2016–2019

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2016–2019

Childrens Hospital
The very clever Adult Swim short offers a devastating(ly accurate?) portrayal of Vassar a cappella.

Veep
The wonderful, high-velocity satire of our political system opened its fifth season with a great Vassar joke. Knowing the characters makes it funnier but it stands well on its own.


Casual
A comedy-drama about a divorced woman dealing with her wastrel rich brother living with her after his life crashes. Vassar as character point only.


Genius
This film came and went without much notice but has a great cast and focuses on Thomas Wolfe's time in New York around publisher Maxwell Perkins, and authors F. Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Wolfe. Here Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald speak briefly about their daughter Frances ('42 represent).


American Housewife
Another tired sitcom, but something of a...random...Vassar joke. If you can figure it out, leave a comment.
Thanks to Stephanie Burkland for the tip.


Good Girls Revolt
This show focuses on women clawing a place for themselves in the male-dominated industry of news, in the 1960s. Vassar as character point, for a smart and hardworking young woman.
Thanks to Scott Mendelsohn '93 for the catch.


Being Mary Jane
This BET drama about a news anchor in Atlanta and her romantic entanglements asserts a Vassar -going daughter to someone with a hoity-toity accent.


Brockmire
This IFC show follows a major league baseball announcer who destroyed his career after having an on-air meltdown, and washes up in a small town calling games for the Morristown Frackers.  The team intern has some modest success at burnishing his social-media profile, which leads to attracting a new and different crowd to hear him at the game than they're accustomed to, and a pretty decent Vassar joke.

Thanks to Naomi Heftler '95 for the heads up.


Rachel Bloom Stand-Up: Cake Farts
A stand-up bit from comedian Rachel Bloom, with Vassar appearing in an original song.

Thanks to Scott Mendelsohn '93 for this one too.


Doe
This 2018 film -- not sure where/how it was released, doesn't seem to have played in theaters -- finds a man who wakes up with no memory of who he is but has a savant like affinity for languages. He ends up meeting others who also woke up with no memory but have a similar savant-like gift -- for painting, music, math, different things. He's on his way to get info on one of them, and lies to his girlfriend (or wife?) about where he's going.


American Horror Story (4 episodes)
The anthology horror series' 7th season is set against the backdrop of the 2016 election (a horror story indeed). Vassar appears a few times as a character point for a lead and her friends.

Thanks to Jason Marin '96 for flagging this.


Once Upon a Time
Fantasy show with storybook characters living in the real world. Not real sure what a 'foam party' in Phuket is and I'm afraid to google it, but here you go.


The Alienist
Set in the late 19th-century, a psychological thriller based on the popular novel, calls in the help of a psychologist, who confronts the curiously steampunk secretary to the police.


Madam Secretary
Secretary of State and her husband consider college options for their horny, anarchist son.


The Resident

I don't even know anymore.

High Maintenance (2 episodes)
Here's a side of our campus culture we haven't seen much of in these clips, from a stoner comedy. The latter episode takes place in and around Poughkeepsie, when people come back together for a funeral.

Thanks to Sarah Krasnow '05 for the catch.


The Spy Who Dumped Me
This clip from the 2018 comedy starring Kate McKinnon and Mila Kunis finds Mila having just been told by the FBI that her douche-y ex-boyfriend was in fact a CIA spy (who in earlier scenes is running away from bad guys trying to kill him). They've been making fun of him and his habit of cataloguing breakfast burritos, and this scene reveals a new quirk with a Vassar joke. 

The Goldbergs
Another sitcom, another random reference. I think with all of these it's just that Vassar is a funny-sounding word. Funnier than Amherst, anyway.

Second Act
A Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy finds her getting a corporate job because a friend doctored her resume. Here on her first day, she meets her two assistants. 


Billy on the Street
In the depths of our dark days, Billy Eichner tries to find some inspiration on the streets of New York with Lin-Manuel Miranda...but some New Yorkers inexplicably don't know who he is. Billy's description of Lin is...curiously perfect? 

Thanks to Rachel Ferat '96 for the tip.

Life Like
Two bored rich people bring an android into their home to help around the house and the wife...wants to discuss literature with it. I don't think this Vassar reference is meant to be funny (the movie is perilously humorless) but these two are super douchey and I find the Vassar reference hilarious. 


The Good Fight
The popular Trump-era legal show tackles sexual harassment on a Bachelor-like reality show.


Marvel's Runaways 
A superheroes show -- not worth detailing much about the characters, just a fairly standard, weak-sauce beta-male-at-Vassar joke. 


Younger (2 episodes)
Teacher-student relationships make an appearance on this popular sitcom. And in one of the last episodes of the series, there's quite an extensive section about Vassar, featuring alums, a fictional a cappella group, and the (not fictional) Spirit of Vassar Award.  

Infinity Train
Sort of a riff on Snowpiercer, this Cartoon Network series of shorts follows Tulip, a 12-year-old game designer as she goes from car to car -- each one differently themed -- in a seemingly endless train traveling through a barren landscape. This episode finds her watching a tape given to her by a cat that takes her through her memories, but then the memories start changing. A fine and funny Vassar characterization becomes part of her journey.

American Princess (4 episodes)
This weak Lifetime sitcom is centered on another wealthy, Jewish Vassar graduate protagonist (see UnREAL), here described as an "Upper East Side socialite", ditching her fiance at the altar on discovering he's been cheating, escaping into the country and ending up stranded at a Renaissance Fair. In this first season, Vassar is repeatedly set as her background (though she's written as a bit dimwitted) as she decides to join up with the Fair on a more permanent basis.



The Politician
It goes a little fast, but there's a bit of snark about the type of person who goes to Vassar in this oddball Netflix show.

Modern Love
Actual Vassar matriculate Anne Hathaway plays a manic depressive who went to Vassar, and details her illness in this stylized walk through her life, in this Amazon original based on actual letters from the New York Times column.


The Kominsky Method
Alan Arkin, playing a successful Hollywood agent, laments the path of his extended family.


Mrs. Fletcher
The HBO limited series on Tom Perrotta's novel in part follows a vapid college freshman figuring his way in the world and with women. Here he meets his college counselor for the first time and we get a new entrant in the world of odd Vassar men.  
Thanks to Sean Dacey for the tip.


Morning Show
Vassar is showing up in almost every show released on a streaming platform in 2019...here we are discussing coming forward about an accusation of sexual harassment behind the scenes of a morning news television program. 


A Rainy Day In New York

Woody Allen's straight-to-video 2019 feature has this uncomfortable scene with Timothée Chalamet running into a former high school classmate and reminiscing about their peers. 

Schooled
This sitcom--a spinoff of The Goldbergs, which also has a Vassar reference--features Tim Meadows making some rather unlovely statements about students at the "Vassar Graduate School of Education."


Continue to:
Page One: 1920s & 1930s
Page Two: 1940s
Page Three: 1950s
Page Four: 1960s
Page Five: 1970s
Page Six: 1980s
Page Seven: 1990s
Page Eight: 2000–2002
Page Nine: 2003–2005
Page Ten: 2006–2009
Page Eleven: 2010–2012
Page Twelve: 2013–2015
Page Fourteen: 2020–2022
Page Fifteen: 2023–

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