Annals of Advertising, Puppy Surprise
“A somewhat disturbing 1992 commercial for the Puppy Surprise doll, which is a plush dog that kids can pull offspring from inside of…just like in real life.” More from the…
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Rumpus Articles
Why We Need Vampires
In the New York Times today, filmmaker and author Guillermo del Toro and coauthor Chuck Hogan –they have a novel coming out called The Strain — write about how vampires…
I Want to Hold Your Hand
A same-sex hand holding relay was held in London as part of a three-day celebration that kicked off the countdown to the 2012 Olympic Games. Same-sex hand holding, or “sshh,”…
Folded Paper I: Sipho Mabona
My six-year-old son is obsessed with paper airplanes. There’s a giant pile of them on our dining room table. He varies the design, or makes them huge or so tiny…
Roald Dahl, Man of Letters
I have read Kafka’s letters and Flaubert’s letters and Jane Austen’s letters. These authors are a part of my “adult” life. But I haven’t read the letters of authors who…
The Rumpus Gets Smart: The Definitive Essay on Dudeness
“If you were a man, a real man, you’d slap me.” – ‘Young Hussy’ in the wrestling screenplay of Barton Fink. If the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre might be described as…
Rumpus Film Review: Voices from El-Sayed
It’s a shame the documentary Voices from El-Sayed isn’t as interesting as its premise.
Nicholson Baker Tries Kindle, Finds it Wanting
If you know anything about Nicholson Baker, you know that he has an unparalleled talent for describing the small and ordinary things in everyday life, their textures and surfaces and…
Women’s Growing Love of Porn Is Changing the Market
“When everyone tells you that what you might be curious about, or even secretly like, is wrong, bad, sleazy, and shameful, you don’t have to cast a line very far…
The Rumpus Review of Funny People
With Funny People, Judd Apatow set out to make a masterpiece. What is surprising is not his failure, but the fact that he got so close.
Fingers Through Holy Water
Gospel music, like its secular cousin the blues, never wallows in pity, but instead seeks to transcend pain and reach glory. Bashir’s book makes the same trip.
“Stabilimentum,” a Rumpus Original Poem by Samiya Bashir
Stabilimentum Bend into my mouth before frost ends us.