve started constructing a timeline of sorts, partially inspired by Bully’s Today in Comics History. I like the idea that everything is happening simultaneously, it’s fun to know that theoretically Homer encounters the Mr. Burns alien two days after Whacking Day. One nitpicky observation: Bart’s canonical birthday (yes the Futurama crossover is canon, Bender’s still in the basement in later episodes) creates some glaring inconsistencies. blunder

Pinterest – This site seems to be getting worse and worse over time. I guess there’s no way to just view stuff from the people you’re following anymore, and they removed dates and other info from pins. I think it’s still handy, but eventually I’d like to figure out some sort of solution.

Facebook – I’m bad at maintaining a consistent schedule, but I’ve been adding stuff from pinterest, plus every other week features “Meme Monday.” This site is also getting more frustrating to use over time (I know, I know…). They’ll just randomly drop features and I can never figure out if they were actually dropped or moved somewhere else because all the help pages are out of date.