On the other place I constantly saw memes of shows that I thought ‘well if they’re that popular they must be pretty good’
Shows like:
Avatar, The Office, Parks and Rec and IT Crowd
I’ve watched them and I just don’t get it. They aren’t so amazing that they are worth that level of adoration IMO. Avatar has its good spots and Parks and Rec is pretty enjoyable but I cringe at American office and IT crowd is forgettable.
However a show I actually really like, Community, only started getting the same type of treatment after the pandemic because people watched it on Netflix. Although it’s still not as popular as these others. Are people just really basic or am I out of touch?
Anyway, what show did you watch and think ‘I don’t get what the fuss is about’? Maybe it was Community?
People have different tastes.
Tom Segura joke that I’ll butcher real quick:
A stranger walks up to me
“Hey know any good restaurants?”
Yeah there’s this really good dim sum place over there
“Oh, I hate the Asian world”
Oh, I didn’t know that about you
I’d say. OP didn’t like ATLA. Everything from mid season 1 on is gold.
People like to discuss tastes to understand differences of opinion and potentially change their own.
I’ve known a fair lot who are Office fans and these people are nothing basic. It’s just different tastes. Sense of humor has a lot to do with cultural background too.
True. I’ve seen some episodes of the Office (American version, haven’t seen the British one) and found it occasionally funny but not legendary. I’m attributing it to the lack of cultural background. I’m not American and never had dealings with relevant kind of company culture.
The Office is parodying for the lack of better term “small town/regional American office culture from early 2000s”. If you ever worked in such an environment you’d probably find it hilarious.
The British version is the one that everyone talks about. I don’t know any office fans that liked the latter.
The British version is a genre-defining original which changed office behaviour across the country and finished exactly where it needed to.
The American version is a diluted on-the-nose soap opera that Gervais likes as he gets all the royalties for minimal effort.
Unfortunately, even in the UK, I’d say the USA version is now more widely known these days, especially amongst the younger generations.
The office is like the Star Wars of sitcoms. It’s a good show but the hoards of fans who incorporate it into their personality make you want to pretend you’re not a fan.
Are people just really basic
Says the guy making a thread from 2009
I cringe at American office
Isn’t that the entire point? I hate cringe comedy myself - you couldn’t pay me to watch The Office or IT Crowd, but “I dislike the show/genre” is pretty different from “the entire show/genre and everything in it sucks”.
Are people just really basic or am I out of touch?
Maybe just a tad edgy about this. “People are basic” is rarely a good look even if you’re right. In this case it’s completely subjective.
Anyway, GoT S1 was really good, S2-4 were still decent, S5-7 stank like bad pooooosey, and S8 was so god-awful it retroactively made the whole series unwatchable for me, and turned me off the books too. Which is actually a real stroke of luck, beats waiting for Godot-R.-R.-Martin over here.
Apart from that, I don’t remember watching a new show due to memes or popularity since Big Bang Theory, which was pitched as a “geek humor” thing but instead turned out to be… well, whatever BBT was.
GoT still amazes me. How the hell could they fuck it up so incredibly hard that it retroactively ruined the show and the fucking source material for almost anyone I know including myself? I mean, that shouldn’t be possible.
The Walking Dead. Mediocre acting and worse writing. Production was really all it had going for it, which is ultimately just money that could have been better spent elsewhere.
I agree somewhat, I never actually finished watching it, I was shocked when it just seemed to continue season after season. The show turned into a zombie.
Yeah, I didn’t make it past season 2. I’ve definitely watched more episodes of worse shows, but Walking Dead just did nothing for me. I am glad it helped popularize Steven Yeun though, he’s awesome.
It actually WAS Community for me. I tried it a few years back and it just didn’t click. I think because Joel and Pierce especially are such shitty people. Tried it again last year and loved it.
Same thing happened with The Orville. I didn’t even make it through the first episode the first time I tried it. Loved it the next time.
Sometimes it’s all about the timing in our lives or the experiences we’ve had.
Community is one of my all time favourite shows but lots of people just don’t get it. It was never a popular show when it originally aired.
