Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
Today let’s talk about guilty pleasures. No, not the X-rated kind, unless it involves books or TV or music or movies or comics or anything else you can come up with that’s related to culture. (Do I need to say no p0rn?)
Any idea why you are drawn to your guilty pleasures. You just want something mindless? You used to do or watch whatever it was with someone you were close to? The road not taken? Memories? You like bubblegum music because it reminds you of 8th grade?
Whatever your guilty pleasure is, besides telling us the what, can you tell us the why?
El Cruzado
Every once in a while I enjoy some deeply, unabashedly anime media (usually video games), the stuff that obeys all the Japanese high school archetypes yet somehow manages to build unique characters and have something to say off it just scratches an itch.
bbleh
Nearly dozing off in the sun, or napping in winter, even when there’s fires burning that need put out. Cuz I’m basically lazy :)
Ruthlessly savaging Republicans in blog comments (far worse than I do here). Cuz I’m radicalizing and perfectly happy with it.
And VERY occasionally, decadent chips like ghost-pepper waffle chips or spicy Doritos. Cuz duh.
Simple needs, you see.
schrodingers_cat
Music from Hindi movies is my guilty pleasure. Although truth be told I don’t feel any guilt about it. Especially old Hindi movies. It reminds me of my childhood. Some of this music predates my parents or was made when they were children. Its still as fresh as it was decades ago.
Omnes Omnibus
I take issue with the idea of guilty pleasures. If you enjoy something, enjoy it.* Unless, of course, the guilt is part of the pleasure which a whole other kettle of fish.
*Void for those who enjoy Creed. I mean, there are limits.
VFX Lurker
My guiltiest pleasure is reading Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D pulp novels, inspired by Hammer Horror films and Westerns. They’re shot through with imagination, adventure and fun characters, plus lavish illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano.
However, at least one-third of the books in the series contain rape scenes as horror moments.
I still read them for the smoking-hot title character, but I can understand if some readers might pass on them.
scav
@bbleh: Ah yes, the line in the guilty chips aisle will be a long one. And the serving sizes will cause seizures at the USDA.
prostratedragon
@schrodingers_cat: Indeed! The numbers you post from time to time are gorgeous. I like a lot of.musicals, which I’ve heard are supposed to be a guilty pleasure.
Omnes Omnibus
OT: This makes me think of Miss Bianca. I wonder if it is her or if she knows the reporter.
Also, it is completely anti-free speech bullshit.
HumboldtBlue
Watching this guy work on his machines and push dirt around.
And Herr’s sour cream and onion potato chips.
(There are more snacks I could add, but one is enough).
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: GMTA. I agree. The notion of a guilty pleasure is very puritanical, very Brahminical. I reject it.
Jeffro
@Omnes Omnibus: but…but what if it’s just one of their songs?
(ok maybe two, tops. 😉)
piratedan
@El Cruzado: I hear you….
anime – My Love Story and Mysterious Girlfriend X
TV – The Outer Limits (original) and MST3K
Movies – Buckaroo Banzai and Big Trouble in Little China
Books – Stephen King and the Liaden stories from Lee and Miller, Space Opera from David Weber
Music – The Monkees
as always, ymmv
AliceBlue
Occasionally I read one of my old Nancy Drew books; for whatever reason I still like to spend time with Nancy and her “chums” Bess and George.
schrodingers_cat
@HumboldtBlue: Cape Cod Kettle chips. Also in my old neck of the woods, my friend had a tiny shop where they used to make potato chips in ghee. Expensive but oh so good. Its like you have died and gone to potato chip heaven. They are no longer in business.
Salty Sam
Indeed. Julia Childs was asked about this in an interview once, and her answer was “I feel absolutely no guilt about enjoying things…”
schrodingers_cat
@AliceBlue: Same and Agatha Christie’s novels. Also like the old Archie comics and Calvin and Hobbes.
Mr. Prosser
Some Friday nights after a stressful week and after watching Washington Week it’s chicken tenders with french fries and watching incredibly bad foreign action movies on FreeVee.
schrodingers_cat
BTW now pro Palestinian demonstrators are chanting Death to America. How very original. All this is going to do is get people who even vaguely look Muslim in the MAGA crosshairs. Its like these people did not live through the aftermath of 9/11. I know some didn’t but still.
ETA cosplaying white tankies can just shed their stupid scarves not all of us are that fortunate.
HumboldtBlue
@schrodingers_cat:
My teeth rebel even with all the deliciousness.
MagdaInBlack
@Omnes Omnibus: As Dave Grohl said ” …if you like something, fukn like it.” 😉
CliosFanBoy
Early Godzilla movies. So long as “Baby Godzilla” (GAG) isn’t in them. But only the monster scenes. I fast forward through the badly dubbed poor acting. Yeah, yeah, plot, plot, plot,. BAH. Let’s see some Kaiju.
Raoul Paste
@piratedan: “ is that yes on one, and no on two?” It’s too bad that they never made a sequel. And I love the electronic music at the close of that movie
geg6
My guilty pleasure is Survivor. I know that I shouldn’t because…well, Mark Burnett. But I love it so much. I’ve seen every episode and I have favorite seasons that I’ll stream and watch again. I also like other competition reality shows, mainly The Amazing Race and Top Chef. But Survivor is my crack, for sure. I really get into the competitions and the social and psychological dimensions. And they have the best casting team of any reality show. I even own a buff.😀
MichiganderGail
Brokenwood, Highway Through Hell, Heavy Rescue 401, Engineering Catastrophes (the tv show, not actively occurring), Mary Roach books, recognizing the point when rescue retired racing greyhounds realize they actually live here and are safe and comfortable (and then start in on their 2nd puppyhood), a really great quilt fabric store haul, foofy coffee shop coffee. Amen to piratedans movies (two of my favorites) along with The Fifth Element.
