Live. Die.
Consume the flesh of unending beasts.
Before we are consumed.
Eat at Arbys.
10 Likes
This must be the Arby’s in Night Vale. The one with the mysterious lights above it in the void and everything.
Maybe it’s just being nihilist because it can hear Cecil talking about his boyfriend and it’s jealous and lonely and an infinite road away from any other Arby’s.
2 Likes
I remember going to Arbys in the 70s and 80s while a kid living in the midwest. Even in college though I belive there were locations in the Pacific Northwest but I do not recall ever having even the slightest desire, even nostalgic, to actually buy anything.
To me Arbys exemplifies that era and location about as good as anything. White bread, weird sauce suited to the palette of a midwestern child, meat which tasted sketchy even to me as a kid; they did have tasty apple turnovers though IIRC.
2 Likes
There’s still an operating Arby’s about a mile from my house. I’ve never been tempted to eat there, but I have eaten there as a child a few times and once under the duress of poverty. It was before all the fast food places had dollar menus, and was the only place I could order 4 “foods” for $3.
It was a thoroughly regrettable experience, made worse by the fact that I had been in a collision 10 minutes earlier and was waiting for the cops to come and assess who was at blame for the collision as my insurance agent had instructed.
2 Likes
Nihilism. What’s even the fucking point of it?
7 Likes
In the late '80’s Arby’s had a “5 sandwiches for $5” ad campaign that I think might have been one of the worst ever. The ads themselves weren’t particularly bad. A voiceover would say, “Your $5 can get you five sandwiches at Arby’s, or…” and they’d show a funny looking clock or a weird toy.
What was so bad about it was summed up by a friend of mine who said, “I’d rather have one of those things than five sandwiches that would make me sick.”
In my college years Arby’s was known for curly fries: greasy curled fried and seasoned hunks of potato goodness that were the ideal food for students under the influence. Just ignore the cashier who had her finger up her nose when you drove into the parking lot.
And now I will admit to making special trips to Arby’s at certain times of the year for their limited-time mint-chocolate milkshake.
Others may criticize, but I believe there are diamonds in the rough there. And I like to think that Arby’s has enough of a sense of humor about their reputation that they quietly condone Nihilist Arby’s. If they don’t they’re idiots. Every time I see one of those tweets I want curly fries.
2 Likes
I haven’t met a curly fry I didn’t like, they’re pretty much the perfectly addictive combination of salt, starch and grease. Arby’s is by no means an exception. Their “sandwiches” on the other hand…
3 Likes
So, my college had one of these, and you could get an, I kid you not, Arby’s credit card. One semester I was so poor that I ate nothing but Arby’s because I had no money, only this credit card. I was $200 in debt to this stupid fast food chain.
And that’s why I can’t ever eat Arby’s again.
5 Likes
I’ll bite.
Rape jokes in general support and enforce rape culture by normalizing and trivializing rape. By making a rape joke you confirm for the rapist that rape is not that bad.
When you make a rape joke you retraumatize victims of sex assault and you make rapists think you are one of them. So think of that next time you want to describe anything as X raping Y. Rapists will hear it and think you’re one of them.
3 Likes
I don’t doubt that.
you make rapists think you are one of them(how the f did that star wars title get in there before?)
I’m not sure that follows… Could you clarify please?
In anycase, I think the former point may be sufficient justification for removing the joke.
I think there’s nuance to be explored in this area. Or rather, I’d like to be educated on the finer points, since I’ve seen what I can only call truly shocking rape jokes that I couldn’t not laugh at. I felt like a bad person for doing so, and looked closer at specifically why I found such a joke funny even if I knew it was indefensible, and discovered some really nasty cognitive dissonance, which I resolved using empathetic reasoning.
In other words, there is at least anecdotal evidence that it is it possible to change a mind for the better with a rape joke, but if so, is it worth it?
By making a rape joke you confirm for the rapist that rape is not that bad.
We already say overtly that rape is bad. All rapists know it, but avoid them mental consequent, either because they don’t care, or find a way to suppress the cognitive dissonance, either by denial, rationalization after the fact, or changing oneself to fit the logic better and in the process at least end up behaving if not believing in a way that is as if they understand and wish to adhere to a better moral system.
But now I fear I’ve been mansplaining, when I really just want to express my reaction. Which would still just mean that I’m still being dismissive? But I don’t think unjustly so…
I’ll have to come back to this later after some thought.
Removing the joke for now… Will be leaving up the explanation why.
I say leave it. Conversation is good.
And it doesn’t feel like mansplaining 
just thinking out loud as it were.
Rape jokes are possible. But I like comedy that punches up, not down. Making fun of the aggressor vs. the victim. Louis CK on women dating for example. Saying a roast beef sandwich looks like a vulva being raped… well who/what is being made fun of there? Why is it funny? How is that a joke? When the message seems to be the sandwich is gross… what does that say about the vulva?
6 Likes
Heart-stopping saturated fat potato goodness, that is, and you hit the nail on the head.
3 Likes
Could be but isn’t. The flavor and consistency is less evocative of horseradish than horse semen.
The scariest part is that it actually does make their sandwiches more palatable.
2 Likes
At the risk of being called out by our benevolent overlords for repeating an image…
1 Like
As I bite, juice runs down my chin.
But all I taste are ashes and regret.
Arbys, $0.99 special till Tuesday.
4 Likes
Night Vale would be better as Twitter one liners. The joke played out by the second podcast.
Disagree.
Also their live shows are hilarious.
There is meta plot and over arcing story lines that would be hard to do in 140 characters.
1 Like
I was going to write about how funny this twitter feed is, but then I realized it doesn’t matter and we’re all going to die. Fuck it! I am eating Arbys.
4 Likes
Good points.
Perhaps my greatest failing here is not being a comedic genius like Louis CK. But more likely I just was thoughtless when I made the joke, and came back and read it again after a few hits off the bong, and couldn’t resist rambling…
They say “drugs are bad m’kay”, but when I burn one down, I’m practically a teddybear and become far more introspective, much less crass and more empathetic. In such a state, I often look at my sober writings and feel like I’m mean and careless with my words.
3 Likes
My hands look like roast beef. My nose looks like a pickle. Mustard ejaculates from my sores. $1.99 for two sandwiches at Arbys.
3 Likes
