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Pop Culture

Dan Harmon accused Hallmark of recycling one movie into two. The truth blew his mind.

Harmon called the "Sister Swap" explanation "cinematically unprecedented."

Dan Harmon speaking into a microphone
via Wikimedia Commons

Dan Harmon in 2013.

Hallmark movies tend to be predictable holiday fare, so it’s safe to say that Rick and Morty creator Dan Harmon wasn’t off when he cried foul after learning about the Sister Swap films.

Harmon saw there were two Sister SwapHallmark movies that came out in 2021 and couldn’t tell which one to watch first. “Well HERE’S THE THING,” Harmon wrote on Instagram, “both Sister Swaps are released in 2021. They are not sequels. Both Sister Swaps are the same story, about sisters—played by real-life sisters, who have to swap…cities.”

In a world where Hallmark churns out 40 holiday films a year, it’s reasonable to think that the company was trying to pull a fast one and save some money by making two identical films and releasing them separately.

The Sister Swap films star real-life sisters Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams, whose characters are siblings as well. The first film, Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday, is about a widow who attempts to reopen her late uncle's old dilapidated small-town movie theater for one last Christmas screening. Sister Swap: Christmas in the City, which debuted seven days after, is about sisters who swap cities to pursue new projects in the 12 days leading up to Christmas. Harmon was thrown by the fact that the films shared several scenes with identical dialog.

“We keep going back and forth between the movies,” Harmon said, trying to make sense of them. “The same conversations are happening in each one but there’s no ‘Rashomon’ or ‘Peep Show’ angle, the dialogue in each version is identical but the scenes are cut differently because I assume they just had different editors.”

Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Rashomon is known for its unique structure where the same story is seen from multiple perspectives.

Harmon shared another post where he lined up a scene from both nearly identical films.

Finally, Harmon’s confusion was assuaged when the people who made the film showed up in the comments. The films’ co-screenwriter, Zac Hug, explained what Hallmark was trying to do with the movies.

“Quick note on this, the task in writing was to make sure the audience didn’t have to see them both but were rewarded if they did. Hallmark also got on board with my sister and me writing them together,” Hug wrote.

Williams-Paisley confirmed that the decision to combine the two films was to do something unprecedented with a Hallmark production. "We wanted to do something outside the box for the genre but also stay in the genre and my sister came up with this brilliant idea of two films that take place in the same time frame and sometimes overlap," Williams-Paisley commented.

Executive producer Neal Dodson further clarified things for Harmon. "We had one editor and edited them in tandem," he wrote. "They share 9 scenes, with different edits to those scenes that favor whichever sister's movie it is."

Harmon clearly understands the medium of film—he created the hit series Community and Rick and Morty—yet he missed the fact that Sister Swap was a total revolution in the art of making Hallmark films.

After hearing about the movies from the artists themselves, he changed his mind and said the films were "cinematically unprecedented."

The films are truly a departure from the usual movie format, not just for Hallmark, but TV movies in general. But, before we get too excited, the productions also probably saved a few nickels by shooting two films at the same time.


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Fatherhood

Dad and daughter relationships perfectly  explained in 10 paintings

The bond between dads and daughters is amazing.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

It's hard to truly describe the amazing bond between dads and their daughters.

Being a dad is an amazing job no matter the gender of the tiny humans we're raising. But there's something unique about the bond between fathers and daughters. Most dads know what it's like to struggle with braiding hair, but we also know that bonding time provides immense value to our daughters. In fact, studies have shown that women with actively involved fathers are more confident and more successful in school and business.

You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? I'll just let these images sum up the daddy-daughter bond.

A 37-year-old Ukrainian artist affectionately known as Soosh, recently created some ridiculously heartwarming illustrations of the bond between a dad and his daughter, and put them on her Instagram feed. Sadly, her father wasn't involved in her life when she was a kid. But she wants to be sure her 9-year-old son doesn't follow in those footsteps.

"Part of the education for my kiddo who I want to grow up to be a good man is to understand what it's like to be one," Soosh told Upworthy.

