Michael K. Williams, Corporate Wokeness, Paul L’Astnamé (30 Rock)

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Love: Michael K. Williams

Andy’s less-than-timely-but-no-less tragic Love for this episode is the late Michael K. Williams. He talks up highlights of his work, from the Trapped in the Closet video to Omar in The Wire to The Atlantic’s “Typecast” short film (which he asks all of you to check out here for the sheer excellence of Williams’s performance. Alex meanwhile re-remembers the song “100% True Love” (the video for which featured Williams’s dancing and choreography), and everyone gets a short PSA on the importance of testing your drugs and shaming people who shame those with addiction struggles.

Hate: Corporate Wokeness

Alex takes it back to Pride, Black History Month, and assorted other occasions for corporate entities to perform at support for marginalized communities without any material change for his Hate on Corporate Wokeness. He draws a line from the old 60’s/70’s commercials from GM and Coke about Civil Rights and littering to Pepsi’s idiotic BLM stunt, Andy talks the weirdness of rainbow-washed logos (looking at you, Oracle), and we all agree that Ben Jerry’s is good, but not great.

Relationship: Paul  L’Astnamé  (30 Rock)

This episode’s Relationships.txt question comes from someone who seems to not understand the problem with spending his life savings on an NFT, and using that to propose to his partner. Andy reasonably asks if everybody has just plain forgotten that the Dot-Com Bubble ever happened while Alex gets into a rare rage about the idiocy of ever feeling particularly confident about investing, and we all struggle with comprehending that Doge-Coin even exists.