EPISODE 722: THE COMICCONIFICATION OF AMERICA
Live Your Memes
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
A couple weeks ago I wrote a piece here about two different kinds of fandoms—the toxic one, which love to complain about continuity and threaten anyone that is not a straight white dude; and the joyful one, which tries to focus on celebration, even when dealing with something that is kind of not good.
Maybe my favorite story from last week concerns one such joyful fandom which appeared last week, the Gentle Minions, young people (mostly men, it seems) who went to see the new Minions movie in suits and tuxes. . Ryan Broderick has the whole story of who they are and what exactly made them do that. In a way it comes down to a sort of self-meme-ing, in which you take a meme happening online and turn into a live action spectacle. It is delightful (though for some reason some GentleMinions people have had food fights and more or less ruined the movie in their theaters, which is not unexpected cool).
I don't necessarily encourage all of us to dress up together and act out things in public, because that is flash mobs and also I don’t like hostage situations.
But I do delight in people celebrating whatever delights them. I went to see Phantom of the Opera last week (see below) and at intermission my nephew, his girlfriend and I noticed that there was a guy and gal in the front row dressed as the Phantom and Christine. Like, what is that? But also, I love that for them.
The Australian group The Wombats recently did their own act of joyful fandom, this nice cover of Kate Bush’s "Running Up that Hill.”
YOU KNOW YOU'VE SEEN TOO MANY MARVEL MOVIES WHEN…
…you daydream about which celebrity is going to appear in the post-credit scenes at your funeral.
…you randomly shout “Feige!” for no reason.
…you assume that your brother dad mom auntie best friend oldest friend doppleganger countryman competition invention neighbor is a super villain.
… you start referring to your life marriage kids evening TV watching in terms of phases.
…you start to think actually the world needs more cops soldiers wars Chrises straight white male superheroes think pieces.
All of which is to say, I saw Thor this weekend.
This Week In tweets that Substack won’t let you see any more without clicking on them, which is really annoying but also click on this because it’s fun.
MY UGHS-PERIMENT
I moved to New York a year ago this week. And one of the things I said I wanted to do was say yes to more things. I think I've done okay at that, but as I enter my second year I want to push that harder.
And along those lines, one thing I'm going to try to do is say yes to more pop culture things that initially make me go "ugh."
For instance: after loving the music as a kid, at some point I decided that Phantom of the Opera was just ridiculous in every way, and so I never saw it. I'm sure this had something to do with a curdling in my/society's attitude toward Andrew Lloyd Webber, and that's fair (maybe?), but the fact is, I had no good reason to shun Phantom, I just did.
So last week I went to see it with my nephew and his girlfriend. And you know, while the production is definitely showing its age—it has a kind of "turning the Titanic is hard" vibe at times—the story of the Phantom itself is pretty emotional. Particularly once he takes that mask off I found myself really right there with him. Honestly, I find myself kind of relating to him.
Also, it's the rare show on Broadway these days that involves real stage magic. There are some fantastic appearances and disappearances in Phantom. Theater used to be filled with wonderful gimmicks like that, but it's just not done much anymore. (Hell, the new production of Into the Woods doesn't even have the Witch transform into her de-cursed self onstage. She literally walks off stage, then comes back in her new look and outfit.)
So: Ughs-Periment One Test Results: Phantom has good things in it!
THREE TWEETS
This is surprising but also so true.
ALT: Can you tell which of my friends is from New York:
This is literally everything.
I BET THIS IS GOOD THOUGH
I'm realizing that whenever I read a newsletter I click on a million articles I want to read and then I save them for later but never read them.
So rather than give you even more articles to add to your reading list, I'm going to list an article that I'm was excited enough to save but then didn't.
This week:
Will Arnett!: I really enjoyed Arnett's work on BoJack Horseman. Also, I adore his ex-wife Amy Poehler. So when I saw he did an interview in the Guardian in February, I immediately saved it for later/apparently never.
I love a Guardian interview: perfect length, great sharing with little of the sucking up to the celebrity of most profiles.
Some day I look forward to learning how Arnett feels about being a dad again in his 50s!
NEXT WEEK
I use my Notes App a ton. Next week I step back to think about how.
Tried some different things this week in terms of how I organized the newsletter. Hope you like it. Have a good week!