Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
Is it just me, or...
ednbarby:
In defense of TV (just for you, Katherine :)), my husband swears that everything he knows he learned on television. And he is a walking encyclopedia of information. He's a real whiz at coming up with factoids about submarines, zeppelins, swift boats, torpedoes - if it travels by air or sea, he knows about it. And when someone says, "How in the world do you know that?", he always says "Saw it on TV." I believe it. He loves The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, Biography (when it's decent), and all manner of documentaries.
Clarissa, I don't think it was so much the context of the jokes themselves as the fact that they felt the need to have three of them in such rapid succession and so early on in the show. One way or the other, somebody has an axe to grind. I hope he's grinding it for our sake, but I'm not entirely sure. Just turned me off that night. I've known some people who were turned off for whatever reasons the first couple of times they ever watched "Lost" who are now utterly hooked - even moreso than I am - so who's to say I won't one day get a grip and enjoy it?
The one I'm really looking forward to is "Dexter" on Showtime. Michael C. Hall (from "Six Feet Under") is playing a serial killer/vigilante/crime scene investigator. Like Hannibal Lecter, he only kills other killers or the terminally annoying. Sounds like something right up my twisted alley. So now you see what you're up against. ;) Glad you're enjoying the show, though. I know how much I enjoy "Lost" - spreading the joy around is a good thing.
newyearsday:
--- Quote ---Television is getting very confusing too. God. Sometimes it seems as if I need a special college degree just to figure it all out.
TNN is now Spike. The WB is now The CW. PAX is now I. WNDY is now My Network TV. Bill Hemmer switched from CNN to Fox News. Tucker Carlson left CNN for MSNBC. Rita Cosby moved from Fox News to MSNBC. Greta Van Susteren left CNN and joined Fox News. Aaron Brown just disappeared altogether. CNN is now channel 66 instead of 23. MSNBC is channel 67 instead of channel 26. C-SPAN switched from channel 78 to 23. C-SPAN2 changed from channel 46 to channel 22.
--- End quote ---
Sounds like you got it all figgered out there if you ask me, David!
Clarissa, I like your take on the jokes. I didn't see the show but I can imagine that they were showing they *could* write a joke involving gay themes and not have it be derogatory. Maybe they are showing their hip-ness too, or trying to get ahead of the pack.
I just watched Lost this week for the first time (or mostly the first time--I've seen snippets once or twice before and not known what the hell was going on) and it seemed to be a re-cap of the whole series, or at least last season. I might dive in for more.
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: newyearsday on September 29, 2006, 09:14:38 pm ---Clarissa, I like your take on the jokes. I didn't see the show but I can imagine that they were showing they *could* write a joke involving gay themes and not have it be derogatory. Maybe they are showing their hip-ness too, or trying to get ahead of the pack.
--- End quote ---
i was figuring there is at least one gay writer. Chances are good, right?
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on September 29, 2006, 09:01:49 pm ---In defense of TV (just for you, Katherine :)), my husband swears that everything he knows he learned on television.
--- End quote ---
Thanks, Barb! I can't claim to be quite that erudite about it. All I know is that I can spend an evening watching decent TV shows, or I can spend it reading, or I can spend it sitting at the computer or, um, hanging out here ... and I can't say any of them is going to be automatically that much more enriching than any other. Except hanging out here, of course! :-*
As for the "Studio 60" jokes, I watched that same episode and the one before it and enjoyed them both and didn't even notice there were any gay jokes. Now that Clarissa mentions them, I actually did hear those and didn't get offended enough to register them. (The third one, frankly, barely even strikes me as a gay-related joke -- the cranky boss once fired the partners, so the joke seems more about their rocky history than about sexuality.) Maybe I'd feel differently if I were a gay man, and I'd like to hear what gay men, or women, have to say ...?
But I think Clarissa has a good point, that there is a way of making jokes about our differences that is inclusive and normalizing rather than automatically offensive. It's hard to tell where the line is if you're not in the target group, but it's there somewhere. As a woman, I can imagine jokes that, despite stereotypes, are actually funny. (As long as I haven't heard them 10,000 times, like the one about wondering if the pants make my ass look fat. Because it looks fine. Really.)
Clarissa, your post came in while I was writing this. My understanding is that most of the shows are mainly written by this guy Aaron Sorkin, and I don't know if he's gay, but as far as I know he's not. But -- and I'm asking this of the general audience, not of Clarissa, because I'm curious -- does that matter?
EDITED this morning to condense, because when I write posts at 1 a.m. after drinking wine they tend to ramble ...
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on September 30, 2006, 02:07:07 am ---But -- and I'm asking this of the general audience, not of Clarissa
--- End quote ---
Whew, I'm glad I'm required to be exempt from that one, because I don't know. :)
I remember years ago taking a boat tour around Manhattan, and as we passed a large car junkyard, the tour guide pointed to it and said, "Here is the ladies' parking lot." And some people laughed, though not me of course, #&^$* #@(*&@.
After a while, we passed another car junkyard that was much, much huger, and he said, "And here is the men's parking lot." I remember how much I loved the surprise of it turning out that the first piece of obnoxiousness was just a set up for a surprise joke. Somehow that is my answer.
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