Is Amused or Am Amused ?
Mar. 12th, 2019 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatGranted it is a well-known fact that I have a very dry sense of humor and it is not necessarily shared by all my fellow humans. Also what many of my fellow humans find funny, I find...not. (Slapstick and scatological/sex humor does little for me. So someone ate your poop, or your girlfriend used your sperm as hair gell..how is this funny? Gross yes. Funny no.)
I find irony amusing along with absurd situations, and hyperbole.
Right now, I'm laughing my head off reading a contemporary romance novel, which I've decided is a satire of contemporary romance novels -- specifically the bad billionaire alpha boy from the wrong side of the tracks meets the sweet young virginal thing trope. (Which is wildly popular in contemporaries). If anything deserves to be parodied or satirized -- it is contemporary romance novels, in particular this trope.
Examples?
Lily who is described as beautiful -- to the point that men are instantly smitten and stop in their tracks to stare at her. Informs Victor (the hero, Nate's adopted father) that she has no idea what to do on a date with Nate, since she's never been on one before.
He's understandably shocked. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-two."
"Were you raised in convent?"
"No, a small town in Indiana."
"Same thing," he decides. He's British. Also he doesn't know she went to college at Oxford, how she avoided being grabbed up until now has understandably bewildered him. (Little does he know that when Lily was 14 - she made a wish to a genie for a "romantic" hero directly out of one of her romance novels to fall for her (I'm guessing it was a 90s romance, most likely written by Rogers or McNaught, although knowing what I know about today's contemporaries -- there's not a heck of a lot of difference.) So apparently -- she's on hold until Nate walks into her life. Also the genie not being human, doesn't know the difference between love and lust.)
Later?
The hero is trying to figure out how someone as amazing as Lily would ever be interested in him. And how he got so lucky. (I'm thinking -- wasn't luck, it was a genie. And you may want to wait before you count your blessings on this one.)
And...
Jeff: You clearly can't take Lily on you're bike.
Lily (who is wearing a pink pencil thin skirt and tight camisol, with cardigan, and no bra. By the way Lily is big busted and has a narrow waist -- and how she got away without a bra in a tight thin camisol is beyond me, wouldn't her boobs be hanging out?): You rode her on a bike? (She's envisioning him riding a bicycle. And can't quite imagine it. He just doesn't seem the sort. And is wildly disappointed.)
They manage to explain it's a motorcycle. She's thrilled and begs to ride on it instead of a cab.
Laura (Nate's adopted mother): But you can't. You are wearing a skirt! (A pencil thin skirt no less. What is it with contemporary romance writers and pencil thin skirts? No one wears these things in reality -- they are insanely uncomfortable and you look like crap in them.)
Lily: Oh, I'll just pull it up. No problem.
This understandably shocks everyone, and turns on both Nate and his adopted brother Jeff, who is now insanely jealous of Nate.
I'm laughing my head off. And the kissing, sex scenes are so purple in prose, they instill uncontrollable giggles.
I went to read the reviews on Good Reads and Amazon, and honestly, I wonder about these people. They took the book seriously. Either hated it -- for being horribly written and offensive, or loved it for fitting all their dreams. And one reviewer asked if the writer really thought her readers were this stupid? And I thought, well, no...but I'm starting to wonder about you. I also wondered about the 50 Shades readers -- who took those books seriously. Honestly, how could they?
2. Also read... Smart Bitches Recap of the Bachelor Episode..."I'm Done with This" -- which reads like an episode of the series UnREal (a satire on The Bachelor -- honestly it might as well be an episode of that series, but since it's not -- it's even more hilarious.). I hate the Bachelor, I've decided it is the worst show ever made. But this recap is funny...and sort of justifies my opinion of it.
This reads like another satire of a contemporary romance novel. LOL! You should read the whole thing, complete with the writer stating that her husband had resorted to drinking bourbon half-way through to make it through the episodes with her.
3. The DenofGeek decided to tabulate all of Joss Whedon's failed projects or the projects he hasn't been able to get off the ground -- you gotta love the internet, not only does it keep track of your successes, it keeps track of your failures and the items you tried and never saw the light of day.
4. In honor of the 30th Birthday of the World Wide Web... Den of the Geek lists the top 25 Buffy Episodes
Actually that's not in honor of the 30th Anniversary of the World Wide Web, that's just me being silly and coming up with an excuse to post both under the same section.
