Taking pause amid this best-of-times, worst-of-times autumn, pop-culture pilgrims have reason to rejoice. A cornucopia of superheroes, fringe phenomena and beautifully twisted mavericks provided nourishment for the soul, gleaned laughs from the madness and sometimes scared the hell out of us — in a good way. Slathered with extra-geeky gravy, here, in no particular order, are 14 movies, TV shows and other treats that stuck to our ribs over the past few months. Chime in with your thoughts after the jump.

__ 1 The Colbert Report__

The greatest comedian alive, Stephen Colbert in 2008 raised the already sky-high bar on his unhinged brand of satire. Landing in the Smithsonian, running for president, winning an Emmy, teaming up with Spider-Man, and releasing a metafictional holiday special, Colbert remains the most important entertainer on either side of the cultural divide. – Scott Thill

2 Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight**

Everybody knows dark meat is tastier than white meat, right? The late Hedge Ledger turned in a performance for the ages as the pitch-black Joker. Villain as virtuoso, Ledger's disfigured clown bared an unforgettably gnarled heart hiding behind all that scar tissue. – Hugh Hart

3 Barbecue and Chicken Shit Bingo at South by Southwest

Spring break for geeks, the three-headed beast of a conference in Austin, Texas, always rates a 10 on the fun meter. But this year, the barbecue binge and a honky-tonk spectacle known as Chicken Shit Bingo pushed the whole thing to a Texas-size 11. – Lewis Wallace

4 Cinematic Titanic

More comedy from the folks behind Mystery Science Theater 3000, in any form, is a good thing because laughter, in any form, is a good thing. This new effort from Joel Hodgson and company gets better with every relief. –John Scott Lewinski

__5 Slumdog Millionaire __

Danny Boyle's magical realist tale portrays a poor Mumbai kid extraordinarily rendered from a winning streak on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and thrown into a vertiginous swirl of geopolitics, velocity and love. Shot guerrilla-style in India mostly on digital video, Slumdog Millionaire is the best picture of the year. – Scott Thill

6 Fringe

The doctor is in, and he's mad as a hatter. We never know what's going to fly out of the mouth of actor John Noble as kooky scientist Walter Bishop, but it's usually a humdinger. He and FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (pictured) keep the weirdness coming in the fall season's most captivating new series. – Hugh Hart

7 *

Battlestar Galactica*'s bleak cliffhanger

The mid-season stunner slapped Galactica fans with a shocking Planet of the Apes-style tableau, thereby fueled months of frakked-out anticipation for 2009's series wrap. – Lewis Wallace

8 Avatar: The Last Airbender

This mash of anime, martial arts, mythology, philosophy, environmentalism and geopolitics was smartest children's show to ever hit television. Action-packed *and *enlightened, the show also enraptured millions of adults before ending its Nickelodeon run in July. – Scott Thill

__9 Hellboy II's awesome visuals __

Director Guillermo del Toro went whole hog to bring The

Golden Army creatures to scarifying life. Crafted with a mix of old-school "practical" special effects and computer-generated imagery, they nonetheless couldn't beat down Ron

Perlman (pictured) who ruled (again) as the do-gooder demon spawn. – Lewis Wallace

10 Street Artist Shepard Fairey

Viral art lives, and just not on the internet. Arrested 19 times for putting up stickers posters and stencils in unauthorized public places, Shepard Fairey cranked out an old-school silk-screen portrait of the president-elect, distributed the Obama graphic free online via print-out downloads, and colored-coded his "Hope" poster to symbolize the possibility for red and blue states to co-exist harmoniously. – Hugh Hart

11 Iron Man's Rockin' Trailer

From Robert Downey Jr.'s cocksure portrayal of Tony Stark to the Black Sabbath riff at the outro, the perfectly crafted high-def Iron Man teaser kicked the summer of the superhero into high gear. – Lewis Wallace

12 Wall*E

One of the most ambitious, meditative and soulful animated sci-fi films ever made about machines, humans and their intersecting consumptions, Wall*E (pictured) is more 2001 than Toy Story. This Pixar masterpiece charted the way forward for thoughtful speculative narrative with its head and heart in the right place. – *Scott Thill *

13 Rifftrax

This movie-riffing service founded by Michael J. Nelson expanded this year into mocking short films in addition to new release DVDs. It's new iRiff service now lets aspiring fans try their collective hand at out-riffing the masters. – John Scott Lewinski

14 Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Vastly better than the majority of George Lucas' second trilogy, Clone Wars ranks among the Star Wars multiverse's most clever productions. Clones progress from drones to complex individuals, Jedis killed off too quickly in Revenge of the Sith finally land dense backstories, and battle droids emerge at last as fully formed comic canon fodder. Most importantly, Star Wars now has a home on television more interesting than its previous incarnation on the big screen. Now if they could just put a shirt on Asoka, all would be right with the universe. – *Scott Thill *

Pass the turkey and weigh in with your favorite pop culture experiences of 2008. Comment below.

compiled by Hugh Hart

*Photos courtesy Central, Fox, Universal and Pixar. Image of *The First Thanksgiving * courtesy Wikipedia Commons. *

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