TV commercials are much longer, more frequent and use 20 minutes per hour of the program time [Night=20, Day=20.5] there is far too much time to visit the bathroom or get a cup of coffee.
Most of the time I use a VCR the skips thru them but if I have to sit thru them I just sit there waiting for them to finish, which is pretty boring…
Hell, I watch them. Sometimes the commercials are the best things on TV. A GREAT one was on during Monday Night Football last night–I actually stopped on the way to the bathroom so I could catch the whole thing. This woman gets pulled over by a motorcycle cop, who asks her if she knows how fast she was going.
“Sure,” she says. “By the way, how long has it been since that radar gun was calibrated? If you didn’t calibrate it the last time you wrote a ticket, you know it might not be accurate, right? And I’m sure that if you DID calibrate it then, you did it with tuning forks that were issued with the gun and have matching serial numbers. Oh, and I read somewhere that radar guns can cause testicular cancer. Be careful out there, okay?” She drives off, and the cop just stares at her with his jaw about on the ground.
They then show someone typing “How can I beat a speeding ticket?” into an Altavista search.
there is a new system out that allows you to skip commercials, ff, rewind, all while watching it live (suppossedly)
We’re all here, because we’re not all there!
Flip channels, usually.
Sometimes I’ll be playing a PC game and pause it during the program.
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
I have my PlayStation on, and switch to playing a few minutes of it. I pause every once in a while and check to see if the commercials are over.
I sit watching them intently, making careful notes in a special writing tablet, so that they may help me make informed consumer decisions in the future.
Uke
I channel surf. It drives my wife crazy but I hate watching commercials.
Jeffery
That ‘new thing’ is called TiVo. It’s a solid state recorder that brings in whatever shows you program, or whatever you’re currently watching, and saves them to a hard disc. You can watch the prerecorded shows at your leisure, and if you’re watching a channel, pause it, rwd it, or if you come in late to a show, you can rwd to the beginning, ffwd through the commercials, or ffwd to the end, assuming the end has already been broadcast. They are on sale now for 499, and come with a service contract with the TiVo company, which provides you with the ‘service’ of knowing what you want recorded. Like all that shit wouldn’t fit on your own machine. No. You gotta get a subscription to a service you don’t need. Bastards. Money grubbing fucking bastards! They create a revolutionary device and fucking RUIN it by demanding that you use a fucking service you don’t fucking NEED! Sorry. I got a little off topic. That sort of shit just pisses me the fuck off! Anyway, it is pretty cool, and can save 14 hours of TV or whatnot.
–Tim
We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first “lost generation” nor today’s lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak.
I have a feature on my remote called “Return”. It will automatically come back to the channel you’re watching when you want it to (in 30 second intervals). I’ll set it for 2 1/2 minutes and see what else is on, and it usually returns exactly as the program is starting again.
I’m one of those people that used to change the channel during the commercial, and then find something else and forget to return to what I was originally watching. My college days seem to have left me with a low short-term memory. What was I talking about again?
BTW, that reminds me of a Jim Breuer comedy special where there was a skit of a stoner Jeopardy. The final answer was: What we were just talking about and no one could get the correct question.
“My guitar is my first wife. It doesn’t scream at me. It screams for me.” SRV
I guess I’m the only one who gets another beer during commercials…
UncleBeer, your help is much appreciated in this matter.
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
Depends. One of the following:
(1) Surf.
(2) Bathroom break.
(3) Read something.
and as a last resort…
(4) Watch them.
Though there are certain events, such as during the Super Bowl, where I DO watch the commercials.
Yer pal,
Satan
Several options:
Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.
Forget what I was watching.
OK, so this doesn’t actually happen too often, but when it does happen, I like to turn to the person sitting next to me and ask: ‘‘What were we watching?’’ Sometimes, she doesn’t remember, either.
I won’t watch a program that has comercials during it. A VHS tape with the previews in front of the feature is pushing it fot me. When I had DDS I only had the premium movie channels.
Coldfire - you are NOT the only one who gets another beer!
Seems like it’s the only way I can even GET through prime time viewing…
It depends on what I’m watching and how “in to it” I am.
I have a satelite dish (live in the sticks where cable is not available). I can only flip between whatever channels (from 1-24) available on the particular satelite I’m on. Eg. I watch prime time shows on W1 and there are only 4 channels available to me on this satelite so flipping is limited. Changing satelites takes too long. I’ll either suffer through the commercials or just get bored and turn the TV off and the PC on.
If I’m watching with my husband I HIDE the remote - he flips and rarely returns to what we were actually watching. Men don’t want to know what is on - they want to know what else is on.
You guys gotta walk away from the TV to get another beer? I’ve got 'em in a cooler on the cocktail table. Amateurs.
I rarely turn on the TV without a book in my hands. Most of the time I’m actually reading, rather than watching the tube.
Which brings up an interesting point. I like a bit background noise while reading, but I can’t have the stereo on. I find music harder to filter out than the television. Odd.
I also watch a lot of PBS. A very limited number of commercials there. Yeah, I count the shameless self-promotions ot the “sponsoring” companies as advertising.
“What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch?” – W.C. Fields
First thing I do is turn down the volume - the commercials are almost always much louder than the show; always something to do – bathroom, munchies, read newspaper, pull laundry out of the dryer and fold it, polish fingernails, pluck eyebrows, play with the cats, wash my hair, pick out next day’s clothes, pack workout clothes for next day, handwash a few dishes, load dishwasher, feed cats, brush cats, browse thru pile of mail order catalogues, water plants, read novel, pay bills, check e-mail, play scrabble or chess with computer, etc., etc.
switch sexual positions