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Jam

 Jam
type
TVTItem
 Jam
label
Jam
 Jam
page
Jam
 Jam
comment
Jam was a very dark Sketch Comedy show created by Chris Morris of The Day Today and Brass Eye. The show employed a unique combination of filming techniques and electronic/ambient music to convey a disturbing, acid trip-like feel — and a complete disregard for taboo topics, including literal dead babies.The show was a televised adaptation of Morris' BBC Radio 1 series Blue Jam. There were no ad breaks, no laugh tracks, and not even any opening or closing credits. At least one memorable piece per episode was "filmed" with security cameras.Notable sketches include: A deranged mother hires a plumber to repair her dead baby son to working order. A man calls out a Professional Killer who turns out to be a six-year-old girl. A woman gets so desperate to make friends that she dresses as a police officer, lies to a mother that her son has died, and invites her to the theatre that same evening while she's still grieving. A doctor treats his patients in ridiculous ways. Mr. Ventham visits his expensive therapist Mr. Reilly only to get obvious advice. A suicidal man jumps off a one-story drop forty times, just in case he changes his mind.If you were looking for the post-apocalyptic novel of the same name by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, then you can find it here.
 Jam
fetched
2023-07-28T03:16:56Z
 Jam
parsed
2023-07-28T03:16:56Z
 Jam
processingComment
Dropped link to TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
 Jam
processingUnknown
TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour
 Jam
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Jam / int_1282bf4f
type
No Celebrities Were Harmed
 Jam / int_1282bf4f
comment
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Averted, as is Morris' style. A fake Kilroy is shown to have gone insane and is running around naked in a shopping centre, urinating on a window containing a television displaying his face. Fake Richard Madeley is shown beating up an innocent cleaner and having sex with a coffee machine.
 Jam / int_1282bf4f
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-1.0
 Jam / int_1282bf4f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_1282bf4f
 Jam / int_1f799027
type
Obstructive Bureaucrat
 Jam / int_1f799027
comment
Obstructive Bureaucrat: "Mr. Lizard", who installs a television in a couples' home which inexplicably begins spewing lizards, then denies all responsibility - suggesting that the cable company are sending the lizards down the wire while repeating "it's nothing to do with me" and taunting the pair.
 Jam / int_1f799027
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_1f799027
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_1f799027
 Jam / int_21d70919
type
Crapsack World
 Jam / int_21d70919
comment
Crapsack World: The Britain portrayed in the show seems to be a place of relentless misery, mental illness, surreal insanity and death. Almost every character we meet is deranged and even banal aspects of life are either sinister or inexplicably weird.
 Jam / int_21d70919
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1.0
 Jam / int_21d70919
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_21d70919
 Jam / int_222dc873
type
Black Comedy
 Jam / int_222dc873
comment
Black Comedy: Very much so. Very, very much so. The sketch about the dead baby mentioned above is actually one of the show's lighter moments in comparison with some sketches.
 Jam / int_222dc873
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_222dc873
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_222dc873
 Jam / int_40d6724
type
Sound-to-Screen Adaptation
 Jam / int_40d6724
comment
Sound-to-Screen Adaptation: Many sketches were directly taken from Morris's radio show Blue Jam. Some of them clearly used the original recording with the actors miming to the lines, giving an even more unsettling feel to the scene.
 Jam / int_40d6724
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_40d6724
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_40d6724
 Jam / int_4c851777
type
Black Comedy Rape
 Jam / int_4c851777
comment
Black Comedy Rape: A woman thinks her partner's cheating on her, but he states he was "just" raping the woman he had been seen with. So it's okay. In the sketch where the couple are discussing their fantasies, one of which involves her having sex with her husband after he pretends to have been gang-raped.
 Jam / int_4c851777
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_4c851777
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 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_4c851777
 Jam / int_4fc0aaa7
type
Makes Just as Much Sense in Context
 Jam / int_4fc0aaa7
comment
Makes Just as Much Sense in Context
 Jam / int_4fc0aaa7
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1.0
 Jam / int_4fc0aaa7
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_4fc0aaa7
 Jam / int_50b05d30
type
Disproportionate Retribution
 Jam / int_50b05d30
comment
Disproportionate Retribution: A guy eating in a restaurant with a friend violently beats his companion to death for having the nerve to ... break the poppadoms so they'd be easier to eat.
 Jam / int_50b05d30
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_50b05d30
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_50b05d30
 Jam / int_545cade8
type
Production Posse
 Jam / int_545cade8
comment
Production Posse: Mark Heap, Kevin Eldon, Amelia Bullmore, Julia Davis and David Cann, who have all worked on several of Morris' other projects.
