Guilty Pleasures, revisited

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
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It’s been a while since we had a Guilty Pleasures thread, so I thought I’d contribute to the new year with a new poll! What are the things you enjoy that you’d be slightly-to-extremely embarrassed to be caught enjoying? I’ll start!

Movies:

Threesome, with Stephen Baldwin, Lara Flynn Boyle and Josh Charles. It’s just NOT a good film, but it takes me to a certain place and time. I laugh and I cry.

Music:

1970s AM pop and hillbilly, shit-kickin’ country. The soundtrack to Evita… I sing along, I dance, and sometimes, when I’m SURE there are no witnesses, I use a kitchen whisk as a microphone.

TV:

I don’t actually have any guilty pleasures here, I don’t think. I’m not much of a television watcher and while I’m not snobby about it, I don’t get the appeal of most of it. I will confess to once, a long time ago, sobbing over an episode of Webster.

Food:

You know that fruit dip made out of marshmallow fluff and cream cheese? I eat it with a spoon when no one’s looking. I also have an unnatural fondness for those pizza puff things they sell at conenience stores, that end up half gooey, undercooked dough and half unidentifiable meatlike substance/greasy orange cheeselike substance. And I steal mushrooms out of cooked dishes.

Books:

ElfQuest. Historical romances. Series mysteries. And I’m dumb enough to keep stacks of them out where people can see them, thereby destroying all my intellectual pretensions.

Other:

I’m addicted to thrift stores, in like a true shopping addiction. I get antsy if I can’t go, and even though I don’t actually spend a lot of money, I do sometimes hide my purchases. I’m a smart thrift shopper, but I am a committed one. (Or should be committed.)
I’m sure I’ll think of more! Your turn!

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Books: Anything written by Matthew Reilly. He’s a hack; his books are filled to the brim with cliche’s, the dialogue is trite and sometimes even demeaning to read, the characters are cardboard cutouts, and everything that takes place is so over the top you can’t even play it out in your head without suspending logic. But damn they’re entertaining. Limbs are blown off around once every five pages, giant animals of all kinds tear soldiers to shreds, and the action has just enough creativity to be appealing and smirk enducing. Also, you can finish reading his books in a nahndfull of days; the pages go down reeeeeal easy…you’ll just feel like taking a scorching hot shower once you’re done :wink: .
Must come clean! Must come clean! Why won’t the grime come off?!?!?

Weeps

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I’m a food snob of the highest order…except when it comes to Chinese take-out. I like, no love ghetto chinese food. Egg foo yung is SO good what with the gravy and super-greasy concoction of scrambled egg, onion and pork/chicken/shrimp/beef all sliding off a mound of plain, white rice. Oh, and yat gaw mein, ghetto-style. Thick, yummy noodles swimming in ketchup-y sauce with slices of just-this-side-of-cooked onions and medallions of pork or whole shrimp complete with an entire hard-boiled egg at the bottom. Orgasmically delicious!

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I really like Taco Bell’s food, and sometimes I totally get in the mood for McDonald’s cheeseburgers and nothing else can satisfy me. I also love ramen noodles, liver and onions, and Little Debbie-style snack cakes, especially Swiss Cake Rolls and Pecan Spins (the poor man’s Cinnabon).

I don’t watch pro wrestling anymore because the WWE has gotten too bad, even for me, but from about 1998 through 2003 I was a big WWF/WCW fan and considered it a guilty pleasure.

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Movies: Revenge of the Nerds, The Cutting Edge, Mortal Kombat, Bring It On

Books: The works of Clive Cussler

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I don’t feel guilty about any of my pleasures. :smiley:

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I don’t feel guilty about anything much, but I am enjoying the heck out of this current light reading: The encyclopedia of guilty pleasures : 1001 things you hate to love, by Lou Harry, Sam Stall and Julia Spalding.

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Movies: Romantic Comedies. I like them even though they’re all the same, just with different names and (sometimes) actresses. They’re just fluffy good fun.

I also like Adam Sandler.

Music: I like mainstream music which, to a lot of people seems to mean I have no taste at all. So I suppose that.

