The Big Picture: Dumping Irony

[RTR]

I think chunk norris's popularity is the name, hes got a very recognizable name.

I also think that irony like your talking about might be diminishing. I mean we have a big population of people who are willing to wholeheartedly embrace this.

When pretty much anything that is geared towards girls or children is seen as something that you can only enjoy 'ironically'.

Speaking only for myself, I'm pretty grateful for this.

 

[Gather]

Regarding that Chuck Norris show... How often do they say any variation or combination of the words "Chuck Norris"?

It could be a drinking game from what you showed us

 

[PunkRex]

Not what I meant. I just mean it's no longer seen as strange to say you like a Nickelodeon cartoon. You can like Invader Zim because it funny and the animation is great. Where before it seemed more like, Invader Zim can be liked because it's a perversely dark kids show. You no longer have to be emo or goth to like it. You don't have to be a Girl to like MLP, you don't have to be a kid to like any cartoon you like.

That's another reason I think it hurts shows like Family Guy and other 'Adult' cartoons that were on the 'safe to like' list.

Older Voltron is pretty good in an old Anime style. The Newest Voltron isn't terrible. The New Thundercats is really good too. So is the new Ninja Turtles.

Fair play.

Personally, I don't enjoy the new Thunder Cats. I never watched the original so it's not a nostalgia thing, I think the shows so afraid of depicting violance it ends up dancing around every problem. Although i've only watched about 4 episodes so, again, im not the best person to ask.

 

[Sergey Sund]

I did enjoy those Chuck Norris jokes. I enjoyed it more once Chuck was told about them and read some of them out loud, laughing all the way through.
My enthusiasm for the man kinda reversed itself after I found out about his political leanings and what the man says into microphones. He is politically incorrect, in a non-ironical, literal way.

 

[Evil Smurf]

HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! xD I remember this! How could I forget this?!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

He and his wife didn't outright say it, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out what he is talking about.
Here this is the video.

Great, I'm a bad Christian for being a communist. Thanks for giving me the stupids internet.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! xD I remember this! How could I forget this?!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

He and his wife didn't outright say it, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out what he is talking about.
Here this is the video.

Great, I'm a bad Christian for being a communist. Thanks for giving me the stupids internet.

Bah! It's just the talk of madmen.
If I learned one thing in church(it was hard to do that ;p), it's Jesus loves everyone. Hell, even the new Pope just had a talk with the people around him saying Jesus saved everyone, not just the people who worshiped him.

Besides. ;3 Who could hate your face.

 

[Edguy]

I never understood the use of irony... Like how the Hell can you tell if something's being ironic instead of just playing it all straight? I never could tell. Nor can I tell when someone's being sarcastic with me...

Just use your.. right ventromedial prefrontal cortex?!

Seriously though, I fail to understand how so many people are unable to detect sarcasm and joking in general, even on the internet. It's pretty obvious, if you are aware of the context, and have some basic social/communication skills..

 

[Evil Smurf]

Bah! It's just the talk of madmen.
If I learned one thing in church(it was hard to do that ;p), it's Jesus loves everyone. Hell, even the new Pope just had a talk with the people around him saying Jesus saved everyone, not just the people who worshiped him.

Besides. ;3 Who could hate your face.

Thanks *giggles*

Wow, that was out of character.

 

[Tim Chuma]

The Chuck Norris cartoon has been re-released as part of the Warner Archive Collection
http://www.oldies.com/product-view/0209ED.html

I thought the Chuck Norris column was exposed for plagiarism?
http://wonkett.com/444199/chuck-norris-plagiarizes-in-his-column-all-the-time

A friend wrote this book as he is passionate about the genre and hates hipsters making fun of movies
http://www.amazon.com/Massacred-Mother-Nature-Exploring-Natural/dp/1936168308

I did go to a screening of Slumber Party Massacre II on the weekend, people dressed up for it
http://photos.timchuma.com/gallery3/index.php/Slumber-Party-Massacre-II-Screening-Tote-25-05-13

The next movie for the club is JAWS 2.

I do get annoyed at people making fun of the Shaw Brothers movies from the 70s I enjoy, although the live beatbox dubbing party I saw in the "Breath Control - History of the Human Beatbox"
http://ghostrobot.com/work/films/breath-control-history-of-the-1.html documentary looked awesome. Kind of a moot point about dubbing as there was no sync-sound for any Hong Kong movie until Police Story 3 in 1992.

 

[lotanerve]

This is what I got from this episode:

Bob wants to be able to watch MLP without having to defend himself.

Good for you Bob!

 

[emeraldrafael]

"life is short, like what you like,"
Meanwhile bob never misses the chance to rip the nineties but glorify the 80s like they were a decade of gods gift to man...