 Jam / int_545cade8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_545cade8
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_545cade8
 Jam / int_5f91efd9
type
Creative Closing Credits
 Jam / int_5f91efd9
comment
Creative Closing Credits: Instead of closing credits, every episode ended with a title card simply reading www.jamcredits.com. The site was accordingly updated in 2003 to include credits for the DVD release.
 Jam / int_5f91efd9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_5f91efd9
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_5f91efd9
 Jam / int_606244c2
type
Parental Incest
 Jam / int_606244c2
comment
Parental Incest: Played for Laughs with the mother of a child who apparently has a gay friend. Whilst the father has sex with the friend to keep him away from their son, she has sex with her son (in disguise as a "younger lady", who he thinks is a prostitute) "to keep him interested in ladies."
 Jam / int_606244c2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_606244c2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_606244c2
 Jam / int_6498291e
type
BoysLove
 Jam / int_6498291e
comment
Boys' Love: Subverted with the men kissing in the pub. When they tell their wives they've found something out about each other, the women brush it off.
 Jam / int_6498291e
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Jam / int_6498291e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_6498291e
 Jam / int_653c5c73
type
Cannot Spit It Out
 Jam / int_653c5c73
comment
Cannot Spit It Out: The security guard whose stutter prevents him from warning others about the broken elevator, causing many people to fall down the empty shaft and die.
 Jam / int_653c5c73
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_653c5c73
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_653c5c73
 Jam / int_664bc28f
type
British Brevity
 Jam / int_664bc28f
comment
British Brevity: Consists of one series of just six episodes.
 Jam / int_664bc28f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_664bc28f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_664bc28f
 Jam / int_6d332aea
type
Driven to Suicide
 Jam / int_6d332aea
comment
Driven to Suicide: The suicidal man who decides to jump a one-foot drop 40 times (rather than a 40-foot drop once) in case he changes his mind. One of the opening sequences shows a man who attempts suicide in a car park only for his plans to be ruined by another car unexpectedly crashing into his.
 Jam / int_6d332aea
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_6d332aea
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_6d332aea
 Jam / int_727a65e0
type
Gaslighting
 Jam / int_727a65e0
comment
Gaslighting: The mechanics in the "Shrunken Car" sketch, who insist that they haven't done anything to their client's car - despite the fact it's only 4 feet long and 2'6" tall. The client is quite incensed by this.
 Jam / int_727a65e0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_727a65e0
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_727a65e0
 Jam / int_7315fd38
type
Covers Always Lie
 Jam / int_7315fd38
comment
Covers Always Lie: The DVD cover for the show pictures an unconscious man in a tracksuit outfit lying on the ground while a distressed woman (presumably the man's wife) is pleading to two ambulance workers, one male and one female, who both look apathetic while smoking cigarettes and drinking beer, to save the man's life, while a police man is seen in the background laughing at what is happening. Unfortunately, this never once occurs in the show. It does give a good idea of the often twisted nature that is the show’s sense of humor though.
 Jam / int_7315fd38
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_7315fd38
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_7315fd38
 Jam / int_7ab37e1
type
Miss Conception
 Jam / int_7ab37e1
comment
Miss Conception: The obviously heavily pregnant woman who visits a doctor asking for acne cream, because she thinks her swollen stomach is just a pimple. She and her husband refuse to believe she's pregnant, and laugh at the idea in the face of all evidence; the doctor gets tired of them, agrees with them that it's just a pimple after all and prescribes them something that either does nothing or just flat out causes her to miscarry, having decided that they'd be horrible parents anyway.
 Jam / int_7ab37e1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_7ab37e1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_7ab37e1
 Jam / int_8a55a1d4
type
In Love with Love
 Jam / int_8a55a1d4
comment
In Love with Love: parodied in a sketch about a middle-aged man who, having never achieved his goal of finding someone to marry, decides to marry himself. He reveals at the end that he's since dated several women he would have liked to marry, but it's a bit too late for that now ...
 Jam / int_8a55a1d4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_8a55a1d4
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_8a55a1d4
 Jam / int_9186eded
type
Helicopter Parents
 Jam / int_9186eded
comment
Helicopter Parents: One sketch was based around a couple talking about how they got their daughter into a competitive school by handing out booze, drugs and pornography to the other children applying. Another involved CCTV footage of a children's party where a mother snaps and violently attacks the kids (and their parents) after her child loses a game of musical chairs.
 Jam / int_9186eded
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_9186eded
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_9186eded
 Jam / int_9ae85487
type
Dr. Jerk
 Jam / int_9ae85487
comment
Dr. Jerk: David Cann's recurring doctor character is portrayed as being extremely unhelpful and eccentric, and has once prescribed mother's younger daughter a pound of heroin.
