Fish was my father's name. Please, call me Mr. Middlebrow.

So there’s this crazy-ass meme going around. My erstwhile blog pal and mentor Fish named me as a successor.

Pharyngula Mutating Genre Meme

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…". Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

— You can leave them exactly as is.

— You can delete any one question.

— You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…" to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is…", or "The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…", or "The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…".

— You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…".

You must have at least one question in your set, or you've gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you're not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

My great-great-great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite
My great-great-great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
My great-great-grandparent is Shakespeare's Sister.
My great-grandparent is Excuse This Mess...
My grandparent is Saying Yes.
My parent is Really Small Fish

My siblings are Scott and Plover.

1. The best drama in scientific dystopias is: Battlestar Galactica.

2. The best sexy song in rock is: “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC. A bit obvious, even by Beavis and Butt-Head standards, but still. Plus, it promotes good hygiene an/or proper operational, uh, maintenance: "She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean..."


First runner-up is “Sex Supreme” by Tenacious D (the slightly cleaned-up version they did on SNL was actually funnier than the uncensored one. Whoudathunk that “patch” could be funnier than “snatch”?)

3. The best cult movie in absurdist fiction is: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. “I do not avoid women, Mandrake. But I deny them my essence.”

4. The best dead comedian in American comedy is Phil Hartman.
The closest I ever came to crying about the death of a celebrity. He was one of the greats. "My name is John Johnson, but everyone here calls me 'Vicki.'"


5. The best moment in live television was: Neil Armstrong stepping onto the surface of the moon or Christopher Walken catching a fever for which the only cure was more cowbell (tie).

6. The most erotic of all the salt-cured meats is pastrami.

Now it’s up to my progeny to go out there and make me proud:

Stennie, Irene Done, Tammara, Goldie, Shamus, Ed

6 comments:

stennie said...

Oh, boy, a meme! Super duper. This one's a brain-twister, too. I shall tackle it tomorrow. Good timing, too, I've been floundering for blog topics.

fish said...

The most erotic of all the salt-cured meats is pastrami.

This qualifies you for a coupon for one free trip to the clinical psychologist of your choice.

Offer expires 12/31/07 void where prohibited.

Nice work son.

Anonymous said...

Holy cow, this is a doozy. I have to work this weekend (gag!), and I've got a sick kid, so my mental capacities are being challenged, but I'll try to squeeze in some time to play your little game, Mr. M...

(Ouch, all the words are hurting my head!!)

Larry Aydlette said...

Da Brow! You're my man, but you lost me at science. I'm much simpler than you give me credit for. Maybe the next meme-go-round.

Irene Done said...

I'm scared.

Anonymous said...

Okay, okay, I'll answer it even though I'm kind of busy defending freedom right about now! Also, I dedicated a whole blog posting to you and ... nothing.

Dag, yo. Where's the love?

Also, Phil Hartman, while very funny, is Canadian.