Buffy didn't get me on the WWW. I was on it long before that. Started in Law School with Lexis and Westlaw, then in 1990s with work related stuff. Then I would get bored in 1998 and sneak peaks at Buffy sites while at work -- such as ACIN News -- which posted spoilers, and individual fan sites -- there really wasn't alot back in the 1990s. It wasn't until 2000 that it began to take off or really 2002, to be honest. And I've been on social media roughly since 1997 (if you count Yahoo List Serves).
Regarding top 25 Buffy episodes..eh, this is the mind of theshipper viewer.
My mind changes constantly. I agree with some of their choices not others. There's a lot of S1 and S2 episodes in there, that I would not have put. And I honestly think the first three seasons of the series are overrated and sort of teen soap opera. There's a reason people made fun of that series and I was embarrassed to admit to watching it -- the first three seasons were pretty much...well, I'd seen the same stuff done elsewhere better. There were a handful of really good episodes in there -- and most of them were in the 3rd Season or featured Spike and Dru.
The best episodes and by far the most ground-breaking in regards to television -- or that changed television were in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh seasons. These were the controversial and in some respects dangerous and risky ones. It wasn't until these popped up that I began to think whoa...and started writing meta, reading fanfic, and got on the boards. I wasn't on the boards and did not read fanfic during the first three seasons -- oh I loved the series. But I loved it in the same way that I well love General Hospital and Vampire Diaries and Game of Thrones.
Here's the episodes that blew me away for their complexity and pushing boundaries, in no particular order:
1.Smashed -- I'd never seen a show do that on television, particularly on a show targeting a teen audience. Now yes. Not in before Buffy did in 2001. Also it launched an BDSM abusive sexual relationship between a vampire slayer heroine and a vampire, who had killed at least two slayers in his lifetime.
2. Restless - dreamscape
3. Hush - no talking, all through music and action
4. The Body - an episode that had almost no supernatural, devoid of music
5. Fool For Love - the episode is about how men view women in association with themselves...or as that obscure object of desire. It's reminds me a bit of Roma in how it doesn't look kindly on the male gender.
6. Lies My Parents Told Me - an interesting commentary on how men view women via their relationship with their mothers, and how women view men via their fathers. A subversive take on Freud, and weirdly it dismisses Freud and says get over it. If you compare it to the episode Helpless and watch the two back to back -- it's even more interesting. Because in Helpless, the monster is the vampire and the hero is the Watcher or is it? And in Lies, the monster is the Watcher and the hero is the vampire or is it? Both ask similar questions.
7. Conversations with Dead People - see above
8.Beneath Me -- the church scene and the idea of demonizing the act not the person.
9.Villains - Interesting take on power, pain and vengeance
10. Once More With Feeling -- to understand how brilliant this was, you should watch all the horrible musical episodes other television series attempted before and after it. Also, this started a trend. It made it possible. And it made fun of the device.
This episode changed television.
11.Innocence -- flipping Angel, and the metaphor of sex turning the guy evil, which really comments on the slasher films in a big way. (Seeing Red is in a way the flip side of Innocence. In it -- Spike seeks his soul after attempting to rape Buffy, while Angel loses his soul after making love to Buffy. Very subversive look at the romance trope intermixed with slasher films. If you've seen any slasher horror films you know what I'm talking about -- in these films, the heroine sleeps with the boy and is often killed by him. Notably in the Scream series -- the killers are the boyfriends of the heroines, Neve Campbell, and her best friend, Rose McGowan (who is killed early on), the only surviving male outside of Neve, is a virginal geek who knows the rules and is sort the Xander character. Here, Whedon plays with the trope. In Scream 2 -- Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the blond who gets killed in the beginning, in Scream 1, Drew Barrymore plays the blond who gets killed...both are waiting for their boyfriend. The killer pretends to be their boyfriend and isn't, he either kills their boyfriend or worse is...In Buffy, Buffy slays Angel and Spike, she has the upper hand. Whedon successfully flips the trope.)
12. Dopplegangland -- which is far better episode than The Wish, in how it plays with various gender tropes.
13. Selfless -- plays with the idea of Vengeance and identity, and how making one's identity about being married or part of a romantic relationship is a losing proposition.
