Then there’s the less obvious reason that the trial litigates, in technicolor, many of the issues our post-MeToo society has been grappling with (more on that below). Why has this trial so thoroughly captured the public imagination? There are the obvious pandemic-related reasons related to boredom and widespread WFH allowing more people to stream during their 9-to-5. Outside the Virginia courthouse where the trial is being held, people (and the occasional alpaca) line up for wristbands each day, eager for a front seat to the day’s disclosures, which have included everything from the disturbing-such as Heard’s description of alleged sexual assaults-to the surreal, including Heard’s lawyer objecting to his own question. On TikTok, #IStandWithAmberHeard has been viewed 8.2 million times #JusticeForJohnnyDepp, 15 billion times (yes, billion with a “B”, a disparity that’s launched a thousand think pieces). And yet, instead of turning it off, many of us seemingly can’t click away.Ĭourt TV, which has essentially been live streaming the trial, has doubled its daytime ratings. It’s a very real, very serious battle of legal wills between two people who were-at the very least-in an extremely toxic relationship. (Johnny Depp has brought a defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, who he alleges falsely accused him of domestic abuse in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed he alleges that Heard was, in fact, abusive toward him. Moss’s four-minute appearance this week is the latest “is this actually happening?!” moment in the Amber Heard–Johnny Depp trial that has captured public attention-and monopolized internet discourse-since it began on April 11. It fills me with rage and despair.As surreal moments in the zeitgeist go, the famously private Kate Moss appearing via video link to testify to a packed courtroom that Johnny Depp never pushed her down the stairs has to be right up there.
“They made these amazing series, like Sex House and Porkin’ Across America, and I don’t know why, after they produced these hits, that they didn’t get more money. From what I understand, there was this brief, flush moment when ONN (Onion News Network) got all this dough from YouTube,” says former Onion writer Jen Spyra. So why hasn’t The Onion produced more satirical web series? Jay, the 24/7 workout bro who can’t seem to couple with anyoneĮrin, the naive virgin who’s pregnant before the end of the first episodeīy web standards, especially those of 2012, the nearly forgotten Sex House was a hit, with its first episode at nearly 34 million views. The show’s cast is made up of reality show staples, each with a twist: The premise (as observed above) seems like it could actually be on MTV next week - six sexy singles share a house to see how much coitus they can accomplish before the season’s end. The craziest comic scenarios seem almost plausible, like, “wait, didn’t that threesome in the back of an ice cream truck actually happen on Floribama Shore?”īy those standards, Onion Digital Studios’ Sex House, a 2012 dead-on parody of reality shows like Big Brother, Jersey Shore, and Real World, was kind of a miracle. Its excesses are so over the top, its ‘characters’ so archetypically idiotic, that any attempts to hold those tropes up to the funhouse mirror seem beside the point.
Got a suggestion? Hit me up on Twitter at TV, like some former presidents, seems almost beyond parody. Historic, hilarious, or just plain ol’ gobsmacking weird, we’re collecting it here. Welcome to Comedy Lost and Found, a repository of forgotten ephemera that deserves a small room somewhere in your comic heart.