And there's just so MANY of them. I don't want to have to watch 45 different movies to get all the lore of a single media franchise. If it's a really engaging multi-part serial I can understand that, but speaking as an outsider I feel like I could only take so many hours of spandex-clad heroes fighting villains before I would be bored out of my mind.

I adore the Tim Burton Batmans and even Batman Forever is rock solid. Batman and Robin is also very fun if you treat it as a 100% parody farce. I also liked the first two Nolan Batmans as a high schooler, but I'm probably never gonna be super excited to go back to them.

"stressed" is just "desserts" spelled backwards

It's just oversaturation. How many times now have we had to sit through Batman/Spiderman/Superman's origin? For fuck's sake guys! These characters have been going, some of them, for 90 years! Can't you just pick one of their big adventures and do that? Why does everything have to be a god-damn "reimagining"? We KNOW Peter Parker was bitten by a spider, Bruce Wayne's parents were shot and Superman was sent away from his soon-after-destructing home planet. Move on, for the love of everything! Marvel in particular had some amazing writing. Superhero films don't have to just be big guys and girls posing; put some thought into it.

Or, preferably, don't. There are far too many of these movies. Just waiting for the Spider-Ham motion picture to come out now...


I don't know how it holds up, but I really liked the extended version of Zack Snyder's Watchmen from 2007 I think it was? Of course I knew the comic from before. Similarly, the series The Boys is great.

I like superheroes, but prefer them when they're a little more nuanced or even awful.

Happiness is a warm manatee

Oh and I also watched that Netflix show with the chick who dies of puking in her sleep in Breaking Bad. It was supposed to be the quality superhero fare I think? We watched two or three episodes before I told the gf she's on her own with that one. I don't think it had the protagonists literally promoting future installments of the franchise but I also can't remember a single thing I liked about it.

Practitioner of Soviet Foucauldian Catholicism

Quote from: jadis on Apr 07, 2023, 05:12 PMOh and I also watched that Netflix show with the chick who dies of puking in her sleep in Breaking Bad. It was supposed to be the quality superhero fare I think? We watched two or three episodes before I told the gf she's on her own with that one. I don't think it had the protagonists literally promoting future installments of the franchise but I also can't remember a single thing I liked about it.
That's too bad. I liked Jessica Jones a lot, especially the first season.

Throw your dog the invisible bone.

The genre is just really not for me. Something there doesn't click

I hate it when it's gung ho and bombastic and when it tries to be cute and self aware I hate it more

Practitioner of Soviet Foucauldian Catholicism

#36 Apr 07, 2023, 05:54 PM Last Edit: Apr 07, 2023, 06:02 PM by jadis
It's all coming back to me now...

One time I was at a potluck (do Americans do those or is it mostly a Canadian thing?) and another guy who was there, who I didn't know and who was a total stereotype, was soyfacing ("geeking out") for I don't know how long about robot movies or comic books or whatever it was. A couple of my friends started giggling looking at my silent impression of him and then he turned to me, sensing hostility, and asked me "so what kind of movies do YOU like?" I said something about Bunuel and Guy Maddin. Triumphantly, he went "oh so the depressing and weird kind?" I replied with a comically emphatic "YES" and everyone was amused and what was an extraordinary display of hostility by Canadian standards was diffused.

He was a work colleague of a friend of mine who said he insists on kissing her on the cheek every time her sees her and how it grosses her tf out. He works now as a podcast producer for one of the local newspapers I think. Probably gets to soyface a whole bunch on the company's dime

Also around that time, when certain events unfolded in France and other European countries, I may or may not have been doing a bit about an intellectually challenged Muslim kid who just wants to draw his favorite superhero, the prophet Muhammad.

So in a way me and superheroes go back a long way

Practitioner of Soviet Foucauldian Catholicism

I didn't really understand your post, but I did want to say that, yes, potlucks are very common in the US.

Throw your dog the invisible bone.

Just randomly reminiscing about all the times the theme of superheroes and their fans came up in my life

Practitioner of Soviet Foucauldian Catholicism

Quote from: jadis on Apr 07, 2023, 06:14 PMJust randomly reminiscing about all the times the theme of superheroes and their fans came up in my life

Have you done standup comedy in the past? Is that what the reference to "doing a bit" was about?

Throw your dog the invisible bone.

Nah I only did an open mic once with a heavy-handed tribute to Neil Hamburger

Don't you do "bits" to your friend circle? Mostly making fun of other people? Kidna adolescent but then I've known my best friends since age 18-20 and we've normally had running bits and characters and "irl memes" and the like.   

Practitioner of Soviet Foucauldian Catholicism

Quote from: jadis on Apr 07, 2023, 06:26 PMNah I only did an open mic once with a heavy-handed tribute to Neil Hamburger

Don't you do "bits" to your friend circle? Mostly making fun of other people? Kidna adolescent but then I've known my best friends since age 18-20 and we've normally had running bits and characters and "irl memes" and the like. 

Bits? No. I do have certain kinds of jokey banter I fall into when I to get together with some of the friends I grew up with, but that's about it.

Actually, now that I think of it, I do have of one sort of bit I do, I guess. Twenty-something years ago, a friend and I visited another friend in London and her (now ex-) husband was this stereotypical English musician type who was unimpressed by everything. When I asked him about his recent trip to Germany his answer was a disparaging, "It's alright. It's a bit like England, init?" When I asked about his trip to NYC, "It's alright. It's just a bunch of tall buildings, init?" He was this way about any place or band or food or movie or activity that anyone mentioned, so it became a running joke between me and the friend I was traveling with. Now it's a running joke I have with my wife where, if I was underwhelmed by something, I'll say "it's alright" with a sneering English accent. Even though my wife has never even met the person I'm making fun of, she knows the backstory and it makes her laugh.


Throw your dog the invisible bone.

This type of guy?



Practitioner of Soviet Foucauldian Catholicism

Quote from: jadis on Apr 07, 2023, 06:55 PMThis type of guy?



A bit like Super Hans, but more mopey.

Throw your dog the invisible bone.

Quote from: jadis on Apr 07, 2023, 06:26 PMNah I only did an open mic once with a heavy-handed tribute to Neil Hamburger

Don't you do "bits" to your friend circle? Mostly making fun of other people? Kidna adolescent but then I've known my best friends since age 18-20 and we've normally had running bits and characters and "irl memes" and the like. 

Not really with my friends, but my fiance and I do have a lot of inside jokes that are usually inspired by our bad movie roast nights. Our longest running "bit" is semi-ironically praising Lou Bega (the Mambo No. 5 guy, for reference) as a musical genius and going on American Psycho-esque monologues about how great he is.

I'm sure that sounds like the least funny thing ever, but I guess that's the beauty of inside jokes.

"stressed" is just "desserts" spelled backwards