Video parodies more interesting than their targets

by Doctor Science

This vid, a celebration of (shall we say) a certain lifestyle with which I am familiar, is just starting to go viral:

Roll a D6 from Connor Anderson on Vimeo.

What's kind of boggling to me is how good the editing and special effects are for something with little money behind it, and how bland and repulsive the high-end pro video it's parodying seems by comparison:

-- boring people doing boring things. Who *wouldn't* rather fight dragons in their minds?!?

It reminds me of the difference between Jane Austen's Fight Club:

Jane Austen's Fight Club from Keith Paugh on Vimeo.

(currently pulled from YouTube for copyright issues, as though "parody, DUH" wasn't a protected use) and the official Fight Club trailer:

Jane Austen's FC: interesting women struggling against a truly oppressive society. FC: whiny white guys struggling against boredom and the fact that they aren't the most successful whiny white guys. Not that Young Brad Pitt's hipbones are *boring* or anything, but if they're going to star they should at least be front & center more often.

eta: Sorry about the variable service as I got all the embed codes to work properly. Let me know if there are still problems.

Comments

[russell]

OK, I know I'm getting old and in the way, because I have no idea what either a D6 *or* a G6 is.

Jane Austen's fight club, however, is one of my favoritest things, ever.

Also, a little known use for a D&D die: it's a great way to randomize the 12 keys for jazz practice. No more boring cycle of fifths!

I sent the D6 video to lots of gamers I know. Thanks Doc Science!

[Doctor Science]

D6 is a standard die, duh. To understand "G6" I had to go to Teh Google, which informed me:

Far East Movement's Kev Nish told MTV News that the G6 prominence in the song was inspired by some good old-fashioned artistic rivalry. In his song, "Forever," the rapper Drake claims, "I know G4 pilots on a first-name basis." Far East Movement knew they could do better -- so they decided to sing about the "flyer" G6.

...The only problem with all the enthusiasm? The G6 doesn't exist. The company's line of planes ranges from the G150 to the G650, with each plane featuring the three-digit product number. Gulfstream believes the "G6" clearly refers to the G650, their top-of-the-line product.

In conclusion, gamers win.

[Slartibartfast]

Fight Club was the movie that I least expected my wife to like, that she actually wound up liking a lot.

I liked it, too; not because I agree with Tyler Durden's grievances all that much, but more because it's just marbled with absolutely crazy stuff. Like: what they made soap out of.

I am Jack's shocked outrage.

[Phil]

I hope you didn't agree with Tyler's grievances -- if you did, you're doing the movie wrong.

FC: whiny white guys struggling against boredom and the fact that they aren't the most successful whiny white guys.

This is . . . not really correct.

[Slartibartfast]

Those are both excellent points, Phil.

[Slartibartfast]

not really correct

...bordering on not even wrong.

[Phil]

Misreadings of the themes and politics of Fight Club are one of those things that get my hackles up. Granted, it is an eminently misreadable movie if one is only giving it a surface look, but to imagine that it's about male entitlement is . . . man, let's start with the fact that, like the Cohen Brothers are often accused of, David Fincher is far from in love with his own "protagonists" in that movie.

[Doctor Science]

I wasn't so much talking about the full movie of Fight Club, but about the *trailer*. Regardless of the take the movie has, the trailer is aimed at whiny white boy angst.

Slarti:

Fight Club was the movie that I least expected my wife to like, that she actually wound up liking a lot.

*eyebrow* You didn't expect her to like Brad Pitt's hipbones?

[Slartibartfast]

What's not to like?

I mean, for other people. Me, I feel kind of neutral about Pitt's hipbones.

I thought Pitt was just about perfect as Tyler Durden, though.

We both like Edward Norton. He's one of my favorite actors.

[Carleton Wu]

Jane Austen's FC: interesting women struggling against a truly oppressive society. FC: whiny white guys struggling against boredom and the fact that they aren't the most successful whiny white guys.

