Chris B

Considering how hot I find both Margaret Qualley and Aubrey Plaza, it really shows how bad Drive Away Dolls was that I haven't got round to this one yet. Drive Away Dolls also wasn't helped by Love Lies Bleeding coming out at a similar time, which did the queer noir thing SO much better on every conceivable level.

Not sure where else to put this, so figured might as well start a new topic because eesh, the Jake Hager thing. If you haven't seen it, he's pulled a Rey Mysterio at SlapFight, where he got slapped so hard he started bleeding from the ear and the eye, and has now had to go under emergency surgery. Apparently Dana White has said it's the worst injury he's seen in all his time in UFC, and as much of a cunt as he is, he's seen a lot. I've put the picture in spoiler, not so much because it's outrageously gory, but because it just invokes understandable squeamishness. I mean, PowerSlap is a stupid idea anyway, but Jake has to take some kind of prize for stupidity just for his career choice now being to let people hit him so hard in the face that his eye pops a bit. As someone who hasn't been following much of this at all, is it likely to be banned at some point?

To be fair, we used to have 7 tories. At least 6 of them no longer plan to vote tory.

My partner primarily refers to it as the forum 'of strange pooing men'.

I still feel somewhat like a newcomer, and I started in 2004.

A reminder that, if people want to keep this place going, it's worth donating.

Interesting article in today's Guardian about how and why fish and chip shops are struggling at the moment: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/17/can-fish-and-chip-shops-survive

Thing is, if he were to do the exact same act as a lower-card comedy act, who constantly looks at the lights, it'd be good stuff. If the point was that he lacks dignity and gets himself into fights he can't back up, that'd be fine. But we seem to be expected to take an unserious man seriously.

The logos being off-centre is really annoying me.

Because he isn't very good at this.

70 Up was on last night - if you're not aware, it's a documentary project that's been running since the 60s. They started off with 14 seven-year-olds, and revisited them every seven years. It was quite class-focused, and earlier ones definitely had a point of view, to the point of detriment (including questions that ended up being outrageously harsh like 'do you feel like a failure' to someone in their 20s). But as it's gone on, it's continued to be interesting and, now they're in their 70s, sad in places. The story that's had the most focus is Neil - a bright, sweet and funny kid, who has lived a life with depression and difficulty, going through periods of homelessness and constantly changing vocations and homes. I think that actually brought quite a lot of attention to mental health in some ways. This one is being done in two parts - the first being (surprisingly brief) updates, and the second will be aired next week, which will be looking back more at the series as a whole. It's a fascinating piece of TV.

He's looking more and more weirdly like Norm McDonald.

I've been trying to work that out as well. It's amazing. The ref's hands change position a bit when the camera switches while Orange is in mid-air. I think it was a sequence of three Canadian Destroyers rather than two - Orange did two that just happened to pretty much be in exactly the same place.

On the pretty much opposite side of the spectrum to Ric Flair, I'm going to throw in a shout for Orange Cassidy. It's not all about showmanship - sometimes, it's about character, and everything about Orange Cassidy is perfect in the entrance. The varying hand-drawn 'insert graphic here' or, recently 'media not found' error, is always funny. The addition of the single rubbish firework. From the second he walks out, you get him. And he's had two separate absolute bangers of theme tunes as well. It

Honestly dude, I'd suggest stepping away and moving on as fast and thoroughly as possible. If you're glad to be rid, that's only a good thing. But there isn't going to be a win here by trying to push her on anything. Concentrate on protecting yourself. You'll want to take better advice than a message forum for this, because it's a legal matter but if you think she's serious about taking action, I'd strongly suggest getting ahead of it - talk to whoever you need to in order to fess up about using the footage, and talk about losing a close friend, your father being ill, and everything you're dealing with. Talk to UNITE or whatever union you're in. It's a big area, unfortunately, and it sounds like you did screw up, as understandable as that is - whatever it is, figure out what protecting yourself looks like at the moment.

That's interesting, because I'm now thinking about how much humiliation has been a part of WWE humour over the years. It's one thing when it's an attempt by the heel to do something humiliating and it backfires - that feels entirely like fair game. But it's also tying into crowd and social media stuff - even I've seen the funko pop gags, and the Ricochet 'bald' stuff came out of a bit of crowd silliness which he then jumped on to turn into 'his' thing (and Mark Briscoe stopping shaving his head was hilarious). It's a weird one, because in real life, it's either backstage humiliation brought onto TV or it's just someone doing the 'if people are going to make fun of me over this, I'll turn it into my thing'. I think it probably comes down to how well-regarded the person is amongst the people making the jokes. The bit with Toni Storm worrying about losing a hair match and becoming 'a hideous bald freak' was mainly funny because it's clear how fond they are of Luther. And then it's down to how much it's something the wrestler is taking and running with rather than being subjected to. But that's then extra levels of backstage/writing stuff, rather than just how it comes across on-screen. Odd one to think about.