There are so many different ways that fathers demonstrate their love for their little girls, and Soosh pretty much nails all of them.

Get ready to run the full gamut of the feels.

1. Dads can do it all. Including hair.

parenting, dads, daughters, fathers, art, artworkA father does his daughter's hairAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

2. They also make pretty great game opponents.



parenting, dads, daughters, fathers, art, artwork, chessA father plays chess with his daughterAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

3. And the Hula-Hoop skills? Legendary.



parenting, dads, daughters, fathers, art, artwork, hula hoopA dad hula hoops with his daughterAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

4. Dads know there's always time for a tea party regardless of the mountain of work in front of them.



A dad talks to his daughter while working at his deskAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.


5. And their puppeteer skills totally belong on Broadway.



A dad performs a puppet show for his daughterAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.


6. Dads help us see the world from different views.



A dad walks with his daughter on his backAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.


7. So much so that we never want them to leave.



a dad carries a suitcase that his daughter holds ontoAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.


8. They can make us feel protected, valued, and loved.



A dad holds his sleeping daughterAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.


9. Especially when there are monsters hiding in places they shouldn't.



A superhero dad looks over his daughterAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.


10. Seeing the daddy-daughter bond as art perfectly shows how beautiful fatherhood can be.



A dad takes the small corner of the bed with his dauthterAll illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.


This article originally appeared nine years ago.

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Joy

Philosophy expert shares the 'weird' sign that someone is happily married

It's not the way we were taught to see love.

via Canva/Photos and Michel de Montaigne/Wikimedia Commons

Writer Michel de Montaigne and a happy couple.

There are many ways to evaluate your marriage to determine whether you’re truly happy. Does it mean that you don’t fight very often? Does it mean that it’s filled with passion? Does it mean that you have no desire to be with anyone else? Is it because you have all of your business affairs in order, or is that the marriage is safe and predictable?

Further, like any relationship, there’s an ebb and flow to marriage where even the most perfect relationship has its ups and downs. Popular TikTok philosopher and Substack writer Juan de Medeiros recently shared an easy way to figure out if you, your spouse, or someone you know is in a happy marriage. He says it goes back to a quote by French author Michel de Montaigne: “If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.”

@julianphilosophy

Marriage❤️ #married #marriedlife #marriage #love

“And what he meant is that love is a good starting point,” de Medeiros explains. “But if you want to be together for a long time, you have to become best friends. In fact, you could have been best friends to begin with and then fallen in love.”

What's the secret to a happy marriage?

He also points to author Dr. Seuss to elaborate on the importance of friendship in a marriage. Suess writes, “We are all a little weird, and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”

dr. suess, cat in the hat, authors, ted geisel, famous writersTed Geisel aka Dr. Seuss.via AL Ravenna/Wikimedia Commons

In Suess’s view, unconventional quirks and characteristics bring people together. When everything that makes you unique in the world is either shared by your partner or cherished by them, it creates a bond and a common language that is impossible to duplicate. This “mutual weirdness” is also a powerful quality that helps people weather life's storms.

The post resonated with many of de Medeiros’s followers, who shared the benefits of having a marriage based on mutual weirdness. “My husband and I mutually hate everyone else. It’s the best relationship I’ve ever been in,” Kacie wrote. “My husband is weird, so am I. We made four weird kids,” Megan added. “When something weird or funny happens to me, I can’t WAIT to call or text my husband to share it with him. Been happily married for almost 30 years,” Pharmtech commented.

marriage, couples, happy couples, marriage advice, good marriages, couple on beachA couple taking a selfie.via Canva/Photos

Some also noted that even though Suess may have some thoughtful things to say about love, he wasn’t the most incredible husband. "Unfortunately, Dr. Seuss is a terrible role model for marriage," Missy wrote.

Ultimately, as people age passion will wane in the relationship. Couples who have all the money in the world can still be miserable. Children may bring joy in the long run, but they can make marriage more stressful. But breaking a couple up is hard when their foundation is built on true friendship.