AliceBlue
@schrodingers_cat: Archie comics! I had a huge stack of them. Classics Illustrated too.
mrmoshpotato
LOL! Probably best to explicitly say that.
Josie
Chocolate. Deep, dark chocolate.
ETA:Whataburger’s chicken strips with cream gravy.
Yutsano
Air disaster videos on YouTube. I’ll even watch them before I get on a plane.
Omnes Omnibus
@Raoul Paste: Buckaroo Banzai has so many great quips. “So what? Big deal!”
Hoppie
@Salty Sam:
We went to Emeril Lagasse’s NOLA restaurant on its opening weekend, entirely serendipitously. Excellent food, spectacularly excellent service, which we realized when we saw our servers were also working the table next to us with Julia Child and a bunch of New Orleans food writers.
piratedan
@Raoul Paste: sooooo many quotable lines, with such a stellar cast of soon to be’s and awesome character actors….
“Laugh while you can Monkey Boy!”
Another pleasure is The Warriors….
guilty food pleasure, Laura Scudder’s Green Onion Dip Mix.
West of the Rockies
Logan’s Run (1976)… very dated, but I saw it at 14 and found it mind blowing.
Summer Lovers (1981-2)… cheesy, silly, but atmospheric and fun.
bbleh
@MichiganderGail: @Omnes Omnibus: lol I will re-watch Fifth Element (did last night) and Buckaroo Banzai any time they roll around. Total candy.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: Declaration of War, The Short Form….
Hoppie
@Hoppie: Oh and answering the question, barbeque potato chips, because.
West of the Rockies
@AliceBlue:
I reread a Hardy Boys book… loved them as a kid. I can’t say they hold up. Tom Swift books are pretty flimsy, too.
Mag
Old Doctor Who stories and British sitcoms, Britcoms, from the 1970s.
Omnes Omnibus
Having put my objection on record, How to Steal a Million would fit for me. Nonsensical plot. But Paris, Hepburn, O’Toole, a droptop E-type, Givenchy, Savile Row, scenery chewing supporting cast, and, of course, Paris.
Jackie
@Salty Sam:
Julia Child stole that from me!
Scout211
Guilty pleasures:
Books: Romance novels, because at this time in my life I need happy endings.
Television: HGTV and DIY (now Magnolia) Network because it helps me drift off to sleep at night with no stress. (Except for Chip and Joanna Gaines, who make me want to scream).
Food: Tortilla chips because I don’t know why
Activity: digging in my vegetable garden because it makes me feel centered and close to Mother Nature.
Movie: The Princess Bride because it always reminds me of the many times I watched it with my daughter when she was young.
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: “History is made at night; character is what you are in the dark”
“Remember: wherever you go, there you are”
“Where are we going? Planet TEN! When? REAL SOON!”
Juju
Fluffiernutter sandwiches and Hallmark Christmas movies.
Fluffernutter sandwiches remind me of happier times, and I’m fascinated by the extent the homes in Hallmark Christmas movies are decorated for Christmas. Even bedrooms are decorated in some Hallmark Christmas movies. I’m also interested in the kind of fake snow they use and though it’s supposed to be cold, you rarely see breath while they are talking outside.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy:
Hey, hey, hey. Don’t be mean.
Math Guy
I am waiting to be seated at an Olive Garden. Does that count?
FastEdD
Mission Impossible, the first season with Stephen Hill, Martin Landau, and Barbara Bain. There was one two part episode where they impersonated characters in a carnival and the acting was so good you got the feeling they really wished they were in a carnival. And the book “Pastoral” by Nevil Shute. The combination of the horrors of war by day and the total innocence of dating a nurse in the beautiful English countryside in the off hours. The fighter pilot doesn’t hesitate to slaughter Nazis but it takes the entire book for him to get enough courage to kiss her. So innocent and so not innocent at the same time.
bbleh
@Omnes Omnibus: @schrodingers_cat: and the OLD (1974) version of Murder On The Orient Express. What a cast!
@Chet Murthy: and whenever I see clips of Trump rallies, I’m reminded of Whorfin’s speech in the hangar.
Grover Gardner
Books about Hollywood’s “Golden Age”–i.e., the famous (or infamous?) studio system. Actors, directors, producers, the whole wonderful mess in general, I don’t care. There’s always something juicy and entertaining to learn, the personalities are fascinating, and best of all, I can indulge in outside “research” by watching the movies themselves. If they aren’t available on Apple or Amazon they’re usually on YouTube.
The silent era is almost as interesting, and a bit more flamboyant in many ways.
Next to those, I always like a GOOD, vintage British detective cozy. By “good” I mean crisp and witty. I *used* to love Scandanavian thrillers, but I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t take the dreariness and gore anymore.
Chet Murthy
During TFG’s reign of error I read the Harry Potter novels a couple of times, as a sort of comfort food: in the novels, Fascism was defeated and society survived, even though all the institutions failed. It was comfort food. I know it’s not realistic. Every now and then I want to re-read them, but knowing the author’s a transphobe makes me recoil. Ah, well.
Chet Murthy
@bbleh: Heh, he was totally channeling that small man (with a toothbrush moustache) on a balcony.
wjca
“Everything but the bagel” chips. And when I’ve finished the chips, open up the bag and lick up anything left.
bbleh
@Chet Murthy: but he’s more disorganized and kind of silly.
Mathguy
ABBA, because their music is really well made, tuneful and catchy.
