# The Artform You Could Live Without **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528 "2020-01-16T21:15:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/1 "2020-01-16T21:15:25Z")
I went to see a musical yesterday. (Long story. The Book Of Mormon, as it happens.) At one point in the first half there was a _Very Musical Moment_: all the boys onstage NOW, and\* tapdance like your life depends on it!\* And I thought……Nice set. I can’t see the drummer – I wonder how far under the stage the orchestra pit goes? That woman three rows in front is very tall. Do I need a piss? Now, I don’t hate tap. I mean, how could you? But I could live without it. If it went away for ever, I wouldn’t even notice it had gone. So that’s what this thread is about – and feel free to interpret “artform” as widely as you like. And hey, if there’s an artform that you really hate – if you loathe, say, [ironing plastic beads](https://www.hamabeads.com/how-to-use/)\* – well OK, go ahead and vent about that too; but that’s kind of a sidebar to this thread. So if I woke up tomorrow and someone told me, it’s over, that’s it, tapdancing is gone for ever – I wouldn’t rejoice. Not really. I’d just say fine, and then wonder about breakfast. It’s the artform I could live without. What’s yours? j - - You didn’t know it was a thing? Me either, until I ended up in a repurposed Copenhagen church where young adults (!) were doing it (even longer story). So it is a thing. But it shouldn’t be. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/2 "2020-01-16T21:33:12Z")
I really like tapdancing when it happens to appear before me, but I never seek it out, so like you I could probably live without it. I do like it though, and I’m always pleasantly surprised when it pops up in movies (I’ve never seen a person tap dance live). Personally, I frequently actively dislike, and at best merely tolerate, slam poetry, so that’s my choice. ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/3 "2020-01-16T21:41:45Z")
I thought I’d take on some larger prey just for conversation’s sake. I like to think of myself as a guy who likes his culture, but if opera disappeared tomorrow, I don’t think I’d even notice. It’s one of those things (like ballet or poetry) that I pay lip service to as one of the high arts, but I never really put in any effort towards appreciating it. As many of you will say, my bad. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/4 "2020-01-16T21:46:36Z")
Adult coloring books. (drops mic) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/5 "2020-01-16T22:03:57Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > if you loathe, say, [ironing plastic beads](https://www.hamabeads.com/how-to-use/)… I was just looking at those in a store, fantasizing about doing a huge mural with those beads. Might have to rent a flamethrower, an iron would take too long. My other dream mural would be a wall-sized LiteBrite. As to the OP, for me, it’d be couples figure skating. Oh, I’ll watch it during the Olympics, but _meh…_ ~ ~ ~ But I’ll tell you what we _can’t_ live without… “Next big thing? Whaling songs. No more country music, no more classical music. Fuhgettit, fuhgettit, fuhgettit. Hello, no more classical music at this station, just whaling songs… No more rock and roll, in the dumper. Whaling songs.” ([according to Bill Murray interviewing Christopher Guest](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akQ6NgP1avI)) ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/6 "2020-01-16T22:23:15Z")
Heinlein invented the “artform” I could do without in PODKAYNE OF MARS: full video+sound holographic adverts beamed at you wherever you are. But that’s inescapable. So I’ll nominate musical greeting cards. And Billy Fish. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/7 "2020-01-16T22:34:13Z")
I appreciate the skill necessary for opera and ballet, but I cannot even pretend to be interested. They could disappear tomorrow and I wouldn’t care. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/8 "2020-01-16T22:39:28Z")
> [@Rough\_Draft](#): > > I thought I’d take on some larger prey just for conversation’s sake. > > I like to think of myself as a guy who likes his culture, but if opera disappeared tomorrow, I don’t think I’d even notice. It’s one of those things (like ballet or poetry) that I pay lip service to as one of the high arts, but I never really put in any effort towards appreciating it. As many of you will say, my bad. Opera is where, when they stab a guy, instead of dying, he sings about it. (I forget who said it.) ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/9 "2020-01-16T22:43:22Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I appreciate the skill necessary for opera and ballet, but I cannot even pretend to be interested. They could disappear tomorrow and I wouldn’t care. Oddly, my ten year old son just fell in love with the opera “Akhnaten”, by Philip Glass. He plays it over and over. Very surprising. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/10 "2020-01-16T22:48:25Z")
Let me be the one to drop in the requisite “old white guy whose musical tastes atrophied somewhere in the mid-70s” suggestion of rap/hip-hop/whatever the hell it is these days that the cretin in the chopped Toyota next to me at the stoplight is blaring at a volume that would sterilized frogs at 50 meters. Gone tomorrow? Where do I sign? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/11 "2020-01-16T22:49:08Z")
I’m cold on Haiku Sterile, smut-free limericks That don’t even rhyme ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/12 "2020-01-16T22:55:28Z")
Contact Juggling makes me sad seeing a human spend so much time to be good at something so stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/13 "2020-01-16T22:58:58Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Let me be the one to drop in the requisite “old white guy whose musical tastes atrophied somewhere in the mid-70s” suggestion of rap/hip-hop/whatever the hell it is these days that the cretin in the chopped Toyota next to me at the stoplight is blaring at a volume that would sterilized frogs at 50 meters. > > Gone tomorrow? Where do I sign? Yup! ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/14 "2020-01-16T23:04:00Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > And Billy Fish. What did the half-man, half-fish goalkeeper of Fulchester United ever do to deserve this opprobrium? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/15 "2020-01-16T23:04:30Z")
Oh, that walking a tight rope between buildings AND putting it on primetime TV. Nope. Not watching. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/16 "2020-01-16T23:07:28Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Contact Juggling makes me sad seeing a human spend so much time to be good at something so stupid. That sounds like most of my life. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/17 "2020-01-16T23:08:37Z")
Funerary violin. _snaps fingers_ ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/18 "2020-01-16T23:10:14Z")
Bagpipes. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/19 "2020-01-16T23:12:09Z")
I’m going to be contrarian and say Hama beads are great fun, but you really need a convenient five-year-old with you for camouflage purposes. That thing where people dress themselves in all-over silver and busk as pretend-robots was kind of fun while it lasted. But I’m fine with its window being brief. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2020, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528/20 "2020-01-16T23:21:14Z")
Bumper Stickers. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artform-you-could-live-without/846528.md?page=2)