TV: Friends? I don’t feel the least bit guilty but that’s the closest thing to a guilty pleasure I can think of.

Food: Nothing. As long as it isn’t offal, I couldn’t really care less about people’s perceptions of food and foodies are amongst the most annoying people I’ve ever met.

Books: I have no idea. Orson Scott Card? Greg Bear? Harry Turtledove? My taste in books is mostly sci-fi and alt-history of the past fifteen years so I’m sure there’s a ton that more well-read fans would look down their nose on though.

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Food: White Castle double cheeseburgers and onion chips. And Chinese take-out.

Music: Christmas carols, even though I’m an atheist.

Sex: If I actually did half of what I’ve fantasized about, I’d be locked up for a long, long time.

Not that I feel guilty about these, or anything else.

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Mmm. Guilty pleasures!

Food: Fake cheese. I love that horrid salsa con queso dip you microwave and eat with tortilla chips; same with that Easy Cheese stuff on Ritz crackers. Not any recognizable food substances there, really, but nummy nonetheless. Other pleasures: Ben & Jerry’s anything (I just finished off some Karamel Sutra, o heavens). Hershey’s Nuggets with Caramel. Mini Heath bars. Hardee’s (yes I know, they’re dreadful) Hot Ham & Cheese with Curly Fries. Oooooh. I might even eat a White Castle if they existed within 200 miles of my house. Krispy Kremes, but I don’t even feel guilty about eating those. Thai food, unnnnh. I also like all kinds of really crappy Hostess and Little Debbies style cakes, but most of the time, I can resist them.

Books: Undead & Unemployed by Mary Janice Davidson. Schlocky but funny. Also Charlaine Harris’ vampire series with Sookie Stackhouse. Ditto Laurel K. Hamilton – who knew there was undead porn? :stuck_out_tongue: But I enjoy it.

Music: I can’t offhand think of music that not’s really any good that I like. Like art, if I like it, it’s good. :smiley:

TV: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ve never admitted to watching it, but do so avidly. Definition of guilty pleasure, there. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Uk & regular editions. Dane, off Queer Eye UK, is positively the hottest guy I’ve ever seen. In one episode, he was lying on a flokati rug… o me, I thought I would spontaneously combust.

Movies: Clouseau movies with Peter Sellars and The Dark Wind by Lou Diamond Phillips. Probably the latter movie isn’t any good, but I still really, really like it and think Phillips makes the best Chee ever. I don’t care if Clouseau is any good; it makes me happy.

Other: Dollhouses and doll clothes. OK, I’m 33, but these things also make me happy. I will say in my own defense that I don’t play with them anymore, but I love to buy them. Same with Playmobil anything. Toys in general, actually.

Mrs. Furthur

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Food: Salty canned soups. I need to wean myself off those things, man.

TV Movies: There’s this pretty bad movie based on a Harlequin romance that I like. I just like the two lead stars, and it’s kind of a funny story (which is rare for a Harlequin romance movie). I own the DVD. I’ve seen it twice. I will see it again.

Movies: Kurt Russell’s Soldier. I guess I’m not guilty about this. I know it got bad reviews, I know the plot is wafer-thin, but I don’t care. I still like it.

TV: I will sit through absymal sitcoms (but I have my limits). I will watch re-runs of the '70s Fantasy Island. No shame.

Music: Not much guilt here, except for “I Get Knocked Down” by Chumbawumba.

Books: Bad Harlequin romances. I go through phases—not reading these things for years, and then something will trigger a phase. When the Northridge Quake hit in '94, I went through a major Harlequin binge. I had another binge a few years ago when things were stressful at work. I’m experiencing a milder binge right now. Sometimes the only thing to top off a stressful day is zipping through a mindless romance novel.

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Music: Normaly I listen to the Grateful Dead or something like that, but sometimes I just want to blast hardcore gangsta rap.
hangs head in shame

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Oh, Dungbeetle – I love the “1001 Things You Love to Hate” encyclopedia.

Food: microwave popcorn with Hot Tamales (the candy) sprinkled throughout (there’s a trick to this, ask if you’d like this yummy recipe.) 7-11 nachos, McDonald’s fudge sundae and cinnamon 'n sugar toast.

