Jake

Idle Thumbs 176: The Classic Alien Form

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I think it's one of those well-meaning but ultimately problematic things like what happened with Lego. Lego was a gender-neutral toy that got so heavily militarized and dudebro'd that their female audience dropped off and market research found that the only way to reclaim the lost female audience was to start a second product line aggressively marketed toward girls in a very stereotypical way. Nerf Guns are super Codblopsy now, so it's not surprising that only boys end up owning them. It's no coincidence that the Rebelle line prominently includes bows.

Saying the current Nerf line is Codbopsy (I love that word) and that makes it not appeal to girls is an interesting thought. I wonder how much of that war game appeal (and lack of appeal) is actually based on biology and how much is just part of society much the same way as pink versus blue. I guess where I'm at is if I'm a person who is already interested in shooting someone with a Nerf gun, I can't imagine caring if it's pink or yellow. As an aside, I really want one of those bows.

 

Most of the city was very explicitly evacuated earlier in the episode. The Timm/Dini version of the DCAU was generally very good about not letting innocent bystanders get hurt and would only very rarely let buildings be destroyed*, unlike a certain other Superman franchise. There was an arc specifically about the watchtower being used to destroy an empty building and how controversial it was for the league to even have that kind of power. It ended with them decommissioning it.

 

*the only other time I can think of Superman causing massive property damage in the DCAU was during a fight with Captain Marvel in a completely unoccupied planned community.

That's cool that they actually thought of that. That sort of integrity thing what specifically interests me in Captain America. Maybe Superman isn't quite as boring as I thought.

 

Edit: Interesting fact, if you go to the Nerf webpage, look at their catalog, and select All Nerf Products, it shows you everything except the Rebelle line. You have to specifically click on that header to see any of the bows.

 

Edit 2: Now I'm just looking at real bows on Amazon.

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 They added a couple extra scenes that made no sense and had 2 known actors appear in completely irrelevant roles which I guess is somehow supposed to be enough to entice the Chinese market?  That's a really lazy and shitty way to attract people to your movie.  Don't get me wrong, I still like seeing Asian actors in movies, I just wish the reason to have them wasn't just so they could try and appeal to a demographic.

pepsi133a.jpg

Sounds like Pepsi Si. It's Pepsi, but it says, "Yes" in Spanish. They're gonna love this!

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I'm pretty ashamed of the small amount of excitement I get from seeing American things being set in places I know, even though London has been in pretty much every blockbuster of the past couple of years, it seems. Which is weird. How do these strange Hollywood trends work? Has London been "in" recently?

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I always enjoy seeing San Francisco in movies, including American movies, and I'm American. I think that kind of impulse is hard to completely avoid.

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I think I might get more excited if Vancouver actually shows up as Vancouver, but so often it's a standin for something else. The most egregious example I recall was when a shot showed our skytrain which had the provincial flag emblazoned across the side:

 

vancouver2.jpg

 

(and visible in the shot) when it was supposed to be Seattle or something. A+ for not even trying.

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Incidentally, I also live in a city that's often filmed as other cities and I'll totally admit to being excited when I recognize landmarks or places I've been.  I still think that Iron Man thing is terrible though.

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Some things-

 

1. Anita is an incredible bad ass with super human perseverance and it was really cool that you invited her to be on the cast. 

 

2. I have, at times, been annoyed with how much you all talk over each other but, in this case, I feel that adjusting that for the sake of your guest would have come across strangely seeing as that really hasn't been a thing in the past. Thank you guys for just being yourselves.

 

3. I was on about it on twitter earlier but, Danielle, Amateur Boxing. Fuck yeah. After hearing that and having the idea of Idle Thumbs boxing gear put into my brain, I sort of drifted off for a while into a daydream where Chris introduces you with a theme song sung to a confused audience while you enter the ring wearing a monogrammed S.J.W. robe, Idle Thumbs trunks and boxing gloves that say 'GOLD' 'BLUM' on the pads. Your opponent coalesces from the tweets of a million trolls- into an actual troll made of tweets who you proceed to battle. Sean and Jake hang out in your corner of the ring between rounds and offer up well meant but inaccurate advice on the fight, Nature Box snacks and water. This is totally how amateur boxing works, right?

 

So, yeah, that happened in my brain this afternoon. 

 

All weird Idle Boxing thoughts aside- If you do end up trying out the Amateur thing, good luck and kick all the asses!

 

Some how, some day, I would really, REALLY love to make this happen.

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I think I might get more excited if Vancouver actually shows up as Vancouver, but so often it's a standin for something else.

Sorry, but Vancouver will forever remain as every far flung future location and occasionally Virginia for no apparent reason.

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That's cool that they actually thought of that. That sort of integrity thing what specifically interests me in Captain America. Maybe Superman isn't quite as boring as I thought.

 

I really recommend Superman: The Animated Series and the subsequent Justice League/Justice League Unlimited for some great Superman material. They're set in the same universe as Batman: The Animated Series, so you know they're good.

