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Forgotten Buffy Episode Made History In the Worst Possible Way

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show that transformed pop culture forever while transforming some of its stars into household names. The show effectively made history, as evidenced by the many prestigious awards it won, including multiple Creative Arts Emmys and 10 Satellite Awards. However, one Buffy episode made history in the worst possible way: “The Puppet Show” was the series’ lowest-rated episode ever, and to make matters worse, it broke a franchise tradition by playing the credits alongside the final scene rather than separately.

Buffy And The Puppet Show

This is normally where we’d do a recap of the episode in question, but for Buffy fans, “The Puppet Show” is an episode that lives in infamy. It’s a bit of a bait-and-switch story in which Buffy and the Scoobies first believe that they must fight a walking, talking demonic puppet that sounds almost as creepy as he looks. It turns out, though, that he’s actually a demon hunter who has been cursed to live in the doll’s body until he completes a special task. Namely, hunting and killing each member of the brotherhood of seven demons. 

While Buffy fans think of “The Puppet Show” as (to put it mildly) a lesser episode, most don’t realize that it is the lowest-rated one of the entire series. In this case, “lowest-rated” is not a measurement of quality, though the episode does have a deservedly terrible reputation. For example, Rolling Stone ranked this episode as #127 in their big list of best-to-worst Buffy tales. That doesn’t sound so bad until you consider there are only 144 episodes, meaning that this one comes dangerously close to scraping the bottom of the barrel.

In this case, “lowest-rated” means instead that out of all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes, “The Puppet Show” was the one that was viewed the least when originally broadcast. According to the show’s Nielsen Ratings, only 1.9 million households tuned into this puppet misadventure when it was first broadcast. The “first broadcast” part is important because, as you might imagine, reruns invariably pull in fewer viewers than their first-run counterparts.

Buffy fans hate “The Puppet Show” for many reasons (including the bizarre plot and clunky dialogue), but it’s worth noting that it had less competition for lowest-rated episode than you might think. As the show got more popular in subsequent seasons, even really bad episodes (looking at you, Season 6!) would still have millions of viewers more than the average episodes. Ratings were lowest for Season 1, and “The Puppet Show” had the dubious honor of being the least-viewed episode in those tumultuous early days.

Speaking as longtime Buffy fans, we’re also annoyed that “The Puppet Show” made history in another negative way by running the end credits over the final scene via a split screen. Creatively, this was a bizarre choice that ruined the flow of what was already a very bad episode. Apparently, the network agreed: after the initial airing, this final scene was excluded from future WB airings, but (for better or for worse) you can now watch the restored scene on DVD, streaming, and TV.

There you have it, Buffy fans: in terms of viewership, “The Puppet Show” is the worst episode of the franchise. And the strange choice to split screen the credits meant that an already-terrible episode failed to stick the landing. Fortunately, subsequent episodes only got better, making this paltry puppet pablum a thing of the past for fans eager for more stalking demons and less talking dolls.


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This $10 upgrade transforms your PC — but it’s only on sale until midnight

TL;DR: Upgrade a PC affordably with this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro license, on sale for just $9.97 (reg. $199) through tonight at midnight.


Want to get the feeling of a new computer without having to shell out all the money for one? A new operating system gives your device a whole new feel, and if you’ve got a PC lying around, it could probably use this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro upgrade. If you act fast, you can get it for only $9.97 through tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Windows 11 Pro breathes new life into an old computer, extending its lifespan for less than the cost of your lunch. Unlike older operating systems, this one was made with the modern professional in mind.

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Rest easy knowing Windows 11 Pro is filled with features that can improve your workflow — from an easy-to-use interface that enhances usability to snap layouts, seamless redocking, a more powerful search experience, and improved voice typing.

Take advantage of unique professional tools like Azure AD, Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, and BitLocker device encryption. Then take a break and check out the impressive gaming experience offered by DirectX 12 Ultimate graphics.

Windows 11 Pro includes Copilot, Microsoft’s very own AI-powered assistant, which can assist you with a wide range of tasks. Get some help kickstarting your writing process, summarizing web pages, changing your settings, or even opening your apps.