14. Becoming 1 & 2- which is the first to play with the Flashback device. It's interesting in it's reveal on how truly horrible Angel is and why -- it's his desire to be the Chosen One that is why he's the villain. He wants to be the Prophecy. It's why he didn't save Buffy. Whistler thinks Angel should save the day -- after all, it's always the guy who does, right? Right? Instead everything is flipped. And the character we all thought was the big bad at the start of the season aids Buffy in taking down the guy she kept trying to save, and who kept saving her. Looking over this episode from a distance -- it's pretty clear that Angel was NEVER intended to be a hero, and was always an anti-hero in the writers views, and Bangle couldn't happen. What makes it brilliant is that twist.
15. Passion -- an interesting commentary on obsessive love, which is echoed later with Seeing Red and Crush, although I think it's better done here. Although Crush gets it across in a more humorous manner.
16. Intervention -- surprised me, flipped expectations. Also the exploration of the Buffy character via the perspective of the Buffy bot and Buffy herself..was done well. It likewise looked at how society views women and women's roles. And it's telling that Spike is at his most humane when he is broken in the cave, and Buffy confronts him, pretending to be the Bot...
17. Who Are You -- flipping Faith and Buffy, re-examines how both women see themselves, but more so, Faith...and the bad girl trope.
18. Dead Things -- sort of an echo of Who Are You, but also an examination of domestic violence, rape, and abusive relationships...as well as guilt and how guilt destroys everyone around you.
I find irony amusing along with absurd situations, and hyperbole.
Right now, I'm laughing my head off reading a contemporary romance novel, which I've decided is a satire of contemporary romance novels -- specifically the bad billionaire alpha boy from the wrong side of the tracks meets the sweet young virginal thing trope. (Which is wildly popular in contemporaries). If anything deserves to be parodied or satirized -- it is contemporary romance novels, in particular this trope.
Examples?
Lily who is described as beautiful -- to the point that men are instantly smitten and stop in their tracks to stare at her. Informs Victor (the hero, Nate's adopted father) that she has no idea what to do on a date with Nate, since she's never been on one before.
He's understandably shocked. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-two."
"Were you raised in convent?"
"No, a small town in Indiana."
"Same thing," he decides. He's British. Also he doesn't know she went to college at Oxford, how she avoided being grabbed up until now has understandably bewildered him. (Little does he know that when Lily was 14 - she made a wish to a genie for a "romantic" hero directly out of one of her romance novels to fall for her (I'm guessing it was a 90s romance, most likely written by Rogers or McNaught, although knowing what I know about today's contemporaries -- there's not a heck of a lot of difference.) So apparently -- she's on hold until Nate walks into her life. Also the genie not being human, doesn't know the difference between love and lust.)
Later?
The hero is trying to figure out how someone as amazing as Lily would ever be interested in him. And how he got so lucky. (I'm thinking -- wasn't luck, it was a genie. And you may want to wait before you count your blessings on this one.)
And...
Jeff: You clearly can't take Lily on you're bike.
Lily (who is wearing a pink pencil thin skirt and tight camisol, with cardigan, and no bra. By the way Lily is big busted and has a narrow waist -- and how she got away without a bra in a tight thin camisol is beyond me, wouldn't her boobs be hanging out?): You rode her on a bike? (She's envisioning him riding a bicycle. And can't quite imagine it. He just doesn't seem the sort. And is wildly disappointed.)
They manage to explain it's a motorcycle. She's thrilled and begs to ride on it instead of a cab.
Laura (Nate's adopted mother): But you can't. You are wearing a skirt! (A pencil thin skirt no less. What is it with contemporary romance writers and pencil thin skirts? No one wears these things in reality -- they are insanely uncomfortable and you look like crap in them.)
Lily: Oh, I'll just pull it up. No problem.
This understandably shocks everyone, and turns on both Nate and his adopted brother Jeff, who is now insanely jealous of Nate.
I'm laughing my head off. And the kissing, sex scenes are so purple in prose, they instill uncontrollable giggles.
I went to read the reviews on Good Reads and Amazon, and honestly, I wonder about these people. They took the book seriously. Either hated it -- for being horribly written and offensive, or loved it for fitting all their dreams. And one reviewer asked if the writer really thought her readers were this stupid? And I thought, well, no...but I'm starting to wonder about you. I also wondered about the 50 Shades readers -- who took those books seriously. Honestly, how could they?
