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The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. It appears in the print editions of The Onion and online at AVClub.com.
The A.V. Club prints interviews with people who interest us, plus reviews of the latest films, music, books, DVDs, and video games. It also features probing investigations into whatever aspects of pop culture we feel like tackling—from movie-star tribute songs to dollar-store eats—and several regular columns. And in cities where The Onion has a print edition, readers will find recommendations about area events, plus other city-specific content, in the local edition of the paper. This content can also be accessed online, as can The A.V. Club's freewheeling staff blog.
Additional Information
Besides the main content like reviews, essays, blog posts, and the like, the large and thriving comment section at avclub.com is crucial to the web site's success and appeal. However, with most articles on the front page accumulating hundreds of comments in a matter of hours, the comments can be daunting or intimidating to many new users. Below is a (far from complete) guide to the AV Club Comments Section.
Regular Posters
lexicondevil: A sophisticated, intelligent, (and to some) pretentious, self-important poster. He has a penchant for extended (although some would say "bloated") essays about how a given subject (like a song, movie, or TV show) has had an effect on his personal life. Frequently looks down his cyber-nose at all other posters for what he considers their "immaturity."
Preparation Heche: Can be counted on to always lighten up heated discussions with humorous comments marked by an extensive knowledge of pop culture and biting wit.
Jorge Von Salsa: Pretty much like Prep. Heche, but more prolific. This is not to suggest that Jorge is derivative or unoriginal in any way - he's awesome.
Joe11/Karatloz/This is what a man sounds like when he walks: A funny (but occasionally thin-skinned) commenter who became a poster child for the plague of commenter-impostors that menaced the site for so long. Other than his run-in with imitators, his primary contribution to the comments is his long-running (but now discontinued due to changes in the registration system) penchant for changing his name to reflect the content of the comment. For example, in a comment about delicious food, he may have posted as The DELICIOUS Joe11. It was this that made him a target for impostors, and subject to parody. He now continues to comment as Karatloz, his most recent known identity.
phel: The AV Club token female, phel is the target of much leering and sexual remarks in the male-dominated world of AV Club comments. She combats these affronts to her honor with razor-sharp wit and street-smarts to match. She is also known by her incredibly ability to recall the details of comment threads that most everyone else has long-forgotten. It is this ability that makes her an incredible asset, in addition to her legendary breasts.
Lobsters/Lobsters1: This incorrigible curmudgeon is one of the most infamous of all AV Club scoundrels. He is known for an irreverent yet often right-of-center viewpoint that focuses on issues of race and class. He is a complex man, though, with his love of Asian women and his tolerance for working under his, as he refers to him, "big black boss." He is also known for his off-kilter taste in music and film, the latter perhaps best illustrated in his refusal to admire any film directed by someone with the first name of "Sidney" or "Sydney." He is believed to be considerably older than most of the other AV Club commenters, which may account for his (as of this writing) extended absence from the boards - he is perhaps deceased. UPDATE: On Nov. 10, 2008, Lobsters 1 returned to the pages of the AV Club.
Andy Pants: By far the sexiest and funniest of all AV club posters. He is known for his sharp wit, ideas that don't always fit the mould and frequent spelling and punctuation errors. The majority of his posts are short cynical or sarcastic missives, but he has also been known to reveal a more reasonable serious side of himself and occasionally demonstrate a deep intelligence and humility. His posts are sometimes controversial but are also known to be completely icoherent and laregly ignored by the rest of the AV club commenters.
Danrimage: Kind of like lexicondevil, but British, and it is believed that he probably gets laid more often, likely because of his accent.
ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER: Undoubtedly the most controversial--alternately loved and despised by other commenters--of the AV Club commenters, this hard-edged 19-year-old from Blue Ash, Ohio is known for his take-no-shit attitude and his all-caps shouting. His known attributes are a deep love for the Metal band Slayer, for Blair's Death Rain potato chips, and for any other film, song, or TV show that "OWNS YOUR ASS." He himself owns a futon.
