I enjoy being around other people who love to laugh.
Personally, I think having a good sense of humor makes someone more attractive, regardless of gender. Making someone laugh is almost as impactful as making them feel loved. However, it often seems like men are expected to be funny whereas a woman being funny is seen as an anomaly.
I honestly don’t understand that. I’ve been around men and women with a lousy sense of humor. I’ve also been around women who are legitimately funny. The girl I dated in college was one of them. She had a dirty mouth and a dirty sense of humor that I appreciated. It also helped she balanced that out with a sweeter, kinder side that I found genuinely attractive.
Over the years, I’ve made other women who funny in their own right. They have wit, charm, and a quirky mind that makes them downright endearing. I know there are those who claim women can never be as funny as men, but I don’t buy that for a second. I think, given all the successful female comedians over the years, that notion needs to die.
I don’t know when or where I’ll meet my future wife. I don’t know what she’ll look like, either. However, I’m fairly confident that she’ll have a good sense of humor. I look forward to laughing with her one day. In the meantime, here are some Sexy Sunday Thoughts to honor all the women out there who make the world a funnier place. Enjoy!
“Making fun of a couple who are too affectionate is like slut shaming a famous porn star.”
“To convince someone that marriage is a sacred institution, you also have to convince them that threesomes are sacrilege.”
“The hornier you are, the less you care about where someone else’s lips have been.”
“Even the most sexually repressed people can’t escape the fact that they’re the result of someone else’s orgasm.”
“Sometimes, having a good relationship depends on how eager you are to give oral sex.”
“One does not simply ask politely for a three-way.”
“When you’re sexually repressed, what you see as porn becomes very skewed.”
The following is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It’s another entry into my Jack’s Comic Gems series, in which I highlight uniquely awesome gems from the world of comics. This time, I single out Sean Murphy’s brilliant series, “Batman White Knight.” If you’re a Batman fan, I think you’ll love this. Enjoy!
Things are pretty awful right now. Let’s not underscore that.
A global pandemic is still raging and world is in turmoil because of it. Even with multiple vaccines available, we’ve still got a long way to go before we can honestly say it’s over.
As bad as that is, it’s still important to find some silver linings. You don’t want to undermine how bad things are, but you also want to embrace whatever positives you can. Even if they don’t warrant the suffering, they can help us process the overall impact.
To that end, I want to highlight something that’s easy to overlook in the midst of a raging pandemic. This disease we’re fighting is awful. It’s killing way too many people and our efforts to stop it have been mixed, at best. However, those efforts have brought other indirect benefits.
One of them has to do with the seasonal flu. Every year, it seems, some nasty bug seems to go around in certain areas. I’ve certainly experienced it. I’ve endured the flu before and most people agree. It’s not fun. It’s an experience we can all do without.
Now, due to the efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the flu has been effectively kneecapped this season. According to some recent data from the Center for Disease Control, this has been the mildest flu season in years.
Following widespread adoption of community mitigation measures to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the percentage of U.S. respiratory specimens submitted for influenza testing that tested positive decreased from >20% to 2.3% and has remained at historically low interseasonal levels (0.2% versus 1–2%). Data from Southern Hemisphere countries also indicate little influenza activity.
Again, and it’s worth belaboring, this silver lining does not make up for all the terrible things the COVID-19 pandemic has incurred. An overall decline in flu cases hardly makes up for all the suffering we’ve endured in this pandemic.
At the very least, it shows that there’s real merit in embracing these public safety measures. There’s real benefit to regularly washing your hands, wearing a mask, and not congregating in cramped, unsanitary conditions.
It has certainly changed how I look at public health. In the past, I’ve actually been sick and gone to class or work. I tried to endure the illness, not understanding just how much it affected others around me. This pandemic has changed that.
Now, when I’m sick, I’m making damn sure I stay home. I’m also washing my hands a lot more regularly and thoroughly. I imagine I’m not alone in that sentiment. These are all hard lessons that we’ve all paid a terrible price to learn. At the same time, we have that much more reason to endure and overcome this awful pandemic. Beyond simply beating this dreaded disease, emerging in a world where the flu is lesson common is definitely a more appealing world overall.
