I got to chat with @jd11pc.bsky.social about Gertie the Dinosaur on this episode! Gertie is without a doubt one of the most influential short films of all time, animated or otherwise. It was such a pleasure to record this episode, please be sure to give it a listen!

@komakesthings.bsky.social and I got a whopping hour and 45 minutes out of discussing Winsor McCay and early animation.

The first episode of the new season of my podcast is out now!

Season 2 begins January 26th wherever podcasts are streamed!

Hi, I wrote this:

What a weird time to be a person.

what if you found out it was actually called Wallace and Grompit and you had been saying it wrong this entire time . would you still go to work or would you call out so you could take some time to process this information

And by framing Jud as a Rick Astley type, the film shows us that Jud is never gonna tell a lie or desert his flock. Don’t go to film school or your brain turns into this.

Stick to Shorts, an incredible* podcast about Golden Age animated shorts, is gearing up to release its second season. Catch up on the first season if you enjoy thoughtful discussion and also silliness! (*Full disclosure, I'm on it sometimes)

Listen to Danny Horn and me crash this podcast into the ground and then build it back up again. It was so much fun!

Just Kermit and his nephew and his five best friends.

If you’re a Muppet fan, you’ll want to hear this one. By GOSH did we have fun.

Today I spent all afternoon struggling to finish reading a frustrating essay for Stick to Shorts and then spent all evening stewing over it. So much for the rest of the script.

Today I learned that Cookie Niece exists. I like Cookie Niece.

I’m happy to say that I’ve launched ToughPigs’ newest podcast! We needed a more malleable show for fans to have whatever Muppet conversations are on our minds, and now there’s no telling where the team will take this next!

oh dang I gotta write an article about Hansley Hansen

That price is evil

My health is declining so rapidly that I can’t handle most basic tasks and yet I have no symptoms to give the doctors except “I’m super weak and tired and a little dizzy and foggy.” You know, the least specific symptoms. I can’t express how terrifying this is.

My friend Becca wrote a very good article about a very bad thing:

The existence of this young woman is one of those few things that gives me long-term hope for the species, but I worry for her so much.

““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+

"one officer smiled for a selfie with her as she cried."

My biggest takeaway from the Jim Henson birthday celebration is that we somehow MUST stop Muppet fans from clapping on the one.

Update: my doctor says it’s not true vertigo, which makes sense. After several tests, nobody knows what’s wrong with me, but I’m starting to adapt enough to life with mild motion sickness that I can walk, shower, and drive safely.

I wrote some silliness to celebrate this special day.

All weekend I assumed New York was wobbly because of the subways, but it turns out I’ve just had vertigo this whole time.

I’m really looking forward to producing season 2 of ‘Stick to Shorts’ when I have time and energy for it next month no wait sorry next year no wait sorry next decade no wait sorry aaaaaghgh

I like that Kermit credits himself as the writer and then credits each of the Muppet Performers by name as the performers.

We’re screwed.

as always i encourage u all not to post things that may attract the attention of an authoritarian secret police with unlimited power to surveil american citizens at this time

So I know, I only post when I've got a podcast episode, but this is a really good podcast with me and JD Hansel talking about the Mahna Mahna phenomenon, and how it all went so terribly wrong. www.toughpigs.com/70-years-mah...

So as far as interpolations of the hook from "Little Darlin'" by The Diamonds go do you prefer The Beach Boys slipping it into their cover of "Crocodile Rock" or Joan Baez suddenly pivoting to it at the end of "Honest Lullaby" and this is why I can't make smalltalk

"Nightshade, the free tool that ‘poisons’ AI models, is now available for artists to use" (HT Katya Pendill)

From 2011-2016, we hosted a live monthly show in NYC called The Muppet Vault. Join us this Sunday on the ToughPigs Discord for its grand return!

If you enjoyed hearing from @jd11pc.bsky.social on out Marty Feldman episode (and we’re sure you did), don’t forget to check out his podcast @sticktoshorts.bsky.social, which just wrapped its first season.

it’s absurd that NYT forced him to delete these skeets, which … convey the factual information that Zohran Mamdani is, in fact, a man of South Asian descent who was born and raised in Africa, and that the pseudonymous source of the hacked material is a white supremacist eugenicist.

if you are going to quote the declaration of independence today like it is some radical document and rallying cry, please clearly enunciate as you read “merciless Indian savages” stop trying to build a house on a rotten foundation read: indianz.com/News/2018/07...

It’s gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight ‘cause we’re bugging out about the Marty Feldman episode of The Muppet Show! Open Sesame and welcome our guest @jd11pc.bsky.social! www.muppeturgy.com/episodes/mar...

If you enjoy classic cartoons (Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, early Disney, etc.) you are missing out if you're not listening to this podcast. This is the final episode in the first season, so you've got a lot of good stuff ahead of you!

I just imagine how Gen X’ers must have been raised if, by the time they were in preschool, they already took for granted that the adults were always the arbiters of truth and their peers were just delusional.

While I have some unselfish, empathetic motivation for supporting LGBTQ+ folks, I also recognize that the ideas that are essential to my identity - neurodiversity and neurodivergence - were built by (and built on foundations established by) the LGBTQ+ community.

This is a vital message: one of the larger reasons BlueSky is refreshingly free of alt-right shitlords is because in the early days we made a gentleperson’s agreement to starve these fuckos out and it worked. No likes, no quotes, no engagement. They got bored and left. Please keep the Old Ways.

I’m not worried about my parents believing all AI videos are real. That will never happen. They will reason that the videos of Republicans doing harm must be AI and the videos of Democrats feeding babies to demons just make sense.

I had so much fun talking with my friend @muppetno.bsky.social about Tom & Jerry cartoons! Now you can listen to our conversation and have fun too!

This one’s for all you Movin’ Right Along listeners who like it when we go on tangents about old movies and junk like that!

What a treat it was to talk with @meryanroe.bsky.social and @durwoodclapper.bsky.social about this very weird cartoon!

LAPD when they think nobody is watching

SOS! the volunteers on 'Madleen' have been kidnapped by Israeli forces. Greta Thunberg is a Swedish citizen. Pressure the foreign ministries and help us keep Greta safe! Web: government.se/contacts/ X : @SweMFA FB : @SweMFA IG : swedishmfa #AllEyesOnMadleen

It’s almost like someone in a position of great power and influence has encouraged Americans to think of the press as “the enemy of the people.”