Wow, that' guys canines are huge. I think he might be a vampire.

I suspect that accent is so cringe-worthy because most Americans have never heard a real accent and associate an Irish one with Lucky Charms. So any reasonably accurate accent is going to be misconstrued as British.

That said, they certainly picked a good character actor to play an insane vampire.

They couldn't have got an actual Irish actor to play the vampire? I cringed when I heard that accent.

It's a discussion we've been having in this country for as long as I can remember and was one of the prime arguments made for a vast set of reforms a decade ago. And I still don't buy it.

At the very basic level, the argument is that a declining percentage of working age people have to pay for an increasing number of pensions. But that's only half the story. The working age population has to generate enough output to sustain not just themselves and retirees, but also children, the unemployed, the sick, anyone not working. A shrinking population means less children, and most importantly less unemployed. Increases in productivity are more than enough to compensate for that, no need to increase birth rates or immigration.

Germany is regularly paraded around as a country in dire need of immigration, given our low birth rate. Even if we ignore for a minute that any 50 year population forecast of the past has been invalidated after maybe 5 years, the "worst" they could conjure up was a decline in working age population of 34% by the year 2060. So what? That's 0.8% a year. And since it's based on a population decline of 20% over the same time, it's an annual drop of 0.2%. That's their worst case scenario, and it's statistical noise.

We've had a massive increase in average age over the last century as well as two world wars and our system managed just fine. And an annual drop of 0.2% is supposed to bring it to its knees? Pah.

Now, I'm all in favour of immigration, primarily to spice things up and prevent our society from becoming too homogeneous. But our pension system needs neither mass immigration nor an increased birth rate. What it needs is for politicians to stop funneling funds from our "PAYGO" system towards their buddies in the private sector. Current income = current payments, public system. Everything else is too volatile and susceptible to the Vampire Squids on Wall Street.

Recognize the song from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I think improv and sketch comedy groups are all springboards from stage to radio, radio to stage, stage yo television, radio to television, television to radio, to other television and ultimately the big screen. Any good YouTube sketch comedy? I've yet to really explore that, I guess Vine is funny sketch comedy. A bit too fast, over and done for me though. Cyanide and Happiness count? Web comics? Cracked? Anyway, on to television, which remains the fascination:

The first years of SNL are phenomenal with Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner. And before that a lot of those guys were together on the National Lampoon Radio. (Speaking of radio, Dr. Demento?)

And there's also SCTV, jesus -- John Candy, Martin Short, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, and Joe Flaherty. Flaherty's vampire killed me as a kid. So funny, but really I haven't watched it since I was a youngster.

When I was growing up PBS played a lot of BBC television. Benny Hill amongst them, such a naughty show. I think I was barely allowed watch. But I enjoy the show as much as its mostly about old horny men and women with big tits.

What do I think about Upright Citizen Brigade? I would choose to be an Agent of U.C.B. before S.H.I.E.L.D. Great as both an improv group and sketch comedy for television. Amy Poehler and Horatio Sanz are awesome, and I love them on SNL as well. Assssscat

Cast transfers, right? Sketch comedy groups are like sports teams. Mark McKinney on SNL, etc. Daily Show anchors from Upright Citizens Brigade. SCTV to SNL, etc. Every sketch comedy floods into SNL. Did you watch Nickelodeon's All That? Kenan and Kell.

Mr Show is on my to watch list. I love David Cross in his stand up, as Tobias Funke on Arrested Dev, and as Todd Margaret, which is fucking RIDICULOUS if you haven't seen it. It's not sketch comedy but it might as well be. It's like a British comedy with brash Americans thrown into the mix. Chaos ensues and many, many, many laws are broken, including the usage of weapons of mass destruction and murder. Dark comedy.

Oh, I know a good dark sort of sketch comedy: The League of Gentlemen? It's sort of like if Simon Pegg produced Monty Python. They say things like "Rape our dead mouths". Psychopaths, murderers and crossdressers.

Now that we've ventured off the beaten path, what are your thoughts about the short run comedy central show Stella? Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain. All three from a funny sketch comedy series called the State. I think I've sifted or promoted some sketches from that series.

And I can't not mention MadTV, you know what? Uh uh, a list about sketch comed without MadTV, ridiculous. I'm running out of steam though, because I'm typing too much, but MO Collins, Orlando Jones, Bobby Lee, Phil LaMar (who does DC comics cartoon voice over work), Aries Spears, and Will Sasso. Damn.

And lest we forget (Thanks, Rudyard), Little Britain -- Britain, Britain, Britain, if it weren't for Little Britain I would scarcely know of the country.

I'm sure I've left off some other great sketch (In Living Color!!), but these came to mind and as I started to think of my favorite cast members and comedians, I began to realize how they all fit in the grand scheme of things. I'm going to watch some Fire Marshall Bill clips now.

Oh yes, I care not for those vampires.

Agreed. In fact, I'd say people who love one but hate the other are a pretty small minority.

Besides, the important point is not whether you prefer Trek or Wars, it's how much you hate those goddamn vampires!

Ok, well, there is NO WAY those statistics can be correct.
9.6% people dressing as Witches?
Batman in second place and Vampires in third?
23 Million pets? 7.9% of pets dressed as a pumpkin?

There is no way whatsoever they can know what everyone dresses up as. Sure they can gauge sales of store bought costumes. But they have no way of knowing how many people make up their own costumes or re-use old costumes.

And so the vampire plague beings.

economy vampire wastes eternity mastering pillowcase.

That man is known to carry a copy of W Strunk and E B White's The Elements of Style with him (if only for dramatic effect.) Source.

You know, we thought there was nothing left to say when 2 Live Crew rapped "Abraham Lincoln was a good ol man, jumped out the window with his dick in his hand -- said excuse me lady, this is my duty, so pull down your pants and gimme some booty."

Next thing you know he's fighting vampires and Lil Wayne intoxicates an Asian man to smash his cock through the roof of an apartment building.

I fail to see ANYTHING new, just higher production value.

The monthly updates on YT, the ones you introduced me to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMXfBm0IPd0

I completely forgot about the podcast, so cheers for the reminder. Is there any "proper" download link for the podcasts? I've been picking the dropbox url from TruthDig's source code by hand, there's got to be an easier way...

As for Taibbi:
The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet

It's about how the too-big-to-fail/jail banks became a cartell in the physical commodities market. The story itself was reported on before, primarily the aluminium shenanigans of Goldman Sachs.

Halfway in, Prof. Wolff's latest monthly update is already fantastic. Nothing new, really. But his presentation of the (post-)FDR period is rather captivating. For an economist, the man really knows how to tell a story.

Edit: also, Matt Taibbi over at Rolling Stone finally published the sequel to his epic "Vampire Squid" story about the massive wrongdoings of the banking sector, and Goldman Sachs in particular. I haven't read it yet, but the last one was one of the most outrageous things I have read in the last 30 years. Truly epic shit.