There’s a Simpsons episode where Homer realizes his stupidity can be blamed on a crayon he shoved up his nose and lodged into his brain when he was a young boy. As an adult, he decides to have it removed and instantly, he becomes a genius. He’s so smart he accidentally proves there is no God. Unfortunately for him, after gaining intelligence, the simple things in life no longer entertain him.
In one scene, Homer is shown in a movie theatre watching the latest comedy off the Hollywood assembly line. He is surrounded by a theatre full of people laughing hysterically and he can’t understand why. He says something to the effect of, “I don’t understand; this isn’t funny at all.”
The point of all of this is, I felt like Homer Simpson Friday night as I sat there in the theatre with CAT, The Virgin Mary, and The Irish Postman. We were watching Monster-in-Law with Jane Fonda and J-Lo, and my lord, I’d say that I had never seen anything so poorly written and badly acted as this, but I’d be lying because I see it more often than not whenever I go to the movies. What’s worse than that is that nearly everyone in the theatre left thinking it was money well spent.
I understand Hollywood’s point of view here; it’s the same point of view that McDonald’s and WalMart and auto companies, and oil companies, and the government share: if society keeps on buying it, we’ll keep on selling it. So you can’t really blame them for cashing in like that. I’m sure most of us would sell out for a billion dollars. But you have to blame us for not putting our collective foot down and demanding better products. At some point, we decided by majority that we will accept less than what’s good for us so long as we could chalk it up to easily pronounced sayings like “that’s life” or “so it goes” or “welcome to the real world.”
And sadly, I need to bring this rant to a quick end. I’d write more but XXX: State of the Union starts in 20 minutes.
Benchly'sword 