TV: I secretly LOVE the “fat-schlob-married-to-skinny-wife” sitcoms. “King of Queens,” “According to Jim” and “Still Standing.” (MSN Slate mag has an article dissing all three today.) Not as downmarket (it’s British after all!) but adore BBC America comedies like “Keeping Up Appearances,” “As Time Goes By,” “Are You Being Served” and even that idiotic “My Hero.”

Movies: soft spot for the brat pack '80s flicks that came out when I was in high school (fave = “Valley Girl”) and Barb Streisand flicks.

Reading: secretly read my partner’s “People,” “Us” and “Good Housekeeping.”

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Hidden deep in the back of my CD case, after all the Metallica & Lynyrd Skynyrd is Sarah McLachlan :eek: And not just a singleeither, I have two of her albums. I even have a favorite song. But I’ll be damned if I’ll tell you people what it is!
{Hangs head in shame, gives a meek “Devil Horns” and leaves.}

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Singing babies to sleep by tucking their heads under my neck so that when I talk, my larynx makes their heads vibrate.

Usually it’ll be Sinatra, “Just The Way You Look Tonight” and then “The Summer Wind” if necessary. I rotated “Marshmallow World” in this week, but had to “Da dada da dada dada” some of that when I forgot the lyrics.

Oh! And I get a guilty pleasure out of people being amused when I deadpan that “This never leaves this room” before I hug them. I love hugging people, I just hate having a reputation as a hugger, and besides, it makes people feel special.

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Books: Star Wars novels. I love them but I wouldn’t read them on the bus. That would make me a geek!

TV: I watched “Who’s Your Daddy” this week and I’m so ashamed! My problem is that if I watch the first 10 minutes of a horrible reality show, I have to watch the rest to see how it turns out. And if it’s a series, I’m screwed for the season if I’m not careful.

Food: Those stringable cheese sticks. I don’t just eat them, I play with them. I tie the shreds into knots and eat the knots, or make little tentacle monsters out of them.

Music: I admit it. I have two Backstreet Boys albums. And I’ve actually played them a couple times since the Boys dropped off the face of the earth a few years ago. There are also several songs I hate, by singers I can’t stand, that I end up sort of liking after hearing them 800 times on the radio and having them burrow into my head.

Other: I change into comfy pj pants and fuzzy slippers as soon as I get home from school or work.

Oh well, after this, no Dopefests for me, because I can’t let you know who I am!

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My one and only guilty pleasure is Disco. That, and secretly wishing to add mutagens to the globe’s food supply causing everyone to sprout three horns in the shape of a pentagram and then spontaneously combust in a holocaust the likes of which the world has never seen before. The time is nigh when we shall finally summon the long-awaited spirit of our eldritch masters!

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Ohhh, jeebus! Guilty pleasures have I some. I like Shaggy Dog stories and bad scifi movies (‘Robot Jox’ is back on Showtime this month! Hooray!)

But the worst off all, the very worst is a penchant for ‘Girls Gone Wild’ videos. Wanna know why? Cuz it looks like they are having So Much Fun. Drinkin’, flashin’, teasing and generally celebrating their youth (most times) in a big party atmosphere of wild abandon.

I’ll go back to the corner now and read some Proust… :smiley:

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Music: I pride myself on being non-judgemental in my music tastes, meaning when on ‘shuffle’, my playlist occasionally goes directly from Metallica to Vivaldi to Jewel to Garth Brooks. I occasionally do enjoy a bit of pop-country music. (Also, as my always-tactful aunt put it, ‘lesbian music’: Jewel, Indigo Girls, Ani Difranco, etc).

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TV: I tend to watch Charmed way more than it deserves watching. It’s so cheesy I sometimes have to avert my eyes. And yet . . .

Music: Can’t get enough of Seal’s debut album (the one with “Crazy”). A lot of people I know associate his music with campy Batman films, so I don’t bring it up much. But it’s probably my favorite album of all time.

And I read some Harry Potter fanfiction. (Cringe.)