Ho Ho Ho! Everybody's Dead!

[vovat]

You know, when I buy presents for bethje and then she has to help me pay my bills, it seems like it kind of defeats the purpose. It's like I'm a kid, and she gives me some money to buy her a gift. At least I'm able to pay more of my bills than before now that I have a job, but being poor sucks. I miss still having some of the money my family put away for college. And now Christmas is coming up, and I don't know what I'm going to do about that. Anyway, enough of that. Let's delve into television.


The Simpsons: The Fool Monty - I didn't think this was a particularly good episode, but I guess it had its moments. Smithers working for Dick Cheney was a clever idea, for instance. The meeting of the news media at the beginning was amusing, but didn't really build to much. Nobody but Burns and Smithers ended up being vaccinated, but everyone else just forgot about it. It was basically just a way to show how much everyone in town hates Mr. Burns, but we already knew that. I don't think it was entirely coincidental that they referenced the movie in the episode being aired shortly before the film's network premiere, and I liked how the characters admitted it really didn't make any sense. I think that joke might have worked better if Burns had gone on to have other plans that had already been done in the show's past, though.


The Futurama Holiday Spectacular - I kind of wonder why they didn't bring the What-If Machine back for this one, but maybe it would have been too difficult to fit it in. All three segments had the same basic theme of reviving a long-lost holiday tradition, and the lack of pine trees and petroleum were already referenced in earlier episodes, so that was a nice bit of continuity (even though this episode was out of continuity). I have to wonder why they didn't seek petroleum on another planet instead of drilling into the Earth, but I guess that wouldn't have been as funny. I'm also curious as to whether they're going to make Cheney (hey, two Cheney appearances in one night, on different channels but both on shows created by Matt Groening) being Nixon's Vice President into a regular thing on the show. What happened to Agnew's headless body, anyway? Speaking of Vice Presidents, there was quite a bit of Al Gore in this one, which I consider a good thing, but your mileage may vary.

I don't feel like doing a full-fledged Family Guy review, but I did like the way they edited Brian into the Real Time with Bill Maher set, even though I'm still not used to having live-action segments in an animated show. Conway Twitty is one thing, but this is quite another. Speaking of Real Time, why is it impossible to find the next to the last episode, in which Bill O'Reilly appeared, in reruns or On Demand? Was it pulled for some reason, or is it just a weird glitch?

Comments

[dragonxbait.livejournal.com]

You know, when I stopped working after the baby was born, I sort of felt that way about gifts as well. Marriage makes money kind of weird. Tom and I set a budget for Christmas gifts to one another (a fairly small one), but it still doesn't *really* feel like a gift, especially since if we really wanted something we would just buy it with our normal day to day funds anyway. It's more to have a surprise, and something to open on Christmas morning. We do not have his money and my money, mostly because I don't actually have any income of my own, although we did choose to go that route starting as soon as we bought this house (so a bit before our wedding) because our incomes were so different, it was impractical to keep the money separate (our mortgage was about as much as my entire paycheck). Even prior to that, I had had to borrow money from Tom to replace my car and was only able to pay him back by not contributing to our rent any longer. So maybe I am just trying to say, don't feel too bad you are not alone in being not so great at making ends meet :-P

[pixielust.livejournal.com]

Agnew's headless body was killed by Leela and the Feministas in ITWGY, remember? :)

[colbyucb.livejournal.com]

I'm in a similar situation to your first paragraph. It's getting better though. But the holidays are so dang stressful.

Wooo Simpsons & Futurama distraction.

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the presents thing in marriage is odd. A little different from your situation, but the same general idea - Scott and I merged our money shortly after I moved in (to facilitate bill-paying and so forth), and when he asked what I wanted for my birthday I was like "...but that's my money too! That's weird!" After just a couple more months though I'm ready for the holiday greed. :) Like someone else said, it's more about the thoughtfulness and surprise than it is about who the money belonged to originally, especially if you're sharing money anyway (and even with separate bank accounts, couples share money).

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I'm not even sure the surprise is the biggest concern, although it can be nice. I've thought about this, and it seems to me that birthdays aren't as much about the money as they are the person getting and doing things they enjoy. I guess that can vary, though.