Battle of the Brackets: Say Hello to Your Final Four

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We started with 16 of the biggest and best brackets around ... and now we're down to four. Though they did it in markedly different fashions, Fug Madness and Foreign Policy have joined Jezebel and Muppet Madness in our Battle of the Brackets Final Four. Of course this means saying farewell to Forbes' Jargon Madness and Vulture's Drama Derby--we hardly knew thee (well, in Vulture's case our voters hardly knew thee--but we'll get to that later).  And now it's time for our obligatory moment of silence.

Ok. 

Moving on.  Welcome to the Final Four. It's almost a tale of two brackets. In one half of, top seed Jezebel's Sex vs. Chocolate has rolled over the competition to enter the finals. But in the other half of the bracket all of our top seeds have been knocked out. That in mind, here are your Final Four matchups:

*Reminder: Voting Will Close on Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT--giving you enough time to find your television screen for American Idol or a juicy repeat of The Shahs of Sunset or whatever you watch on Thursdays now.  So vote, vote, vote:

Semifinal #1 

#1 Jezebel's Sex and Chocolate vs. #3 Go Fug Yourself's Fug Madness 2012

To get to this spot both brackets had to engage in a civil war of sorts., Jezebel's Sex and Chocolate Bracket had to take down Gawker cousin io9 and its very-popular "Worse SciFi Movie Ever Made" bracket.  And that Jezebel's bracket did, by snagging just over 63 percent of the vote.  In the other, as the Fug Girls (who often guest blog on New York Magazine's fashion blog, The Cut) themselves put it, "brother pitted against brother" matchup between Fug Madness and Vulture's Drama Derby, it wasn't even close as Fug Madness massacred Vulture's Drama Derby by commanding over 98 percent of the votes -- the most lopsided contest by far. 

Jezebel has just concluded its sweet Sweet Sixteen (get it? chocolate?) and is still going strong with over 20,000 views on their their post.  Adding to the drama, Jezebel's top seed on the chocolate side, truffles, have gone out to ninth-seeded ice cream in a contest decided early this morning.  And we still have a dog in this fight--frosting, who we singled out before the tourney started, is still in the game.

Meanwhile, over at Fug Madness they've settled on their Elite Eight. The numbers on each of their matchups compares favorably to Jezebel, as their Rihanna vs. Robyn Sweet Sixteen drew 8,147 votes--the majority of which went to Robyn. Matchups between Nicki Minaj and Sarah Jessica Parker as well as the Sweet Sixteen matchup between Ashanti (remember her?) and Alexa Chung had a similar number of votes.  And yes, (our Cinderella pick) Lindsay Lohan's poor sartorial choices have made her the Katniss Everdeen of the tourney, taking out a more than game and second-seeded Lady Gaga after dispatching of the human peacock Cee Lo Green earlier. 

So who's it going to be?  Is your love of sex and chocolate enough to push Jezebel over the edge and into the finals?  Or does picking whose "fug reigns supreme" make Fug Madness the champ?

You Say:

Semifinal #2

#5 Muppet Madness vs.  #6 Foreign Policy's Dictators vs. Democrats

Underdogs and upsets have marked this side of the bracket, and these two have done their part in making that storyline happen. We're not sure if Muppet Madness got some SEO help from the Goldman Sachs fallout, but they've stormed through the tournament taking out higher-seeded teams in the past two rounds. First to fall was The Consumerist in the tightest competition so far, and then the granddaddy of them all, top-seeded NCAA bracket with relative ease and 73 percent of the vote. For the first time in the Battle of the Brackets, Muppet Madness will actually be favored--which we've learned doesn't mean much when taking on the rabid fans of Foreign Policy. 

Time and time again, Foreign Policy has proven that its competition between hard-to-spell democrats and dictators is formidable foe. First they beat MTV's Music Madness, going on to defeat the most popular jargony terms that Forbes had to offer. The bracket is now in its final match with Russia's Vladimir Putin squaring off against Germany's Angela Merkel. Yes, we were denied our dream throwdown between Christine Lagarde and Merkel, but we can't think of anyone else better than the unflinching, "teutonic titan" Merkel to go up against the very manly and not-so-modest Vladimir Putin. 

Over at Muppet Madness, they just hit their Final Four this morning. We aren't afraid to tell you that we told you so, but our Cinderella pick Rowlf is still in it (after steamrolling Scooter) and now goes up against perennial powerhouse Kermit the Frog.

Both these brackets have used your votes to get past the higher seed in previous rounds, and they'll need more of the same today. So what say you?  Are you a Muppet fan (not the Goldman Sachs variety) or do dictators and democrats call to your inner wonk?

You Say:

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