Dr. King for a Day

It's Martin Luther King Day, and even though where I work is still open, I'm not working today. I wonder if it's because they'd have to pay me extra for working on a holiday. I don't know. Unfortunately, when thinking of Dr. King, it's hard not to be reminded how his daughter and niece are blatantly homophobic. People will say that the struggle for gay rights is different from that for racial equality, and yeah, it's not the same. Nobody is demanding that gay people pay a poll tax or drink from different water fountains, although it sounds like Richard Floyd of Tennessee would probably be in favor of such legislation. But the important point is that, even though they're different struggles, they're both important and both about how people shouldn't have different rights because of irrelevant differences. How is the fact that someone has a different sexual orientation hurting you any more than their having a different skin color would?

Okay, I think it's time to take a break from serious subjects for a little while, and talk about cartoons. The idea of Lisa starting a Facebook-like social network for Springfield is a little weird when an earlier episode actually mentioned Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, but the way it played out was all right. Not great, but all right. Nothing earth-shattering in the plot or the humor, but I guess it worked, and the frame story with the trial was a good way to riff on the typical episode structure. I do get a bit annoyed at people making the same point over and over again about how socializing online isn't really the same as socializing in person, though. When you're socially awkward, you take what you can get. I'm not sure why this one ended up running short enough to require the unrelated bit at the end, but on the other hand it was nice to see another one after so long. Was it supposed to be in the style of Edward Gorey or someone else? I'm not quite sure.

I don't have a whole lot to say about the Family Guy episode other than that it really highlighted how much of a jerk Brian can be. I'm sure I've talked before about how it's interesting that Brian has gradually changed from the voice of reason to a character with his own significant flaws. I don't know exactly how that happened, but I think it has a lot to do with the idea that a sentient dog dating human women is acceptable within the confines of the show. If I remember correctly, the early episodes never really got into Brian's love life, and it's when they did that they played up how shallow he could be. Then there's the fact that he's become somewhat of a self-insert for Seth MacFarlane, so maybe there's an element of self-parody involved.

I didn't watch the Napoleon Dynamite cartoon. I wasn't a big fan of the movie anyway, although it certainly had its moments. Really, though, why is Fox trying to squeeze more milk out of that cow at this point? And is there really anything else they can do with the character? Eh, whatever. I've never really watched Allen Gregory either, although I did once have it on in the background while on the computer. I can take or leave The Cleveland Show; I generally watch it when it's on between two other things I was already planning on watching, but otherwise not so much. Regardless, I wish Fox would just stick with a schedule instead of changing it every week. And what happened to Bob's Burgers, anyway? I think I heard something about it coming back in March, but not what time slot it would be in.

As far as things I didn't watch, you can add the Golden Globes to the list. As far as I can tell, the only point of the endless awards shows is to see attractive celebrities in pretty clothes. And sure, I like that as much as the next person, and perhaps more than some, but even that tends to bear out the disconnect between rich people and everyone else. "Here's Female Celebrity X, wearing a dress that she got for free from a company that helped to ruin the American economy by shipping all its jobs overseas." Which is part of why I never buy it when people claim Hollywood is liberal.
( Anyway, behind the cut are some pretty girls in outfits made by job-killing corporations. )