I second the mentions of Buckaroo Banzai, Fifth Element and Big Trouble in Little China.
RSA
I read “equalizer” novels. A retired cop or soldier or spy or whatever is recruited as a freelancer to save some innocent. The Reacher novels, Orphan X, the Gray Man, and imitators.
I like them as pure escapist adventure. I think a related part of the appeal is the simple (even simplistic) moral framework that they typically set up, with bad guys who break the code getting their due punishment in the end.
Chigail
MacArthur Park by Jimmy Webb because it’s one of the most beautiful songs ever.
Rachel Bakes
@Omnes Omnibus: such a fun, campy movie. We just watched it again recently
MagdaInBlack
The Graham Hancock and his ilk alternative history/archaeology type books. I like reading their theories, however goofy some may be.
Omnes Omnibus
Also, I recently began a project. I am watching all of Midsomer Murders. I am up to season 7.
schrodingers_cat
A haunting ghazal from the early aughts, Mahi Ve (My Dear, in Punjabi) set in a strip club in LA from the movie, Kaante (Thorns)
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m never guilty about enjoying the sublime Audrey.
Evap
Sex and the City. Project Runway.
prostratedragon
Dairy: butter, fresh and sour cream, rich whole milk yogurt. Ice cream’s ok, too, but often loses out to yogurt with strawberry preserves and a dollop of cream.
UncleEbeneezer
I don’t really know what qualifies something as a guilty pleasure. So many of the works of art that spring to mind are ironic or camp, but very popular with others too. Like I love the movie Xanadu (and the soundtrack) more than almost anyone I know. But there’s no guilt at all as I think E.L.O. is one of the greatest rock bands of the 70’s-80’s and the people who don’t get that are just wrong. We enjoy Ryan Murphy’s trashy series’ like Bettie Vs. Joan, but so do tons of other people and I think they are just excellent camp. We love House Hunters International but so apparently do plenty of other people. We love bad disaster movies (or better yet, good ones). I love classic 70’s-80’s horror films like The Fog. But most of these things have some sort of cult following.
TheOtherHank
I like watching the movie Pacific Rim, or as my sons call it “Giant Robots vs Underwater Space Dinosaurs”.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: Wow. I love Barnaby, but only the original. And they never matched Troy as a sidekick. I like Neil what’s-his-name when he’s Diana Rigg’s chauffeur, but he’s no Barnaby.
eclare
@Evap:
Yes to both! “Make it work!”
SpaceUnit
@MagdaInBlack:
Holy crap, did I ever fall down that rabbit hole a few years ago. You have to be careful because there’s so much wackadoo out there. Hancock is a very imperfect messenger, but his basic premise of early human civilization is so goddamn compelling.
Mainstream archeology has a reckoning to face.
Glidwrith
When I was a kid, parents were dead set against comic books and sweets, wanted me to socialize with kids that were very special snowflakes indeed.
I don’t remember how I managed to engineer it, but managed to get left home in my early teens. Promptly went out for chocolate covered mints, curled up in an overstuffed chair in early summer sunlight with a stack of comics 20-deep, read them all and ate the entire giant bar. Heaven.
zhena gogolia
I love the films of Eldar Ryazanov. Don’t know if I feel guilty about it or not.
UncleEbeneezer
@Evap: We so miss Project Runway :(
Those early seasons were so good.
Omnes Omnibus
@prostratedragon: Have you tried fresh strawberries with a big dollop of sour cream and then topped with brown sugar? Exquisite.
eclare
Friends and Sex and the City. Both shows tracked my age. Friends started in 1994 with 25 and 26 year Olds, and I was 26 in 1994. Sex…started in 1998 when they were around 30, and I turned 30 that year.
A group of girlfriends and I would get together to watch Sex…, it brings back fond memories as we have all moved to different cities since then.
I call both chicken soup tv, comforting and easy.
UncleEbeneezer
There’s also just so many of them now that most of them are just average at best. Or the ones we want to watch aren’t available via streaming in the US. We actually looked up several the other night looking for a new one and had about a dozen that we wanted to check out but couldn’t.
NotMax
Strictly off the top o’ the noggin.
Carmen Miranda or Ann Sothern or Guy Kibbee movies. Also The Stunt Man, Bagdad Cafe, Gregory’s Girl, The Old Dark House (either version), La Chèvre, Movie Movie, Advertising Rules!, Stars & Bars. For sheer schlock value, The Lost Missile or Village of the Giants..
From TV, Wonderfalls, Being Human (the U.K. original), Wild Boys, Misfits, The Returned (original French version), Homicide Hills, Red Dwarf, Car 54, Where Are You?, My World and Welcome to It, ReBoot, or (reaching deep into the grab bag) Big Wolf on Campus.. Program doesn’t hold up all that well decades late but still maintain a soft spot for wily Mrs. Odets in My Little Margie.
From radio: Vic and Sade, The Jack Benny Program, The Shadow, Inner Sanctum.
Shel Silverstein songs.
E. R. Burroughs’ John Carter books.
Other: Señor Wences.
eclare
@geg6:
If you like the psychological aspect of reality shows, give Traitors a try. Murder mystery reality show set in a Scottish castle hosted by Alan Cumming.
Two seasons so far on Peacock.
kalakal
Films:
Silent Running Douglas Trumball eco catastrophe SF starring a crazed Bruce Dern in Spaaace
The Return of Captain Invincible Super hero spoof with Alan Arkin and a singing Christopher Lee. A very silly film
The Pink Panther films reduce me to tears of laughter
Bill Forsyth films, Gregory’s Girl, Local Hero
Carry on Cleo Kenneth Williams as Caesar “Infamy, Infamy… they’ve all got it in for me!”
