I love that 17776 has such a big fandom on here but I'm sad (not entirely surprised) that so few of the fans have seen any of Jon Bois's other work. There's so much of the same essence of whimsy in the videos and his way of storytelling is so genuinely captivating that it doesn't even matter if you care about sports to enjoy them (and not all of his videos are about sports).
So I want to provide a choice selection of my favorites in the hope that some people get to experience them for the first time. If you decide to watch any of them, please tell me what you think because I like to live vicariously through showing people things.
All of these can be found in this playlist, or else will be linked directly.
An *asterisk indicates that video has caused me to cry or sit in slackjawed silence
SPORTS
*The History of the Seattle Mariners: a docuseries about the strangest baseball team ever. I don't even know how to describe it but I cry at multiple different parts.
Scorigami, or Every NFL Score Ever: an exploration of some very strange football games and the secret dark arts of scoring
The People You're Paying to Be in Shorts: a documentary about the worst basketball team ever and how it was all Michael Jordan's fault.
*The Bob Emergency: a two-part study of athletes named Bob. self-explanatory
*We're Serious About Success: the highest-scoring basketball game in history through the lens of the Iliad and the Tower of Babel
*Captain Ahab: the story of Dave Stieb and his quest to pitch a no-hitter
How to score 10 runs in the first inning and lose: a harrowing lesson in hubris
Section 1: that time a plane crashed in the stands of an NFL playoff game
*The History of the Atlanta Falcons: a surprisingly political tragedy comedy about a football team and its trickster god mascot
*God Hates a Coward: the story of baseball, the Goodyear blimp, Treasure Island, and the dumbest world record ever
*God is coming to get me: the complicated story of Lennie Randle and the worst promotional stunt in baseball history (link)
222-0: the spite-fueled worst blowout loss in any sport ever, performed with action figures (link)
Rat Poison and Brandy: the story of the horrible, horrible 1904 olympic marathon (link)
Lonnie Smith: the story of a coke addict who plotted to murder his boss and beat up his mascot (link)
NOT SPORTS
The History of Slipping on Banana Peels: self-explanatory and surprisingly long
*Fool Time: the story of the transatlantic telegraph line through the lens of 90s sitcom Home Improvement.
Would You Like to Buy a Mattress?: Jon's 35 minute lament about spam emails
That's Not Entirely Accurate: a video about the most annoying character in Independence Day
I Wish Everyone Else Was Dead: a video about the tv show 24 and the bizarreness of post-9/11 america (link)
The Dumbest Boy Alive: the stupidest internet fight ever, the time grown men argued about how many days were in a week (link)
Larry Walters has a flying lawn chair and a bb gun: where the creators of Up got the idea from (link)
While I'm working on my canonical in-text-only aroace rec list, have this more vibes based edition! These are books which center platonic and/or hard to define relationships over romantic and/or sexual ones. Basically they are books that made me, a certified romance disliker, especially connect with the way they portrayed and prioritized non-romantic relationships, whether they're canonically aro/ace or not.
For more details on the books, check under the readmore! My personal favorites are marked with an *. For more rec lists, take a look at my masterpost!
Canonical aro and/or ace
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Young adult. Elatsoe's America is slightly different from the one we know. Magics and monsters both everyday and dangerous inhabit her world. Elatsoe herself can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. When her cousin is murdered, Elatsoe decides to find out just what happened, even as his home town does everything it can to bury a truth older and larger than she could've imagined.
Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer*
Young adult. Nita isn’t a murderer - technically. She just dissects the bodies of supernatural beings her mother brings home and sells for parts on the black market. But when her mother brings home a still living victim, Nita has had enough and frees him. As it turns out, no good deed goes unpunished as Nita is betrayed, her own nature as a supernatural entity outed as she’s kidnapped and placed behind bars. Now she must find a way to escape before she’s sold for parts.
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys*
Aphra and her brother are the only survivors after the government raided their home, Innsmouth. Their only living family are the amphibian people of the deep, whom they will one day join, but until then they are bound to land where they struggle to build new lives for themselves after the great loss of their home and loved ones. Then rumors start to spread of a Russian agent seeking dangerous and ancient magic, forcing Aphra to involve herself as they try to stop it.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells*
After having hacked its own governor module, SecUnit uses its small amount of new freedom to secretly download and watch as much media as it can between doing its job guarding humans. But when the scientists it’s been charged with keeping safe come under attack, it must make a choice about whether to continue keeping its freedom secret or risk it all to save them. I leave up to individual judgment whether SecUnit counts as agender, asexual and aromantic, as it is a robot.
