In 1975, nostalgia was a powerful cultural force in the Techno-Fascist Imperium, with movies and TV shows tapping into America’s longing for a time before the JFK coup d'état, Great Society Cultural Revolution and Watergate-era bloodless coup. Though the KOTCB pegs the year 1973 as the start of 50 years of failure (see disposable butane lighter) there is a strong argument that '75 was the cultural nadir of America and we've been climbing our way out of the psychological abyss for the past 18,250 days. The 50's were very popular in the mid-70's zeitgeist with ShaNaNa on the radio, "Grease" on Broadway and "Happy Days" on TV painting an idealized picture of All-American innocence.
As for the cinema, which is the primary focus of this blog bost, the output from Hollywood was very au courant. The Oscar best picture contenders were "One Flew Over The Coockoo's Nest" (winner), "Barry Lyndon," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Jaws" and "Nashville" which by any measure, especially considering the 2025 nominees, are 5 fucking fantastic movies. Left out of the running were classics like "Monty Python And The Holy Grail," "The Man Who Would Be King," "Three Days Of The Condor," KOTCB longtime favorite "Rollerball" and a bunch of European & Asian masterpieces. How has the art of cinema fallen so far into black hole of nihilistic degeneracy and a time warp of nostalgia?
There was one nostalgia pic in '75, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," that pulled from 1950's Sci-Fi B movie kitsch to create a 5th Gen Warfare predictive programming nuclear mind bomb that has scorched most American metropolitan areas and polluted the earth with its homoerotic fallout. Talk about a weapon of mass destruction - WOW! - in 1975 a guy named Bruce Jenner was winning a gold medal at the Pan American Games in Mexico City and look what happened over the past 50 years. The example of this Olympiad highlights the post-1975 phenomenon of a diminished capacity for nostalgia, for I might remember fondly my adolescent enthusiasm for his athletic exploits and American pride in his victories but in the mirror of today my wistful enthusiasm evaporates due to his latent sexual disphoria and Kardashian witchcraft. My point is broader than one sweet transvestite - it just seems an appropriate symptom - and this blog cites hundreds of examples of nostalgia killing people, places and things that leave me thinking this wasteland has been a planned and well executed campaign of social destruction.
An anicdotal elucidation: In my youth I had grandparents who took me to a lot of movies and in this mid-70's era MGM realesed a set of nostalgic gems titled "That's Entertainment" (1974) and "That's Entertainment, Part 2" (1976) which they loved because it transported them through a celluloid worm hole to their happy and glorious youth filled with promise and normalcy. What's not to love? Singing, dancing, Busby Berkeley extravaganzas, incredible costumes with top flight production value and beautiful music. In their time these movies were time capsules of an America worthy of being nostalgic for but in 2025 they are as bizarre and transgressive as "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was to a non-transitioned nation of normies 50 years ago.
All of these thoughts (and more) came to me when Saturday Night Live had its 50th Aniversary show in mid-February because I had no interest in watching it. As in, zero desire. There was no sense of wistful longing for the song and dance of SNL's gone by or any urge to watch these retread geriatrics milk the cow (bell) one more time. Those clips of the extravaganza that I did see, by chance, floating like garbage in the digital sea of the internet were... how do I say this... not very good. I was 13 in 1975, and I was the target audience for this programming which I did watch with my friends on many Saturday nights so I should be nostalgic for the SNL early years even if I don't care for the NBC institution, right? Nope.
There was a skit titled "Black Jeapordy" in the show that got a lot of social media commentary because it showed Tom Hanks playing the role of a bigoted white MAGA hat wearing senior citizen who admonished a black game show host to go to church but was reluctant to shake said black man's hand. Like many critics, I find it hard to believe this interracial awkwardness is common after 50 solid years of SNL lecturing the good people of America to be less racist. If it IS true then We the People need to reset our expectations about racial integration and the limits of tolerance. A good start would be to stop making fun of black people for being so self-segregated and retarded that they can't even answer easy Jeapordy questions.
Here are the Best Picture nominees for the 97th Academy Awards, scheduled for March 2, 2025 with SNL symbiote skit and KOTCB nostalgia rating 1-10.
- Anora - Amy Poehler’s "Bogdana" (2005, Season 31), a mail-order bride with a thick accent and green-card hustle meets The 1990s "Roxbury Guys" (Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan) chasing nightlife with frantic energy, later stretched into A Night at the Roxbury (1998). A testament to the downside of hardly restricted mass legal immigration and the abandonment of even the "idea" of America to say nothing of the reality of the place. KOTCB nostalgia rating 2.
