THE UNDERGROUND — ISSUE #52 — Our One Year Anniversary Edition
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: Conan heads to Armenia with Sona, Nick Offerman continues to be amazing, a classic game gets remastered, Netflix unveils the trailer for DareDevil season 2, and how to go to space.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention that’s our job: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about. That’s The Underground.
This is a very special issue of The Underground. This is the 52nd week that we have been pushing out the best stuff for everyone to experience for an entire year. In no issue have we mindlessly thrown out content that was boring or outdated for fans to scroll past. If something is interesting or a must-see, we will put it in our weekly edition. Celebrate a year of The Underground with us! We love you and will continue to give you the best stuff to talk about each week.
1. Conan visits Armenia with his assistant Sona and it’s hilarious yet heartbreaking. Conan is the best late night host on television. You can argue with me that it’s Kimmel, Colbert, Meyers, or even going as far as saying Fallon is the best. Spoiler Alert: Fallon is awful. Anyway, in this recent episode of Conan, he and his assistant Sona head to Armenia. Sona is Armenian so Conan uses this as a take off point to go there and film some segments. What we get is a look into an amazing culture full of great people, amazing traditions, and comedy. Conan shows that he can be funny and charming no matter where he goes.
What really puts a bookend to this episode the is what the United States keeps denying because of political reasons: The Armenian Genocide. The Ottoman Empire slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians, yet the American government still doesn’t recognize it as a genocide because it might upset allies. This is absurd. When a group of people is sought out to be slaughtered because of who they are, that’s genocide. Look at Rwanda, it’s clearly genocide. The Jews in World War 2? Genocide. It’s obvious. Conan portrays a person who both cares about people and shows every part of the culture that he visits. If his show isn’t nominated for this episode
2. Nick Offerman enjoys whisky for nearly an hour because the internet needed a hero. We at Social Underground love whisky (or whiskey, the spelling is often mixed), so when Nick Offerman uploaded a video of himself drinking whisky by a crackling fire, we knew that it was going to go viral and take the internet by storm. It did, BUT, I don’t think many people spent the entire 45 minutes viewing the entire video. It’s not just funny, but it also shows a patient man enjoying his whisky like many people can’t. People buy a $15 bottle of garbage whisky, mix it with a diet soda, and then drink it like a monster. This is wrong. When you drink whisky, you buy a good bottle, you pour it in a glass, and you sip it. Why do you think all of those people going down on the Titanic chose to drink until they died? Well, besides the whole “Women and children first!” thing.
Offerman has made it abundantly clear that he love himself some Lagavulin. He has gotten drunk on it during the run of Parks and Recreation many times. In the video, it even shows his venture to the distillery it’s made at in Scotland. Scotland is mainly known for exporting rock, grass, and whisky, so it’s appropriate to show it all.
Get in the holiday spirit, buy some whisky, pour a glass, and then sit down and enjoy it with Nick Offerman near his fire. Drink that whisky and don’t talk about anything at all. That’s how alcohol is meant to enjoyed.
3. Day of the Tentacle is being remastered for PlayStation 4.
Day of the Tentacle is still considered one of the best games ever made. In an age where games are now being released partially finished, overpriced, and based on just shooting people, Day of the Tentacle took thought and time to create. Being a sequel the equally amazing Maniac Mansion, Tentacle took the point-and-click adventure game to a whole new level. It wasn’t just a great game, it was a difficult game. Even the speed runs on YouTube are lengthy.
I spent days trying to figure stuff out that I may have missed, and that ‘s why it’s great. It’s an adventure game that doesn’t let you off easy. It’s been years since I’ve played it, so I probably don’t remember much at all, so PlayStation 4 decided to remaster the game to make me buy it and start all over again.
If you’ve never played this game or Maniac Mansion, get yourself together. Then, to make up for it, get this game when it comes out. it’s a game that you feel is worth whatever price they ask. Once and if you actually beat it, you feel a sense of accomplishment instead of the normal “I paid $60 for that? I beat it in 2 days. Ugh.” feeling.
4. DareDevil season 2 arrives just in time for you to get angry that you can’t watch it yet. Jessica Jones is still freshly available to those that haven’t watched it yet. I watched the entire first season during the weekend it came out because if you don’t you’re a monster. Go watch it to share my opinion. DareDevil season 1 proved that Marvel could be serious and it delivered one of the best first seasons of superhero television. Jessica Jones premiered and introduced the most terrifying villain in the MCU. Yeah, Loki is good, but think of the other ones. Serious, THINK OF THE OTHER ONE. All boring.
DareDevil teases The Punisher in New York Comic Con trailer below. If it’s anything like the first season, the second season is all but guaranteed to deliver on some great story and great fighting.
Check it out below:
5. How do humans get to space? This video explains it to you. The sad thing about space travel is that once the Shuttle program began, the launch into space became some sort of ordinary occurrence that was partially cut to during a 24/7 news broadcast. Traveling to space became a music video on MTV! We saw a clip of something so amazing that it was portrayed to be boring. Spoiler Alert: Going to space in incredible. Going to space involves strapping humans to a gigantic rocket, lighting it, and then shooting it off.
This video gives you a bit of the complications it takes to pull this off. If you ever took a science class in grade school, there’s a chance you had to build your own rocket for a project. Now imagine that project being the size of a skyscraper.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post,UPROXX,BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com