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Usually, an obituary is a place to pay homage to the recently departed. But not always. A rather unflattering obit recently ran in the Reno Gazette-Journal that did not exactly paint the woman at the center of it in the best light: "Marianne Theresa Johnson-Reddick born Jan 4, 1935 and died alone on Aug. 30, 2013. She is survived by her 6 of 8 children whom she spent her lifetime torturing in every way possible. While she neglected and abused her small children, she refused to allow anyone else to care or show compassion towards them. When they became adults she stalked and tortured anyone they dared to love. Everyone she met, adult or child was tortured by her cruelty and exposure to violence, criminal activity, vulgarity, and hatred of the gentle or kind human spirit.” The obit was so vicious it was removed from the paper’s website, although you can still find it and read on in shock. Do you think the paper was right to remove the obit? Or should they honor the wishes of the departed’s children, even if their tribute to their late mother is a bit harsh?

A clown has scared the Dickens out of people in the British town of Northampton by hanging around the area every night since Friday the 13th. Insert your favorite ‘It’ joke here. The clown has created such a stir that it now has its own Facebook page and Twitter handle. Take a look at some of the pictures and decide for yourself just how scared you would be if you saw this guy loitering on the streets. We know we’d be terrified.

Back-to-school season is well underway, which also means homework is once again a reality. Ugh, major bummer. But when you’re a youngster, homework isn’t all that bad! That’s because kids make it way less boring by being straight up and honest (read: hilarious). For example, when a teacher asks a kid to write what he or she wants to do in the future and the student puts “get a girlfriend,” hey– they’re just being truthful. Check out even more funny homework responses below.

Aaron Paul is in Boise today. There is almost certainly a legitimate, reasonable, easily uncovered explanation for this, but we are not going to get into it right now because all it will do is distract us from the more important issues at play. Namely, that Aaron Paul ran around downtown Boise today throwing tickets to a Breaking Bad screening out windows and getting people to yell “BITCH” at the top of their lungs, as though he somehow became a cross between Ferris Bueller and Willy Wonka. But I should back up. Yesterday, Aaron Paul tweeted this:

Everyone’s favorite comedian Louis CK just won a Creative Arts Emmy (Emmy for short) for “Outstanding Writing In A Variety Special” for his HBO special “Oh My God.” The ginger-haired funnyman wasn’t at the award show itself, however. Probably because he’s kind of a badass like that and just didn’t want to show. Or it could be something like shingles. Perhaps it’s a combination of the two. THR made a note of CK’s absence. “Oh My God” was, as you may remember, pretty brilliant. Here’s his now-infamous closing bit, “Of Course But Maybe.”

Sleepy Hollow has a pretty basic conceit; Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman wake up in 2013 and rumble. But as goofy as the idea is, the show might actually be pretty good, or at least willing to embrace its fundamental silliness enough to be a lot of fun. Here’s a pretty lengthy trailer Fox has thrown together to explain the show a little bit. And, honestly, it’s a lot more engagingly goofy than you might anticipate, being as it’s a drama on Fox from the guys who wrote the Star Trek reboot. Also, the Headless Horseman packing a glowing axe and an automatic weapon is kind of a selling point:

Guinness World Records 2014 is now out, and this year they’ve added a new record for world’s largest Star Wars collection. The award went to Steve Sansweet, who owns approximately 300,000 pieces of Star Wars memorabilia, although he kind of cheated to get them. See, for 14-years Sansweet was director of specialty marketing at Lucasfilm — in other words, he was the guy in charge of all the licensed Star Wars stuff, and could probably just put aside one of everything they made for himself. That said, he still has some pretty unique items, like an animatronic Katina band, multiple full-sized Lego statues and every Star Wars arcade machine ever made.