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison*
Sherlock Holmes retelling. After having been injured fighting a war against fallen angels, Doyle returns to London to survive on only a veteran’s pension. To afford a place to live in the city, Doyle finds a housemate in Crow, an eccentric angel with a great curiosity for humans and a knack for solving crime. And London needs its protector - supernatural beings walk the streets, and someone going by the name Jack the Ripper terrifies the citizens at night.
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
While studying near-death experiences as college roommates, Victor and Eli discovered something incredible: under the right circumstances, someone can develop seemingly supernatural abilities. When they moved their research to the experimental stage, things went horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor has broken out of jail and sets out to hunt his former friend, who is on a mission to eradicate all other superpowered people in existence.
Word of god aro and/or ace
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
Young adult fantasy. Artemisia prefers the dead to the living, and is training to become a Gray Sister, a nun who helps the souls of the deceased pass on to the afterlife rather than remain as dangerous spirits. To defend her convent, Artemisia accepts the help of a dangerous revenant, a powerful spirit which grants her great power but also could possess her the moment her guard is lowered. As evil threatens her homeland, Artemisia and the revenant must find a way to work together.
Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
Wasp is the chosen Archivist in a post-apocalyptic world haunted by the dead. Her job is to hunt the ghosts that still linger, a dangerous and lonely position where she every year is made to fight others to not be replaced. When she meets the ghost of a super soldier, Wasp strikes a deal with him to help him find a long lost friend in exchange for learning more about the world that once was.
The Spider and her Demons by sydney khoo*
Young adult fantasy. All teenager Zhi wants is a normal life (and possibly for her harsh aunt to be a bit nicer), but it’s hard when she’s half spider demon. Every day she must conceal her true nature and hide in human guise. When she slips up and eats a man in front of her rich, aloof classmate Dior, Zhi thinks her life is over. But Dior has secrets of her own, and she is dead set on making herself part of Zhi’s life.
Not canonically aro and/or ace but have The Vibes
Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal*
Priya had plans to go to Stanford, but is derailed by the fallout of lyme disease, making her question if she’ll ever get back to normal. Luckily she has her discord support group with whom she can chat and vent about her illness. Even more - she has Brigid, online fandom friend and fellow chronic illness sufferer. But when Brigid disappears from the web without warning, Priya must drive to Pennsylvania to make sure her friend is okay - and finds that Brigid’s condition is a bit hairier than expected.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir*
Ryland Grace just woke up from a coma, unable to remember anything. He finds himself alone on a space ship, and as his memories slowly trickle back, he realizes he’s been sent on a mission: to find a solution to the impending doom of planet earth. Still struggling with holes in his memories, Ryland tries to fulfill his mission, but as he gets closer to his goal, he discovers someone else got there first. And they aren’t anything close to human. Funny, heartfelt, and heavy on the science.
Malevolent by Harlan Guthrie*
Lovecraftian horror mystery. Private detective Arthur Lester wakes up in his office, his partner dead, memories fuzzy, vision gone, and the voice of a malevolent entity in his mind. Unable to see, Arthur is forced to rely on guidance from the entity as they attempt to solve the mystery of what it is and where it came from. Is this a book? No. But as someone who reads mostly audiobooks, the difference between a book and a fiction podcast is negligible, and also I love this story and its characters and want all of you to do so too.
The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco
Young adult horror. Okiku died three hundred years ago, her body thrown down a well. Now she spends her days hunting for and punishing murderers like the one who once killed her. When a strange boy bearing odd tattoos appears in her area, he catches Okiku’s attention - as does something that follows after him. To save the boy, Okiku will be drawn into a journey taking both of them from American suburbia to a faraway shrine in Japan.
Radiant by Karina Sumner-Smith*
In a world where magic is currency, Xhea, wholly devoid of magic, is the lowest of the low. She does have one special ability, though: she can see ghosts. This ability proves useful when she meets Shai, the ghost of a girl from the higher echelons of society who isn't actually dead yet. Her body stolen and her ghost on the run, Shai needs Xhea's help.