Books;
Golden Age detective stories – as well as the obvious suspects the lesser known writers like George Bellairs & Edmund Crispin
Sherlock Holmes
Cheap fantasy & SF via bookbub or whatever, amongst the dross there is some goodies, and it’s just switch off critical faculties and relax time
MagdaInBlack
@SpaceUnit: It’s fun. “Things just getting older and older.” 😉
Eta: The wackadoo’s of that “genre” seem, at least to me, as obvious as the maga wackadoo.
RaflW
My guilty pleasure is parking by the Minneapolis airport on a mild, clear day and watching a bunch of planes taking off and landing. I used to guild the lilly by also eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s while plane-gawking, but that part was not at all good for me. Maybe if the convenience store sold those really tiny 4oz single cups I could recreate my misspent 40s.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
PG Wodehouse, especially the Jeeves and Wooster stuff. And I can tell you why…the Bertie Wooster lifestyle sounds pretty great. No money worries, a hyper competent valet to help get you out of scrapes and keep you nattily dressed. Posh flat in London, frequent trips to Jazz age NYC and also to English country estates where hijinks ensue.
TV… Psych is one. Not guilty about liking Monk because it’s great but Psych is somewhat more lowbrow.
Since 80s movies seem to be a theme (Big Trouble and Buckaroo) I’ve always liked One Crazy Summer and The Sure Thing, both starring John Cusack.
geg6
@Evap:
Ooo, I like Project Runway, too!
kalakal
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I always wanted to be a drone, a totally worry free life
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus:
Agreed. Also, or Nickelback!
RSA
I’m a fan, mostly of the Sci-Fi Channel years. I still laugh remembering the many names of David Ryder in Space Mutiny.
https://youtu.be/RFHlJ2voJHY?feature=shared
Warren Senders
I have a large collection of the writing of Horatio Alger Jr., and re-read his books regularly. There is nothing quite like an Alger. His writing is transcendentally inept, so bad it’s like an out-of-body experience. And yet, they possess an irresistible magnetism. To me, at least.
geg6
@eclare:
My younger sister loooooves that show. I don’t have Peacock though.☹️
Warren Senders
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Wodehouse is no “guilty” pleasure. Plum’s writing is astonishing in its effortless virtuosity, and his plots are nonpareil.
Citizen Dave
24 years.
12 seasons.
Episode #120, the final “Larry” tonight.
Larry David
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Brachiator
Don’t really think of anything as a guilty pleasure. Even “mindless” entertainment can be well crafted and artful.
Nope.
@Geg6
I used to watch this series religiously and commented on it on the Television Without Pity site. But after a while, players seemed to always settle on a combination of lying and backstabbing that might guarantee a win, and outcomes became formula, if not entirely predictable.
But I absolutely agree that the social dimension of the show is big fun, and the casting is expertly done.
NotMax
Of course some stragglers popped into the mind upon hitting publish.
TV: Miranda. Movie: Bloodbath at the House of Death (Vincent Price dark-tinged genre parody).
Not what I’d measure as a pleasure but has to be seen (once is enough) to believe: Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie.
trollhattan
Aussie, Kiwi, UK, Canadian cringe comedies. Can’t have too many. Can’t explain it, don’t feel the need.
SpaceUnit
@MagdaInBlack:
Yeah, the wackadoo can be frustrating. But I still spend more time on YouTube than I’m comfortable admitting watching alternative archeology content. I’m definitely down that rabbit hole.
NotMax
@trollhattan
Laid?
schrodingers_cat
@geg6: Me 3.
trollhattan
Fishing shows (except bass tournaments, I mean, WTF?) Any of the Bear Grylls vehicles. The old Everest climbing reality show I can’t recall the name of. Beat the Kardashians. Okay, I imagine watching that.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
The various book series of Robert B. Parker and his literary heirs who are still writing his characters. Why? Sometimes I just can’t take a novel that puts me through an emotional wringer, for instance worrying that an important character is going to die. In Parker books you know the good guys will win, the bad guys will die, and nobody important is going to get killed. Well, with one exception I can think of.
Have several YouTube guilty pleasures:
Rachel Bakes
White Christmas every year.
rereading romance novels. Some I go back to whenever I’m in a rut with new (to me) not coming up to snuff.
Reread Van Reid’s Moosepath League books. Absolutely delightful, charming picaresque, historical fiction.
rereading Discworld novels each year: mostly Night Watch annually.
watching the ocean. No guilt if I’m on a rocky piece of coast like Maine.
Good desserts. Barring that ice cream. Real whipped cream. Fresh homemade bread.
Dick Van Dyke show
trollhattan
@NotMax:
A fine example. Somehow discovered Kath & kim just this year and nearly perished binging it.
ETA, vast time zones away, anybody not familiar with Derry Girls, fix that, stat.
Sheila in nc
My guilty pleasure is Balloon Juice.
trollhattan
The household Christmas flick is of course A Christmas Story. We also go to any and all screenings of The Big Lebowski in theaters because that’s become a thing kind of like Rocky Horror back in the day, but much much funnier.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Also: Martial arts movies. Good ones or cheesy ones, they’re always fun.
Subgenre: Cheesy martial arts movies involving ninjas in any way. Especially those (far too few) starring Sho Kosugi.
Brachiator
@Grover Gardner:
The podcast and website “You Must Remember This” is an absolute treasure trove of material about Hollywood. An extended series about Howard Hughes and the many actresses he was associated with was particularly fascinating.
They are currently focusing on Kim Novak.