Here’s two quick somewhat kind-of, sort-of related comic-book/TV related trade news stories: First up, Ben Affleck — who was recently cast as a Batman described as “tired and weary” in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel sequel — will also be directing his first televison pilot (quick aside: How awesome would it have been if Affleck were Batman, and Jon Hamm were Superman, as had been rumored before Henry Cavill took the role?) The pilot is for a Fox drama (boo! Why not cable, Ben?) It’s called The Middle Man, and it’s a crime drama set in 1960′s Boston, so it’s right up Affleck’s alley. According to the press release: “The Middle Man focuses on the relationship between the FBI agent responsible for taking down the Italian-American mafia and his confidential informant, an Irish-American gangster. Throughout the relationship, ‘the duo’s actions inadvertently give rise to the Irish-American mob in this timeless Boston crime saga.’” So, it’s the precursor to the Whitey Bulger/Stephen Flemmi gang? The Middle Man will be vying for a slot on the Fall 2014 schedule over on Fox. Meanwhile, in news more directly related to comic books, the CW has cast the lead for its planned Flash series. The character will be introduced in The CW’s Arrow during the second season, and if the CW likes it (they will), the network will roll out a Flash series. Who will play the Barry Allen, aka, The Flash? A kid named Grant Gustin, who some may know from Glee. What can we expect?

After DC announced a new Harley Quinn series with writers Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, they held a contest to let a fan draw a page for Harley Quinn #0. Unfortunately, one of the things they asked contestants to draw on spec was a scene depicting a naked Harley Quinn committing suicide: "Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord that will release them all. We are watching the moment before the inevitable death. Her expression is one of “oh well, guess that’s it for me” and she has resigned herself to the moment that is going to happen." [DC's Open Talent Search] That artists were expected to draw sexualized violence of a woman before they could be considered for a job at DC caused just a wee bit of a kerfuffle, especially among people not familiar with the usual cartoon violence of the Harley Quinn character. This came to our attention last week when an epic rant about the contest went viral as f*ck with over 43,000 notes on Tumblr. Oh yeah, and this contest was announced right before National Suicide Prevention Week. The Mary Sue has an excellent recap of the blowout, but we’ll attempt to summarize. Jimmy Palmiotti responded that he should have included a “description of tone and dialogue” with the scene, adding that “it was supposed to be a dream sequence with Amanda and I talking to Harley and giving her a hard time. I should have also mentioned we were thinking a Mad magazine / Looney Tunes approach was what we were looking for.” He also said the fault didn’t lie with DC Comics for the lack of context with the suicide scene. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Psychiatric Association, and National Alliance on Mental Illness sent a statement to The Huffington Post stating their disappointment. Now DC Comics has responded to that statement, telling HuffPo: "The purpose of the talent search was to allow new artists an opportunity to draw a single page of a 20-page story. True to the nature of the character, the entire story is cartoony and over-the-top in tone, as Harley Quinn breaks the 4th Wall and satirizes the very scenes she appears in. DC Entertainment sincerely apologizes to anyone who may have found the page synopsis offensive and for not clearly providing the entire context of the scene within the full scope of the story." I’m still surprised that the backlash surprised DC. Did they not know that asking hopeful artists to depict a suicide, particularly the suicide of a naked woman, could piss people off? This should be a reminder that a diversity of backgrounds is something every workplace should have. Case in point, before the New 52 relaunch, 12% of DC’s creators were female. And after the relaunch? Only one percent female creators. Generally speaking, you’re going to have some serious blind spots and find yourself scrambling to make apologies after the fact if your creators are limited to 99% one gender or one race or one socioeconomic or geographic background, etc. And don’t be that guy who comments, “but women don’t read comics DURRRR” because they do and that guy sucks.

Well, you just knew it was coming; some bone-headed corporation would — in an impossibly misguided attempt to promote their brand by invoking 9/11, or something — would cross the line and spark an outrage. And AT&T has laid claim to the prize. Yes, in what will surely go down as one of the more ill-conceived bits of product placement in the history of advertising, AT&T tweeted “Never Forget” along with photo of an AT&T phone held up in place of the Twin Towers from it’s official account this afternoon. Naturally, a few folks are outraged about this…

