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I’m old enough to remember 2016—that time, long ago, when we were all so hopeful, but then Donald Trump was elected president, and part of the problem stemmed from Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Fallon turning his racist ways into punchlines to make him “relatable” to audiences.

So, forgive me for not thinking this Pete Buttigieg sketch from Jimmy Fallon is funny—mainly because I’m tired of millennial jokes and people like Fallon commenting on the political unrest in our country when he was part of the problem with the 2016 election.

Pete Buttigieg isn’t the first to get this treatment. Fallon debuted his new bit with a Beto O’Rourke sketch earlier on, and fine, whatever.

Look, if this wasn’t on the tail of Fallon being one of the reasons why Trump is in office, I probably wouldn’t care. I don’t like the setup, but it makes sense. He used to be on Saturday Night Live, and this is something right up their alley. That being said, it doesn’t mean I have to sit back and shut up just because this is a new election.

Also, look: I’m tired of millennial jokes. With the Buttigieg sketch, Fallon makes quips about his age when Fallon is only 7 years older—and look, I’m a millennial, and the fact that everyone in Jimmy’s generation is going to take away my retirement doesn’t make me to keen on him making quips about avocado toast and laughing at us.

So, not only is he right back to his nonsense, but it makes it seem like his “woe is me” bit that the New York Times wrote about means nothing. In the piece, Fallon talked about how he understood everyone’s anger and even talked about what he was trying to do to the president:

“I didn’t do it to humanize him. I almost did it to minimize him. I didn’t think that would be a compliment.”

The problem is that these sketches just make me feel like he didn’t learn anything. I’ve said it before that what made Fallon and Tina Fey work on Saturday Night Live was that Tina Fey was into politics and Jimmy Fallon would crack jokes. Take Tina Fey out of the equation, and it just becomes a bit of a mess.

So, I don’t particularly care for these sketches, because it’s just mocking our chance to get Trump out of office. And, just so we don’t forget, here is one of the “fun” sketches that Fallon did when he had then-candidate Trump on his show. He didn’t bother asking him about his racist comments or holding him responsible for the things he said, but he could do bits!

I think everyone has the right to openly talk about the presidential candidates, but I just don’t care to listen to Jimmy Fallon do it after what happened with the 2016 election.

(image: NBC)

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Despite the fact that an important piece of international history is currently on fire, there has thankfully been some good news today. One of our favorite bits is that Aidy Bryant’s Shrill will be returning to Hulu for a second season.

According to Vulture, “the second season will be eight episodes instead of six, and is set for a 2020 release.” Based on Lindy West’s fantastic memoir, Shrill not only delivered multiple roles for fat women on television but asked audiences to deal with their own internalized fatphobia. Between this and Dumplin‘ there is some really good body-positive content coming out from streaming … once you get past the trash.

Here’s to more friendships, better boyfriends, and cute clothes.

(via Vulture, image: Hulu/Allyson Riggs)

• The brilliant science fiction and fantasy Grand Master Gene Wolfe has died. He was 87. (via Boing Boing)
• Aunt Becky and her rich husband are pleading “not guilty” to the accusations of fraud in the college scam. You do you girl, good luck with that. (via Yahoo News)
• Laura Ingraham chose to be a disrespectful disgrace in her reporting of late rapper Nipsey Hussle’s memorial service. Many within the Black community and others are calling for her firing. While that probably won’t happen, she’s horrible for using his homegoing as an opportunity to highlight her anti-Black feelings. (via USA Today).

• Ladies and gentlemen, please help us welcome the marvelous @SterlingKBrown to Season 3! 👏 #MrsMaisel https://t.co/vox56NoKCO

  — The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (@MaiselTV) April 15, 2019

• Did you miss the fate of Ed Sheeran’s character being revealed on Game of Thrones last night? Me too. (via Cosmo)
• John Oliver enlists some of Hollywood’s greatest villains to give a dramatic reading of Richard Sackler’s deposition. It is utterly fantastic.
• .

What did you see today?

