Please stop posting about Lola Bunny

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The Lola Bunny Apocalypse

Yesterday, new photos were released from Space Jam: A New Legacy. The new images from the movie included a, uh, different design of Lola Bunny, the girl rabbit introduced in the original movie. There’s no real easy way to tackle this, so let’s just crack on with it, shall we? Lola Bunny in the new Space Jam will not be as sexualized as she was in the original. Twitter, a very normal website, went into full meltdown mode over the news and users flooded the platform with Lola Bunny porn.

I have never seen a more terrifying image in my entire life.

Here is one of the more viral tweets comparing the old Lola Bunny to the new Lola Bunny.

Users were sharing this particular tweet, outraged that Lola Bunny had been ruined by social justice warriors. Right-wing radio host Jesse Kelly shared this tweet, writing, “I can almost hear the one on the right scolding me to wear a mask as she drives by in her Subaru.” And former deputy editor of the Daily Caller, Scott Greer, shared it, tweeting, “First they came for Mr. Potato Head, and I said nothing...”

Well, that’s cool, except, the image on the left isn’t from the original Space Jam. It’s erotic fan art. According to a reverse image search, it has been posted to sites like “hentai-img.com” and “upskirtporn.de”. Congrats, you’re all posting hentai.

btw do NOT click through on the above tweet. The replies are full of insanely graphic Lola Bunny porn.

After the initial wave of Lola Bunny discourse, it now seems like Twitter is divided into four categories:

1. Conservatives who are mad that Lola Bunny isn’t sexy enough because PC culture has gone too far.

2. Liberals who are arguing that Lola Bunny can be sexy AND strong.

3. Leftists who don’t care either way and are just happy there’s new Twitter drama to fight about.

4. And furries who are mad she’s not sexy enough, but for way more intense reasons than everyone else.

Ultimately, though, there is only one real question remaining about the status of Lola Bunny:

Revisiting The Lola Bunny 4chan Thread

Back in 2017, a user posted these pictures to 4chan’s /co/ board, which is for “Comics & Cartoons”. It quickly became one of the most infamous posts on the site. Many have tried to find out more about the original poster of the thread. My buddy Brian over at the Bnet newsletter has an investigation this morning into the image’s origins.

Interestingly, a Twitter user named Victor Ramirez is currently claiming that he is the person behind the 4chan Lola Bunny post.

I was skeptical that this was the same guy, but look at the “Get Ready” poster in both images. It’s too similar to be a coincidence, in my opinion. Either this is another Lola Bunny super fan with an entire room dedicated to Lola Bunny and the exact same posters OR this is the same guy who posted about it on 4chan in 2017. Or, at the very least, he had one of his images posted to the board in 2017.

The mystery continues to unravel. I’ll be staying on this as we learn more.

WandaVision And Fan Theories

*This will not include any tangible spoilers for the last episode of WandaVision, but also, if you’re worried about it, maybe just scroll past this.*

WandaVision wrapped up its final episode today. I watched it at 8am lol. The ending, without, going into too many specifics, wasn’t the Endgame-level event that a lot of fans were expecting. WandaVision, in the end, was a self-contained character study that has some really interesting things to say about grief and trauma and did some fun stuff with its very meta premise.

The conspiracy theories surrounding the show — Mephisto appearing, Reed Richards showing up, Doctor Strange arriving, the introduction of mutants — didn’t really go anywhere. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, a writer I’ve followed for years, has been writing a lot of great stuff about the disconnect between what WandaVision is and what the fans thought it was. “I'm kinda mystified by MCU fandom's desire for a John Krasinski/#WandaVision cameo, pointlessly overshadowing a thoughtful story for the sake of an A-list crossover,” she wrote last month.

This is a question I’ve been wrestling with, as well. And I think there are a few things happening. First, WandaVision wasn’t supposed to be the first MCU release after Endgame. It was supposed to be Black Widow, which means, going into WandaVision, fans just didn’t know what to expect from the MCU post-Endgame and the first Marvel Disney+ release. No one knew what the scope of these shows was going to be.

