I’ve been watching SNL for over 25 years now, and with all due respect to the common wisdom that your favorite SNL cast is your first cast, it’s as funny now as it’s ever been.[…]
Category: Humor
Morality is Back: Goodness (and Diversity) in Popular Culture
Scientific studies have shown that when times are good, people act bad. Morality becomes an afterthought in times of peace and plenitude, perhaps because bad behavior often pays off when the world is otherwise stable.[…]
A Philosopher Talks About The Good Place
I’ve been remiss in my role as a pop-culture philosopher in being a late-comer to the the show “The Good Place,” one of the most high-profile, pop-culture oriented pieces of media to ever make a[…]
Top 5 Epic Rap Battles of History
Back before Thug Notes or Drunk History, Epic Rap Battles first brought the distinctive Millennial high-culture/pop-culture blend to YouTube with their vision of what it would like if some of the great names of history[…]
The End of Racism and Sexism
Retrieved from Googlepedia May 5th, 2042 When Donald J. Trump was elected, 26 years ago, even his most ardent supporters didn’t anticipate the dawn of a new, post-racist, post-sexist society. After all, in electing him,[…]
Chi-Raq and the New Black Cinema
Spike Lee’s “joints” (films) are often equal parts brilliant and problematic. The auteur of one of the greatest of all American films, Do The Right Thing, Lee has also been responsible for a host of[…]
DOPE and the New Black Cinema
When President Obama was elected for the first time in 2008, it had a psychological impact on the black American community independent of any of his policies or official acts. Here was someone succeeding publicly[…]
Action Philosophers
I’m behind on posting this week, so here’s a link to one of the most entertaining pop-culture takes on philosophy, Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey’s “Action Philosophers.” If you’ve never encountered it, be sure[…]
Muppet Philosophy
We’re taking a break from Star Wars this week to link to a very different venerable popular culture franchise (also owned by Disney!), the Muppets. Similar to an entry from the popular-culture-philosophy series by Blackwell[…]
Philosophers Epic Rap Battle
It’s a visit to the lighter side of philosophy in popular culture this week with a look at the recent “Epic Rap Battle” production “Eastern Philosophers versus Western Philosophers.” The popular YouTube franchise ERB built[…]