“And that's what a happy marriage is. It's the highest form of friendship,” de Medeiros ends his video. “It's finding someone who feels like your best buddy, like the person you wanna have around you all the time. The person you can't live without. That's what makes a happy marriage, being best friends.”

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Science

The 'world's slowest experiment,' going for nearly 100 years, is still endlessly fascinating

It takes nearly a decade for one drop of this liquid to fall.

upload.wikimedia.org

John Mainstone was the custodian of the Pitch Drop Experiment for 52 years.

Because we use water all the time, most of us have an intuitive sense of how long it takes a drop of water to form and fall. More viscous liquids, like oil or shampoo or honey, drop more slowly depending on how thick they are, which can vary depending on concentration, temperature and more. If you've ever tried pouring molasses, you know why it's used as a metaphor for something moving very slowly, but we can easily see a drop of any of those liquids form and fall in a matter of seconds.

But what about the most viscous substance in the world? How long does it take to form a falling drop? A few minutes? An hour? A day?

How about somewhere between 7 and 13 years?

pitch drop experiment, tar pitch, solid or liquid, physics, world's longest experimentPitch moves so slowly it can't be seen to be moving with the naked eye until it prepares to drop. Battery for size reference.John Mainstone/University of Queensland

The Pitch Drop Experiment began in 1927 with a scientist who had a hunch. Thomas Parnell, a physicist at the University of Queensland in Australia, believed that tar pitch, which appears to be a solid and shatters like glass when hit with a hammer at room temperature, is actually a liquid. So he set up an experiment that would become the longest-running—and the world's slowest—experiment on Earth to test his hypothesis.

Parnell poured molten pitch it into a funnel shaped container, then let it settle and cool for three years. That was just to get the experiment set up so it could begin. Then he opened a hole at the bottom of the funnel to see how long it would take for the pitch to ooze through it, form a droplet, and drop from its source.

It took eight years for the first drop to fall. Nine years for the second. Those were the only two drops Parnell was alive for before he passed away in 1948.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

In total, there have been nine pitch drops in the University of Queensland experiment. The first seven drops fell between 7 and 9 years apart, but when air conditioning was added to the building after the seventh drop, the amount of time between drops increased significantly. The drops in 2000 and 2014 happened approximately 13 years after the preceding one. (The funnel is set up as a demonstration with no special environmental controls, so the seasons and conditions of the building can easily affect the flow of the pitch.)

The next drop is anticipated to fall sometime in the 2020s.

pitch drop experiment, tar pitch, solid or liquid, physics, world's longest experimentThe first seven drops fell around 8 years apart. Then the building got air conditioning and the intervals changed to around 13 years.RicHard-59

Though Parnell proved his hypothesis well before the first drop even fell, the experiment continued to help scientists study and measure the viscosity of tar pitch. The thickest liquid substance in the world, pitch is estimated to be 2 million times more viscous than honey and 20 billion times the viscosity of water. No wonder it takes so ridiculously long to drop.

One of the most interesting parts of the Pitch Drop Experiment is that in the no one has ever actually witnessed one of the drops falling at the Queensland site. The drops, ironically, happen rather quickly when they do finally happen, and every time there was some odd circumstance that kept anyone from seeing them take place.

The Queensland pitch drop funnel is no longer the only one in existence, however. In 2013, Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, managed to capture its own pitch drop on camera. You can see how it looks as if nothing is happening right up until the final seconds when it falls.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Today, however, with the internet and modern technology, it's likely that many people will be able to witness the next drop when it happens. The University of Queensland has set up a livestream of the Pitch Drop Experiment, which you can access here, though watching the pitch move more slowly than the naked eye can detect is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

But one day, within a matter of seconds, it will drop, hopefully with some amount of predictability as to the approximate day at least. How many people are going to be watching a livestream for years, waiting for it to happen?

PoorJohn Mainstone was the custodian of the experiment for 52 years, from 1961 to 2013. Sadly, he never got to witness any of the five drops that took place during his tenure. Neither did Parnell himself with the two that took place while he was alive.

