Broke-Ass Porn: Mary Cherry

Popular. You probably don’t know about this show because only 12 people watched it when it first aired in 1999, but Popular is a quintessential teen drama series that everyone should see. It’s about these two girls who are nemeses; Brooke McQueen captains the cheerleading team and rules the school, and Sam McPherson has brown hair and writes angsty prose for the school’s newspaper. Their parents get married and they have to learn how to get along, and yadda yadda whatever. The details here are unimportant because the premise that was sold to the WB is not actually what makes this show so profoundly good. What does make it good is Brooke McQueen’s sidekick, imminent celebrity explosion Mary Cherry.

Mary Cherry is by far show creator Ryan Murphy’s best creative effort. (Murphy is also responsible for the shows Nip/Tuck and Glee, as well as the bummerfest that was the film adaptation of Running With Scissors.) Whereas his current teen show Glee tends to take itself a bit too seriously at times and really seeks to teach some sort of lesson every episode, Popular is just balls to the wall insanity. Mary Cherry is the driving force of this show, and even though she’s described as a “callow, greedy, retarded person,” she is my personal hero. Someone on Youtube compiled a series of four videos splicing together some choice moments (the first one you can find here), but I highly suggest you do yourself a favor and get a bootlegged copy of the entire series on DVD.

Honorably mention goes to minor character April Tuna. My favorite episode is when she makes an X-rated film entitled, Raw Tuna. You should check that out too.