Master Class

I've been killing it lately. And it took me forever to write that sentence. Be it my gender, my mother, or society at large (it's all 3), I have a deeply fixed impulse to not celebrate my accomplishments. Our world is littered with mediocre white men taking credit for things they shouldn't, but the voice in my head that follows every compliment with, "don't be boastful" will never go away. I'm getting better at telling it to shut the fuck up, though. How about you? Are you owning your bad-ass-ness? If you're a woman, I bet you're not. So when you finish reading this, please pull up your Notes app and write out 3 things you've accomplished lately. Then send them to someone who loves you. Or even better, read them out loud to them. Here are 3 other people who are killing it.

📺 Conan O'Brien on Hot Ones
Even if you don't watch this series, you must watch this one. If there was any doubt remaining as to who is the absolute king of comedy, this ends the discussion. You'll initially think, ok fine this is amusing and the fake doctor is a funny little gag, but I don't get why this is going so viral. And then things escalate and they escalate quickly and Conan nakedly admits what he's going for and then he goes for it and it is BANANAS. My god this man is a comedic genius. I think I'm going to watch it again when I finish writing.

🎥 Civil War (in theaters)
You know what I won't be watching again? This movie. But you should. Everyone in America should, because it's one of the potential endpoints of the path we're heading down, and I'm not sure enough people understand the weight of that. This is not the movie you think it's going to be. To paraphrase my friend Kathryn, this is not a war movie; it's a documentary that sets you down in the middle of a war. It's intense and upsetting — the sound design of the gunfire is masterful - and you should see it anyway and tell everyone else to. Also Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons forever.

📺 Kristen Wiig's fifth time (Peacock or string it together with YouTube clips)
I know that a sequel to Ryan Gosling's Papyrus sketch aired last night but before you watch that, you should check out Kristen's SNL hosting gig from last week. She got her Five Timers jacket and a slew of awesome previous hosts showed up to help her celebrate. (I want so badly to hate Matt Damon but dammit he is funny). There is not a bad sketch in the bunch, with Kristen showing time and again why she is a comedic genius who should be in everything. Let's get her and Conan together and see what happens.

That's it for this week! Have you upgraded to a premium subscription yet? Aw come on, you really should. Super Friends are getting their monthly playlist on Wednesday, which has a Crimson & Clover cover song on it and a man scream-singing 'HOUSEPLANTS'. It's divine.