The Siskoid Awards 2016 - Technical Achievement Ceremony

As with the Oscars, the Siskoid Awards have a previously held Technical Achievement Ceremony hosted by a pretty actress, where trophies are handed out for, y'know, funfur emulation software or something. Here at the SBG, we do much the same, though the prizes are for whatever didn't fit in the main event (no actual trophies available, sadly).

Your hostess this year has been a star for a while, but I only just fell in love with her in her ball-busting role in People Places Things. Give it up for Regina Hall, my secret celebrity crush 2016. Makes me wish I'd gone to the Technical Achievement Ceremony. Like everyone else, I don't go to those. Why don't I learn? They're always hosted by someone I like. But I heard she was very good at reading from the teleprompter and handing out fake awards. A waste of her talent, I'm sure.

Best movie trailer of 2016 - Most movie trailers are the same. A montage of things that happen in the film, and if you're very unlucky, in the same order so you know exactly what happens and don't actually need to see the film (which might actually be LUCKY not unlucky, depending). But some are truly special. My choice is the "Would that it were so simple" trailer for the Coen Bros.' Hail Caesar. It basically shows a whole scene, which normally would kind of spoil things, but it so encapsulates the plot contortions of the film that then hearing the line over a rapid montage of images turns into a wonderful joke. HERE'S A LINK!

The other best trailer of 2016 - I just couldn't stop at one. While the above made me laugh, this next one gave me goosebumps and made my eyes tear up, and that's the first Rogue One teaser trailer. THIS ONE. There's something about how it uses familiar Star Wars music that just gets to me, and that's an especially odd statement given that this is "The Franchise I Never Talk About". As it turned out, the trailer included a lot of lines and shots that WEREN'T in the film, some of which thematically get to the heart of what the Alliance is about and are sorely missed (I don't miss "I rebel" mind you, but later trailers would have Jyn facing off against a Tie-fighter, which I WOULD have liked to see). So is this the trailer that's better than the movie? It might just be.

Crap, I didn't find a spot for Star Trek Beyond's Beastie Boys trailer!

Best comic book of 2016 - Incredible Change-Bots Two Point Something Something by Jeffrey Brown. In 2008, the first volume of Incredible Change-Bots was my favorite comic of the year. In 2011, the sequel ranked second. In 2016, I read very few new comics, but one I did read was the collection of odds and ends from the Change-Bot universe, and I loved it. So while I couldn't draw up a list of 5 top comics this year, I did want to acknowledge Jeffrey Brown's winning streak.

Best band of 2016 - The Lonely Island. My music knowledge is pretty wide and diverse, having worked in radio and such, but there's a big ol' gap in the 2000s, especially when it comes to pop music. With the release of the mockumentary Pop Star, I discovered this parody group (also not been following SNL in the 2000s I guess), fell for them HARD, and in turn, they led me to the pop music I'd not just missed, but DISmissed in the last decade and a half. Because of The Lonely Island, there are now pop stars in my rotation, most notably Robyn, and I'm not going to apologize for that.

Expression of the Year - Ooof, hard one. There's a tendency here to adopt catch phrases pulled from movies or improvised moments, and a couple would fit the world of geekery in which this blog exists (so I'm not giving to Catégorie Feu - which only my improv peeps would understand - nor to an institution we will only call Mallard College). It came down to two possible phrases. The runner-up, then, is "Don't say 'and stuff'" from The Nice Guys, which I find myself frequently saying because the people I know say "and stuff" a lot. But the award goes to "Rock fact" from Over the Garden Wall. That was bleeding brilliant.

Gesture of the Year - In this case, what gesture do I find myself as a visual gag? Well, I can't do the Donkey Roll, folks, so it's drawing a circle in the air to open a portal like I'm Dr. Strange. Admit it, you did the same when you came out of the movie. Goofy fun.

Best fake news show of 2016 - A hard year for news, with fake facts replacing, uhm, FACTS, heading into a referendum and an election that, though both abroad, still have an impact on the rest of the world AND on people I like. But as a cynical news watcher grumpy about how mainstream media so frequently failed last year, my poison of choice was comedy news shows. And in the wake of Jon Stewart's departure from the Daily Show, there seemed to be numerous options to replace him. I watched a number of them, but the crown goes to... Samantha Bee and Full Frontal. The show is funny/sad, which is my favored tone, and while the punchlines are every bit as good as her competitors, it's her OUTRAGE I most needed and empathized with. She seemed the most angry and thus the most relevant. Long live the Queen.

Favorite new podcast of 2016 - I've been giving this one out for a couple years, and I've never been self-serving about it. If I am this time, it's really not coming from a selfish place. As you know, this past year, Shagg Matthews, Rob Kelly, and Chris Franklin invited me to join their nascent Fire and Water Podcast Network, and together we created a number of new shows. The network's output has become the bulk of my podcast listening, and yet, I'm still going to name a show *I* put together, not one of my partner's, but it's really not because I'm in it. Every month, the favorite part of my podcasting experience has been recording and editing oHOTmu or NOT? with the collective known as "the girls". It's a fun experience, filled with laughs and surprises, and while I've loved working with all my other recording partners, I can't let 2016 go by without highlighting this particular group - Josée, Isabel, Elyse, Nath, Amelie and Shotgun - they're great. And...

We're done! My thanks once again to the unwary Ms. Hall for fake-pre-taping the gala. May 2017 be something other than we expect it to be. The Siskoid Awards will hopefully return in a year's time.