Apparently this is a reworking and revision of an earlier episode.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We’ve watched a show called “Is it Cake?” in which contestants make cakes in the shape of objects–a cell phone, a power tool, a purse, whatever the show tells them. Then a panel has to guess which one is the real cake. The contestants get points based on how many panelists they fool. It’s totally brainless, but the cakes are amazing.
Delk
Dressed to Kill
ear wax removal videos
Pete Downunder
@RSA: Some years ago on my brother’s recommendation (he’s a published mystery author) I read a couple of the Reacher novels and decided he was just a psychopath looking for an excuse for violence and gave up on them
SpaceUnit
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
It’s Jackie Chan movies for me. They’re stupid fun.
Kayla Rudbek
Romance novels – particularly Regency, paranormal, or Harlequin contemporary romance
Food – salty crunchy (pre-diabetic diagnosis I could practically inhale chips and salsa; now I have switched to Brami lupini beans to reduce carbs)
TV – home renovation shows (Maine Cabin Masters and the one where the gay couple in Detroit goes and buys up real fixer-upper property and sells it complete with furnishings)
my dad would always say that he needed bubble gum for the mind after coming home from lawyering all day, and after 20 years of lawyering I concur with that
UncleEbeneezer
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I loved 80’s martial arts movies like Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Return of the Ninja, The Last Dragon and even Gymkata. I doubt I would love them if I watched them again now (I did enjoy The Last Dragon on a recent rewatch though).
Bill
ice cream. When I quit drinking decades ago I said I could have all the ice cream I wanted if I was giving up beer. I’m happy with the deal.
dexwood
@trollhattan: Have told this story here before. 10 years ago, or so, we went to a fund raising showing of Lebowski. Jeff Bridges and T-Bone Burnett were the guests of honor. We bought our tickets well in advance. We took our great seats, settled in, noticed the empty seats next to us, but thought nothing of it, late-comers we figured. Well, those seats were for Bridges and Burnett. Holy shit! I thought my wife was going to jump in Bridges’ lap she was so excited. After the movie, they took the stage, comfortable chairs and an appropriate rug, to talk about the movie and answer questions. A great night, lots fun.
MagdaInBlack
@Kayla Rudbek: I agree with your dad. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need: brain candy!
Layer8Problem
No, Petula Clark, and Dionne Warwick doing Bacharach/David tunes, because they remind me of five. As in years old.
They aren’t culture, but pints of Häagen-Dazs mint chocolate chip and Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby are massively guilt inducing but pleasurable, because I like them so much I eat the entire damned carton upon opening in spite of common sense. Try and stop me Mom!
RSA
Not a bad description of the character.
Narya
BooTAY!
hueyplong
Miller’s Crossing
Santana from the 70s and 80s
The proprietress of the Acme Bookstore in The Big Sleep
Shalimar
@Omnes Omnibus: Creed is bad in an over-the-top fun way. I used to enjoy rewriting all their songs into odes to narcissism. If you want really unredeemably awful, decades ago now I broke up with a woman because she liked Limp Bizkit. There is no compromising with someone whose taste is that bad.
trollhattan
@dexwood:
Holy-moly, a dream come true of a dream I’d never have dared to, uh, dream.
Utter jealous respect. :-)
dexwood
@trollhattan: He’ll, I was ready to jump in his lap. They were on stage for about 90 minutes to answer questions and tell stories. They both spoke to us before the movie started, were interested in what we liked about Lebowski.
dexwood
@hueyplong: We love Miller’s Crossing. Good story, fine cast, a spotlight on the slang of the times. No guilt involved.
zhena gogolia
@hueyplong: I believe you mean Miss Dorothy Malone.
AliceBlue
@NotMax: There’s nothing like a cheesy Vincent Price movie. Especially The Tingler.
zhena gogolia
I’ve never seen Almost Famous. I just started watching it and it’s quite good. What ever happened to Fairuza Balk?
zhena gogolia
@AliceBlue: The Tingler scared the s–t out of me when I was a kid.
glc
@piratedan: Buckaroo Banzai is a very good choice.
The producers kept threatening to shut down production and they never did get what they thought they were paying for. The watermelon really ties it all together.
Unsurpassed in its genre.
Mike in NC
@AliceBlue: Wife would love for me to find it streaming somewhere. I also loved him in ‘Witchfinder General’, a campy flick set during the English Civil War.
trollhattan
@dexwood: I would have inevitably grilled Tbone on why he and Sam Phillips divorced, but that’s because I have a massive crush on Sam Phillips.
(No, not the dead one you jackals.)
geg6
@Brachiator:
I really like that podcast. And, yeah, the current episode is mostly a repeat. But the whole thing is great stuff.
zhena gogolia
@Mike in NC: They showed The Tingler on TCM at some point in the last few years.
MichiganderGail
@Narya: Lithium is no longer available on credit.
dexwood
@AliceBlue: Scream! I saw it first run as a kid in Baltimore. The theater had fake medics in the lobby to attend those who fainted. Cheesy fun. Many decades later I came to know Vincent Price’s son, V. B. Price, the friend of a friend, in Albuquerque. He was a very good writer. Check out The Orphaned Land.
kalakal
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I love Jackie Chan movies & also
Kung Fu Hustle
And have a serious weakness for cheesy martial arts movies
There were a couple of TV series in the 70’s on British TV, don’t know if they made it here, Monkey and The Water Margin that I loved. Monkey was seriously weird
kalakal
@AliceBlue: The Roger Corman Edgar Allen Poe ones are great
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Don’t recall why at the moment but filming was halted for a period. By the time it resumed the kid in the lead had shot up by something like six inches.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Layer8Problem: since you mention Burt Bacharach:
Casino Royale (1967)
Great cast, music by Bacharach, totally silly fun, and for guilt, Woody Allen. Though, thinking back on it now, he got what he deserved. It was prescient.
