television – Fancy Boys Club

When A Good Idea Becomes A Bad Joke: Recapping the biggest mistake the Emmys may have ever seen

September 17, 2025by Matt Drufke1 Comment

Sometimes, a joke can seem funny the first time you think about it. An idea pops into your head and it can make you laugh and laugh and you think it’s the most creative and hilarious idea you have ever come up with. It’s only after a little time passes that you realize that while they may be elements that are comical, the crux of the idea as a whole was a stinker and this was one of those things that needed a person to tell you, “Hey… let’s really think about why you think this is funny and what it’s about.”

This is exactly what happened when comedian Nate Bargatze hosted Sunday night’s Emmy awards. Bargatze, last year’s highest-grossing comedian and someone I believe is one of the best joke craftsmen working today, brought with him a through-line that he believed was going o be the star of the broadcast. However, what happened was the joke fell flat, he was wildly criticized, and television’s biggest night became the kind of thing where you had to cover your eyes every time the host stepped onstage.

Let’s talk about what happened, why it didn’t work, and the easy way to have made the joke a lot funnier.

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Pop Culture, television

Every Episode of King of the Hill, Ranked

August 1, 2025by Brandon Andreasen1 Comment

King of the Hill is one of the most beloved shows in television history. A show that never went over the top, never lost it’s believability, and built characters that had a shelf life long before the initial run of the series. While many shows (looking in your direction, Simpsons) lost their way after obliterating every plot twist and premise possible, King of the Hill never felt out of place. It was always that cozy blanket or perfectly worn in shirt in the form of a Sunday night animated show.

The sophmore effort of legendary writer/producer Mike Judge, KOTH feels completely different than his first show, Beavis and Butthead. Even as different though as the shows felt, they felt like they existed in the same time and place. Judge tends to keep the shows he makes as slightly askew versions of the world he grew up in and lives in. Tom Anderson from Beavis and Butthead could very easily by Hank Hill’s actual father. Dale Gribble is what happened when you gave Beavis the internet.

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Pop Culture, television

The Angel, The Devil, and The Bear: examining the new season of the most talked-about show where everyone calls each other “Chef”

July 10, 2024July 10, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Over the last week, I watched the new season of The Bear (F/X and Hulu) with hesitation. Like most of the world, I have loved the first two seasons, set in a Chicago restaurant. But there seemed to be a growing cloud over this new season, which was decided to release in one installment perfect for mass consumption. People were not happy with the storylines that were given and how the season was told. Look, every show, no matter how good, has a season that is not up to the usual standard of excellence (looking at you, season 4 of Fargo). So I went in expecting to not have the reaction I had with the earlier offerings. Turns out, I had nothing to be worried about.

Season 3 of The Bear fucking rules, you guys.

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Pop Culture, Reality TV, television

Ren Faire Is Deliriously Stupid

June 17, 2024June 16, 2024by Brandon AndreasenLeave a Comment

They say that sometimes truth is weirder than fiction. Sometimes the truth is also dumb, brutally horny, and filled with wayyyyy too many Willie Wonka references. In the three part HBO Documentary, you get all of these things, along with a litany of other mind boggling, ostensibly true things.

The three part series follows aging pervert George, who owns the Texas Renaissance Festival. He knows exactly when he is going to die (according to him) and just wants to find love. He goes on several dates over the course of the show. Both women are 24 years old. George is 86. After the first date, the Festival owner muses that there is no point dating younger girls because they don’t read poetry and they don’t know how to bone. Then he goes on a date with another 24 year old. This, ostensibly, has nothing to do with the show. They just insisted on including it like a side quest in the show.

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Pop Culture, television

Fargo. Is. Back. (with 200% more pierced Jon Hamm nipples!)

December 3, 2023by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written anything on this site. And, for me, when I stop writing, it takes a lot to get me writing again. Something has to have a deep emotional impact in me to get me to find the motivation to start typing on the keys. Anger. Depression. Confusion. All of these things have resonated in me so strongly that I have found myself writing. Today, however, what has caused me to stir from my doldrums is pure, unadulterated joy. And what has caused that in me.