AMC, which cancelled The Killing last week, is losing Breaking Bad at the end of this month, and Mad Men next year, and still hasn’t found a viable replacement for either series (Low Winter Sun, sure as hell isn’t it), looks to be doing for The Walking Dead what the Saul Goodman spin-off is doing for Breaking Bad, which is to say: If you can’t succeed with new properties, just spin off the old. Indeed, AMC announced today that it is in the early stages of developing a spin-off to The Walking Dead, set for 2015. Details are scarce. Here’s what AMC had to say, according to TVLine. “Building on the success of the most popular show on television for adults 18-49 is literally a no-brainer,” said AMC prez Charlie Collier in a statement. “We look forward to working with Robert, Gale and Dave again as we develop an entirely new story and cast of characters. It’s a big world and we can’t wait to give fans another unforgettable view of the zombie apocalypse.” I wouldn’t call it a “no brainer,” since you’ll be diluting the power of the strongest series on the network, but for financial reasons, I see what they mean. Series creator Robert Kirkman added this: “After 10 years of writing the comic book series and being so close to the debut of our fourth, and in my opinion, best season of the TV series, I couldn’t be more thrilled about getting the chance to create a new corner of The Walking Dead universe. The opportunity to make a show that isn’t tethered by the events of the comic book, and is truly a blank page, has set my creativity racing.” We’ll bring you more details when they’re announced.

There are certain sci-fi movies we can watch every time they're on TV. Among these rewatchable sci-fi flicks is Luc Besson's The Fifth Element (1997). It has everything sci-fi goes great with: the humor, the refusal to take itself too seriously, the realistically incompetent authority figures (some things never change), the cool visuals and wardrobe, or the eclectic cast. Tommy "Tiny" Lister as the President? Yes please. Luc Besson recently gave a long interview about numerous things, like never getting paid for American adaptations of his Nikita, but here's the part of The Playlist's interview we zoned in on:

BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE. Today, Ben Schwartz, the actor who portrays one of TV’s greatest recurring characters, Jean-Ralphio Saperstein from Parks and Recreation, turns 32, which is also the number of Snakejuice shots it takes before anyone would think about coming home with Jean-Ralphio. In honor of Schwartz, who also stars on Showtime’s House of Pies and will soon appear in Better Living Through Chemistry with Olivia Wilde AND Sam Rockwell, let’s take a look at some life lessons Jean-Ralphio has shared with us.

Goddammit, people who make commercials: stop being good at your job. It’s never a pleasant feeling when you realize you’re being emotionally manipulated by a big business trying to sell you a product, but between Fiona Apple’s “Pure Imagination” Chipotle ad and now Thai communication provider TrueMove H’s three-minute short film/commercial, well, let’s just say some people took Don Draper’s Hershey’s prostitute monologue to heart. Who knew ad people even had hearts?

Us normal people, we complain about things on Twitter, to our friends, and in the comments sections of websites dedicated to Breaking Bad and occasionally other TV shows. We rarely do anything about the thing we’re upset about, because the things we’re upset about rarely matter. Or we’ll move onto something else to bitch about after a day, and the cycle starts a-new. Think about how mad you have to be to actually do something, about the number of steps it takes to go from watching a dumb awards show on MTV to being so shocked and appalled that you file an official complaint with the FCC about the horrors you just saw. Eh, I’d rather GIF it. Lucky for those of us who know which battles are worth fighting for (BRING BACK ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT … wait, they did what?), there are those who live their lives constantly on the lookout for something to be offended by. Many, many, many people were angered by Miley Cyrus’s VMAs performance, and many, many of the many, many, many wrote to the FCC, the list of which the Smoking Gun obtained. Here are some of our favorites.

Two things that I love unconditionally: 1) Stories about eccentric musicians, as told and/or reenacted by Dave Chappelle; and 2) Stories about Kanye West, as told or reenacted by anyone. In the first category, we have the famous Rick James and Prince sketches from Chappelle’s Show. In the second, we have lots, most notably Aziz Ansari’s story about the time he hung out at Kanye’s house and walked in to find him silently bumping along on the couch to his own album. (Posted below.) But today is a great day because now those two things have been welded together by the gods and presented to us as a gift. At a recent stop in Illinois on the much-discussed Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival, Chappelle told this story about the time Kanye performed on Chappelle’s Show just as he was starting to blow up, and it is just perfect. Enjoy.