Argiope
Anything by Janet Evanovich. French 75s. Lately, Sarah J Maas books about the fae which are not fabulous writing except for the explicit erotica (it’s impressive that these are available at most libraries). Rhubarb. Using electricity to grow indoor rosemary. Very occasional mushrooms, just enough to make things sparkly. Spending too much money on yarn. Microwave popcorn.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
I love that movie.
hueyplong
@dexwood: I also have a sort of Lebowski connection in that under circumstances the board would find boring to recount, I met and spoke with Julianne Moore and her husband for 10-15 minutes, undoubtedly making a fool of myself for prattling on about her role in that movie and how in our household we often spoke in Lebowski dialogue. Had occasion to see them several more times, and usually only spoke with her husband. She’s pretty shy in public and he’s outgoing.
@zhena gogolia: Yes. Like many movies we consider guilty pleasures, my first viewing was when pretty young. When, years later, I learned more about Malone, I regarded her dyed-blonde years the way Newport fans allegedly reacted to Dylan going electric.
hueyplong
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Hard not to like “The Look of Love.” Liked the Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 version, too.
NotMax
@Mr. Bemused Senior
Bacharach?
Mr. Acker Bilk and ensemble, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.
(The Mr. became a part of his professional billing.)
Chris
Guilty pleasure: bad steampunk movies. The second Zorro movie with Antonio Banderas. The Wild Wild West movie. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie. About the only one of these movies I like that’s widely recognized as good is Downey Jr.’s first Sherlock Holmes movie.
Chris
@FastEdD:
To this day Mission: Impossible is a strong candidate for the best spy TV show ever made.
Layer8Problem
@Mr. Bemused Senior: “Casino Royale (1967)”
That theme song is another one evoking a particular lost time of my life. I’ve got the soundtrack CD around here somewhere <rummaging . . .>.
Some years after it came out I snuck out the living room to watch the movie when CBS had it on their Late Show and was fascinated. I have strong worries it might not hold up to a rewatch.
ETA: David Niven in a situation where he got to say “Vapourised lysergic acid, highly explosive” sticks out in my memory to this day.
dexwood
Guilty pleasure movie for me, Thank God It’s Friday. Jeff Goldblum at his sleazy best. Disco. Donna Summer. The running joke throughout about Goldblum’s car is great.
CliosFanboy
Cape Cod chips are good, but nothing beats Mikesells.
Noskilz
Hong Kong horror-comedies from the 80s and 90s (Mr Vampire, Magic Cop, Chinese Ghost Story, etc..) and the loopier kung-fu flicks from the 70s like Master of the Flying Guillotine.
Why? Because they are enthusiastically bonkers and seem to have an attitude of “yes, this is insane, but we’re going to do it anyway.”
Chris
@Chet Murthy:
It’s much better than average as a pop culture take on the rise of fascism, which is what makes the writer’s turn even sadder. The whole thing about polite society straight up refusing to acknowledge a rising fascist movement and responding by hallucinating a different threat from people it’s more comfortable blaming. The fact that the Death Eaters are complete card-carrying bad guys and yet are also just an extreme version of prejudices that are endemic throughout wizarding society.
CliosFanboy
The Great Race with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. The original Johnny Quest, Batman the Animated Series, Kolchak, and Banacek
Mr. Bemused Senior
@CliosFanboy: push the button, Max!
mvr
Driving too far (up to 500 miles) and paying too much (not saying how much) to go hear a concert by a performer or performers that I have liked for a long time (which naturally makes the choices not all that obscure and cool).
Also ice cream which may help kill me.
And books of too many kinds.
Also want to add that the Chigail’s McAurther Park and hueyplong’s Big Sleep bookstore references above revealed great taste.
zhena gogolia
@hueyplong:
I was walking on Nassau St. in Princeton and saw her coming toward me with her family. I smiled at her (I had no intention of approaching her — I just smiled spontaneously because I guess I thought i knew her). She immediately pulled her hair across her face so I wouldn’t attack her, I guess. I’ve never felt the same about her since.
CliosFanboy
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Wrong Button!!!!!
Nix Besser (fmr Steppy)
The original Fuji TV Iron Chef, dubbed into English. The extra layer of translation is perfect.
That, and the Flintstones.
NobodySpecial
I watch Vtubers at an age where I’m definitely in the 2% of the population who does.
Why? Because a lot of people are very entertaining and would never be able to get on a stage to prove it either looking the way they do or without the connections to get in, as mass entertainment has always been about who you know to get ahead rather than actual talent unless it’s simply so great even the dimbulbs who run entertainment companies can see it. Instead, they put on a fake avatar and stream to 5, 10, or a couple thousand people several times a week. Some of them play games, some just chat with people, some do innovative comedy skits, some sing or do art really really well. And all of it is accessible everywhere I go with a phone and headphones or sitting at home on my TV or computer while I do other things.
Chris
@RSA:
That’s me too, except they don’t need to be retired cops or soldiers or spies. And it tends to be TV shows rather than books. The A-Team and its spiritual successor Leverage are my two favorites. Although The Equalizer and its spiritual successor Burn Notice are on there too.
But there is a book series in that genre that I read whenever I can get it, and it’s arguably the one that started it all: The Saint, by Leslie Charteris. Finally just found the original of these in a used bookstore.
bmoak
I usually take guilty pleasure to mean something that you still occasionally indulge in/close to the present day and not to mean something you liked when you were a kid that you feel guilty about now.