Ladies, Gentlemen, and my Non-Binary Friends, season five of Fargo is now three episodes deep. And it is fucking amazing.

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television

This Is Not My Beautiful House. This Is Not My Beautiful Vibranium Android Husband.

February 22, 2021February 22, 2021by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Let’s skip to the bottom of the page, so I am not accused of burying the lede: WandaVision is the most creative and innovative thing the MCU has given us and is, currently, one of the best programs currently on television. The show, created by Jac Shaeffer, is a baffling and insane combination of humor, nostalgia, a little sci-fi, a pinch of a thriller, and about a thousand other things. Both Elizabeth Olsen and Kathryn Hahn deserve Emmys for the work that they’re doing and if this is the leadoff hitter for the Marvel/Disney+ television relationship, I look forward to seeing what’s going to come next.

With their two hit shows, this and a little thing you may have heard of called The Mandalorian, Disney+ has shown that they are not just around for nostalgia or so that my wife can put on a childhood favorite to help her fall asleep; they are trying to create content just as good as any of the streaming services or networks. And while The Mandalorian is probably the show I would rather watch, I think WandaVision (at least so far) is probably the better show.

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Pop Culture

Farewell to The Office on Netflix: the Union that Changed The Way We Watch TV

December 28, 2020December 30, 2020by Michael GraceLeave a Comment

When Netflix began, it was a novel concept. You request DVDs, you watch them, you mail them back, and then the next movie in your queue gets mailed to you. Kelly Kapoor actually explains this in an episode of The Office in which the employees of Dunder Mifflin gamble on various prop bets in the office. Netflix gets name-dropped a few times on the show, all during its primarily mail-only era. Once the service moved to streaming, it was super weird. For a time, there was softcore porn and DIY home repair videos. It was a brave, new, strange world. The only way I could watch at that time was through an app on my Nintendo Wii. The pickup of The Office, among many other 2000s sitcoms was, surprisingly, the best thing that the service could have done for itself. In doing so, it changed the trajectory of careers, made the show a second-hand success, and jumpstarted the endless, mindless binge. On January 1st, The Office leaves Netflix for NBC’s own streaming service, ending one of the most important unions in TV history.

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Comedy, Pop Culture, television

So No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way: Unearthing The Lost Episodes Of Friends

August 24, 2020by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

With HBO Max, your pop culture viewing options are a plentiful harvest. You can catch up on movies you’ve never seen before. You can watch all of The Sopranosand try and figure out what gabagool is. You can start to binge all of the Studio Ghibli movies and then get angry when your wife watches Spirited Away with you and doesn’t “understand what the big deal is.”

Or you can just watch a buttload of Friends.

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Pop Culture

Gleeful Gravitas: Regis Philbin and the Last Great Game Show

July 26, 2020July 26, 2020by Michael GraceLeave a Comment

I don’t know how young the readership is for our site. Sometimes I slip into a realm of understanding that everyone alive has experienced the things that I have, and I could not be further from fact. Around the turn of the century, the late Regis Philbin was the hostof Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, a quiz show that was such a phenomenon that it seemed to permeate everyday life. In the year of our lord 1999, the only thing bigger than Millionaire was the impending apocalypse when the new year arrived. The reason the show was the cultural touchstone that it became was because of the stakes, the production of the show, and most of all, its charismatic host. We lost Regis, a true icon of Millennial adolescence, on Saturday at the age of 88.

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television

Beavis and Butthead Is Back to Save Us All

July 6, 2020by Brandon AndreasenLeave a Comment

Twenty Three years ago, Beavis and Butthead, the show about two teenage slackers putting little attempt into being a part of society outside of their own couch, went off the air. In the ensuing two decades, the characters ostensibly never got smarter, but the country they exist in definitely did. Now, Mike Judge, the man who created the quintessential losers and would go on to create King of the Hill, Idiocracy, and Silicon Valley, is back to put the erstwhile duo into the present day. AND NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON!

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