 Jam / int_9ae85487
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_9ae85487
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_9ae85487
 Jam / int_9b5a308c
type
Crocodile Tears
 Jam / int_9b5a308c
comment
Crocodile Tears: Used in one sketch where a man reprimands his maid for using a tiny vacuum cleaner (which looks more like it belongs in a doll house) - resulting in her taking two full days to vacuum the whole house. When he tries to ask her not to use it, she bursts into floods of tears, manipulating him into letting her use the vacuum cleaner and a duster the size of a postage stamp.
 Jam / int_9b5a308c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_9b5a308c
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_9b5a308c
 Jam / int_a188ac4b
type
Overly Long Gag
 Jam / int_a188ac4b
comment
Overly-Long Gag: a couple.
 Jam / int_a188ac4b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_a188ac4b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_a188ac4b
 Jam / int_a1a1491e
type
Homage
 Jam / int_a1a1491e
comment
Homage: the "casual parents" sketch is a homage to a Victoria Wood sketch where the parents of a teenage professional swimmer are totally unconcerned after she doesn't return from an attempt to swim the English Channel.
 Jam / int_a1a1491e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_a1a1491e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_a1a1491e
 Jam / int_a1d48853
type
Stupid Crooks
 Jam / int_a1d48853
comment
Stupid Crooks: This sketch features a man holding up a convenience store in order to buy a pack of cigarettes. Apparently, the gun he points at the store clerk was to make sure that he got back change. The clerk tells the man with the gun that he doesn't need to pay for the cigarettes, and the man thinks of this as some sort of unexpected thrill. Not to mention this guy who tries to hold up an off license with a gun hidden in his stomach which he fires... out through his own spine, killing himself and the woman behind him in the queue. Or this bungled convenience store hold up where the would-be antagonist forgets to bring the axe he was meant to be threatening people with (which he had brought with him on previous trips to said store).
 Jam / int_a1d48853
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_a1d48853
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_a1d48853
 Jam / int_a484ef6c
type
Sensory Abuse
 Jam / int_a484ef6c
comment
Sensory Abuse: While some sketches were quietly dull, a few were full of it. The 'Robert Kilroy Silk' sketch featured a lookalike of Kilroy experiencing a nervous breakdown in a supermarket, accompanied by dramatic, tribal music, while an alarm repeatedly beeps in the background. It ends with a looped clip of the real Kilroy calmly saying 'Take care of each other', which gradually turns into atonal droning.
 Jam / int_a484ef6c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_a484ef6c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_a484ef6c
 Jam / int_a54534a0
type
Parental Neglect
 Jam / int_a54534a0
comment
Parental Neglect: Played for Laughs with a couple who realise one evening that their kid hasn't come home from school. They wonder what to do about it, make a phone call and find out that he got into someone's car, but nobody's sure whose. They decide he was "probably" going to a friend's house, and go back to reading the paper. In a couple of follow-on sketches they become vaguely aware that nobody's seen their kid for days, and eventually they get a phone call from the police, who've discovered their son's body. They thank the police for sorting the whole thing out, and go back to reading the paper. The only time they show a hint of emotion is when they become mildly annoyed that they are expected to bury him themselves.
 Jam / int_a54534a0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_a54534a0
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_a54534a0
 Jam / int_a71980f8
type
Surreal Theme Tune
 Jam / int_a71980f8
comment
Surreal Theme Tune: No real theme tune, but every episode would begin with Chris Morris delivering a rambling monologue that had seemingly little to do with the show, and ending with "Then welcome... in Jaaaammmm"; see page quote.
 Jam / int_a71980f8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_a71980f8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_a71980f8
 Jam / int_b04fdcc4
type
Loners Are Freaks
 Jam / int_b04fdcc4
comment
Loners Are Freaks: one sketch features a woman who deliberately causes accidents and does other upsetting things so she can spend time with the people she's hurt/upset, with the implication that nobody else will do so. Several sketches about Mr. Ventham, a socially awkward man who visits an expensive therapist for advice on trivial everyday problems (such as losing his wallet or not knowing what to do on Saturday night) because he is so isolated he has no idea what to do about them on his own.
 Jam / int_b04fdcc4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_b04fdcc4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_b04fdcc4
 Jam / int_b11ac9f5
type
Abusive Parents
 Jam / int_b11ac9f5
comment
Abusive Parents: The couple convinced their daughter is a 40-year-old man in a little girl's body, so they've fitted her with a penis and testicles themselves.