Penda's Fen is on tonight - it's a 1970s piece of folk horror, mixed with an exploration of adolescence, sexuality and adolescence. It's properly uncomfortable, challenging and fascinating. It's as odd a piece of TV as you'll ever see. One of the Play for Today series and the kind of thing they genuinely don't make any more.

Loved this one. If you like this kind of film (and Glass Onion in particular), I went to see a talk by Rian Johnson last year, and he talked a bunch about how influenced it was by The Last of Sheila, which is a whodunnit written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins (!!!) back when they were a couple (which I didn't know about until learning about this film). It stars James Mason, James Coburn, Raquel Welch and young, hot Ian McShane - it's set on a murder-mystery party game on a yacht, and very twisty-turny. Should be far better known than it is.

Leviticus Queer horror romance film - very It Follows, with the central conceit being an entity that takes the form of the person you're into that will try to get close to you and brutally murder you. Except it's set in motion by the two teen leads' fundamentalist Christian parents. It's not subtle, but it is really good. If you're going to do something that's similar to It Follows, making it more emotional and intimate is a smart way to go. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Queer horror sort-of romance film. I loved I Saw the TV Glow, so this was already high on my list. I'm also a big fan of Friday the 13th, which it's referencing - and this felt like Easter Eggs done right. Fun little details that don't break the film for someone that doesn't recognise them (unlike Marvel, claiming that you'll need to see the extra footage in the rerelease of The Avengers so you understand a fucking superhero film). And the idea of while you discuss the meaning of horror films means that it feels like this film was specifically made for me, even though it was very clearly not specifically made for me. Coyote vs Acme Queer horror romance... no, wait. My bad. Yeah, this was great fun. It's not Roger Rabbit, but then what else could be? It's rock-solid, doesn't get over-complicated or pleased with itself, and gets the slapstick right throughout. Absolutely weird bullshit that Phil's mate David Zaslav was happy to destroy it rather than release it.

It's a frustrating one. Taskmaster has become a safe comfort watch for me and my partner, and there are precious few things that she finds to be that. Ayoade, in particular, is an uncomfortable presence for both of us on the show, and this is the first season in many years where we haven't watched the first episode immediately. I'm comfortably up for skipping the season, but I'm worried that'll effectively become giving up on the show altogether.

The news that the New Level were asked to take more than a 50% pay cut was pretty shocking. And a real sign about how they view talent that isn't obviously main event.

With it being AEW, they could also play it differently to WWE and not treat it the opposition as evil. Offer Cody Rhodes and CM Punk spots in the Hall of Fame very publicly. And make clear they wouldn't stop any of their talent from attending a WWE Hall of Fame induction. Won't happen, obviously, but the more you allow WWE to look like the problem, the more they will.

Because of this, it also made it REALLY obvious whether or not something was going to happen post-match. If there was nothing, the cameras wouldn't show anything. If there was going to be some shenanigans or something (like after the tag match), the cameras would stay on. In the ring, they kept the tension going a little after Fletcher raised Okada's hand, but it was obvious he wasn't going to do a sudden turn, because the cameras would have stayed on. It's not a major thing, but it took just a little tension out of things for me. I was sort-of okay with this - my personal interpretation was pretty much everyone in the match informally going 'okay, the actual PPV is about to start - let's all take a breather, because we all know who's coming next as well', You've just basically been bumped from the pre-show to the main show, so no point taking any risks for a couple of minutes.

I don't think that changes his importance to AEW - it changes how important AEW was to him. Same with your point with Danielson, it's more about how important AEW is to him. Cody is, for me as well, the most important signing they had. It's not just that he was a name - him being able to represent himself with the media as well as he did, and also how he talked about (and showed) how different AEW was going to be was really important. While that includes the All In publicity, I think it's an oddly important point that he was going for the NWA title as well - and then, with the Dustin match, that was as big a blood-soaked 'this isn't WWE' statement as they could make. And while his promos became formulaic, he knocked some out the park in the early days too. Then, after that, him going back to WWE was, weirdly, important as well. It wasn't necessarily good for AEW, but it was great for wrestlers. To really show that there was the option to go back and forward again, and to reinvent himself the way he did - a world where Cody isn't a multi-time Wrestlemania Main Eventer is, I think, a worse one for how AEW is perceived. Cody's self-belief was big enough that I think it lifted AEW for a bit. I don't think it gets quite where it was without him trying to prove that he deserved more.