Marvel Studios, the alpha and omega of superhero movies, is going to produce “Deadpool 3” and it will be R-Rated, just like its predecessors. I think I speak for all fans who saw the first two Deadpool movies multiple times when I say we’re both excited and relieved.
That said, this wasn’t exactly a long shot. Marvel Studios making “Deadpool 3” was very likely to begin with. The first two movies made a combined $1.5 billion on a total budget of $268 million. That’s a damn good return on investment and after 2020, Disney needs that badly. That may mean doing some R-Rated things that Disney isn’t used to, but when they’re badly in need of cash, they won’t dare change the winning formula.
Even if it was inevitable, it’s still always comforting to get confirmation. We can finally stop speculating. Marvel Studios’ big boss, Kevin Feige, confirmed it with his own words.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has said that the next Deadpool movie will be R-rated, and be part of the MCU – with Ryan Reynolds working on a script right now.Speaking to Collider during a WandaVision press event, Feige went into a little more detail about the project:
“It will be rated R and we are working on a script right now, and Ryan [Reynolds is] overseeing a script right now… It will not be [filming] this year. Ryan is a very busy, very successful actor. We’ve got a number of things we’ve already announced that we now have to make, but it’s exciting for it to have begun. Again, a very different type of character in the MCU, and Ryan is a force of nature, which is just awesome to see him bring that character to life.”
This is all great news for me. I love every word of this. I’m already very excited to see the X-Men join the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point. The prospect of seeing Deadpool in the same world that Kevin Feige so masterfully created over the course of a decade is just too awesome for words.
Rest assured, I’ll be first in line to see “Deadpool 3” in its R-Rated glory. I sincerely hope it includes plenty of quirky references about the MCU, other Marvel characters, and the kind of crude humor that makes Deadpool and actor Ryan Reynolds so inherently lovable.
As excited as I am, I do have some burning questions that I’d like to put out there. I imagine my fellow Deadpool fans are asking these questions as well. Most of them boil down to this.
What does an R-Rated Deadpool movie produced by Disney even look like?
It’s not an unreasonable question. Let’s not forget that the first two Deadpool movies contained content that never would’ve been authorized by Disney.
There were multiple F-Bombs and plenty of poop jokes.
There was gratuitous, blood-soaked violence that involved guns, katanas, and even a Zamboni.
There were multiple scenes that involved raucous sex, including one that involved Ryan Reynolds getting fucked with a strap-on.
This is all par for the course with Deadpool. What we saw in the movies is not that different from what regularly happens in the comics. This is stuff that does not at all jive with Disney’s family friendly, princess loving image. The Marvel movies in the MCU are great, but they have strict PG-13 lines that they’ve never dared cross.
So, how are they going to make that work? That’s not a rhetorical question. Seriously, how are they going to pull it off?
It’s adorable, but it still leaves the question unanswered. We probably won’t know for sure until more details come out, which could take years. In the meantime, I’ll continue to wait and agonize over this issue. If nothing else, I take comfort in the knowledge that Disney badly needs another billion-dollar blockbuster and if that means dropping some F-Bombs, I think they’re willing to pay that price.
We all have our things that put us in this special zen-like state. One of my old college friends got into that state by listening to heavy metal music at nearly full volume. I don’t know why that relaxed him as much as it did, but it worked. I’m not sure how good it was for his ears, but I don’t aruge with results.
For me, comics are that special thing that puts me in that special state of serenity. I download all my new books onto my iPad. I put my feet up and then I proceed to partake in the weekly joy that is New Comic Book Day. I challenge anyone to find someone as content and focused.
It’s a great feeling. No matter how my week is going, reading new comics puts me in that special state where everything seems balanced. It’s my shortcut to inner peace and contentment within a world that has been increasingly stressful over the past year.