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Editors: Kel McDonald, Kate Ashwin, C. Spike Trotman / Creators: Kate Ashwin, Lucy Bellwood, Terry Blas, Jason Caffoe, Shannon Campbell, Ron Chan, Nicole Chartrand, Sabrina Cotugno, Jonathan Dalton, Blue Delliquanti, Nick Dragotta, Cat Farris, Ayano Hattori, Caitlyn Kurilich, Stu Livingston, Nilah Magurder, Nina Matsumoto, Meredith McClaren, Kel McDonald, Carla Speed McNeil, Randy Miholland, Molly “Jakface” Memecek, Jose Pimienta, Andrew Sides, Gene Luen Yang / Iron Circus Comics

The impressively long list of creators in Tamamo The Fox Maiden and Other Asian Stories still manages to belie the variety and sheer amount of content in the latest anthology from Iron Circus Comics. Tamamo is the latest entry the “Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales” series, as originally started by The Girl Who Married a Skull, an anthology that focused on updating African folktales. As the subtitle indicates, Tamamo is focused on Asian folktales for aspiring middle school readers. And as someone who once hungered for this content, I’m so incredibly happy that this book exists.

Featuring 288 gorgeous pages of black and white comics, Tamamo features twenty one stories from myths ranging from Japan, India, China, Georgia, Laos, Myanmar, the Arabiran Peninsula, Turkey, and Tibet. Each creator revitalizes old folktales through their own lens, creating a dynamic experience as you work through collection. Some stories are long, enthralling tales of adventure while others are short and sweet stories that act as almost interludes to anthology, adding some much-needed brevity to the large tome. Throughout the various stories, there is such a high level of consistent caliber, between the writing and the illustration.

Some of my personal favorite stories in the anthology include:

• Shannon Campbell’s and Lucy Bellwood’s #EndoftheWorld, a brief 9 page epic that retells a classic myth with the inclusion of Twitter.
• Frog Skin by Nilah Magruder, a particularly clever and unconventional love story
• From the Journal of the Monkey by Gene Luen Yang, which while the shortest story in the anthology still have Yang’s classic wit and sharp observations
• Urashima Taro by Jason Caffoe, which details one of the earliest time travel stories I’ve ever had the chance to read
• The title story, Tamamo the Fox Maiden by Terry Blas, which I will let stand on its own merit
• The Three Rhymester by Meredith McClaren, with a clean, modern aesthetic
• Hoichi the Earless by Nina Matsumoto, which has some of my favorite art of the whole book.

Now, while I choose to highlight on a third of the stories, please rest assured that I loved all of the works that were listed. They each occupied their own little section of the world, and out of the 288 some pages, there will be more than one story that just resonates down to your very story. You may even recognize some art stylings from other popular young adult content like Amulet, Plant vs Zombies, Muchkin, and American Born Chinese. And I say this to empathetically emphasize: there is a very high certainty that there is something in the book for you or your favorite middle-school comic reader.

As much as I love this book, I do wish there was just a few more stories featuring some other Asian inspired folklore. There’s just such a small gap that could have been filled with tales from the Philippines, Vietnam, or South Korea (and this is just the stuff that comes off the cuff) that could have rounded out the diverse collection stories much more completely. It’s a minor gripe in the grand scheme because there is a significant amount of content dedicated to Indian myths and even less represented countries in pop culture, and it isn’t just a collection of popular Chinese and Japanese myths, but one I would still be on the record.

All and all though, Tamamo The Fox Maiden and Other Asian Stories is a book I desperately needed as a fledging middle schooler. This book along with its predecessor, The Girl Who Married a Skull, continue to prove that representation matter. That representation is more than just having people of color in the stories. That having creators tell their tales is a fundamental gamechanger. We’re dealing with stories that are fundamentally different than the classic Greco-Roman tales that circulate middle school reading lists. We’re dealing with cultural exchange that reads and evokes different lessons. These “Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales” run parallel to the greats and this anthology is going to mean a lot to a lot of different people.

9.3 “Retellings” out of 10

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See our site’s other reviews of Iron Circus Comics books here.

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The post From Iron Circus Comics: ‘Tamamo The Fox Maiden and Other Asian Stories’ Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

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