The Wisdom of Pop Culture

[vibeke_T]

I was just thinking about my favorite tv and I thought of the "Eye of the Beholder" episode in the original Twilight Zone series. It is visually the most interesting Twilight Zone and its use of audio is interesting as well.

Commentary on the Episode:

“‘The Eye of the Beholder’ … is peculiarly evocative in that it serves as a blueprint for his later script adaptation of Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes, directed by Franklin Shaffner. In ‘Beholder’, the trick is to keep the audience in the dark as long as possible on what the ‘normal’ people actually look like. Ultimately, we discover that the normal people look like very close relatives of Miss Piggy, whereas the ‘freaks’ all look like beautiful movie stars. Our first impulse is to laugh at this nervy, simplistic gimmickry, but gradually an after-effect of terror sweeps across the screen as we realize that the pig-faced ‘normals’ actually consider themselves compassionate in even tolerating the existence of the freaks. We begin to enter their world, their consciousness, their perverted sense of aesthetics. The ‘joke’ is thus not so much on racist bigots, as it is on ‘tolerant’ liberals.” —Andrew Sarris, excerpt from Rod Serling: Viewed from Beyond the Twilight Zone

The Episode:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IldiAYhabIw


You guys should post other nuggets of wisdom you've found through tv shows.

 

[Darren Daring]

Don't Re-gift.

 

[Man-Thing]

If you are ever given three wishes, and you wish that a loved one be alive again, make sure that you specify that they should be resurected without imbalming fluid.

 

[vibeke_T]

what is re-gifting?

 

[Knightsaber Priss]

I was just thinking about my favorite tv and I thought of the "Eye of the Beholder" episode in the original Twilight Zone series. It is visually the most interesting Twilight Zone and its use of audio is interesting as well.

I love this episode. It's very thought provoking indeed, a step above alot of current TV today.

 

[vibeke_T]

Yes...too bad there isnt a lot of good tv around any more.

Twilight Zone was relevant sort of like Dragnet was relevant. Dragnet was a very sobering television show.

 

[November Rain]

wisdom of pop culture.

I guess the social rules and ethics that are loosely used for comedic reasons in such girly shows as sex and the city and ally mcbeal tend to be a moral guide.

I'm not sure if that is what you are referring to.

except for the odd word and quote that was new to me at the time, I can't see what other knowledge fiction has brought me.

i would say more that it has either widened or skewered my perception on things, depending if you are relatively pessimistic or optimistic in relation to my current stance on events.

 

[Ben Urich]

Read just about anything that Chuck Klosterman has ever written, especially Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto.

 

[Rambo, John J]

Don't Re-gift.

Frank 'The Tank'?

 

[vibeke_T]

Read just about anything that Chuck Klosterman has ever written, especially Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto.

whats that about?

 

[Ben Urich]

whats that about?

It's a collection of essays on pop culture. In between the chapters are hilarious little blurbs. A particular favorite passage from that book (or maybe it was Killing Yourself To Live) analyzes Steve Miller's bizarre travel habits ("Phoenix, Arizona all the way to Tacoma/Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A....") and concludes that "Even space cowboys need travel agents."

His latest book, Chuck Klosterman IV, came out a week or two ago. His first was Fargo Rock City.

 

[redmarvel]

what is re-gifting?

You receive a gift you don't particularly like. Store it in a closet until the next time you need a gift. Go through your "gift" closet and pick the gift to give the person. This can backfire when you give it to the person who gave it to you. Caroline in the City used this premise for a Christmas episode.

 

[redmarvel]

If you are ever given three wishes, and you wish that a loved one be alive again, make sure that you specify that they should be resurected without imbalming fluid.

Actually, specify that they are resurrected to the state their body was in a few hours before death. One show I saw had the resurectee coming back as a decomposing body.

 

[vibeke_T]

erm

 

[Darren Daring]

You receive a gift you don't particularly like. Store it in a closet until the next time you need a gift. Go through your "gift" closet and pick the gift to give the person. This can backfire when you give it to the person who gave it to you. Caroline in the City used this premise for a Christmas episode.

So, yeha, white people stuff.

 

[Elijya]

I learned that knowing is half the battle

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

If you wake up one day and your husband or daughter are a completely different person, just ignore it. Go on as if nothing's changed.

 

[jimmy]

Ahhhh! You said the secret word!