 

[Caostotale]

This was kind of the episode I have been wanting for a while, but was not as direct as I want it to be. I really would like to see Bob's perspective about enjoying and participating in things associated with the "nerdy" or "geeky" stigma, and why there exists such a stigma in the first place. My little personal anecdote was just last night I was talking to my friend about how we should buy some Magic decks and have some fun that I wasn't allowed to have as a kid due to growing up in a home with religious parents who heard that they were satanic. He thought that was an awesome idea but he was embarrassed to be see buying them. I know that comics, Magic, anime, and anything related used to be mainly associated with strange antisocial people who do nothing but what they are obsessed with and that they tend to be physically unfit, unattractive, and lonely. While I am sure people like that exist that is hardly the truth as a whole; furthermore comic characters are now some of the most popular and well known characters thanks mainly to the movies. So I would like to see a well thought out theory why it seems the many people that loved the Avengers movie would be embarrassed to walk into their local comic shop to get an Avengers book.

It's an upsetting state of affairs sometimes, but the stigma's not bound to go away while our existences become more and more socially-integrated and throttled into consumerist oblivion. The way things are these days, more than ever before, kids are pressured to grow up as multiple personalities wrapped into singular human beings. Rather than proudly asserting one's individual nerddom, a modern geek will often spend their college years struggling to become the 'jock' or 'popular girl' they failed to be back in grade/high school (to be sure, I don't mean this literally). As a result of all this social-climbing, the communities surrounding nerdy interests like games, comic-book movies, etc... become more polarized, between a small number of passionate die-hards who will never care much for society's norms and a widening group of half-assed and noncommittal geeks who are more interested in the superficial lifestyle or instant gratification represented by such-and-such an interest.

I think Bob was spot on in pointing out the nucleus of self-effacement (or self-hatred) that characterizes modern life. The private life that is fundamental to a spiritually-balanced nerd lifestyle is under attack from all sides these days and things like the go-to invocation of hipster irony are clear symptoms.

 

[redknightalex]

Interestingly, I associate my guilty pleasures with things that people believe I should like based on certain personality characteristics of mine. For some reason, I don't want people to know my guilty pleasures because then they might believe I only watch a show, watch a movie, or read a book because I would fit into their media stereotype of who they think I am. Usually this revolves around my sexuality instead of any geeky/nerdy traits I have, so saying I loved watching Buffy makes me a bit more than self-conscious about it. Still, accepting that what you like (within a very murky moral view, ie no crime) and saying it out loud are sometimes hard to do.

As for irony...I probably misuse it myself a lot yet it's not part of my everyday vernacular. And the Internet, imho, has given us much worse things than the misuse of irony or Chuck Norris. For some reason I'm thinking of YouTube comments at this particular moment but other pointless things like cat pictures don't hold a lot of value either.

 

[Endocrom]

Who was the star of that cartoon? I don't think they said his name enough, maybe if they said it 10 times instead of just 9 I would remember.

 

[Eric the Orange]

"life is short, like what you like,"
Meanwhile bob never misses the chance to rip the nineties but glorify the 80s like they were a decade of gods gift to man...

I don't see how these contradict each other.

 

[Kelgair]

I watched and participated in the internet culture during the zenith of the Chuck Norris jokes, I didn't see actual irony play a part in much of them. They were just stupid "this guy is so badass he X..." jokes. It worked because Chuck Norris had a rather consistent imagery of being a badass during his initial fame. The jokes were also mostly perpetuated by the more recent generation. For example, I was in my mid 20s when the meme started and most people doing and perpetuating the jokes were in their teens. So I'd contend that that it wasn't so much a Gen X inspired "Irony" meme as it was generic meme that used an artifact of what Gen X grew up with.

I do wonder if this was less a video about Gen X's use of irony than a video about Chuck Norris' apparent resurgence in the popular culture.

HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! xD I remember this! How could I forget this?!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

He and his wife didn't outright say it, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out what he is talking about.
Here this is the video. -snip- (never mind that he and his wife were quoting Reagan, who was not talking about what you think.)]

Great, I'm a bad Christian for being a communist. Thanks for giving me the stupids internet.

Well, technically you're a bad communist for being a Christian. Since expelling/suppressing religion was the first thing most communist regimes have done, since there is no higher power than the state in their... well I guess, in your view.

 

[Abomination]

I actually am really happy about what has happened to Chuck Norris.

I think it's just a load of fun... of course his views on politics and religion should probably have stayed buried.

 

[Gilhelmi]

I will agree with you on the Chuck Norris movies, and animated series, and many others.

BUT, "Walker: Texas Ranger" was awesome. Not ironically, but in real appreciation of that show. I can only think of a couple episodes that got weird, but everything has one or two bad episodes. "Walker" was awesome.

 

[Strazdas]

What if i genuinely like chuck norris?

I mean beside the fact that you only included this segment because chucks beard allowed you to.