Afternoon Meme: "Glee" Soars, "Shrek" Gets Fashionable, Art and the Pope, and a Comic-Con Toy Preview

Plus, we engage Stupid Fight and lose, Cagelle photos, waking Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Onion Sports Network is born.

Glee outperformed all expectations last night and jumped 50% in the ratings from the last time it hadAmerican Idol as a lead in. All in all it held onto 77% of the Idol audience.

First SyFy picks up yet more wrestling shows, now Comedy Central has picked up a sports series. Granted, it’s The Onion Sports Network, so I’d be expecting more giggles than analysis.

Speaking of fake news and sports, Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers is going to host this year’s ESPY Awards. I can’t imagine putting him in the same room with Tiger Woods unless both go through a metal detector.

For unknown reasons, there’s another animated show coming to television about underworld demons living amongst ordinary people. This is on TBS and is called Neighbors From Hell. It features actual neighbors who moved in from hell, where Satan tortures people with endless reruns of bad television. Sounds like working for AfterElton.com on the Bravo beat.

Malta has a roadside totem sculpture that resembles a giant blue peen, and some people think it should be taken down before the Pope comes to visit, since it’s on the way from the airport.

Much like a gun buyback program, a New York group is offering a voucher for your sugary soda, good at the local farmers' market. You can get a $6 voucher for turning in a 2-liter soda, so participating could turn into a profit making business. I can get a 2-liter Coke for $.99 right now at Krogers if I buy ten. 

With the Stupid Fight, you can plug in two Twitter handles to determine which two celebrities have the dumber followers based largely on misspellings and text-speak in their replies to the stars. I plugged in @AfterEllen and @AfterElton for fun, and I’ve got bad news for our readers. The good news is Justin Bieber’s fans always come up as dumb as a box of rocks.

If Conan had gone with Fox instead of TBS, he would have been guaranteed hosting duties for the Emmy Awards when it came around, Oscar specials, football specials, and just about anything he felt like showing up for. What they couldn’t guarantee him was a nationwide timeslot.

Fox News is making a mockery of GLSEN’s National Day of Silence with lies in their headlines. Lies that they even contradict within the stories themselves.

A lawyer has crafted a message of limited support from the current cast of Desperate Housewives for Marc Cherry in his lawsuit with former castmate Nicolette Sheridan. 

Listed amongst the Top 10 TV Doctors of All Time are a young Neil Patrick Harris in Doogie Howser, M.D. There's a healthcare in America joke in there somewhere. Honorable mention went to The Simpsons Dr. Hibbert since he’s had the longest practice of any of them.

This grammar blog has invented a mythical creature for people to picture whenever they encounter “alot” in someone’s writing. It has a backstory, and illustrations.

Sexy Nick Adams' blogged these pictures from La Cage Aux Folles featuring the Cagelles in all their glory. I miss New York City at times.

The actual birdcage.

Silhouettes made sexy.

My understanding is that this is not a statue, it's a street performer who is insanely brave, or just insane.

The most brilliant McDonald's billboard in history - the sundial illuminates what they're serving.

VMan got permission from Dreamworks to Photoshop Shrek characters into a fashion shoot. After all, all publicity is good publicity, right? It turned out much sexier than Dreamworks intended. You should look at them all.

Puss is voiced by Antonio Banderas, right?

From the same shoot, I'm pretty sure this keeps Pat Robertson up at night.

This is real - and not awarded ironically.

And your daily (over)dose of cute.

This trailer for Nightmare on Elm Street freaks me out a little. It's built around the principle of "micro-naps" which we all experience after being up a few days, but the way it cuts back and forth from the steam to the dust from the baby powder is creepy.

I had not heard of Space Dogs 3D. I still don't know much about it, other than dogs are recruited to be acrobats, and they're an odd-couple of pampered and stray. But I love the animation style, which I know was done on the cheap but has a certain style.

Attack of the Show went to Mattel for a preview of their toys for San Diego Comic-Con. Featured are action figures based on Ghostbusters, Molarr vs. Skeletor (from the Robot Chicken parody of He-Man.) We also have an Orko with color-changing abilities and a really gay looking Prince Adam. Finally, I'm not a Justice League of America person, but the host seems really excited about the Starro the Conqueror playset.

E! caught up with the Glee cast members the other night, and they dished a little. Is it even possible that Mr. Schue ends up doing the nasty with Sue this year? How much alcohol is involved?