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers*
Technically part two of a series, but stands well on its own as the installments are only loosely connected (though I recommend reading the first book as well, it’s very good). A former ship’s AI recently moved into an illegal android body tries to make sense of life as she navigates her way through humans and aliens alike, paralleled with the story of a young girl working alongside and AI to flee a dystopian planet.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Novella. Long ago, robots, upon gaining sentience, simply laid down their work and walked into the wilderness. Long after, a tea monk looking for purpose follows after them into the wilds, where they come across one of the robots seeking its own sort of answers. While not plotless, this story focuses more on character and vibes over plot. Also has a nonbinary main character and features conversations on gender between human and robot.
Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang*
Cas Russel is more than just good at math - she can calculate accurately and quickly enough to dodge bullets and fight those twice her size with ease. She thought she was the only one with an ability like this, until she discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than hers, able to reach into and twist the minds of others. Suddenly too involved to simply run away, Cas must not only save the day, but do so while she can't trust her own thoughts.
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy*
Young adult. Twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgley’s uncle, famed horror writer, just died mysteriously and left her his entire fortune. As it turns out, the stories he wrote weren’t entirely made up, and that which killed him wasn’t entirely human. In trying to avenge his death, Stephanie joins forces with Skulduggery Pleasant, sorcerer, detective, and living, walking skeleton. Including this one is kinda cheating because (part of) the series has romance, but the central relationship is always the codependent nonsense (affectionate) between the lead and her mentor/detective partner.
When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb*
The angel Uriel and the demon Little Ash have been friends for centuries, living and studying together in a small Jewish community in Europe. But times are changing, and many of the community have left for a new life across the sea. When one of these emigrants go missing, Uriel and Little Ash decide to leave their peaceful life to go find and, if needed, save her.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
A space opera in which sentient spaceships can walk the ground in stolen human bodies, so called ancillaries. One of these ancillaries, the sole survivor after the complete destruction of her ship and crew, is one the hunt for revenge against the most powerful woman in the empire. This series also does very cool things with gender!
Translation State by Ann Leckie*
An exploration of the alien as filtered through the human. At what point does the human become something else? When does something else become human? Is it a question of biology or culture, nature or nurture? Can we choose it? Can it be forced upon us? Set in the Imperial Radch universe, Translation State follows three different characters embroiled in the question of what makes a human. The alien Presger can only communicate with humans using their translators - people they’ve created that are not quite human and not quite alien. But as news of a translator fugitive arises, conflict brews regarding what right they have to choose their own identity and home.
Nobody's going to magically swoop into rescue you. You can't just sit there and expect someone else to come save you. You have to get your shit together and do it yourself.
About 90% of the time, the "it" you have to do on your own is pushing yourself to walk up to someone else and use your words to say "hey I need help."
Image #2: tordenvejr: you can't avoid yourself into a life you love
Image #3: kosmogrl: #um guys, I think we need to stop waiting for 'the right time' and just start doing the things we want whenever because the right time's never gonna come, and if we keep waiting it's just gonna turn into an endless cycle
Image #4: proBuccalFat: #it's fucking wild because one day you're like i guess i'm not dying tragically young and you go to the store and you buy dental floss, ingredients for soup, and a bath mat
Image #5: northernstrcr: they were right btw. you have to dig yourself out of your grave over and over again
Image #6: soracities: some days you really do have to just find and wrench one tiny thing from the world w the determination of a hog digging out truffles and make it your anchor. raindrops on a window. smell of the bakery in the supermarket. single defiant tuft of grass between the cracks of the pavement. etc. hold it all w equally grubby and defiant hands.
Image #7: glowCowBoy: gonna take a hot shower and put on a big t shirt and my undies and i'm gonna sit on the floor and color at my coffee table like im 6 years old again and then i'll feel better
Image #8: superOrganism: you have to be annoying and do everything as passionately and genuinely as possible because we live in a world where everyone operates though sixteen layers of post irony and to love with recklessness is literally counterculture.
Image #9: aridante: get in loser we're living past the end of our myth /End IDs]
I love how some fics are called shit like "They Only Shoot The Birds Who Cannot Sing" and it's like the most insane porn you've ever read and then some fics are called Spit On Me and it's 18,000 words of the most achingly id-scratching prose you've ever read and they're both. They're both so fucking good. thank God for fanfiction.
Not to be cliche, but Jane Austen's novels are a lot about how great power & wealth should come with great responsibility, and how most of the wealthy and powerful fail at that. She's asking questions like, "Is that insanely wealthy person polite, charitable, and considerate in a way that befits his station in life?" and she's finding most of them wanting.
romaincrisis
gracieabrams
izzy806
tangentwithtanner
stormborns
germansingergirl
amandla