I remember googling ‘community’ and the top result was the Wikipedia article for community it was that way going on season 3.
Morbius It wasn’t bad enough to finish or good enough to enjoy. Never said it was Morbin time. It had Dr. Who so there was that.
Did anyone actually like that though? I thought that was a meme because of how bad it was. I really don’t know, I never saw it.
The memes were making fun of the fact that no one had seen it, somehow Warner thought that re-releasing the film would make the memers go to see it, but that would have gone against the point of the meme
No one liked it. But I only watched it because of all the memes.
Like there had to be something at least worth making fun of. Nope. It just kinda sucked till I turned it off.
That’s why the memes were made.
No one had asked for a Morbius movie, no one wanted a Morbius movie.
Yes.
I first watched SpongeBob SquarePants as an adult and it’s shit. Maybe if I’d started watching when I was five it might have liked it.
U had to have been there
So you are not feeling it now, Mr. Krabs?
Exactly my impression as well.
That’s unfortunate since there’s a lot of genuinely good moments in the show that I didn’t fully understand until I grew up.
Sorry for reviving a dead thread, but I had to link this clip:
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=zV_7c7sFk9g
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Not a show, but a movie. I watched Napoleon Dynamite because of the memes and because several people I knew would quote it a lot. I found it to be slow paced and boring outside of the scenes with the memes.
It’s definitely one of those ‘slice of life’ / vibe movies. You either like the atmosphere, mood, and characters, or you don’t. Personally I love the movie but I can understand why it has mixed reception.
Similarly in my brain is Dazed and Confused. There is hardly a plot to be found in that movie but it makes me nostalgic for a time before I was born. Something about it just draws me.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine feels that way to me. Not that I think it’s a particularly bad show, but I definitely feel like the memes spawned from it already contain the funniest parts of the show. The actual content of each episode is kinda predictable with the protagonist learning stone sort of lesson.
Also I so desperately wanted to get into Bojack Horseman because I love animation, puns, and to cry while watching shows. The memes showed so many really deep and interesting moments, but by the end of the third season, I just couldn’t stand to watch Bojack learn a lesson only to revert to being a complete asshole an episode later. I get that’s kind of the point, but it was more infuriating than engaging.
What you describe about Bojack is frustrating but I think very realistic and kind of the core of the show. Bojack is flawed in so many ways and has a lot of baggage weighing on him. Him struggling to fix his flaws despite being entirely aware of them is very relatable.
If fixing flaws was as easy as someone holding up a mirror for you then no one would struggle with personal demons. But it’s not. It takes humility, self awareness, and constant self reflection to make progress. Bojack has an array of personality faults and trauma to overcome and it’s no surprise he struggles the way he does.
It’s the best depiction of mental health and addiction I’ve encountered.
Hah I also watched Bojack for the memes too.
I thought it was good, not the most amazing thing ever.
HSACWDTK?DTKT?LFO!
I haven’t seen Morbius yet and I’m still disappointed.
That banana stand show was hella underwhelming. The memes were everwhere and are still popular now, it felt like everybody bsck then was raving about how sidesplittingly hilarious and clever this show was.
If it aired today I suspect most people would also find it underwhelming. The thing with Arrested Development is that it was truly unique and ahead of its time, enough that it couldn’t make it through three seasons on network tv. There was just nothing else like it, and audiences didn’t quite know what to do with it. People who loved it made a big deal about it because it could be (and turned out to be) the direction comedy was heading if only people would give it a chance.
You know nothing John Snow ;)
It’s a an off brand of humor that is specific t for that time. Also, there’s a bit of Seinfeld effect going on.
I couldn’t get into Game Of Thrones either tbh, it was so rapey.
Seinfeld is ok for an episode here and there. Why is everyone yelling all the time in so many American shows though? Is it comfortable for you guys to listen to that for multiple episodes at a time?
The “Seinfeld effect” is what you call it when people think something is unfunny because its style of humour has been done to death, even though that particular show invented that style of humour and was extremely innovative at the time of its creation.
I don’t know how to express myself unless through anger and personal attack!