Yes, it is impossible for men to feel oppressed by society. We should just adhere to the socially-enforced masculine stereotype and suck it up. Ironic.

[McKinneyTexas]

Thanks CW. My thought as well. Hope that doesn't send you back to the drawing board. :-).

[Matt McIrvin]

Yeah, I remember the trailers for Fight Club describing a completely different and much less funny movie than it actually was. (Though I think there were different trailers and what I saw was the dumb-guy fight-movie trailer rather than the jarring, incomprehensible smartass-hipster trailer.)

[Slartibartfast]

It was pretty much because of the trailers that I didn't watch it until it had been out a couple of years. Then I rented it. Then I went and bought it.

The bought version is pretty interesting, in part because it has some weird inserted visuals that you might miss out on during a casual viewing.

[hairshirthedonist]

As soon as the music started in the first video, I was out.

I liked FC.

[hairshirthedonist]

I did the same thing, except for watching it on cable rather than renting it, Slart. It looked too stupid to bother going to the theater to see it when it came out, like the cinematic equivalent of Limp Bizkit. Turns out it was more like Primus, which makes it much, much better, if none of that means anything to you.

[Slartibartfast]

I share your loathing for the Limp Ones, but I haven't attended to Primus enough to appreciate their goodness. Or lack thereof, but I think you were going with a certain amount of good-partly-because-of-wierd.

[hairshirthedonist]

Listen to "Tommy the Cat" three times in a row for a good Primus primer. Weird enough, yes, but they also run circles around the likes of LB in terms of musicianship. But I digress.

[hairshirthedonist]

BTW, I picked those bands in an attempt to be contemporaneous with FC's release. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about Limp Bizkit these days.

[Anthony Damiani]

My first reaction was "If this guy is supposed to be a level-30 Ranger, why is he single-wielding?"

I am such a geek. :(

[Doug M.]

He's talking smack, man. He's really a 1st leve level / 1st level rogue. With an 11 Str.

Doug M.

[mightygodking]

boring people doing boring things. Who *wouldn't* rather fight dragons in their minds?!?

I like a good round of fighting imaginary dragons as much as - well, actually I prefer having imaginary giant robots fight one another, but that's almost as nerdy and I roll a lot more d6s to do it.

But saying that going out for a night of dancing is "boring" is just nerd triumphalism, pure and simple. Dancing is fun, dammit, (and, at its most involved levels, practically nerdy anyway - truly advanced breakers and pop-lockers are kneedeep in nerd subculture, for a start) and when nerds mock it, all they do is make clear why they're nerds.

[hairshirthedonist]

...and, at its most involved levels, practically nerdy anyway...

I find that just about anything is sort of nerdy at its most involved levels. Once you get to the point of, for example, being able to discuss something in terms that only a very small percentage of people will be able to understand, and doing so with great enthusiasm to boot, you've gotten nerdy, at least is some sense.

I'm sort of nerdy about beer and music, two things that are generally thought of as "cool." I can also be kind of math/science nerdy, but that's more stereotypical, traditional nerd stuff.

The odd thing is that my less nerdy friends, semi-jock types who don't share my tastes in music and beer (though they can drink cases and cases of Coors light) or my affinity for math and science, are more annoyed by my beer and music nerdiness than my math/science nerdiness. Somehow they respect what they think of as my braininess, but think I drink weird (or, to them, bad-tasting) beer and listen to weird (or, to them, unfamiliar and harsh) music.

Maybe it's that the beer and the music are just more obtrusive somehow. Though, I should say, I think of those friend of mine who share my beer and music tastes as being more geeky that the rest. It's just that I like them all the more for it. It's what makes them cool.

[Slartibartfast]

Thanks for the leg-up to suckdom, hsh. I'd known about "primus sucks" for many years, now, but I'd never actually listened to any of their stuff.

Listening to "Jerry was a Racecar Driver" right now. Wierd, wierd stuff. But, yes: easily clearing the bar of being more musically talented than Limp Bizkit.