John Mainstone, pitch drop experiment, university of queensland, physicsJohn Mainstone, the second custodian of the Pitch Drop Experiment, with the funnel in 1990.John Mainstone, University of Queensland

Sometimes science is looks like an explosive chemical reaction and sometimes it's a long game of waiting and observing at the speed of nature. And when it comes to pitch dripping through a funnel, the speed of nature is about as slow as it gets.


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Joy

Couple asked who ate more of their shared cookie. They got more than 50,000 responses.

“This isn’t a cookie anymore, it’s a math problem with emotional consequences.”

Photo credit: Canva

We've all been in this predicament, haven't we?

We all know that being in a relationship means having…er…getting to share everything with our partners, including sweet treats. However, just how much to share isn’t always straightforward.

After all, was this yummy snack designated for either of the two significant others, like a birthday cake situation? Who brought it home? How much does each person like this treat? Who got most of it the last time? These are all factors that could make splitting it 50/50 not all that fair in the long run.

One wife found herself in a bit of a dessert dilemma and sought the advice of strangers online to determine whether or not she ate more than her fair share of a cookie, as her husband accused.

Admitting that she cut the cookie horribly—her love of crunchy edges may or may not have gotten her “carried away”—the wife shared a picture that contained a red outline of the full cookie, with a cross in the middle, and the chocolate chip triangle that was left after she cut into it.


I cut it horribly and now my husband says I ate more than half of the cookie - how much did I really eat?
byu/virrrrr29 inmildlyinfuriating


While this was clearly a very wholesome debate, folks (nearly 60K folks, to be exact) took this cookie quandary incredibly seriously.

"This isn't a cookie anymore, it's a math problem with emotional consequences. Would you agree?" one person wrote.

Tons of folks shared screenshots of their own calculation, moving pieces around to get as “accurate” as possible. One person (dubbed a 'professional cookie measurer' by the readers) even used Photoshop to retrace the shape and wrote code to compare the pixels of instant cookie to eaten cookie. That’s the Internet put to good use.

ask reddit, cookies, sharing food with partner, relationships, marriage humor, marriage, best cookie recipe, funnySerious measurements.preview.redd.it


Comment
byu/virrrrr29 from discussion
inmildlyinfuriating


ask reddit, cookies, sharing food with partner, relationships, marriage humor, marriage, best cookie recipe, funnyGetting closer to the truth.preview.redd.it


Comment
byu/virrrrr29 from discussion
inmildlyinfuriating


People generally agree that the wife ate somewhere between 45-48% of the cookie. So, not quite a full half, but very, very close to crossing the line. However, a few thought there were other ways of avoiding the issue.

"For the love of God, next time, either: A) PROPERLY cut the damn cookie in half, not like a maniac or B) get more than two damn cookies.” (Though I’d argue that they’d still run into this problem with the last shared cookie, no matter how many they got).

“Just eat the rest of the cookie.”

“Eat the rest of the cookie and just gaslight him ‘huh? what cookie? There was no cookie, what are you talking about?’"

“The rule of fairness is that one person cuts it in half, the other picks the half they want.”

To this, another person echoed, “Divider-Chooser method is best. One person cuts. The other picks first. This makes the cut person more honest with making a 50/50 split. The other person gets to pick first in case they feel one side is better than the other.”

And then there were the comments that fell int a category of their own for humor alone:

“You ate a Pac-Man worth.”

“Nice Try Mrs Henderson! I STILL refuse to use geometry in my day-to-day life!”

“What kind of psychopath cuts a sharing cookie this way?”

In relationships, fights over really insignificant things can indicate larger underlying issues of not feeling understood or appreciated. Other times, partners are simply having fun. When your only “fight” is over precise cookie measurements, you’re doing pretty well.

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Joy

Teen opens his first paycheck from McDonald's and his reaction is so relatable

There's nothing like the pride of that first paycheck.

u/ExactlySorta/Reddit

A teen was elated getting his first paycheck from McDonald's.