Can you explain this comment please? I don’t understand why/how you got anger and personal attacks from what I wrote.
That’s a line from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
My gut says it either has to do with the way shows were filmed, or it’s a leftover from theatrical plays.
You need to work on your conversation skills.
What do you mean?
Imagine a coworker said what I said, and you walk up to them and say your reply to his face word for word.
What would that coworker think of that interaction?
I have autism and thought I did pretty well in this interaction before I got the crit back. I have no idea what a coworker would think.
Hard diagree 🤔 but I respect ur right to say it
Arrested Development? I tried to watch it recently and it came out as super cringey.
Narrator: It was.
The Star Wars prequels.
The prequels were memed because they were awful (except episode 3 which I will still maintain is better than episode 6) but somehow perception warped to make people think they were good or okay at best. The first 2 are terrible.
If the star wars universe debuted with episode one, we would not have a star wars universe. The sound track rocked, and uh, there were rocks on planets.
That’s a really astute observation, and not one I’ve heard before. Episode I would not have been enough to form the bedrock of the Star Wars phenomenon.
The third one is also terrible. Just slightly less terrible than the first two.
No you don’t understand, it’s the darker one. That makes it good.
Dark?
But it ended with a 20 minutes long flawlessly choreographed dance number. I thought it was super fabulous!
I though the 3rd one was worse than 1 and 2 tbh.
Each one was worse than the one before
It’s like poetry, it rhymes.
Out of curiosity, specify which Avatar
Avatar: The Last Airbender.
I also watched The Legend of Korra, which was also ok but not as good as the first show.
Avatar is generally better if you watch it as a kid and come back to it. Can’t say the same for Korra as I’ve never watched it tho
TLA set the bar and Korra cant come close to that tbh. Korra is a good show but not as good as TLA.
I watched both as an adult. ATLA: solid show but overhyped.
Korra was distinctly average and I get the feeling most fans love it because they wish ATLA had more seasons.
Well one thing you need to understand is that Avatar is an actual kid’s show. It was a lot of kids’ first introduction to anime, so a lot of people have a “soft spot” for it. Like it’s part of their childhood. Which it is.
Yeah it definitely had its moments.
I really did like Iroh’s story.
I think Avatar would have been a much better show if it was targeting adults and didn’t shy away from the more violent/adult themes moments.
Did you watch the whole show? It definitely becomes more violent/adult in its subjects after the first season
Just like most other kids’ shows that mature with the viewers: Adventure Time, Clone Wars, and hell even Ninjago come to mind.
Yes.
I always watch these shows in their entirety because I’m worried I will miss the part that makes them so popular.
Avatar is a kids show and that’s obvious when no deaths are ever really shown on screen.
Azula is ripe for some really graphic content but it’s always just alluded and hinted at offscreen.
It feels like what you’re saying is that a show needs to include graphic violence in order to be enjoyed by adults… Maybe I’m misunderstanding your point. I’m not trying to put words in your mouth but I really don’t think the show suffers much just because it is made for a younger audience.
Nah it doesn’t require violence but when the camera pans away as the villain dies it’s a bit unsatisfactory.
Or a large rock just falls on them it’s a bit cliche.
Avatar is set in a world where people use fire and no one is burnt to death? If that was shown people would really fear/loathe the fire lord etc etc. it’s not required but there were definitely parts in the show where it felt like the show creators were limited by it being a kids show.
Pretty sure they’re talking about TLA
Said “shows”, so I assumed the animated one
The movies definitely qualify more than the cartoon imo, very underwhelming. At least the show was a unique story.
It definitely was a great theatre experience when it came out as it was revolutionary but didn’t age well as visuals was the only thing that made it popular.
I think the problem is that a lot of shows become overhyped once they reach a certain level of popularity. While you may have enjoyed it if you came across it naturally, the hype you’ve encountered around it makes you expect more. Avatar and Parks and Rec are great shows, but they’re definitely not the best shows of all time (although I do really love Parks and Rec) and you’d probably expect them to be these amazing shows if all you know about them is the hype from superfans.
I think there’s also an effect where shows get copied so much their original humour become cliche.
