"So what does that make us?" "Big damn heroes, sir." "Ain't we just."

10 Reasons Why Joss Whedon Rocks (and thus, why you should go see "Serenity")

1. Creative genius behind three fantastic shows: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," and "Firefly"

2. Going to guest star on "Veronica Mars" this season and is an unabashed fan of the show.

3. Loves Strong Bad & put Trogdor references in at least 1 Buffy episode. There's even a picture of Joss wearing a Strong Bad shirt midway down the page here.

4. "You're a bloody puppet!"

5. Joss talks about the development of the score for "Serenity" in an interview at Culture Pulp (WARNING: Full interview may contain spoilers!) In pre-production, he burned a mix CD of songs for David Newman, the composer.

Q. And this is actually what my score-geek friend wanted to know: What were those songs?
A: "There were a couple of songs from Nickel Creek, whom I adore -- I love them with a fiery vengeance. here was some movie stuff: "Angela's Ashes," Elmer Bernstein's theme from "Far from Heaven" -- not because they were necessarily the right idiom, but because the themes were so incredibly indelible within the first 20 seconds, which is about as much time as I usually gave David. [laughs] They had to become indelible before there was too much going on for anybody to hear anything.

So, #1, I love how he thinks about and talks about music. #2, he's a Nickel Creek fan! Nickel Creek is a fantastic band, both in recordings and in concert, and I can see how their blend of traditional bluegrass and new fusion-y and rock-type styles would work in the Serenity universe.

6. Made a spectacular, amazing musical episode of Buffy which moved the plot along, had clever lyrics, and was mostly well-done by the cast. (Unlike attempts by some other shows...)

7.The "Firefly" DVDs include the extra of Adam Baldwin singing "The Ballad of Jayne" --complete with fuzzy ear-flapped hat!

8. For these "Buffy" exchanges:

Giles: "You'll see. Everything will be right as rain."
Spike:"Oh, listen to Mary Poppins! He's got his crust all stiff and upper with that Nancy-boy accent. You Englishmen are always so...Bloody hell. 'Sodding', 'blimey,' 'shagging,' 'knickers,' 'bollocks'. Oh God...I'm English!"
Giles: "Welcome to the Nancy Tribe."

Anya: Don't be ridiculous. Martha Stewart isn't a demon. She's a witch.
Xander: Please, she-- Really?
Anya: Of course. Nobody could do that much decoupage without calling on the powers of darkness.

9. Possible obsession with monkeys?

from "Firefly"

Mal: "Kaylee, what the hell's going on in the engine room? Were there monkeys? Some terrifying space monkeys maybe got loose?"

and from "Buffy"

Oz: "Did you know that the monkey is the only animal cracker who gets to wear pants?...So I'm wondering if the other animals feel sorta ripped. Like is the hippo going "Hey man...where are MY pants? I have my hippo dignity" And the monkey's all, 'I MOCK you with my monkey pants!' And then there's a big coup in the zoo."

10. Because, as Dave notes, the character of Jayne alone is worth the price of admission:

Jayne: "All I got was that dumbass stick, sounds like it's raining. How come you got a wife?"

Jayne: "Wha-- are you-- are you saying she's a witch?"
Wash: "Yes, Jayne. She's a witch. She has had congress with the beast."
Jayne: "She's in Congress?"