 Jam / int_b11ac9f5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_b11ac9f5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_b11ac9f5
 Jam / int_b1a846a9
type
Absurdity Ascendant
 Jam / int_b1a846a9
comment
Absurdity Ascendant
 Jam / int_b1a846a9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_b1a846a9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_b1a846a9
 Jam / int_bef696dd
type
Mind Screw
 Jam / int_bef696dd
comment
Mind Screw: Look at the examples above and tell me I'm wrong.
 Jam / int_bef696dd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_bef696dd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_bef696dd
 Jam / int_c0e3994b
type
Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male
 Jam / int_c0e3994b
comment
Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Not sure whether it's been played straight or subverted in the sketch where a woman beguiles a man into groping her, culminating in him being arrested for sexual assault... with mutual consent.
 Jam / int_c0e3994b
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Jam / int_c0e3994b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_c0e3994b
 Jam / int_c601fc37
type
Professional Killer
 Jam / int_c601fc37
comment
Professional Killer: subverted with the six-year-old "cleaner"
 Jam / int_c601fc37
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Jam / int_c601fc37
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_c601fc37
 Jam / int_ce104b8e
type
Serial Escalation
 Jam / int_ce104b8e
comment
Serial Escalation: "Shit your leg off! Make it green!"
 Jam / int_ce104b8e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_ce104b8e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_ce104b8e
 Jam / int_e2f13529
type
World of Jerkass
 Jam / int_e2f13529
comment
World of Jerkass: Just about every character in Jam is anything but the kind of person you'd ever want to come across in real life.
 Jam / int_e2f13529
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_e2f13529
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1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_e2f13529
 Jam / int_e4c89b67
type
Attending Your Own Funeral
 Jam / int_e4c89b67
comment
Attending Your Own Funeral: The sketch where a middle-aged man decides to be buried alive rather than die in his old age, and sits up in the coffin to enjoy his own funeral before the burial service takes place.
 Jam / int_e4c89b67
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_e4c89b67
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1.0
 Jam
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Jam / int_e4c89b67
 Jam / int_e4deee07
type
DVD Bonus Content
 Jam / int_e4deee07
comment
DVD Bonus Content: mercilessly mocked with the DVD release. The "extras" include a "play all at once" feature (which yields stills from all six episodes, the Thames Television fanfare and the word "WHY?"... as well as a bona fide, if rather odd, bonus scene), an option for "Undeleted Scenes" which merely tells you to go down to the shop you got the DVD from and complain loudly and profanely about the DVD not having any undeleted scenes, and a version of each episode that has been digitally altered in such a way as to make it entirely unwatchable (for example, shrunk down to a tiny size and bouncing around the screen.)
 Jam / int_e4deee07
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_e4deee07
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
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Jam / int_e4deee07
 Jam / int_ef92caa4
type
World Gone Mad
 Jam / int_ef92caa4
comment
World Gone Mad: The entire universe the show is set in seems to be filled to the brim with deranged weirdos and people with severe mental illnesses.
 Jam / int_ef92caa4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_ef92caa4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_ef92caa4
 Jam / int_fc1ee7d5
type
Deadly Doctor
 Jam / int_fc1ee7d5
comment
Deadly Doctor: The one who identified the condition of symptomless coma. Sufferers appear to be just like anybody else, walking and talking, but are actually in deep, untreatable comas. Expect euthanasia.
 Jam / int_fc1ee7d5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Jam / int_fc1ee7d5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Jam
hasFeature
Jam / int_fc1ee7d5
 Jam / int_fdbd6162
type
With Friends Like These...
 Jam / int_fdbd6162
comment
With Friends Like These...: The parents oblivious to their son's disappearance are eventually told that his body was found, and one of their friends has confessed to the murder. They shrug it off and resolve to just "have a word" with their friend the next time they see him.
 Jam / int_fdbd6162
featureApplicability
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 Jam / int_fdbd6162
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 Jam
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Jam / int_fdbd6162
 Jam / int_name
type
ItemName
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 Jam / int_name
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 Jam
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Jam / int_name
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Jam

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Jam
hasFeature
Attending Your Own Funeral / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Black Comedy Rape / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
British Humour / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Credits Pushback / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Education Mama / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Elevator Failure / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Horror Comedy / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Innocent Inaccurate / int_cac2138f
 Jam
seeAlso
Jam
 KeyAndPeele
seeAlso
Jam
 Jam
hasFeature
Makes Just as Much Sense in Context / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
No Theme Tune / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Parental Neglect / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Quirky Work / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Sound-to-Screen Adaptation / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Stupid Crooks / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Tongue-Tied / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Too Dumb to Fool / int_cac2138f
 Jam
hasFeature
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior / int_cac2138f