Since that world doesn’t seem to want to settle, my weekly trips to comic book Zen will be all the more important. Even in the middle of winter, it’s easy to find something from the vast library that is Comixology that will warm your body and soul. This week is no exception.
Here is my pull list and pick for the week. Enjoy!
Younger generations clash with older generations. The older people are appalled at how the youth are conducting themselves. They see them doing things and behaving in ways that they never would’ve imagined in their youth. It’s not new. In fact, it’s been happening since ancient times in some form or another.
It’s especially pronounced when sex enters the equation. Older people don’t like thinking about their kids having sex and young people don’t like thinking about their grandparents having sex. We know it happens. There are over 7 billion humans on this planet. It happens a lot. It just makes us both very uncomfortable.
From discomfort comes assumptions and from assumptions come irrational fears. It’s not always overt, but it’s present in popular perceptions. Personally, I’ve never heard someone over the age of 60 claim that young people today are far more responsible in managing their sexual behavior. I doubt anyone in that age group could say that with a straight face.
However, that’s not what actual, verifiable data says. According to recent research in Psychological Science, young people today are more responsible than ever when it comes to making decisions about their sex lives.
We examined risky sexual choice under the lens of rational decision-making. Participants (N = 257) completed a novel sexual-choice task in which they selected from among hypothetical sexual partners varying in physical attractiveness and in the probability that one would contract a sexually transmitted infection (STI) from a one-time sexual encounter with them. We found that nearly all participants evaluated the sexual-choice alternatives in a coherent fashion consistent with utility-based theories of rational choice. In subsequent analyses, we classified participants’ responses according to whether their sexual preferences were based on maximizing attractiveness or minimizing the risk of STIs. Finally, we established an association between sexual choice in our task and reported real-world sexual risk-taking.
It doesn’t just stop with responsible choices, either. There has been a relatively consistent trend over the past 40 years. Sexual activity, as a whole, has been going down, so much so that it’s a demographic concern. That has corresponded with a decline in teen pregnancy, abortion, and unwanted pregnancy.
That’s not to say there aren’t irresponsible young people in this world. There certainly are. I’ve known quite a few. Most people have. It’s just not this big, decadent trend. Cable news and popular media love to paint young people as these strange, tradition-hating deviants who seek to destroy our most precious institutions. They are simply wrong.
They’re also trying to sell you a bullshit narrative to get ratings, but that’s another story.
Even in matters not exclusive to sex, older generations still try to find ways to criticize these crazy young people. It’s become more popular in recent years to call anyone under 30 a cohort of over-confident narcissists. Some go so far as to say there’s a narcissism epidemic.
‘Somebody high in self-esteem values individual achievement, but they also value their relationships and caring for others,’ she says. ‘Narcissists are missing that piece about valuing, caring and their relationships, so they tend to lack empathy, they have poor relationship skills. That’s one of the biggest differences, those communal and caring traits tend to be high in most people with self-esteem but not among those who are high in narcissism.’
Again, this is a flawed and incomplete narrative. It’s also incompatible with with the notion that young people are somehow more decadent sexually. Among the key traits of narcissism is promiscuity and it’s not just related to the sexual kind.
It’s hard to be narcissistic and responsible for the same reason it’s hard to be relaxed and enraged. The human psyche just doesn’t work like that. Society, as a whole, doesn’t work like that either. It can’t. If young people really were as decadent and narcissistic as old people thought, then our civilization never would’ve made it this far.
I know I’ve brought up flawed assumptions about young people and their sex lives before. I doubt old people will stop complaining about the deviant, decadent behaviors of young people anytime soon, even if a mountain of data says they’re better-behaved than their predecessors.
The reason I bring it up now is because this is one of those years when we should all re-assess our perspectives. The grim events of this past year have affected everybody, young and old. It’s affected our society, our emotions, and our sex lives. A lot will change as a result of this year. Generations afterwards will feel it.
As someone who will one day become old and cranky, I hope to maintain a healthy perspective regardless of what happens. I don’t doubt that when I get to a certain age, I’ll see young people behaving in ways that I find shocking. Some of those shocking ways might involve their sex lives. If I ever have kids, that’s going to concern me.
