We've watched MST3K for a long, long time now. Started when we first got a dish and basicable. Bad movies, heckled mercilessly by a guy and his 'bots†. Many evenings of friends at our place or Dave's* laughing and mocking along. These days, streaming their Thanksgiving Day feed of old episodes, oh, so many terrible movies. Such apt taunts and references to the obscure and popular fads. (Hey, it's a gig.)
They are getting together a new version, with all new people. Which makes sense, really. No one younger than us would get a lot of the jokes, and the target audience has to be young folks. Working with an 18 year old woman, I've come to realize how much is lost in the translation of generation. Any new MST3K would need the kind of references 20-30 year olds would respond to. (AaaaaaHHHHhhhhjustinbeieber!aaaahhhh!)
I've tried to keep up, at least nominally. I watch The Soup, I read online. I'm not a Luddite, no neophobe I, but so much of it emerges - none aimed at me. I do twitter, but in a very narrow and for me utilitarian usage. Tried FB and hated it. I'm pretty confident with the online/computer world, but missed the assumptive phase by a few years. I've had a blog for a decade! (ok, that isn't better.)
And the youngest adults didn't just watch shows, the way I did. They've lived in an interactive world, which I think is in many ways a better approach. Somewhere in the middle were the tv kids who had cable re-runs, video stores, and the overlap in pop culture. The mass of shows means only those who seek out the older stuff will find a series that resonates with them, depending on what comes to hand.
Which is all to say that most of the MST3K jokes are going to whiz past anyone under 40, or outside middle 'merica. They made a New Zoo Review reference. And Room 222. Among many others.
Dylan works in an IT lab at the library these days, and dreads the words "I don't know much about computers." He sees the generational gap, no doubt exacerbated by socio-economic class and economic situation. Younger than him, not so much a problem. Older... big problem. He also thinks my submersion in an intellectually demanding educational programs helped flip the switch in my adult brain that keeps me teachable. He's very generous with me.
A lifetime of being out of step with the mainstream. Nothing new, there. Off the bell-curve forever.
Moby ate to his heart's content today. Chicken whenever he wanted. I fed him about four times, on top of the usual. He really gets into that aspect of Thanksgiving. Eleanor still only wants crisps/kibbles, we're working on her.
*Dave,
So many friends named Dave!
†"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts, repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax."
3 comments:
The problem with 'I don't know much about computers' to me is that it often carries with it a kind of passive refusal to learn, that they somehow expect you to supply their lack, possibly by some direct transfusion of your knowledge into their brains without any actual effort on their part, or otherwise take responsibility for the matter for them. I know that sounds judgemental. Or else sometimes it seems to imply some kind of twisted moral superiority, that they belong to a time or a mindset which was/is better off without such decadent nonsense. This quickly evaporates when they actually do learn and then it's just normal and of course they're au fait with all that, why not?
It is partly a factor of age, of course, and concomitant flexibility of mind, but not entirely; one or two of my best computer mentors have been older than I am, even elderly. And indeed I can be just as bad about things I'm too lazy or stick-in-the-mud to be bothered with.
Hope you're continuing to have a lovely holiday, you and Dylan and the mogs.
i agree with lucy (when do i not agree with lucy or you?! we really should "hang out" some time, as the kids say). my mom and her sister are only a couple years apart but my mom is always seeking out new things, learning new programs, telling me about the apps i absolutely need to download. my aunt, on the other hand, uses the computer as a glorified deck of cards for spider solitaire. i must admit that since the grandchildren came, she's getting better - she must to keep up!
as for being outliers - hey! i'll drink to that!
We of the far ends of any bell curve...
Lucy,
Dylan says, "Yeah, that's about right." Meaning - precisely right.
pc,
It's not purely age, only that there is a certain cut-off when it was easy, assumed, taken for granted. Will be interesting to see who in these younger and younger generations refuse to learn.
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