2. Also read... Smart Bitches Recap of the Bachelor Episode..."I'm Done with This" -- which reads like an episode of the series UnREal (a satire on The Bachelor -- honestly it might as well be an episode of that series, but since it's not -- it's even more hilarious.). I hate the Bachelor, I've decided it is the worst show ever made. But this recap is funny...and sort of justifies my opinion of it.
If you watched last week (and I’m so sorry if you did) then you know that Colton had a Fantasy Suite date with Tayshia, but didn’t lose his virginity to her because he wasn’t in love yet. Then he admitted he was in love with Cassie, except Cassie was having doubts…namely because her family was having doubts.
Rather than pick up a fucking phone, Cassie’s dad flew all the way to Portugal to tell her he thought all of this was a pretty bad idea (no shit) , and Cassie had a well-deserved meltdown. She told Colton she wasn’t sure how she felt about him and decided to leave.
Colton had a meltdown too and admitted he wanted Cassie to “be the one” at the end of show. Then after she left he jumped a fence (that opened from the inside) and disappeared into the Portuguese wilderness while Chris Harrison looked kind of impressed.
This reads like another satire of a contemporary romance novel. LOL! You should read the whole thing, complete with the writer stating that her husband had resorted to drinking bourbon half-way through to make it through the episodes with her.
3. The DenofGeek decided to tabulate all of Joss Whedon's failed projects or the projects he hasn't been able to get off the ground -- you gotta love the internet, not only does it keep track of your successes, it keeps track of your failures and the items you tried and never saw the light of day.
4. In honor of the 30th Birthday of the World Wide Web... Den of the Geek lists the top 25 Buffy Episodes
Actually that's not in honor of the 30th Anniversary of the World Wide Web, that's just me being silly and coming up with an excuse to post both under the same section.
Buffy didn't get me on the WWW. I was on it long before that. Started in Law School with Lexis and Westlaw, then in 1990s with work related stuff. Then I would get bored in 1998 and sneak peaks at Buffy sites while at work -- such as ACIN News -- which posted spoilers, and individual fan sites -- there really wasn't alot back in the 1990s. It wasn't until 2000 that it began to take off or really 2002, to be honest. And I've been on social media roughly since 1997 (if you count Yahoo List Serves).
Regarding top 25 Buffy episodes..eh, this is the mind of the
My mind changes constantly. I agree with some of their choices not others. There's a lot of S1 and S2 episodes in there, that I would not have put. And I honestly think the first three seasons of the series are overrated and sort of teen soap opera. There's a reason people made fun of that series and I was embarrassed to admit to watching it -- the first three seasons were pretty much...well, I'd seen the same stuff done elsewhere better. There were a handful of really good episodes in there -- and most of them were in the 3rd Season or featured Spike and Dru.
The best episodes and by far the most ground-breaking in regards to television -- or that changed television were in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh seasons. These were the controversial and in some respects dangerous and risky ones. It wasn't until these popped up that I began to think whoa...and started writing meta, reading fanfic, and got on the boards. I wasn't on the boards and did not read fanfic during the first three seasons -- oh I loved the series. But I loved it in the same way that I well love General Hospital and Vampire Diaries and Game of Thrones.
Here's the episodes that blew me away for their complexity and pushing boundaries, in no particular order:
1.Smashed -- I'd never seen a show do that on television, particularly on a show targeting a teen audience. Now yes. Not in before Buffy did in 2001. Also it launched an BDSM abusive sexual relationship between a vampire slayer heroine and a vampire, who had killed at least two slayers in his lifetime.
2. Restless - dreamscape
3. Hush - no talking, all through music and action
4. The Body - an episode that had almost no supernatural, devoid of music
5. Fool For Love - the episode is about how men view women in association with themselves...or as that obscure object of desire. It's reminds me a bit of Roma in how it doesn't look kindly on the male gender.
6. Lies My Parents Told Me - an interesting commentary on how men view women via their relationship with their mothers, and how women view men via their fathers. A subversive take on Freud, and weirdly it dismisses Freud and says get over it. If you compare it to the episode Helpless and watch the two back to back -- it's even more interesting. Because in Helpless, the monster is the vampire and the hero is the Watcher or is it? And in Lies, the monster is the Watcher and the hero is the vampire or is it? Both ask similar questions.
