Culture The Oscars last went hostless in 1989. It ruined a man’s career “More than a billion and a half people just watched that. And at this very moment they’re trying to make sense of it.” By Ed Jefferson
Culture “Lord of the Rings is racist about orcs” is not an important new front in the Culture War By Ed Jefferson
Business and Finance Are budget airlines really charging families to sit with their own children? By Ed Jefferson
Culture Five foods that are definitely in crisis because my millennial family won’t eat them By Ed Jefferson
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America is a fitting metaphor for the US, but unsatisfying TV The prankster’s new show sees him don some elaborate prosthetics to ostensibly get the bottom of American identity in 2018. By Ed Jefferson
Protesting via the charts: Trump the “American Idiot” and other iTunes activism hits From Rage against the Machine’s Christmas number one heist, to mourning Thatcher with “Ding Dong! The Witch is dead”. By Ed Jefferson
How (not) to write a sequel to Lord of the Rings Dwarf FAQs, Sauron truthers and wizards reincarnated as dogs: the increasingly strange attempts to give Lord of the Rings… By Ed Jefferson
A celebration of 70 years of Walkers trying to sell you crisps in truly bizarre ways From Frank Spencer to Gary Lineker, and Gary Lineker, and Gary Lineker. By Ed Jefferson
How a 17th century war, the Queen and a desperate Swiss TV executive led to Eurovision No wonder that nothing that happens at Eurovision ever makes much sense. By Ed Jefferson
Nine ways to keep The Wright Stuff going without Matthew Wright Do not fear, Channel Five. By Ed Jefferson
No, China isn’t Black Mirror – social credit scores are more complex and sinister than that In China and elsewhere, the implied threat isn’t the tyranny of the crowd, but state and corporate power. By Ed Jefferson
Westworld tricked its fans with a spoiler prank – but is the show even worth spoiling? It could be argued that if all a television show has going for it is suspense, it hasn’t got very… By Ed Jefferson