- The Brutalist - Think "The Architect" (Season 39, 2014, Jonah Hill host), where Will Forte plays a pretentious designer pitching absurd buildings (a skyscraper shaped like a foot). There was a time in my life, when I was younger, when I would have sat through 3.5 hours of Hungarian Jew Architect meets American Industrialist in mid-twentieth century America but alas, that time has passed. KOTCB nostalgia rating 10.
- A Complete Unknown - Bob Dylan performed on "Saturday Night Live" once, on October 20, 1979, during Season 5, Episode 2, hosted by Eric Idle. He appeared as the musical guest and played three songs from his album Slow Train Coming: “Gotta Serve Somebody,” “I Believe in You,” and “When You Gonna Wake Up.” The story of born again Christian Dylan would make a pretty interesting movie if someone ever had the balls to make it. KOTCB nostalgia rating 10.
- Conclave - "The Oracle Conclave 2005" (Season 30, May 14, 2005, Will Ferrell host) where Ferrell plays a tech exec at a mock Oracle conference, riffing on corporate jargon and nerdy excess meets Dana Carvey’s sanctimonious "Church Lady", Enid Strict, who skewers religious hypocrisy, often grilling people about sin. I'm not going to watch it but I hear that the Catholic Church is run by satanic pedophiles and degenerate transexual freaks - kind of like America's National Security Agency. KOTCB nostalgia rating 5.
- Dune: Part Two - "The Coneheads" (recurring, 1977-1979, Dan Aykroyd/Jane Curtin) shows alien immigrants from Remulak parody sci-fi weirdness—bald heads, stilted speech, and suburban absurdity. It is truly amazing that a young Bob Dylan and Paul Atreides are the same person. KOTCB nostalgia rating 8.
- Emilia Pérez - "White Like Me" (Season 10, 1984, Eddie Murphy host) where Murphy is posing as a white man to expose privilege meets "It’s Pat" (recurring, 1990s, Julia Sweeney) that toys with gender ambiguity for laughs. Needless to say, I will never see this Spanish-language French musical crime drama but I do like Karla SofÃa Gascón as a person. KOTCB nostalgia rating 8.
- I’m Still Here - "A Thanksgiving Miracle," from Season 42, Episode 7, which aired on November 19, 2016 where raw post-election family divides over Trump's win are smoothed over by listening to Adele’s “Hello” and lip sinking along. Well, the Orangeman is still here and we're in year 80 of the Techno-Fascist Imperium so... KOTCB nostalgia rating 10.
- Nickel Boys - "The Librarian" (Season 42, March 4, 2017, Octavia Spencer host) where Spencer’s librarian grills teens (Mikey Day, Kyle Mooney) with grim Jim Crow trivia—lynchings, beatings—while they dodge fines meets "Detention" (Season 35, January 16, 2010, Sigourney Weaver host) where Andy Samberg and Nasim Pedrad’s teens face a sadistic teacher (Will Forte) in a musical short. This movie sounds really, really depressing but it probably is a dark version of "The Breakfast Club." KOTCB nostalgia rating 10.
- The Substance - "The Hunch Bunch" (Season 42, October 15, 2016, Emily Blunt host) where Blunt’s pageant contestant unveils a grotesque hunchback (Kate McKinnon) as her “twin”—a parasitic growth she flaunts meets "The Understudy" (Season 40, February 15, 2015, Dakota Johnson host) where Johnson’s actress morphs into a deranged Kate McKinnon, sabotaging a set with wild physicality. Ummm, for those who do not already know it, this movie proves that women - the entire sex including he/she transexuals - are insane. KOTCB nostalgia rating 7.
- Wicked - "The Wizard of Oz" (Season 1, Episode 8, December 13, 1975, Richard Pryor host) where Chevy Chase as the Tin Man, Dan Aykroyd as the Scarecrow, and John Belushi as the Cowardly Lion bicker in a “lost scene” where they turn on Dorothy (Gilda Radner) post-Yellow Brick Road. The Wizard (Pryor) reveals he’s a fraud in a funk twist. From the jump SNL was an illusion conjured up by Loren Michaels and the executives at NBC to "sell" the soft socialist transgression of wickedness. KOTCB nostalgia rating 10.
These films represent a mix of DEI wokeness and most of them look back on a sordid past I'm happy to see eclipsed by the Golden Age. All the pictures vying for the top prize this year can't stand up to the reality that is overturning 50 years of failure. Any thoughts on which one might take it?
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