7. Conversations with Dead People - see above
8.Beneath Me -- the church scene and the idea of demonizing the act not the person.
9.Villains - Interesting take on power, pain and vengeance
10. Once More With Feeling -- to understand how brilliant this was, you should watch all the horrible musical episodes other television series attempted before and after it. Also, this started a trend. It made it possible. And it made fun of the device.
This episode changed television.
11.Innocence -- flipping Angel, and the metaphor of sex turning the guy evil, which really comments on the slasher films in a big way. (Seeing Red is in a way the flip side of Innocence. In it -- Spike seeks his soul after attempting to rape Buffy, while Angel loses his soul after making love to Buffy. Very subversive look at the romance trope intermixed with slasher films. If you've seen any slasher horror films you know what I'm talking about -- in these films, the heroine sleeps with the boy and is often killed by him. Notably in the Scream series -- the killers are the boyfriends of the heroines, Neve Campbell, and her best friend, Rose McGowan (who is killed early on), the only surviving male outside of Neve, is a virginal geek who knows the rules and is sort the Xander character. Here, Whedon plays with the trope. In Scream 2 -- Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the blond who gets killed in the beginning, in Scream 1, Drew Barrymore plays the blond who gets killed...both are waiting for their boyfriend. The killer pretends to be their boyfriend and isn't, he either kills their boyfriend or worse is...In Buffy, Buffy slays Angel and Spike, she has the upper hand. Whedon successfully flips the trope.)
12. Dopplegangland -- which is far better episode than The Wish, in how it plays with various gender tropes.
13. Selfless -- plays with the idea of Vengeance and identity, and how making one's identity about being married or part of a romantic relationship is a losing proposition.
14. Becoming 1 & 2- which is the first to play with the Flashback device. It's interesting in it's reveal on how truly horrible Angel is and why -- it's his desire to be the Chosen One that is why he's the villain. He wants to be the Prophecy. It's why he didn't save Buffy. Whistler thinks Angel should save the day -- after all, it's always the guy who does, right? Right? Instead everything is flipped. And the character we all thought was the big bad at the start of the season aids Buffy in taking down the guy she kept trying to save, and who kept saving her. Looking over this episode from a distance -- it's pretty clear that Angel was NEVER intended to be a hero, and was always an anti-hero in the writers views, and Bangle couldn't happen. What makes it brilliant is that twist.
15. Passion -- an interesting commentary on obsessive love, which is echoed later with Seeing Red and Crush, although I think it's better done here. Although Crush gets it across in a more humorous manner.
16. Intervention -- surprised me, flipped expectations. Also the exploration of the Buffy character via the perspective of the Buffy bot and Buffy herself..was done well. It likewise looked at how society views women and women's roles. And it's telling that Spike is at his most humane when he is broken in the cave, and Buffy confronts him, pretending to be the Bot...
17. Who Are You -- flipping Faith and Buffy, re-examines how both women see themselves, but more so, Faith...and the bad girl trope.
18. Dead Things -- sort of an echo of Who Are You, but also an examination of domestic violence, rape, and abusive relationships...as well as guilt and how guilt destroys everyone around you.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-13 01:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-13 04:51 pm (UTC)Oh, I forgot about Storyteller, also not ground-breaking nor surprising. My caveat was shows that blew me away or surprised me by doing something off the beaten track.
Intervention's take on the Buffy Bot and how it utilized it was interesting and surprising. Not at all what I expected. Also the parallel structure of Spike (who is considered a thing, non-human) and the Bot (also non-human) who show more concern and worry than Buffy who has become somewhat closed off since her mother died.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-13 03:25 pm (UTC)And yes, the book certainly should be a satire. Although re: the dating thing, this wouldn't surprise me. Although I'm way too old to weigh in on how general this was, I remember reading in past years that an entire generation rarely or ever went on what we'd consider traditional dates as a result of group dates, hook up culture, and "getting coffee."
no subject
Date: 2019-03-13 04:55 pm (UTC)I admittedly didn't go on an actual date until I hit college. But this woman is "drop dead" gorgeous. The sort, people would throw themselves at. Although, you are right -- traditional dating sort of went out with group dating. OTOH, this appears to be taking place in the early 1990s -- since no one has a cell phone, there's no WWW, but there are computers.