We've all worked with her -- the clueless exec who feels compelled to point out the trivially, irrelevantly obvious, or who loves to exercise her talent by changing things unnecessarily (usually by introducing mistakes) just to put her fingerprints on them. We encounter him at the movies all the time -- the guy who asks (out loud) "Why is she doing that?" or wants everyone to acknowledge that he noticed the color of the sky just changed from one shot to another (as if none of us had ever seen a movie before, or knew how they're filmed and assembled). And, of course, they're all over the Internet and the media and politics -- staying focused on the inconsequential, the mundane, the superficial at all cost.
Here's a tribute to the geniuses behind the dumbing down of practically everything.
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Reminds me of this one, so true of all Marketing folks... (NSFW)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_VtqtxCHY
At the risk of opening floodgates, are these "marketing geniuses" rstricted to women? Or are some of the male vice?
JE: Clearly the makers of this piece had somebody specific in mind, but incompetence knows no gender boundaries.
Ha, I've had this one on my iPod for years, and it never stops being funny (but I had no idea there was a video!). In answer to JWM's question, they don't restrict them to women--others include "Mister Impossible Promo Approval Guy" and "Mister Cutting a Promo For a Lame Show Guy."
Is this emblematic of a degenerative cycle in our society? The last three movies, in a row mind you, that I have attended all had talkers in the audience. The specific flavor of the talker who needs to comment, loudly, on what's just happened on the screen. Moon, Funny People, and The Hurt Locker all were in attendance with these out of touch or otherwise self absorbed individuals who are unable to differentiate from the large auditorium style setting of a movie theatre and their living room. Comments like, 'Oh he's gonna get it' which on screen are sure enough followed by said person getting "it". And in all three instances these were older people. Usually the sushers of our society it seems that our elders have finally thrown in the towel and seceded victory to the texting moronic youth, joining those they cannot beat but in the lamest way possible (think you're grandmom telling you not to 'go there' instead of just baking cookies like she's supposed to). It's a sad state of affairs, forcing me to ditch work in order to attend matinee showings of films that I feel won't attract a matinee audience just to get the full silence-from-the-peanut-gallery movie experience. And if you think these were all instances taking place a your local GooglePlex well then think again, a local art house showing of Moon held the most hilarious and audacious perpetrators. I would have said something but it transcended a minor inconvenience and went to a place of performance art, chiming in with such gems as "He's on a moon base"...thirty minutes into the movie. Yes old girl, he certainly is on a moon base.
So your first clue that you were living in a dark age was people talking at the movies? Really?
I was hoping this would was about the possible remake of the movie, "Real Genius", starring Val Kilmer. I'd love to see that, and while we're on 80's remakes, there are two new Pee-Wee movies coming out. One is a dark one, and the other, which I don't know if I'm too crazy about, is about Pee-Wee goes from his playhouse show out into the real world.
I sometimes do that for things that I don't think my friends noticed, such as with the monkey in the latest Indy movie that had the same slicked back hair as Shia Lebeouf's character.
Hi Jim
First of all I would like to say you and Roger Ebert are two of my go-to guys for cinema.
To the matter at hand, I recently attended a talk that kvetched about how some films, such as the 1976 version of King Kong having a scene with Kong throwing a train in one second when, considering the dimensions of Kong and the subway, should have taken two seconds. I understand you would be upset in such nitpicking, but it can become its own perverse art. Of course I might just be saying this because I am a student studying mathematics.
"Is this emblematic of a degenerative cycle in our society?" Oooohhh...someone's writing a college paper on this!
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