Posts Tagged ‘television’

Jump On Japoney Appoe

Wednesday, August 10th, 2022

I bought a DVD of the first season of Wonder Showzen a few months back, and I’m finally getting around to watching season two on archive.org. The show uses the schtick of a kitschy kid’s show—crude animation, puppets, smart mouthed children—to make mincemeat out of every touchy subject imaginable. The result is a show that is capable of offending everyone on earth. And sometimes that even includes me!

A few clips of it have apparently gone viral in recent times (Bush was still in office when it was originally on the air) because people just can’t tell if the show’s brutal satire is for real or not. I think there is something very powerful about something like that, something that continues to make people uncomfortable. It forces people to confront the true nature of the problems they would rather not think about, the things that even the most gung ho social commentators on all sides of the political spectrum would rather sweep under the rug. In a world where polite ignorance is more socially acceptable than actually dealing with deeply rooted problems, Wonder Showzen tackles those problems and their absurdities all at once with a shuffle and a wink at the camera. That’s what I like about it.

It’s also just really amusing seeing rando New Yorkers get egregiously pissed off at a blue hand puppet asking them stupid questions.

I Want My EmpTV

Thursday, April 21st, 2022

Somehow, in this media hypersaturated world, I’ve been feeling like I should watch more television. It’s the end of the academic year, and I constantly find myself in a weird limbo between feeling overloaded with home stretch work and having absolutely nothing to do. This limbo usually fluctuates within hours multiple times every day. And when my schedule creates a void, I need something to fill it. (I guess my time management skills are too good.) My teenage years made me into a movie watcher as I subconsciously rejected the cartoons of my childhood. But as someone who loathes dismembering a movie that was intended to be watched in one sitting, finding the time to fully digest one is sometimes tricky. TV can provide a similar experience in a (usually) shorter time frame, making it easier to work into a night. And, when done right, it can be the medium for incredible and moving works.

Not that everyone is “doing it right.”

The internet alerted me yesterday to the fact that horribly corrupt anti-democracy politician Rudy Giuliani made an appearance on a show called The Masked Singer. (It had apparently first leaked a while ago, but it somehow it didn’t appear on my radar back then, or maybe the news cycle moves way too fast for anyone to keep up in today’s world.) The first thing that popped into my mind upon learning this oh so crucial piece of information was this: Again? It was only a few months ago that that show, which I have never watched, made similar headlines for having Sarah Palin on as a fluffy singing bear or something, which had made me want to slam my head into a wall. Why?

Well, I think I’ve figured out why. Prior to those two media meltdowns, the only times I had to deal with The Masked Singer‘s existence was my DEVO fan friends cringing at some video game streamer bro singing “Whip It” on there, because their cultural assimilation continues to be amusing. Otherwise, I would have been blissfully unaware of anything regarding the show except maybe seeing a commercial once or twice when I wasn’t paying attention.

But The Masked Singer has cracked a code: Putting high profile, morally reprehensible people on your ditzy TV show gets headlines and, in turn, free promotion. Your content can be the most useless dribble in existence, but you can glue a controversial face onto it and the world cannot refuse to ignore it. Does the show in question bring anything new to the table? No. To, appropriately, apply an one-off DEVO catchphrase to a wider scale, people have been wanting their EmpTV for a long time. They like their charming C-list celebrities and cheesy old songs (which, in Rudy’s case, was the most tainted rendition of “Bad To The Bone” possible, which I don’t think even the guys from DEVO could have made up). Is there any reason to pay attention to it other than its promotion of some hideous politicians (and Jenny McCarthy)? Not anything meritable. Did it even matter that the rude-y episode actually hit a low point in viewers despite its shock value? Considering that I’m also seeing articles from the same publications about their epic fail, probably not. Any attention is good attention, and effort that could have gone into reporting about something not mindlessly idiotic and crass was forced to divert itself. It goes to show how cynical our modern world and media cycle is when you have to promote some of the world’s most undesirable people to get the share of the floor that you crave. It’s nice to call yourself “relevant,” even when you’re exploiting political starpower and uplifting people who only seek to slam the boot down on the little guy. And when cute little grandpa Rudy wanting to make a good impression on his granddaughter—he has kids?—comes off as harmless, it’s all the easier. It may have gone slightly awry this time, but maybe it won’t the next. Think of the people who viewed Joe Exotic as some sort of kitsch god after Tiger King gripped us in the early days of the pandemic, or Dubya Bush trying his best to fill in for Bob Ross. The media is manipulative; it just depends on what angle you’re viewing it from.

There’s plenty of shows out there that are actually worth sitting through, and we’re the ones who choose what we watch. Can we change the channel already?

Some Kind Of Fifteen Minutes

Sunday, April 3rd, 2022

I just finished watching The Andy Warhol Diaries, a recent documentary series regarding the life and times of of that oh-so prescient artist. It’s a fascinating glimpse into his relationships with both the people that surrounded him and the world at large, and I’ve learned a lot from it. The series’ exploration of his life is based on his fascination with the line between the real and the fake, and it pulls back the curtain on a lot of Warhol’s persona. Yet learning of that persona’s origins has only made me more fascinated in the man, the myth, the legend he built for himself.

Warhol was obviously ahead of his time in how he allowed the media to define his identity. Today, you can hop on any popular “influencer”’s Instagram feed and see what is basically an exaggerated, warped cartoon of reality, albeit in “real life.” It’s the entire foundation of celebrity—we see a generated persona we jive with in the public sphere, we hit the follow button, and we become so invested that we’re willing to take sides when those personas clash or even crack. There was surely some clashing and cracking happening one week ago, and it surely caused the internet to descend into pure chaos.

I didn’t see the Academy Awards through last Sunday because I got bored, but I woke up the next morning to a Facebook feed flooded with memes about the slap. They were initially lighthearted and reveling in the absurdity of it all, but as time went on, I began to notice a shift incredibly reflective of today’s digitally powered social realm: people started to take it seriously. Too seriously. Sides were taken and stood for. I saw vows be made to never discuss hot topic debates on social media ever again after the resulting comment chains got out of hand. One of my most favorite Facebook pages, Blistering takes from every coordinate of the ascended political hyperspace, which is dedicated to the most insane ranting of the internet’s most deranged individuals, made this very ominous post:

The Slap discourse has changed me. Deleting page soon. Go save your faves.

Not even the satire pages could take it. (As of now, the page is still active.)

The airwaves are less clogged now that the hype has died down and we’ve remembered that things like the early days of World War III and the Supreme Court exist. The Grammys are on, and I wonder if some event there will cause a similar tidal wave of absurd discourse over the ‘net. That might happen; it might not. But people will still be talking about it nonetheless.

Warhol would’ve had a field day.

Got Movie?

Thursday, January 13th, 2022

I saw the movie Shrek for the first time this week—well, part of it, anyway. The other Jungen und Mädchen in my German class voted for it for a post-break movie day and came out on top.

Shrek is one of those pieces of children’s media that is widely considered a staple of my generation’s media consumption, yet it completely passed me by growing up. Ironically, I also watched my first full episodes of SpongeBob Squarepants in the same class at least a year ago. I always knew of these things through cultural osmosis and memery, but I just never watched them either voluntarily or involuntarily, and I probably wouldn’t have watched them voluntarily anyway.

Whenever situations like that come up, I feel like I am an alien field reporter coming down from my satellite, observing Earth and its cultures, gathering information from the locals, trying to process their collective memories surrounding such media. I’ve gotten used to being separated from certain strains of that cultural mind. But it’s interesting gaining a better understanding of whatever comes my way in bits and pieces.

Just don’t shove Disney princess movies down my throat anytime soon.