# Slaughtering Sacred Cows of Entertainment **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834 "2005-01-09T03:25:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/81 "2005-01-09T22:07:28Z")
Oh, yeah and The Doors, and Van Morrison. ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/82 "2005-01-09T22:28:54Z")
\*\*Television - \*\* _I Love Lucy_ sucks. It is unfunny and I feel sorry for you if you grew up in an age with so little to watch that she was considered the height of comedy. Many of the older British comedies were passable at best. I can laugh at _Monty Python_, \*Mr. Bean \* and \*Fawlty Towers \* , but I am mystified at people who seem to think that their appreciation of these shows makes them sophisticated and worldly in their tastes. These shows are based on a slapstick, physical comedy that was old in the 1920s. \*\*Movies - \*\* \*West Side Story \* is terribly dated and is now just about unwatchable. Elizabeth Taylor has been referred to as ‘glamorous’ and ‘beautiful’ for about thirty years now. She is, in fact, a hag. She has been an over made up hag for decades. She was only really beautiful in _National Velvet_. _2001_ is and always has been a snoozefest. I am sure Kubrick has something to say, now if I could only stay awake long enough to figure out what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/83 "2005-01-09T22:34:36Z")
80+ posts and no one’s attacked the Beatles yet. As for Frank Sinatra, his legend is more interesting than he was. I guess you had to be there in his heyday. ---
**Author:** ![TastesLikeBurning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@TastesLikeBurning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TastesLikeBurning)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/84 "2005-01-09T22:35:40Z")
Although a video game, based on the criteria of being critically acclaimed and popular, I’m going to include **Halo 1 & 2**. In fact, I can’t recall a single first person shooter (that I’ve played) that I haven’t thought is sloppy, completely mindless button bashing. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/85 "2005-01-09T23:06:05Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **Saving Private Ryan** Oh, do I hate that movie. The first few minutes are decent, most of the movie is pure cliché, but the worst thing is the cartoonish finale. What’s that supposed to be? “Hogan’s Heroes - The Motion Picture”? ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/86 "2005-01-09T23:07:36Z")
Two pages and nobody has mentioned Ernest Hemingway? I’m shocked. He is one of the all time worst writers ever, and he’s supposedly the quintessential “male” writer. I can’t name any one thing specific about him that I hate, because I hate everything about his writing. It’s pure garbage. Put me down of the Family Guy list. That show is simply rejected Simpsons scripts. I’d like to add SNL. It used to be good, and now it’s nothing but a gutted out shell filled with crap comedians waiting for their movie deal; a sacred cow reduced to ground chuck. I’ve never really understood the appeal of most classic rock. The Doors wanted so badly to be deep and profound that they screwed up the music. Led Zeppelin is a guitar and a cat being sodomized. I don’t get Phish either. So they can noodle. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/87 "2005-01-09T23:37:06Z")
Well, well, well. It’s been said that tp make a bad movie, take a good book. And vice versa. I guess that’s why the LoTR movies where 10.000 times better than the snoozefest that Tolkien produced. Six Feet Under is trying to be edgy with the gay romance and kissing, the casual sex, the common use of expletives, just because they’re on cable and can get away with it. But it’s empty and has nothing to say. There’s no story. Spielberg is a very gifted director, in the sense that he’s very good at seeing where the camera should be, how the lighting should be and deciding on how things are gonna be edited. However, he uses this talent to produce hour after hour of sentimental drivel. As long as he’s just trying to be entertaining, I can take it for the popcorn movies thay are. But when he’s trying to be serious, as with the Color Purple, Schindler’s List and Amistad, the result is ghastly. Most of the Star Trek incarnations are beyond me. Just because it’s set in space, doesn’t make that stupid soap opera any more angaging. Johnny Carson was never funny. Paul Schafer is creepy. De Niro, Pacino, Nicholson, Hoffman, Harrison Ford\*, Robin Williams^. Anything these actors have made (almost) since about 1992 has just been phoning in the part to collect the paycheck. \*Why has anyone, ever, considered him a good actor? If the casting description calls for “wooden man of few words and no emotions”, I can see why he gets the part, but Harrison Ford could _never_ act. ^Whenever Williams tries to do a serious part, it just get’s embarrasing. And nowadays, he’s not even funny anymore. The SDMB Batman vs. anyone threads. I just. don’t. get. it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/88 "2005-01-09T23:43:53Z")
> [@fruitbat](#): > > Elizabeth Taylor…was only really beautiful in _National Velvet_. Have you seen the Robert Taylor _Ivanhoe_? ---
**Author:** ![Othersider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cab0a1/32.png) [@Othersider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Othersider)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/89 "2005-01-09T23:50:32Z")
> [@Jadis](#): > > **Amelie**. > > Mention that you hate this piece of dreck and you might as well admit that you eat babies for breakfast. Barf. I’ve never heard of it. I’m not sure exactly what “dreck” is, but it sounds fairly negative. 😉 By the way, did you ever post on Metallica’s board? ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/90 "2005-01-09T23:50:40Z")