[p mac]

Re dancing and the G6 video.
I agree dancing is great, and there are lots of dancing videos that show it. The G6 video, however, is about watching other people get drunk. On this I agree with OP: boooring.

[Duff Clarity]

My favorite Fight Club trailer.

[hairshirthedonist]

Thanks for the leg-up to suckdom, hsh.

Sometimes I think of Primus as (old) Rush on acid - lots of acid. In fact, I saw them cover YYZ in concert a few years back. Now there's a day I wouldn't mind re-living.

[Hartmut]

I'd rather wield http://www.battlemerchant.com/images/product_images/info_images/0401041700.jpg>one http://www.manfred-pany.de/grafiken_upload/08_14_04_tn_Rabenschnabel.jpg>of http://images.solidcactus.com/swblades/fajana.jpg>these weapons than a sword.
---
My nerdiness concentrates on 'discovering' cipher machines used by the Byzantine empire (finished) and the Vatican (before the Galilei trial; still working on it).
I managed to fool some people with a paper on that on April 1st two years ago. Worked also with the claim that the old Byzantines invented Bakelite and vulcanised rubber (I think they could have produced both had they tried).

[kent]

Love the d6. Love Jane Austen's FC.

Need to watch the real FC eventually.

Thanks, Dr Science.

[Nate]

Is it bad that one of my first thoughts through the video was "But you don't roll a D6 for a perception check!" Unless that's been changed in the new version, which it looked like they were using.

[Gary Farber]

eta: Sorry about the variable service as I got all the embed codes to work properly. Let me know if there are still problems.

?

Also, gentle reminder that it's a good idea to put your name at the top, so we don't have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see who made it.

What's kind of boggling to me is how good the editing and special effects are for something with little money behind it

Why?

I'm puzzled by this because since I was 12 I've been a historian of sf fandom, and thus quickly other fandoms, and the idea that people invest as much work into their activities for love, as opposed to money -- which I kinda think I'd grok even if somehow I hadn't gotten into sf fanhistory, but simply remained a fan of human history in general, and an observer that people always love doing what they... love -- seems sort of obvious, doesn't it? Why would someone think that what people are merely paid to do would cause people to care more strongly about that which they love doing?

People put a lot of effort into their families and loved ones and aren't paid to do so. Isn't this the norm?

That reverse is what would seem weird to me, not that people would love doing what they love doing, and put effort into it.

[Gary Farber]

Hmm, not sure if I should read more of the comments on this thread, as I still haven't seen FIGHT CLUB and really don't want to read spoilers on it.

[Turbulence]

Why would someone think that what people are merely paid to do would cause people to care more strongly about that which they love doing?

I don't think Dr Science's point is that she's surprised that people care enough about their fan-interests to spend lots of time and energy on making that video. Rather, I think she's surprised that such people have the capability to make such videos. There's been a revolution in film and video editing that's radically reduced the cost needed to reach pretty good quality, but that may not be widely known.

I mean, I know there are lots of really ardent Star Wars fans who spend *a lot* of time on their fandom, but I'd still be shocked if they constructed an actual Death Star in orbit.

[Gary Farber]

Rather, I think she's surprised that such people have the capability to make such videos. There's been a revolution in film and video editing that's radically reduced the cost needed to reach pretty good quality, but that may not be widely known.

Uh, okay. I remember THE WIZARD OF TIME AND SPACE premiering at sf cons back around 1972, but more relevantly that YouTube has had pro-quality videos more or less since it started, that anyone familiar with sf fandom in the Eighties was seeing high-quality fan videos at cons, that more went online during the Nineties, and that this has been the norm for decades now, so this "may not be widely known" seems to me to apply only to people who have barely ever been online -- of which there are many, of course, but they don't tend to read blogs -- or one could, say, look at the Star Wars fan film contests, or... just YouTube and Vimeo and literally millions and millions of online videos that have been up for over a decade, but, well, okay. We all get surprised at different things, depending on our very different life-experiences and perspective, of course.