This habit drives my wife batty. She won’t watch anything with me anymore because I have an annoying penchant to verbally express my opinion about whatever we are watching.
If we’re watching a mystery, I will blurt out “It was the butler’s dog!” halfway through. While watching cooking competitions, I will comment on how a certain competitor will not complete because they started some aspect of their dish too late. If it’s one of those makeover shows that she likes to watch, I can’t help but comment that the person looked great before and terrible after the stylist’s various “fixes” were made. It’s like TV tourette’s.
I suppose it’s nice that I get the TV to myself for the most part, but I was wondering how many others can’t keep quiet about what they are watching.
Interestingly, if I go to a movie, the above behavior is strictly verboten. I am in public, after all, and can exhibit some restraint. For some reason my home sofa unlocks my jaw, though.
Unofficially, the term is “MST’ing” (from MST3K), and yes, as a MSTie, I do it
Most recent one, the Star Trek; Enterprise episode " Unexpected", Trip is on the alien holodeck with the female lizard-lady and they’re reading each other’s thoughts with the tray of Telepathic Jello…
Lizardlady; your favourite food is <whatever, don’t remember>
Trip; okay, let me try, your favorite food is…
Me; (imitating Trip’s accent) Humans!?!?
Hmm. I do love MST3K and used to watch Mad Movies a lot when I was a kid. I think that’s a slightly different phenomenon, though. I MST horror movies mostly. This is more like making plot comments and general expressions of opinions. Fewer humorous quips, but still part of the entertainment of it to me.
Or my mom, or my friends. I actually do this when there is nobody in the room, as well. I’m certain any surveillance footage that The Man® has taken through the other side of my TV would be extremely entertaining.
I suppose it’s more a matter of being in my home that removes the road block.
We don’t really have the same taste in shows, so we would normally watch TV separately anyway.
I know this is going to raise some ire with some people, but I’m not looking to get kicked in the head for insufferable home behavior. I want to get a general feel for how many other people do it. Not how terrible the folks who suffer through it think it is.
The Muter: This is a person who mutes the TV to share his/her thoughts on the show, sometimes even making unrelated comments. They don’t bother to pause the show. My Dad did this and it drove us crazy. “Stop muting the TV, Dad!”
The Frequent Paueser: They pause the show or movie a ton in order to explain their thoughts or ask questions. This is the category I fall in. I’m a pauser.
The Mistie: They can’t help but make jokes, kind of a running commentary.
I normally don’t do much arm-chair commentating during a TV show, but if it’s like an old syndicated re-run show, sometimes I will do it a little. Usually with brand new shows, I am enjoying them too much to make many comments. And any comments I do make are usually saved up until the commercial breaks.
My Dad used to scream at the news, does that count? He avoided most other TV because: a) it was frivolous and therefore beneath a properly thoughtful good citizen and b) everyone but Disney was part of the ongoing conspiracy to destroy America, although some of them were doing their bit unknowingly.
A little good natured back-chat would not faze me.
At least your talking is related to the television show being shown. Blurting out that it’s the Guest Star of the Week on SVU (it’s always ths special guest star) or that the makeover girl really shouldn’t be a blonde is a relevant interruption. Much, much, much better than the people who wait until the tv is on and then decide to have a loud conversation about their work crisis or the price of tea in China.
I do this all the time without even realizing it, but at least I’m by myself! My husband will come in from another room and ask me what I said, and I have to admit I said it to the TV.
“Speaking of multiple lacerations and sucking chest wounds, my cousin Blort is coming to spend a month with us. He’ll be sleeping on the sofa. You know he and his wife are having a hard time lately, and I was thinking… what? Why are you looking at me like that?”
My SO does this occasionally, but he will usually shut up after I say, “I’m trying to watch!” One thing he does do is shift. Shift here. Shift there. Get up and walk over there. Walk back over here. Stand in front of the fucking TV. Then after 6-8 shifts, I’m all “Find a place and park your ass! Can’t you sit still for twenty minutes?”
But what really, really annoys me, and what I will one day end up in front of the courts for, is a different thing. I will be watching my show. Whatever it is. And in the middle of it, he will come and stand there. And I will cringe, knowing what’s coming. And then,
“Who’s he?”
I answer as briefly as possible.
“Why is he doing that?”
I answer as briefly as possible, and add, “Now shh!”
A minute goes by.
“So he’s doing that because of X? Why?”
And here is where I snap! “I am trying to watch! If you want to know what happens, sit your ass down and watch with me, but don’t interrupt!”
And then I often have to watch the part again. He will do this during suspenseful scenes, during romantic scenes, during death scenes, with apparently no realization of what he is doing until I say something. And it’s not like he can’t watch a movie silently, he can. He just has this need to know everything that’s going on, even if it doesn’t remotely concern him.
And he does this almost every single time I am watching. I swear to god it’s a good thing there’s not a knife near me when he does this.
Despite all of this, I love him dearly, which is probably the only thing that saves him!
Hubster has probably the worst case on record of TV Tourette’s. He also makes the same exaggerated hand movements as the people on the screen.
If we’re watching MY PROGRAMS, the remarks and backtalk are always rude and derogatory. HOWEVER! If he is watching HIS blather, I’m not allowed to say a single word.
I tell people we’ve been married so long because murder is still illegal.
~VOW