**The X-Files**. Not just boring, but dumb. Sorry, but it’s so. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/91 "2005-01-09T23:58:34Z")
I find that I can still watch the original _Star Wars_. It helps, knowing that it was originally intended as a ripoff/homage of all the stuff George Lucas grew up watching. I used to like the next two movies in the trilogy, too… but they have not aged well. Adding new CGI footage hasn’t really helped. All my computer gamer chums went on at great length about how great \*Diablo \* and \*Diablo II \* were. I never saw a point in either one. Well, yes I did – point and click, point and click, point and click. This is a game? Aren’t games supposed to be fun? I could name quite a few actors and actresses who did brilliant work in the past, but nowadays are just phoning it in for the paycheck. Another vote for _Seinfeld_. Never did see the entertainment value in that show. And I have yet to see a reality TV show that doesn’t make me think “Whatta buncha maroons.” The \*Wheel Of Time \* novels, by Robert Jordan. I finally tried to read these things, based on everyone else’s recommendations. I found the first one to be a mediocre pastiche of concepts from lots of other people’s fantasy novels. I was unable to finish the second one, because the story firmly insisted on not going anywhere. And now he’s up to, what, nine books? And the story ain’t been finished YET? Jeez, even J.R.R. Tolkien managed to wrap it up faster than that. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/92 "2005-01-09T23:58:38Z")
I’ve never been able to _get_ Bob Dylan, either. Outside of his most popular songs, I could not sit through any of his albums from any decade. Same with The Doors. I _love_ the _L.A. Woman_ album to death, but the rest of their catalogue? Feh. And what’s the deal about REM? I really like every song on _Fables Of The Reconstruction_, but everything before it was crap, and everything after it was crap in a different costume, with a different producer to make it sound like up-to-date crap. And U2? _Go away_ with your moralizing and preaching and _social relevance_. Just sing me a song, OK? I think I like three songs by them, period. Here’s another vote for Seinfeld and Family Guy, who are not allowed on my TV. And another for 2001, which I have tried to watch three different times, and fallen asleep each one. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/93 "2005-01-10T00:03:20Z")
Even yet another Seinfeld vote. He sucked as a standup. The show was poorly cast. Jason Alexander is one of the worst “actors” ever to grace a screen, silver or otherwise. Michael Richards was essentially doing his “psycho kid” character from _Fridays_, but grown up (chronologically speaking). Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. WTF? A forgettable C-level SNL cast member. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/94 "2005-01-10T00:14:11Z")
Funny that so many are critical of Seinfeld, in that it reminded me of the episode where Elaine can’t stand The English Patient. Just sayin’, is all. Anyway, I never understood why people like Andie MacDowell. While I really like Groundhog Day and Four Weddings and a Funeral, I don’t get the attraction to her or her characters. Uh, oh…I feel a (horrid little) paean coming on: \* Hair of Brillo, Forehead like the Cliffs of Dover. Eyes as beady as the palate is oversized. Tell me again why you’re a CoverGirl? \* Gosh, that was awful. As Oliver Wendell Jones says, “My finest free verse.” No wonder I’m in computer science. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/95 "2005-01-10T00:32:59Z")
**The Shield** was kinda groundbreaking for its first few weeks, but it became as formulaic and predictable as **Law & Order** as soon as it was able to. Is it even still on? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/96 "2005-01-10T00:45:35Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > I’d like to add SNL. It used to be good, and now it’s nothing but a gutted out shell filled with crap comedians waiting for their movie deal; a sacred cow reduced to ground chuck. Sorry, but I put in SNL on the first page of this thread… and it never WAS funny. In the old days, it was only funny if the viewer was stoned… and nowadays it isn’t even funny THEN. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/97 "2005-01-10T00:46:52Z")
Whoops, I must apologize. Apparently, I dumped on SNL in some other thread. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/98 "2005-01-10T01:04:29Z")
Oh, yay, another thread where you get to pompously flaunt your bad taste. Yippee. :rolleyes: The only thing I could contribute is stuff that everybody thinks is overrated, like “Titanic” or Britney Spears. I don’t see the point of being proud of disliking something that is well-known and obviously has tremendous merit, like Shakespeare or Tolkien or Coltrane. ---
**Author:** ![Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ass_For_A_Hat)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/99 "2005-01-10T01:18:03Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > 80+ posts and no one’s attacked the Beatles yet. I’m pretty sure that \*\*Roland Orzabal \*\* will be mentioning them when he returns to the thread. I’ll go with Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. Two bands that everyone seems to love that make me want to wretch. Their music was old and tired as soon as it came out. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834/100 "2005-01-10T01:27:55Z")
I’ve never even been able to sit through an entire **Star Wars** movie. This makes other geeks suspicious of me. As if I’m not a real geek! I don’t believe I’ve ever voluntarily listened to the Beatles. I’ve never been pleased to hear a Beatles song. Not only would I not spend money on them, I wouldn’t even download their stuff for free illegally. I’m not saying they’re total rubbish or anything, and there are values of _x_ for which I’d choose the Beatles over _x_, but I don’t see how they wound up THE pop group of the 20th century. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slaughtering-sacred-cows-of-entertainment/283834.md?page=6)