At the same time, I imagine that part of me will envy those young people for having the time, energy, and passions to behave in such ways. On some levels, I think many older people share those feelings. Their youth is a memory. The days of breaking traditions and upsetting their elders is long gone because they’re not elder. It’s just part of life.
We can’t avoid it, at least not yet. I don’t know what kind of state the world will be in by the time I turn 60. I just know I’ll have plenty to complain about. The fact that young people are bucking those complaints gives me hope that it’ll be better than any false perception.
After the spirit-crushing, frustration inducing events of last week, I just want to say this past weekend has been a godsend for football fans. As a lifelong football fan, the past 48 hours have given me a level of football nirvana I usually don’t see outside Super Bowl Sunday.
A big reason for this is the NFL’s new playoff format that it adopted last year. Instead of 12 teams, we now get 14 teams vying to become Super Bowl champion. Now, the NFL doesn’t take change lightly and it’s usually vehemently resisted by football purists.
After this past weekend, though, I imagine those people are just as delighted as I am with the results.
Seriously, how can you not? You get a triple header on Saturday from 1:00 p.m. to midnight. Then, you get another triple header of playoff football the next day that goes just as long. These are not forgetful games, either. These are the playoffs. This is the best of the best the NFL produced this season and they’re all pushing for their chance at a Super Bowl.
On top of all that football glory, it’s still not over.
Later tonight, college football will play its national championship game. I don’t follow college football as closely as I do the NFL, but even I don’t doubt that these two schools have teams stacked with NFL talent. Some of these players are very likely to be top draft picks later this spring. As a football fan who doesn’t need many more reasons to watch, this is just icing on the cake.
After a year where so many things went wrong, I just want to take a moment to appreciate everything that went right. There’s still more playoff football to come. This is just the beginning and I’m looking to enjoy every second of it.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make sure my cooler is stocked with beer for tonight’s championship game.
When it comes to romance, setting the mood is critical. That’s not just true for cheesy romance movies or novels. It’s every bit as critical in real life. Without the right mood, it’s harder to make a romantic moment all that sexy. It’s not impossible, but it is just harder.
That’s where scented candles come into the mix. Now, I’m not talking about aromatherapy here. That stuff is mostly a scam. You don’t need to overspend on fancy candles imported from Milan. With the right setup, even the cheap stuff you buy at Walmart can work. You just have to be creative, as well as romantic.
The scented parts are also important. If your lover doesn’t like the smell of peppermint, pumpkin, or ginseng, don’t get candles that smell like that. Those will kill the mood, even if the visuals are perfect. Try and find what kind of scents put your lover at ease. What do they find relaxing, pleasant, or soothing? Trust me, if it’s a scent, there’s likely a candle for it.
It may seem cheesy, but when the moment is right, you’ll know the difference. Whether you’re in a new relationship or you’ve been married for four decades, this is the sort of thing that shows you’ve got a romantic side. It shows you care about making the extra effort. That, in and of itself, can be a powerful romantic gesture.
It’s a new year and it’s the middle of winter. A lot of us are still stuck inside. If that’s going to be the case, let’s find a way to be romantic. Some scented candles will go a long way towards that end. As you contemplate your setup, here are some Sexy Sunday Thoughts to inspire you. Enjoy!
“A friend who gets you laid is a true friend, indeed.”
“A man’s will-power is directly proportional to his ability to refuse a blowjob.”
“To some extent, a thong is just a poor censor bar for your butt and genitals.”
“It’s always easier to negotiate with someone who’s very horny.”
“A dirty mind knows not to question someone who owns multiple dog leashes and no dog.”
“A man is only secure in his relationship if he accepts that his girlfriend’s dildo will always be bigger than his penis.”
“Insecurity is never sexy and overcompensating for insecurity is pathetic, but it can still get you laid.”
