Last week was a nice week for me creatively.

1. The Among Us TV show finally came out! I wrote for it.

2. I saw Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters in theaters! I had a great time.

Obligatory Among Us Plug (also known as an Oblig Aplugus)

So I’ve been waiting since 2023 to say this: the Among Us TV show is here!

I was a writer and I’ve only got good things to say about the experience.

It was a joy to reunite with so many friends and artists from Infinity Train and help make a show that basically mashes up Clue with The Thing.

If you like jokes, murder mysteries, body horror and a lil’ pro-labor flavor... you can dive right into the first episode for free right now!

I’ll do a proper behind-the-scenes deep dive at some point, but since it’s less than a week old AND a murder mystery… I don’t wanna spoil the plot just yet.

So for now, let’s focus on the least spoilery aspect…

Cartoony Gags with a POV

One of my favorite parts about writing for Among Us? It’s a jokes show.

As much as the writers room exhaustively plotted the tightest murder mystery possible, comedy was king in that room - way more than Infinity Train. And even moreso once it hit storyboards and animation.

Owen, Maddie and the team really favored a playful, elastic style of visual comedy that leans into anime expressions, visual gags and the whims of whatever silly shit might spring to mind along the winding path of a murder mystery about identical looking bean people who sometimes have butts.

But couched in there amid the bean butts are themes of corporations who care more about profits than people, union solidarity, and a character arc that emphasizes a path from selfishness to selflessness.

It’s a comedy first and foremost, but the cartoony gags and POV go hand in hand. Comedy (and genre) lower our defenses when we watch something - we absorb stuff that might feel didactic or preachy a bit more willingly.

As they say, a spoonful of sugar helps the anti-capitalism go down! It wriggles into your brain more easily if it’s candy-coated in a stupid joke.

Which brings me to…

Ri-love Boot-sters

Watching I Love Boosters, I couldn’t help but feel a creative kinship. Boosters isn’t a literal cartoon like Among Us, but it’s about as close as you can get.

Honestly, it’s something I’ve felt about all of Boots Riley’s work. The projects I’m most excited to make right now deal with themes of inequity, privilege and systemic oppression (I’m fun) - but they do so couched in genre.

How does the horror or comedy speak directly to a heavier theme? Is the monster a stand-in for the horror, or just a way to force our characters to reckon directly with the philosophical stakes? If it’s a comedy, do the jokes and absurdity allow a more literal manifestation of ideas?

Back when Sorry to Bother You came out, I was putting the finishing touches on my improvised narrative comedy Bad Reception.

A wild, cartoony audio series that centered on a small town slated to get bulldozed and turned into a city-sized condo by a careless corporation that was also accidentally turning citizens into mutant deer people. Normal stuff!

But when I saw Sorry to Bother You, I remember mildly freaking out because spoiler it also culminates in some mutant manimals underscored by themes of systemic oppression. What were the odds?

Luckily I never had to publicly scream “PARALLEL THINKING!!!!” because very few people found Bad Reception. Ultimately, I was happy to see someone else make similarly gonzo choices on a much bigger level.

Oops, Back on Topic

Point being: I’m a fan of Boots Riley’s movies and TV shows.

They’re explosive parades of artistic freedom in service of what I consider humanistic messaging - and I connect to his use of the cartoony to ease in the thematic ideas that are important to him.

Like his other stuff, I Love Boosters is overtly political in unsubtle ways, but this one feels engineered to make you laugh more than ever. This time he’s stacked the movie with back-to-back-to-back Looney Tunes and Simpsons style gags set to my new fave movie soundtrack.

Among Us and I Love Boosters are situated in worlds where systems fuck people over. Inequity is the norm, and both the movie and the show try to speak to the audience about these ideas in their own funny, colorful and relatable ways. Plus, both aren’t afraid to break reality for a gag.

Feelings are made literal, monsters are real, and visual reality is malleable - all in service of the most fun version of expressing a point of view.

Point being: what’re ya waiting for, please watch our show! And catch I Love Boosters in theaters before it’s gone, it’s a great communal experience.

NEXT TIME: Scary Stuff