I pity anyone who dares to make fun of the song “It’s Not Easy Being Green” in my presence. But I don’t pity them because their mockery will surely prompt me to administer a vicious beating, though it will. No, I pity them because the act of mocking that perfect song (which, by the way, is pitch-perfect in its evocation of the misery children sometimes feel, and yet manages to be optimisic and life-affirming) reveals the mocker as so heart-sick and soul-dead,that no number of kicks in the nads will be sufficient to outweigh the spiritual illness already present in them.
But that’s just me. What works of art, if mocked in your presence, moves you to thoughts of violence the mocker?
I was raised in the church of Star Trek, but converted to Babylon 5. Don’t anyone mock the best TV show ever made, or I’ll be the boot that kicks their sorry ass sweetheart.
I am totally Joss’s bitch. The Buffyverse and its acolytes are My People. I met my wife on a Buffy-board. Firefly is the greatest Loss To Art since the burning of Burton’s manuscripts. Dr. Horrible is a portent of the future of independent musicals. I not only drank the Whedon-aid, I bathed in it.
Mock not the One, lest I go all Gandhi on your miserable ass.
I am going to comment on an artist where I am not passionately obsessed with them by any means, but I mentally check off a box when someone dismisses them…
Sheryl Crow: easy to dismiss for a variety of reasons, some related to music and others to her celebrity life, but the woman is a damn solid songwriter, singer/player, arranger, producer and performer.
Green Day: apparently, since they first broke, it is considered cool in many circles to dismiss these guys as wannabee punks who belong in a mall with the other bands that surfaced in the Mallpunk 90’s. I wasn’t tuned in to the Hate Green Day buzz then and I am not now - the only thing that matters is the music and when Green Day gets it right, they do a truly amazing job. Granted, there is a fine line between incredibly catchy pop-punk and simplistic dreck, but these guys get it right a lot more often than they get it wrong. And they are a great band - the drummer is practically melodic in his use of fills and the bassist fills up the sound in so many cool, interesting ways. I am always stunned when someone just dismisses them with a wave of their hand like they aren’t even worth considering…
I am sure I have others, but I gotta run…this is a start.
(and I totally agree with **silenus **regarding all things Whedon…and don’t get me started on the Beatles!)
Pink Floyd. Well, actually I find the mockage a bit funny, but it can only go so far.
I was at a mediocre comedy club a couple years ago, and to be truthful the Pink Floyd joke was actually the best of the night. It went thusly:
[Comedian takes out his guitar]
“Here’s how every Pink Floyd song goes”
[comedian strums a modal chord on the guitar and sings:]
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
Okay, that was funny. But everyone I was with who knew that the Floyd were my favorite band turns around and smiles at me, expecting an uproarious laughter at such a complete summary of the Floyd’s music in one note. I did smile but dude, it wasn’t that funny. And to be honest my reverence for them did make it slightly less funny.
What you don’t do to the Floyd is chop up their music. Stations that play a “two-fer” by the Floyd and then fade out from one song to another when the tracks were not meant to be played that way are just asking for me to write them a nas…errr, somewhat polite email telling them they shouldn’t do that.
Generally, I don’t judge people who don’t enjoy my particular interests (though it is fun to argue with them), since it’s always going to be subjective, but I have a hard time understanding how anybody couldn’t like The Wire. That’s the one that always makes me think, “What TV shows do you like?”.
ETA: Oh, and when people say they don’t like The Beatles, to me what they’re saying is they don’t like popular music in toto, basically.
In the same vein as Skald’s choice, anyone who can mock A Boy and His Frog has my deepest pity. I probably wouldn’t get violent, but only because that would disrespect Jim Henson’s memory.
If you’re under 50 and you don’t like Star Wars (the original movie, not necessarily the entire series and related tie ins and spin offs) then please cease to draw breath. Or at least remove yourself from my presence.
I thought this was going to be about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
I don’t mock anyone for not liking something. I do think people who say they hate Buffy because it’s so stupid probably haven’t actually ever seen Buffy and are disliking it because of its (intentionally) silly title.
Depends on what you mean. I’d never be violent to anyone, but there are some things I will always correct when someone puts them down:
Ishtar. It’s overall a pretty good film. The first twenty minutes are comedy gold, and the last twenty minutes (not counting the last five, which is a rushed ending) is also hilarious. The middle section drags a bit (though there are some great moments there, too: “Are these breasts?”). Most critics reviewed the price tag, not the movie and the “worst movie ever” trope has been passed along by people who never saw it.