Food: Jelly Belly, Takis (something unavailable until relatively recently in my neck of the woods that I thought would be, like In-and-Out Burgers, a memory of my two years in San Diego), Ben & Jerry’s (almost a compulsion to try a new flavor when it hits the supermarket freezer)
Books: I tend to reread certain childhood favorites that I still have in book form: The Chronicles of Narnia, MZB’s Darkover books, Ann McCaffrey’s Pern novels (at least the earlier ones), Watership Down, Madeline L’Engle’s stuff.
YouTube: I really got into YouTube reactions during the pandemic and waste a lot of time on that. I still watch certain channels that I got into in the absence of sports (I cut the cord so can’t really watch sports anymore): Jelle’s Marble Runs, Major League Wiffleball (still high school kids in the from yard when I started watching them)
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: Oh yes, Cape Cod chips. Plain, no vinegar or other flavorings. Why is this a guilty pleasure? Because I was raised on Utz’s, from Hanover, PA, snack capital of the world. Grandma Utz Kettle chips, cooked in lard, are good but damn, Cape Cod are better.
hueyplong
@zhena gogolia: Our encounter was one in which she likely felt obligated to engage. I can assure you that I possess no interpersonal magic.
frosty
Cultural guilty pleasures: Rom Coms. I can’t tell you how many times I watched Notting Hill. Rom Com books? Jennifer Cruisie’s are the best, especially the ones with the conman family getting into all sorts of problems. Welcome to Temptation is probably the my favorite.
Way back, it was Louis L’Amour Westerns. Sackett Brand is his best. Tell Sackett’s whole clan comes from all over the west to nail the guy who killed his wife.
“I hear the Lazy A has Tell Sackett trapped under the Mogollon Rim.”
“Tell Sackett you say? Deal me out.”
“Why?”
“I need to get there before Tell kills them all.”
frosty
That’s Louis L’Amour in one sentence.
Tehanu
My list of Great Bad Movies:
Sister Golden Bear
@CliosFanBoy:
I take the same approach with adult movies. /s
Brachiator
@Chris:
Only read a few of the stories, but used to watch the TV series and have watched a few episodes again on YouTube. Roger Moore was good as Simon Templar and brought a harder edge to the character than he did to his take on James Bond.
JaySinWA
@Mike in NC: The Tingler is available at the Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/details/PhantasmagoriaTheater-TheTingler1959246-2
Sister Golden Bear
@Omnes Omnibus: The best movie for quotable lines is Repo Man, which is definitely not a guilty pleasure for me.
zhena gogolia
@Tehanu:
So true, but I couldn’t make it through that one.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Noskilz: I would classify Fantasy Mission Force (featuring a young Jackie Chan) as “absolutely bonkers”. I didn’t know if there were any other movies like that, whatever “like that” means, but I think I need to bookmark your list and check some of those titles out.
wjca
I admit to a longtime ambition to be a remittance man. Foiled by family which isn’t embarrassed by me. (And anyway lacked the financial resources.)
But being paid just to stay away seemed great. “Nice work if you can get it…”
BretH
@kalakal: late to the show but the Silent Running movie is one that came to my mind.
Early Genesis music. Jethro Tull Songs from the Wood.
Escapist Bourne-style books.
Mai Naem mobile
@Math Guy: there is an Olive Garden in the Maldives – https://bsky.app/profile/restaurant-bot.bsky.social/post/3keuz3yqrgt2s
Not a guilty pleasure but there’s a Random Restaurant Bot poster on Bluesky which I thought had some surprises. There was an Indian restaurant in Guam so I googled it and the google reviews had a mention of 2 other Indian restaurants in Guam. I wouldn’t have ever thought Guam(pop ~ 20k) could support 3 Indian restaurants much less one. Also I’ve figured out from the restaurant bot that Pizza is everywhere in the world. Bad pizza like Dominos and Papa John’s. Also KFC is everywhere.
karen marie
@kalakal:
Never heard of Carry On Cleo, looked it up – fun! Have you watched Carry On Columbus with Rik Mayall?
They’re both now on my list. Thanks!
patrick II
I am a sucker for a K-POP girl group named “BlankPink. I stumbled across them when I decided to try out some K-Pop and found this group I had never of with 2.5 billion YouTube views for their most popular video, 20 billion views combined for all of their videos, and a billion downloads on Spotify. They were the first K-Pop group to open at Coachella this year They are very good and very popular, just not someone I was expecting to be a fan of.
glc
@zhena gogolia:
Clever. That’s why you should always carry a towel.
Mai Naem mobile
@kalakal: Kung Fu Hustle was so cheesy good. Stephen Chow was supposed to have made a sequel years ago and I’m still waiting…
SoupCatcher
I stumbled on John Creasey and his many pseudonyms while in my twenties when my entertainment budget was nothing. He wrote hundreds of paperbacks, and they were usually a dollar at the used book stores. I feel like I cleaned out the stores from Menlo Park to Mountain View (most of those stores are long gone).
Melancholy Jaques
@Sister Golden Bear:
“You eat a lot of acid, Miller, back in the hippie days?”
karen marie
@Warren Senders: I did not know Horatio Alger Jr was a real person!
Librivox has a bunch of his books. I look forward to hearing them. Thanks for the recommendation!
NotMax
@karen marie
About the only thing I remember (decades later) from Carry On Cleo is the milk bath scene.
;)
karen marie
@NotMax: Is your Miranda Miranda Hart?
I love her. Have you watched the series Hyperdrive? It’s Hart and Nick Frost and an excellent cast. Hilarious!