Every once in a while, a person will win a major award that will reflect not just the talent or act that he or she is nominated for, but possibly an entire body of work, as if to say, “You weren’t really great enough this year to deserve winning this, but you’ve been so awesome as a whole that you’re getting it anyway.” Some people believed that was the case when Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Training Day or when Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won Best Picture.

Jason Statham and James Franco have teamed up for a new thriller called Homefront, which is based on the best-selling novel by Chuck Logan. Sylvester Stallone wrote the script. We have our first look at the two actors today in a few photos that were released on USA Today. The story follows a DEA agent who moves to a small town after he's finished with his life fighting crime. As you might expect, once he moves to the small town he ends up fighting crime again. Director Gary Fleder talked about the film a little, explaining,

This is a licensing Expo poster for the Gareth Edwards directed reboot of Godzilla. A lot of other movie sites seem to believe that this is our first real look at the creature, but I'm not fully convinced. I think they just used that image to slap on a licensing poster, but I don't think it's the real thing. Back at San Diego Comic-Con an up-close image of a face of Godzilla leaked out which you can see here. This looks like a similar design. The thing is... we were told that Godzilla design was not the final design for the actual film. I think this is just another temporary placeholder design to help get people excited, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

FX has released another trailer for American Horror Story: Coven and it's the first to feature the main cast of the series. It's called "Initiation," and it includes Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Taissa Farmiga, and Evan Peters. I've always had a fascination with the supernatural history of witches, and this is sure to be a really great third season. Enjoy the latest trailer! Coven features a great cast of actors that includes Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Sarah Paulson, Frances Conroy, Gabourey Sidibe, Denis O'Hare, Patti LuPone, Evans Peters, Taissa Farmiga, Lily Rabe, and Emma Roberts.

Comic artist J. Scott Campbell loves to draw the Disney Princesses, and here's a nice little set that features Ariel The Little Mermaid & Ursula the Sea Witch, Snow White & The Evil Queen, and Princess Aurora & Maleficent the Sorceress. The series was created for the 'Good vs. Evil' Exhibit at the Downtown Disney WonderGround art Gallery.

Sony Pictures Animation has released a new funny clip for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2! The clip features the entertaining introduction of a new character named Barry, the talking strawberry. The first movie was surprisingly hilarious. I love the wackiness of the concept, and the sequel should end up being just as fun. The sequel was directed by Cody Cameron (story artist on Shrek, Surf’s Up, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) and Kris Pearn (head of story on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) and stars the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, and Kristen Schaal. It's set to be released on September 27th, 2013. Enjoy the clip!

Disney has moved the release date of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales from the summer of 2015 to the summer of 2016. The reason for the delay is to make sure that the script right. It's currently being written by Jeff Nathanson, and it's being directed by the amazingly talented directors of Kon-Tiki, Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg. Thanks to Bleeding Cool, we also have a few possible plot details from the fifth installment of the franchise. The script is still in progress, so some of the details revealed are subject to change. Here's the site's description of what they know.

Between Star Wars: Episode VII, the Star Trek movie franchise and even the video game that he’s working on with Valve, as well as his possible involvement in the production of Portal and Half-Life movies, it’s very easy to become confused when it comes to JJ Abrams news. That’s why Abrams didn’t help anything last month when he also released a mysterious trailer simply entitled, “Stranger.” And while I was under the impression that it was for a movie about a guy who sits on his right hand, Abrams cleared everything up with a new trailer on Monday that explains that this is all about the book “S.” which Abrams helped developed and was written by Doug Dorst. Aw, a book? But that means reading.

First, I want to preface this by saying that domestic violence is a very serious issue. There’s nothing funny about an insecure, possibly closeted, man beating women. Okay? It's wrong. Unless...nope. It's wrong. Nevermind. Domestic violence is wrong. Period. Now that that’s out the way, someone somewhere started making up these Ike Turner memes and passing them along social media. They're pretty simple yet effective in getting an actual LOL out of me. Words like "My girl ain't allowed to pray silently... I need to know what her and Jesus got going on" are placed on an image of Ike, who as we know used to beat the sh*t out of Tina. At least that's what I got from the movie and that one Martin episode. It's okay to laugh at these. If not, we'll all just have a blast in hell together. No biggie.