The following is a YouTube video for my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It’s a somewhat lengthy video essay on one of my favorite action movies of all time, “Demolition Man.” I’ve written about this movie before. It’s one of those rare movies that has only gotten better with age and only gets better, the more you delve into it. This video highlights a few key themes that should help you appreciate the movie even more. Enjoy!
At the start of every year, I make a brief list of New Years Resolutions that I hope to pursue in the coming months. I know it’s corny, but I believe there’s real value to it. Whether you accomplish them or not, setting goals and trying to improve yourself has real merit. I highly recommend that everyone try it. You don’t even have to call it a New Years Resolution.
In previous years, I’ve mentioned my resolutions. I’ve also talked about why many, including myself, often fail to achieve them. At the beginning of 2020, I went through the same process. I laid out some goals and some general plans I hoped to stick to. I didn’t expect to achieve everything, but I was genuinely hopeful.
On top of that, political rhetoric somehow got worse in an election year.
It was bad. If ever there was a year in which you could be forgiven for overlooking your resolutions, it’s 2020. I think most reasonable people agree. We all need a mulligan on our resolutions from last year. We may even need one for the first part of this year, as the impact of 2020 has already extended into January.
For me, personally, the events of 2020 had a serious impact on the resolutions I laid out. The ones I thought would be simple, such as intensifying my gym workouts, proved to be very difficult when gyms were shut down for four months. While I tried to adapt, running more and doing body weight exercises, I still wouldn’t consider that resolution achieved.
My more ambitious resolutions were a lot harder to adapt. Every year, I make it a point to improve my social skills. That’s one of my major deficiencies and has been since high school. It has been a serious uphill battle over the years, learning to talk to people, make friends, and foster meaningful social connections. I’ve gotten much better since college, but I’m still below average.
Last year set me back again. Naturally, it’s pretty damn hard to work on your social skills when people are social distancing, working from home, or self-isolating due to concerns over illness. It turns out it’s just not easy to be sociable during a global pandemic. Go figure.
Now, that’s not to say I didn’t make an effort. I really did try to adapt. Learning how to use Zoom and getting family members to embrace video chatting really helped. I was able to both maintain and even strengthen the connections I had. When it came to making new ones, though, I was very limited.
As a result, my resolution to make a concerted effort to find girlfriend was effectively shunted. There was just no dating scene during a pandemic. It’s hard to embrace romance when so many people are afraid of kissing, hugging, shaking hands, or just going new places with someone. While online dating tried to adapt, I struggled to keep up.
If nothing else, last year made me realize how lucky other couples were to have that connection through the pandemic. You may be stuck at home, but you’re not alone and you have someone who can keep you grounded when you start to go stir crazy.
I needed that in 2020.
I needed that more than I care to admit.
Hopefully, that motivates me even more to put myself out there and find love later this year. I may ultimately have to wait until next year for things to be normal enough to embrace romantic pursuits, once more. I’m still willing to put in the effort in the meantime. If 2020 taught me anything, it’s that a crisis is much easier to endure when you have someone to endure it with.
Other resolutions, like traveling to certain places and taking an exotic vacation, had to be pushed back for purely pragmatic reasons. Missing out on those resolutions wasn’t too jarring. It’s just a matter of finding the time and making arrangements. That’s relatively easy to do once things settle. It’s the harder resolutions that might take longer.
I still want to make those resolutions for 2021. I also encourage others to do so, even if it just means carrying over every resolution they couldn’t achieve in 2020. That’s perfectly fine. I think most people would understand. Last year was a mess. We all deserve a pass.
At the same time, let’s not overlook the fact that a lost year is still a lost year. None of us are getting any younger. I’m getting to an age where I can’t afford to lose too many years, especially if I want to put myself out there, explore new places, and eventually find love.
So, regardless of how you feel about New Years Resolutions and the scars of 2020, I think it’s wise we all pursue our goals in 2021 with greater urgency. We don’t have to completely make up for all the time we lost in 2021. We should just remember how quickly plans can get derailed by forces beyond our control.
We can face some very tough setbacks over the course of our lives, but we should never stop pursuing meaningful goals.