There are certain moments and milestones in life that hit harder than others. There are the biggies, of course—graduations, weddings, births, etc.—but there are also the smaller-but-still-significant ones that mark when you officially cross a threshold into a whole new stage of life.

A mom captured one of those moments on video as her teen son opened his first paycheck from his job at McDonald's.

The video shared on Reddit shows a teen in a McDonald's hat sitting in the passenger seat of a car opening an envelope that contained his paycheck. His mom said it should be "200-and something" dollars, and after a hilariously long struggle to open the envelope (Gen Z have rarely, if ever, snail mailed, so no judgment), he looks over the check stub to get the full picture.

"That's $283," he says in astonishment. To his credit, he asks "After tax, what's that?" not realizing that the amount of the check is the after-tax take home amount. His smile and laughter says it all.

Watch:

"Let's take it to the bank, then!" Heck yeah, kid.

People are fondly remembering their own first paychecks

Many viral videos of first paycheck reveals include complaints about how much is taken out in taxes, so it's refreshing to see this young man's joy at his after-tax pay. It was a beautiful moment to capture on film, as most of us remember that feeling of empowerment that came with our own first real paychecks.

People in the comments are feeling the nostalgia:

"I remember that feeling - pretty sweet to see money you earned yourself. Feels good earning your own cash."

"God that first paycheck felt so unreal. I will never forget you ace hardware."

"I remember my first paycheck was for like $300 after two weeks of being a counselor and I felt RICH. I immediately spent it all on a guitar that I still have 20 years later."

"I remember mine - from my first proper job. £64.29 in a little brown packet with holes in it to see the cash inside. 1980. 😂"

"My first “paycheck” was like $65, I was so proud. I took my mom to pizzeria to treat her and she was very very touched."

"Man… I remember my first paycheck… 23 years ago now. For two weeks of what limited hours I could work being 14 years old… that baby was $96.19! HO-LY smokes was I on cloud 9. Cashed it right there at work and bought myself a bag of Skittles. It was a good day."

first paycheck, milestone, adulthood, working, accomplishment That first paycheck feeling. Image via Canva.

Ah, to be young and unencumbered by adult expenses

Part of what makes this endearing is the innocence of it. As a teen, he's not worried about affording a mortgage or groceries or diapers or retirement savings. His elation over making $283 is adorable because he's just starting down the path of adulthood. Soon enough, that paycheck will seem small, but he's not there yet.

Such is the "first paycheck joy," that TikTok is rife with adorable videos of young people opening their first paychecks after working their first real jobs.

@fuck3n_andre

Taco Bell on me 😭 I was fully expecting like $200😂 #fypage #firstjob #job #first #firstpaycheck #fyp #foryoupage #viral

When you're a kid, money is kind of an abstract concept. Maybe you get a small allowance or get paid a few bucks for odd jobs, and opening a birthday card with some cash in it is exciting. It's not until you're fully into the working world for a while that the regular flow of money and what it means for your life really sinks in.

It's not until you're a fully independent adult that you really grasp how relative your feelings about your paycheck can be. There's a big difference between being a 16-year-old getting your first paycheck and being a 30-year-old trying to raise a family on wages that don't cover all your needs. Things like cost-of-living and inflation start to actually mean something as you get older and experience their impact. You might find that you can make a lot more money and yet feel poorer than ever as expenses pile up into adulthood.

paycheck, working, making money, growing up, moneyIt's all relative.i.giphy.com

Don't we all wish we could go back to the hopeful, happy days of making our first real chunk of money before all of those grown-up concerns arose? That simple sense of pride in having worked hard and earned something. The excitement of being able to pay for something you want yourself. The sense of freedom that comes with those early earnings. We see and feel all of that in this teen's bright smile, and it's glorious.

He may not realize how different he might feel opening his paychecks down the road, but there's no need to tell him yet. He'll find out soon enough, as we all have, so let's just let him enjoy this moment of bliss. He's earned it.

This article originally appeared last year.

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