Second, the show’s cast I think really underestimated how obsessive MCU fans — and all modern fandoms — are, especially in lockdown. Elizabeth Olsen teased a Luke Skywalker-level cameo at the end of the show. Paul Bettany teased a top-secret Marvel character played by an actor he had never shared a movie with before (turned out to just be himself as a second Vision). And Teyonah Parris hyped up the “areospace engineer” character the show spent two episodes building up to. We now know that Parris was likely talking about the introduction of her own character’s superpowers.

And lastly, the show is crammed with Easter eggs. Every shot seemed meticulously put together, jam-packed with undeniable references to the comics. Game Of Thrones taught us that fans don’t just ignore that stuff.

So while I think it’s easy to blame fans for being rabid, it’s also been 11 years since the premiere of LOST. We know that fans, using the network effect of social media, will run off in strange directions if you create this sort of situation. I’d love to say that following WandVision, Marvel fans will enter the next Disney+ show will more tempered expectations, but I’ve already seen theories about Norman Osborn cameos. So, I guess we’ll all be doing this again in a few weeks. Oh well!

A Leftist Twitch Streamer, A Student Newspaper, And A Mayoral Candidate

Mark Gudgel is a high school teacher from Nebraska who is currently running for mayor of Omaha. He’s been working with the Omniliberal movement, which is spearheaded by a huge breadtube streamer named Destiny. “Breadtube” is the catch-all term for the world leftist YouTubers and Twitch creators. Gudgel has been on Destiny’s streams, had Destiny on his own podcast, and Destiny was helping with canvassing.

Destiny, whose real name is Steven Bonnell II, is arguably one of the biggest and most controversial figures in the community. His Omniliberal project is basically a national left-leaning support network for Democrats running in local races.

Gudgel severed all ties with Destiny, however, this week, after the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s student paper, The Gateway, published a piece collecting Destiny’s previous statements about Black Lives Matter. In one clip from over the summer, Destiny says, “The rioting need to fucking stop, and if that means, like white redneck fucking militia dudes out there mowing down dipshit protestors that think they can torch buildings at 10 p.m., then, at this point, they have my fucking blessing.” You can watch a clip of it here.

Gudgel has put out a statement on his Facebook saying he didn’t do due diligence vetting Destiny. Meanwhile, Destiny went on Reddit and started insinuating that the student reporter behind The Gateway story was secretly working for one of Gudgel’s competitors, which has kicked up a bunch of abuse against her. It’s a mess and definitely not the last time the extremely aggressive online world of the new left collides with the way less online world of, you know, actual Democrats.

The Optimal Movie Going Experience

This was dropped into the Garbage Day Discord by Albert. I desperately need to know where I can buy this TV.

TikTok Gets Its Own Commune

A reader named Casey sent me this. A user named @treeisalive is currently using TikTok to advertise an off-the-grid commune. The channel is a mix of eco-friendly DIY tips and, uh, numerous videos denying that it’s a cult.

They’ve posted the commune’s address on their channel and it appears as though other TikTok users are actually showing up? Genuinely curious if that’s allowed under TikTok’s terms of service. It would be weird if it wasn’t, but also, would be weird if it was? I won’t post the address here, but they’re in Tennessee. By my count at least 5-6 TikTok users are now actually living at the commune.

The commune has become pretty popular on the app. It has grown by over 60,000 followers since February. Though, in one of their videos this week, users found out that it’s drug free which might be a dealbreaker for people:

Let’s Check In Our How Late-Stage Capitalism Is Going

Hmm.

The Candyman TikTok Apartment

I was absolutely riveted by the TikTok series about a woman finding a secret abandoned apartment connected to her bathroom mirror. If you haven’t watched the four videos yet, you can check out her channel here and here’s a thread of the videos on Twitter.

Her name is Samantha Hartsoe and she spoke to Curbed about it. Some tidbits:

• The apartment is on Roosevelt Island.

• The creepy empty apartment that was connected to her bathroom mirror was not the next door down from her, but was somewhere else in the building.

• No word yet what her super will be doing about it.

There’s Always A Dril Tweet

P.S. here’s a really good TikTok my friend Brian sent me.

***Any typos in this email are on purpose actually***