It’s been a long, strange year. (Aren’t they all at this point?) And so, how is our popular culture dealing with it all?

The Nose has a number of questions.

Will movies and TV ever really deal with COVID? Whatever happened to sympathetic characters? Whatever happened to comedies? Did anybody watch any standup comedy this year that wasn’t Bo Burnham or Dave Chappelle? Why do we cry at everything we watch? Isn’t Don’t Look Up great? Isn’t Don’t Look Up terrible? Why are we so stuck on old music? Do we even share a common popular culture anymore? Why are there so many good music documentaries all of sudden? Why don’t ALL the movies come directly to our houses now? Will we ever go back to movie theaters for real?

And other ones.

Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take:

• The 50 Wildest Pop Culture Moments of 2021 Literally how did this all happen in one year.
• Box Office: ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Soars to Record $260M U.S. Opening, $600.8M Globally The superhero pic scored the No. 2 domestic debut of all time as moviegoing returned to pre-pandemic levels for the first time despite omicron. But not all are celebrating: ‘Nightmare Alley’ found coal in its Christmas stocking.
• The Oscars Shortlist Contenders Have Been Announced, And Palme d’Or Winner Titane Was Left Out
• Hollywood Tests the Limit of Marquee Names a Single Film Can Hold Boldface names have always mattered at the movies, but a number of recent casts have been full of them. That hasn’t always helped at the box office.
• The Best Music of 2021: Lil Nas X is the boundary-smashing pop revolutionary of 2021
• Winnie-the-Pooh and more works will enter the public domain tomorrow

GUESTS:

• Raquel Benedict - Claims to be the most dangerous woman in speculative fiction; she’s the host of the Rite Gud podcast
• Rebecca Castellani - Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and a freelance writer
• Sam Hadelman - Hosts The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn
• James Hanley - Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College
• Rich Hollant - Principal at CO:LAB, founder of Free Center, and commissioner on cultural affairs for the city of Hartford
• Irene Papoulis - Teaches writing at Trinity College
• Bill Yousman - Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University