 

I think I might get more excited if Vancouver actually shows up as Vancouver, but so often it's a standin for something else.

 

One of my all-time favourite subtle jokes in film is a single shot in Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Lucas Lee is in Toronto filming a movie set in New York when Scott fights him, and at one point he throws Scott through a fake backdrop of the Empire State Building to reveal the real CN Tower framed perfectly in the hole.

 

ZttKWqC.jpg

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I'll second the superman and justice League recommendation, I am not a superman fan but they knew how to characterize him in the dcau.

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I don't even mind if people spread misconceptions and stereotypes about Maryland. It feels like such a forgotten state that I'm just happy to hear talk about it.

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Let's just narrow focus to the important part of this post:

boxing gloves that say 'GOLD' 'BLUM' on the pads.

fuck everything this has to happen

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boxing gloves that say 'GOLD' 'BLUM' on the pads.

 

Boxing gloves that say GOLD and BLUM then inside the gloves knuckle tats that say FUCK and NICK

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I don't even mind if people spread misconceptions and stereotypes about Maryland. It feels like such a forgotten state that I'm just happy to hear talk about it.

 

Yeah, I feel the same about seeing Dallas on the screen. Even though I haven't lived there for half a decade, I still get really happy seeing it, even if there's a corner of my brain that's irritated that every single director has to make Dallas more Texan. I think the last movie that actually looked like Dallas was in North Texas as opposed to Hill Country was True Detective, but then that show had a lot of love for the South and the Gulf Coast.

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Regarding sexism in games vs violence in games.

There's a world of difference between "Sexist portrayals of women in games reinforces a sexist worldview" and "Depictions of violence in games makes people violent." The equivalent to the violence in games debate would be "Depictions of sexism in games makes people sexist." Which is clearly silly. And, approaching it from the other direction, violence in games is bad when it's in service of reinforcing a bad worldview. The equivalent of the argument about sexism would be "Violent portrayals of arabs in games reinforces a worldview which vilifies and dehumanizes arabs,"

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By the way:

 

rrbsmTv.png

 

 

I told Tiny Cartridge that they got mentioned on the cast. Seems like they really appreciate it.

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I'm glad the GOLD BLUM idea came up. The thumbs idea left me worried the Danielle's gloves would end up with an unintentional goatse. :-(

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On the Marvel thing, there's a scene in the newest Captain America movie where he keeps a notebook filled with a list of 'Things I need to catch up on' or something to that effect, but the contents of the notebook are tailored to the audience of the country that the film is screening in. I saw the movie in Korea, and I did a double take when Captain America apparently felt the need to catch up on Park Ji-sung (a famous soccer player here) and Oldboy. Here is a list of the different variations.

 

Also, The Avengers 2 will feature an extended sequence in Seoul, and the filming will be heavily subsidised by the Korean government; I'm pretty sure I remember reading that the government blew their entire film budget (i.e. the money they set aside for this sort of thing) on this film alone. I'm REALLY excited to see landmarks that I've actually seen in real life get blown the fuck up, and hopefully also some really bad, forced dialogue which references some aspect of Korean culture, probably included at the insistence of the Korean Ministry of Tourism.

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It's a really marketing like play, but seem extremely common these days. I was surprised when I found out that the song in the bar scene from Star Trek Into Darkness was different in a whole host of countries. Here's a sample:

 

Australia
Brazil
France
Japan
Mexico
United Kingdom
USA

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It's a really marketing like play, but seem extremely common these days. I was surprised when I found out that the song in the bar scene from Star Trek Into Darkness was different in a whole host of countries.

What's the point of this? Is it just to get people talking (like we are now)? Is there an idea that subtle differences like this can somehow influence the success of a film? Or is it honestly just a cute little Easter egg for the audience to discover?

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What's the point of this? Is it just to get people talking (like we are now)? Is there an idea that subtle differences like this can somehow influence the success of a film? Our is it honestly just a cute little Easter egg for the audience to discover?

I don't know, but I would imagine it's in the same vein as targeted marketing and demographics where you carefully engineer your content to fit the audience you're trying to ingratiate yourself with.

 

I remember an article on statistical techniques employed by both the Democrats and Republicans in speech writing where they would runs hundreds of trials to determine what specific words and phrasing were most effective at changing the perception of an audience without actually modifying the substance of what was being said. Apparently the technique had been demonstrated to be quite effective by corporations and some of those quantitative analysis folks were recruited.

 

I would imagine it's roughly the same idea, though not nearly to same degree.

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I had an idea for a Zelda game where you play as Sheik.  Except instead of being the hero, you have to be like Sheik in OoT and sneak around in the shadows helping out an inept Link without being seen to maintain your mysteriousness.

 

Oh, that sounds fantastic.  A stealth game where, instead of hiding from enemies, you have to accomplish your objectives without being seen by the dude you're helping who thinks he's the hero.

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