That’s a question I’ve wrestled with since “The New Girl” debuted on Fox last fall. Until “The New Girl” came along, there was no question: She’s great in (500) Days of Summer, I loved her in Elf, she had a nice turn in “Weeds,” and she was great in the little seen All the Real Girls. But I like quirk and whimsy in the right doses, and I love manic-pixie dream girls (SUE ME).

But there’s a huge difference between two hours of quirk and whimsy and an entire series built around it. I don’t think Jess is a character; I think Jess is Zooey Deschanel, and the relentless optimism, the overbearing quirk, and the ALWAYS ON whimsy is starting to wear on my gag reflex. At first, it was kind of cute. Now it’s kind of … dumb. Not in the, “Oh, that’s so stupid” kind of way, but in the “I think Zooey Deschanel” may actually be dumb” kind of way.

Deschanel is hosting “SNL” this weekend (promo below), and I’m seriously curious about whether we’ll see another side of Deschanel, if in fact there’s another side to see. Could she in fact be functionally whimsical? Is there anything going on inside of that head of hers besides blue birds?

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In today’s feature, we’ve got GIFs from last night’s game (including the middle finger seen ‘round the world), as well as selections from “Archer,” “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret,” “Parks and Recreation,” and even something from “Community.” That’s right, if you needed a new movable Alison Brie image, we’ve got you covered. Also Madonna doing a dance that looks a lot like one from a favorite show of ours…

World peace and GIFs, or GTFO.

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Yo. A man taking his shirt off isn’t funny, at least by itself. There has to be another layer to the joke. For instance: a fat man taking his shirt off to have a Chippendales dance-off versus Patrick Swayze — now THAT’S funny. The writers forgot this rule for this weekend’s C-Tates-hosted “$NL,” in which the white stripper-turned-black actor bro took off his shirt four times, and we were treated to the worst episode of the season.

I don’t envy having to write for the “Step Up” star, whose range is limited to say the least, but couldn’t they have played around with C-Tates’ image a little bit? Instead, Tatum — who seemed energetic and perfectly willing to do whatever was asked of him; he was just waiting for the moment where he could spit some rhymes — was cast as an astronaut, a workout spokesman, a stripper, and an actor who’s famous for being shirtless a lot. (Also, can we stop making “Matthew McConaughey playing the bongos naked” jokes? That happened in 1999.)

The end result: a boring, lazy episode of “$NL.” But hey, at least Bon Iver was pretty good.

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Lots of news stories out there today. Let’s mow them all down real quick-like, shall we?

Bill Murray helped Letterman celebrate his 30th anniversary – The 61-year-old comedy legend appeared on the show in shoulder pads and eye black, brought Dave a cupcake, and kicked a field goal in the middle of the street. Also, he posed for a picture with the musical act — nine member, all-girl Korean pop group Girls’ Generation (pictured, via Alex Ogle). For any further analysis, please consult the headline of this post. [Uproxx]

RIP Don Cornelius – The longtime “Soul Train” host died today at 75, of what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Cajun Boy has a really nice obit at the Uproxx main page. [Uproxx]

Snooki is either pregnant or not pregnant – You are very welcome for that in-depth and informative medical analysis. That will be $100000000000000000000. (NOTE: I refuse to cover this story any further. I’m prepared to hand in my resignation if it comes to it.) (SECOND NOTE: My resignation letter is a paper plate with the words “I QWIT” spelled out on it in macaroni.) [NY Post]

Everybody on “X Factor” got fired – This week, the show sh-tcanned host Steve Jones, as well as judges Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul. My recommendation for their replacements: Me as the host, and Ghostface Killah and a koala wearing a top hat as judges. Ratings gold. [NY Times]

Showtime remains committed to quality television, nudity – The premium network renewed “House of Lies,” “Shameless,” and “Californication” today. Sometimes I feel like HBO, Starz, and Showtime are in an arms race to see who can get the most nudity on TV. Arms may have been the wrong body part for that analogy. I’ll go crunch some numbers and get back to you. [Deadline]

MOST IMPORTANT BREAKING CHEESEBURGER NEWS – Kate Upton is the new spokesperson for Hardees and Carl’s, Jr. OM NOM, indeed. [With Leather]

YA BOY – The first preview for Channing Tatum’s SNL appearance is after the jump. I’m always depressed when he opens his mouth and he doesn’t sound like Burnsy’s version of him.

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You know how we’re all waiting for a TV show starring Alison Brie, Peter Dinklage, Nathan Fillion, the dog from The Artist, Jean-Ralphio, and Lizzy Caplan, right? How excited we’d be for that? Well, this is kind of like that, but the exact opposite: “Straight Up Blog Post on Lana Del Rey” by Whitney Cummings.

Lana Del Rey, as you may know if you’ve visited the Internet these past few days, was the musical guest on last weekend’s “SNL.” It was a disaster, and likely did more harm than good to Del Rey’s career. So of course Whitney came to her defense on her “Princess Complex” Tumblr, by blaming everyone but Del Rey for her “very drunk-at-a-wedding-and-gonna-regret-it-in-the-morning-type” performance. Let’s go through it:

It’s a little troubling that when a young girl fails at something that we keep kicking her why she is down.

Isn’t it pandering to call a 25-year-old woman a “young girl”?

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