Is the average joe a myth?

[Thundercrack85]

Having been on these forums a while, I often see people (myself included) talk about the average moviegoer, and by extension the average joe. E.g. how something (TV show, movie, etc) might not appeal to the average joe.

It made wonder, is there really such a person? Are there people in your life who you think of as that average person?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I don't think you can really think of someone as the average person, it changes depending on what your talking about. I guess I usually use myself as the average Joe in my mind. Although when you take a mass of people a general consensus usually emerges so I guess that could be your real average Joe

 

[MrsKent26]

I don't think the average joe can be exemplified in any particular individual, but it does exist. It is a collective of everything the majority views as normal with a given context.

 

[Hobgoblin]

I think that there can be broad generalizations made about people and how they are average. But even those seemingly average people will have something about them that is outside the norm.

Also, age, race, gender, etc needs to be taken into account.

 

[Sundancer]

I think that there can be broad generalizations made about people and how they are average. But even those seemingly average people will have something about them that is outside the norm.

Also, age, race, gender, etc needs to be taken into account.

And subculture. Is anyone who comes to comic book forum an average Joe? When I think of this term I think house, kids, family, 40 -50 hours a week, sports, and beer.

 

[terry78]

When we say that I think we mean the average 13-60 year old man who is not a nerd, not a hipster, or has no real interest in the art of entertainment at all.

 

[Kane52630]

When I went to a screening for Draft Day, a lot of people were laughed and cheered. The movie wasn't all that good but they made it out to be the best comedy/drama they've ever seen. I guess you can called them the average joe but then again they went to a screening...they probably go to other screenings all the time.

 

[Teelie]

The "average Joe" is an abstract person. No such individual exists. It is the average of many thousands to millions of people. Everyone has something that makes them different from average. It's kind of the point. The average between 2 and 3 would be 1.5 for example. You won't find .5 of a person or someone who lines up with every detail of an average.

In fact anyone who was literally the average person would be an anomaly.

To put it simply: average means the sum of many divided by the extremes.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

"Average Joe" always seems to be defined as a mainstream archetype with a boring job, mainstream and dull sense of humor and little that distinguishes them from the vast majority of other citizens. Nothing special or unique or outstanding. In fact their attributes are so safe, bland and familiar they represent what targeted marketing groups percieve as the average. I find the very concept of an "average Joe" depressing. I would not be friends with an "average Joe" and I hope no one seriously prides themselves on being such a ridiculously generic and boring person.

 

[redmarvel]

Have you seen "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"?

At the beginning of the movie he typifies the average Joe. Goes to work, goes home, goes out once in a while. Does "ok" at most things, but doesn't really stand out from the crowd. From outside his life might look grey and boring and yet, he's content. Within he's having his adventures, imagining wonderful possibilities.

To others I might look average, to my family I'm wonderful and strange, to my co-workers I'm a little quirky.

Average is all in how you see it. From the ant's point of view I'm a giant, from the elephant's I'm small.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

If Transformers can make billions and Dredd makes barely anything, then the average Joe does exist.

 

[Godzilla2000]

I think the first, lofty thing you have to do is define just what defines average. Everyone's take on average will always be different.

 

[Feenix]

"Average" is a subjective term. Like Godzilla2000 said, everyone's definition of average will be different.

When it comes to movies, we can say that the average joe doesn't exist, because if it did, there would be movies that are sure fire hits and there aren't. It's too random. Randomness negates the idea of an "average joe" moviegoer.

 

[Burgundy LaRue]

Average is like vanilla being the #1 ice cream flavor--it's a standard, pre-set entity. It exists and is considered the norm. There are slight variances: vanilla bean, French vanilla, et al--but the foundation remains. As is the case with the average Joe/Jane.