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I live for the Thursday afternoon Lawfare podcast on youtube. April trial they’ll do daily recaps once openings begin.
kalakal
@karen marie: No I’ve not seen Carry on Columbus, I think that was a much later attempt at reviving the series.
NotMax
@karen marie
Yes, it certainly is. Comedic timing par excellence.
kalakal
@Tehanu: The long ships! I loved that movie as a kid, I must see it again thanks!
Fake Irishman
@UncleEbeneezer:
Fun Fact with relevance to your like of early Project Runway. Chloe Dao lives down the street from me. My wife buys stuff from her shop when she can get it on clearance. It is all so unique and looks amazing. They’ve talked her into buying stuff she would never seek out, and every time she tries it on, yup, Chloe and staff were right.
Sometimes we run into her in the local park.
She is every bit as nice in real life as she was in the show.
Chet Murthy
@karen marie:
MIght be better to not look him up. Apparently he was a …. pedophile.
Mr. Bemused Senior
In Alfred Bester’s 5,271,009, Solon Aquila deems himself a remittance man.
prostratedragon
@Omnes Omnibus: Umm, giving me ideas. Now just add a bed of Cabot 10%, …
Yutsano
I am learning so much about yinz.
I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.
dlwchico
Binged all the Jack Reacher books earlier this year.
Kind of a guilty pleasure I guess.
Yutsano
The whole pile of fried okra I just ate was definitely a pleasure. Guilt was nowhere in the vicinity.
Anotherlurker
My guilty pleasures : 1950’s Sci-Fi films. There are some real gems in the genre and there are also many “so bad they’re good”.
prostratedragon
@Tehanu:
I have a list. Though I can’t sift out its items in full, The Long Ships is certain to be on it.
sxjames
Childhood memory – During the summer the local AM radio station would broadcast the games of the local American Legion baseball team. The intro music to the broadcasts was the middle (upbeat horn) section of MacArthur Park. The good memories/feelings are still with me all these years later. And yes, it is a beautiful composition.
NotMax
@Tehanu
Taras Bulba was the first movie to which I took a date.
Roberto el oso
@Tehanu: big thumbs up for Taras Bulba …. pedantic note: I think the line “yonda lies da castle of my fadda” is actually from The Black Shield of Falworth?
Tehanu
@Roberto el oso: Oh, you’re probably right, it’s been eons since I last saw Taras Bulba. In a way I kind of miss those old dumb Hollywood historicals. At least the costumes were pretty.
NotMax
@Tehanu
Studio lost a fortune (in 1962 dollars) on Taras Bulba.
bjacques
Eurovision. ‘Tis the season.
Latveria are the odds-on favorite this year with “All Hail Dr. Doom!”
JWR
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Hey, another “Monk” fan, here! And TBH, that show is a fairly recent discovery for me, because I don’t watch ANY current shows. Just for instance, I never saw a single episode of “Seinfeld” until it hit the rebroadcast airwaves.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Guilty pleasure for me: Top Gear. I know Jeremy Clarkson is an utter tool who earned a bit of cred by punching Piers Morgan in the teeth and then frittered it away, but I find that trio amusing. I identify more with James May than the others; I liked his short series, The Reassembler.
JR
Unquestionably, it’s training montage soundtracks.
Mel
Reruns of “Third Rock from the Sun” or reading the “Blind Date” column in The Guardian. (Hubby was my first and only blind date, and we’re coming up on nearly 30 years together, so I always feel a little jolt of happiness for the people who have a nice time on their evening out.😺)
Chicken potpie. Really ripe strawberries and Silver Queen corn in summertime.
mardam
ABBA.
If I knew why, it probably wouldn’t be my guilty pleasure any more.
Warren Senders
@karen marie: Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I recommend “Ragged Dick” as a starting point.
Sometimes you’ll find, a sentence, in, which, for no particular, reason, Alger has, scattered commas, seemingly without, logic. I enjoy inserting audible lip noises at these points, to the great amusement of my family.
TiredOfItAll
Every year or two so I rewatch the entirety of Frasier. There is so much physical comedy in it, in addition to the general hilarity. I have always been envious of Frasier’s apartment, and, as I age, even more so with that powder room right next to the entry door (!).
JustRuss
@UncleEbeneezer: Jeff Lynne is touring this summer, and ticket prices are not insane.
JustRuss
The campy Batman with Adam West. Great villains, even when they’re horrible (Milton Berle! Van Johnson?) And, mostly, Julie Newmar. Did I mention Julie Newmar?
UncleEbeneezer
@Fake Irishman: Cool. We loved her. I’m kind of surprised we’ve never seen any former contestants, considering how several of them live in Los Angeles. If we ever saw Christian Siriano, irl, I think we would legit be starstruck. Same for Michael Kors and Nina Garcia.
les
No guilt, but pretty mindless enjoyment: Battlebots. Simple joy-WWE atmosphere, an abundance of happy nerds, flashing lights, corny announcers, machine mayhem. 250 pound robots crashing, burning, flying through the air-what’s not to like?
wjca
@les: Another Battlebots fan. I even find myself rooting for favorites.
les
@wjca: Same here. I gave up on remembering all the “best drivers in the game,” tho-seem to be a lot of ’em!
billcinsd
@SpaceUnit: Hancock’s theories on early civilizations are the most whackadoodle part. Mostly they are based on what I would call Republican-style science. Saying this thing looks like this modern thing, so that’s what it must have been and that our ancestors didn’t have the ability to make the modern thing so they must have gotten it from some advanced civilization or aliens
I Watched Ancient Apocalypse So You Don’t Have To (Part 1) (youtube.com)