You can also enjoy improved cybersecurity with Windows 11 Pro, as it adds biometric logins, encrypted authentication, and enhanced antivirus protection.

Get your PC a Microsoft Windows 11 Pro license for only $9.97 tonight through midnight.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

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3 AdultFriendFinder red flags — how to avoid scams on AFF

Depending on who you ask, AdultFriendFinder is either the Wild West of hookup sites, an “anything goes” paradise for adult fun, or a total scam replete with bots, fake profiles, and inactive accounts. 

After months of personal testing, I can confidently say which AFF you experience ultimately boils down to how you use the site. If you approach it naively, without a strategy, you’re probably going to have some frustrating experiences. On the other hand, if you exercise a modicum of caution and common sense, you’ll discover a huge, fun, and kink-friendly community.

Here are three red flags to look out for as you use AFF, to help you spot potential scammers and separate the authentic users from the fake profiles.

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Credit: AdultFriendFinder

Unverified accounts

AdultFriendFinder already offers a fantastic first step in combatting fake profiles that they call ConfirmID. Once you’ve created an account, you can, at any time, upload a clear scan of a government-issued ID card and then, using a webcam, undergo a quick face verification scan to confirm that you are indeed the person identified in the government document. 

This step strikes the perfect balance between not being onerous enough to annoy the average user but still requiring enough effort to deter scammers, who notoriously go after the low-hanging fruit. 

Once you’ve completed the ConfirmID sequence, you’ll be rewarded with a verification badge on your profile, and we strongly recommend that you limit your one-on-one interactions on the site to other verified users. 

Perfect profile photos

Alright, admittedly this one requires some personal judgment, as everyone should strive to upload good, high-quality photos of themselves to dating websites. But if every photo looks like it belongs in a magazine, or if the person in the photo looks a little too good to be true, you should exercise caution.

In the age of generative AI and filters, it’s trivially easy to create a fake photo or series of photos, so you should also be on the lookout for what isn’t in the photos. Are there recognizable local landmarks (clubs, restaurants, well-known parks, or street corners) in the photos, or are they all equally generic?

Over-eager chatters

Ever since chat bots became a thing, dating sites have become plagued with them, and as AI improves more and more, it’s not always easy to know, right away, if the “person” you’re talking to is really human. One dead giveaway, though, is how much they chat and how quickly they reply. 

Real people go off on tangents, employ non sequiturs, and sometimes stumble with awkward questions or comments. Chat bots, on the other hand, are typically always chipper and extremely fast-talking, so much so that a paragraph-long answer can come back to you in seconds. 

They also almost always have an agenda, too, whether that’s directing you to click on a link (“Follow my Instagram profile”) or getting you to divulge some potentially compromising bit of personal information about yourself.

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SNL opens with another Pete Hegseth press conference

Saturday Night Live returned from a brief hiatus Saturday with a cold open depicting a joint press conference between Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel, with “Master of None” creator Aziz Ansari playing the latter.

Colin Jost’s Hegseth hit the familiar beats at the podium — performative machismo, military bravado, and repeated jabs at the secretary’s well-documented drinking habits. This time, Hegseth arrived at the mic hauling an oversized pitcher of scotch, which he assured the room was his one for the day. He then fielded questions from the press about the administration’s handling of U.S. strikes on Iran, dismissing each reporter with the particular brand of smug confidence that has become central to Jost’s portrayal of the character.

Ansari’s Patel proved to be the sketch’s standout, arriving to defend his tenure at the FBI and proceeding to do so poorly. The bit’s centerpiece involved Patel simultaneously denying and admitting that he had locked himself out of his work email for 36 hours after forgetting he had changed his password to “kashmeoutside69.”

Funnily enough, Patel was reportedly locked out of his FBI email in real life and believed, at least momentarily, that he was being fired. As the sketch demonstrated, the distance between SNL’s Cold Open and the actual news cycle has rarely felt smaller.

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