Pilgrim: Known for the unbelievable amount of posts he makes during a given day, his unwavering love for Boston sports and culture, and his semi-irreverant attitude in regards to most AV Club articles, Pilgrim has been a regular since 2007. He frequently uses horrible puns and "your mom" jokes.
Rev. Chauncey Grizzly: One of the more interesting AV Club posters, Rev. Chauncey Grizzly has been delighting the comment boards with his wisdom and wit for over 2 years now. Many regular visitors look forward to new articles being posted for no other reason than to read the latest profound Grizzly insight or hilarious Grizzly joke. Definitely a AV Club poster's poster. A legend in his/her own time.
mbs: Quite possibly the most prolific of all the AV commenters. mbs' distinctive comments are marked by a lack of conventional capitalization and punctuation, and an encyclopedic knowledge of movies that most other sane individuals have forgotten the very existence of. He is exceedingly genuine and good-natured, in stark contrast to the usual snark and cynicism of most AV commenters. Often garnishes his stories with charmingly irrelevant details, such as the circumstances surrounding his enraptured viewing of this or that awful movie.
Prison Wine: This irreverent cut-up is a sexual deviant the likes of which could give William S. Burroughs nightmares. His apartment is the source of much tomfoolery in the AV comments, as it is thought to be a den of sexual perversion and torment. He also enjoys subjecting complete strangers to the awful details of his personal life, often by sharing them on the AV Club boards.
Trolls
The AV Club comments, like any public forum, has attracted its share of trolls over the years. Below is a partial list of the most infamous, and the most enduring.
Tinky: Perhaps the first commenter to blur the line between trolling and "performance art," this poster's comments consisted of intricate poetry (or "tinketry") that consisted of the words "tink," "tunk," "tonk," "tank," and several variations thereof. These poems were also distinguished by erratic capitalization and punctuation. He is mostly inactive these days, although it is rumored that he can be summoned by intoning his name three times in the AV Club comments. This tactic is most likely to be effective in The Hater or its offshoot, The Tolerability Index.
Krim-Krom the Kosher Klown: Also known simply as Krim-Krom, this commenter could be found on the AV Club throughout late 2008 making comments that were rendered imbecilic in tone by his unbridled use of exclamation points and question marks at the end of each sentence. He would be forgotten but for his most lasting legacy: the introduction of the word "gluniack" (alt. "gluniak") into the AV Club lexicon. The word is loved and loathed in about equal measure by other commenters.
GLut.: An all-caps commenter who is alternately obsessed with being the first commenter on a given thread and a parody of such attention-seekers as ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER. He is generally sweet-natured and slow to anger, and is a little lacking in verbal intelligence.
Eric Kahn: Suspected to be legally retarded. His/her comments are not only mostly off-topic, but seem to be some random thought not having to do with anything relating to this planet.
M!zzundahstood: This troll/performance artist is an elaborate parody of a stereotypically ignorant teenage girl. She is known for her extensive use of instant messaging abbreviations, such as "ppl," "ur" and "lol."
Great American Patriot: This aptly-named commenter is a parody of all things conservative. He usually takes a gun-toting, highly xenophobic approach to life and the AV Club comments.
Wistus J. Pettifog: This commenter invariably poses the question of which of a few people mentioned in a given article the AV Club commenters would rather make love to. He has been the source of much spirited debate.
Query Garcia: Another single-minded troll, this curious fellow is known to reply to declarative (and arguably pointless) comments with faux-clarifying questions, like "really? Is it?" and the like. He was recently killed off and replaced with his brother Questionford Garcia.
Rev Chauncey/Chancy Grizzley/Grizzly: The only poster who uses "Rev. Chauncey Grizzly" is the original Grizzly himself. And he is arguably the coolest poster of them all if only because he is modest and everything out of his mouth is either humorous, genius, mind-blowing, or a combination thereof. All other variations are imposters trolling! And they are not funny at all! And they usually have nothing worthwhile to add to the comments.
Burl: This good-natured fellow is a favorite of most of the AV Club commenting community. His posts are marked by repeated (some would say excessive) exclamations of his trademark "ha ha!" Burl is also one of the few AV trolls to maintain an off-site web presence. His blog can be found at: [1]