 

[Pink Ranger]

The Average Joe is a convenient straw man device that politicians, rabble-rousers and internet cowards can use to automatically dismiss any argument or opinion they disagree with, and to indirectly label someone as deviant or outside the mainstream. For example:

- (conservative) Same-sex marriage might be okay with big city intellectuals in New York and San Francisco, but it violates the fundamental values that real Americans hold dear

- (liberal) Wall Street and the corporate fat cats are complaining about Expensive Social Program X because they don't care about hardworking, everyday American families

- (Hollywood) Wolverine and Harry Potter should be Americans, because the mainstream audience won't accept foreign heroes

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I find the very concept of an "average Joe" infuriating for some reason. It's like being content with mediocrity. Or a buzz-word that test-marketers use when they want to aim a product at the lowest common denominator.

And I thought Secret Life of Walter Mitty was terrible.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Well if you look at the stats, the average joe is rather... dull.

They have an IQ of 100. They have had some college, but never got a degree. They can only speak one language. They're religious, but not particularly knowledgable about said religion, and probably can't name half the ten commandments. They have probably not read the bible. They can not find New York or Ohio on a map.

The average joe is mildly overweight, but thinks they're in good health. The average joe votes, but can't name their representative, senators, or any of the supreme court justices.

So yeah, it's not a flattering picture.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I find the very concept of an "average Joe" infuriating for some reason. It's like being content with mediocrity. Or a buzz-word that test-marketers use when they want to aim a product at the lowest common denominator.

And I thought Secret Life of Walter Mitty was terrible.

But of course you feel that way. You're not a real, everyday American. Since you obviously have a college degree, you are nothing more than an educated elite, and you're not who I am speaking to. So your opinion doesn't matter.




See how easy that was?

 

[Kane52630]

Well if you look at the stats, the average joe is rather... dull.

They have an IQ of 100. They have had some college, but never got a degree. They can only speak one language. They're religious, but not particularly knowledgable about said religion, and probably can't name half the ten commandments. They have probably not read the bible. They can not find New York or Ohio on a map.

The average joe is mildly overweight, but thinks they're in good health. The average joe votes, but can't name their representative, senators, or any of the supreme court justices.

So yeah, it's not a flattering picture.

 

[Immortalfire]

The average Joe is right up there with the term "Middle class". Neither have an official definition.

 

[Superman_200]

I would say the average American Joe is the typical person we see who is neither fit nor too fat, but "soft". They are not bright, but not dumb, just your average religious, unsophisticated person, who does not know very much about any other culture but the "America" culture. He/she only speaks one language, and are neither conservative or liberal and know little about politics.

I think the average American Joe does not realize that the internet is used by people outside of the U.S. and as someone else mentioned can't find India on a map. They work average jobs, probably making $15.00-$20.00 per hour, have 2 kids, go to a church of their choice on whatever day their religion says they need to go and have barely traveled outside of the U.S. They know how to use basic technology but don't know much about searching the internet, keeping a computer virus free, etc. and know very little about science, math, or logic.

I travel a lot for work and I have seen a lot of the world, and the U.S. has some "average" people. I went to Detroit and one guy asked me where had I been to last, I said South Africa, he asked me if I saw the lions and tigers. Another time I was asked if my flight was coming from China, I informed this average American that it came from Japan. He informed me that he was afraid to travel to places like "China" because he was afraid of the food and did not wish to eat a cat. I did not know what to say to any of those questions.

 

[Superman_200]

The average joe is afraid of eating cat meat in China, but he also wouldn't know it if he was fed cat meat in his "beef"-n-broccoli at some American dive of an oriental restaurant. .

They eat all kinds of stuff at Taco Bell and McDonalds so I don't know why they worry about the food they would eat in China. I guess the average American Joe would probably just rather stick to his freedom fries with ketchup and salt and pepper steak. I don't know why they confuse China and Japan, and I don't know why I have been asked if Paris is in Italy or France, and my favorite question I was asked is if I speak "African".

 

[Teelie]

The average joe on this forum hates himself from the many, many comments I see deriding everyone else.

 

[terry78]

A lot of people on this board ***** about their "average joe" families and feel they're like some special black sheep or something.

 

[Teelie]

Ironically so. Most of them are more average than they realize.