Sunday Night [NOT 9/1/22]

9/1/22 brightersideoflife 24

Hi, friends!

I hope the weekend went well and that people are rested up and ready for the week. Several folks are sick and miserable this weekend, so I’m hoping you are feeling less sick (although you might still be miserable because *gestures at everything*).

Topic of the night – for tv shows, movies, podcasts, etc that you enjoy, what are some of your pet peeves? Things that are just par for the course for that content but you personally are always like WHYYYYYY when it happens?

I have 2 that immediately come to mind that annoy the fuck out of me.

  1. Exposed brick interiors in home renovation shows. People go all crazy over it and while yes, it does look nice, also it’s a pain to clean anything with that texture indoors and if you bump it you can get scratched up.
  2. Cooking competitions where they have amateurs/newbies and give them complicated or less common things to make early on. I enjoy watching Worst Cooks in America and the first episode they had to cook lobster and steaks. These folks struggle with boiling water, start with things that won’t spike anxiety!!

Also as per usual talk about whatever you want, regardless of topic. 🙂

avataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravatar

24 Comments

  1. Ah, exposed brick. I distinctly remember the Village Voice declaring it passĂ© some time around 2003-04 and so I definitely concur. For all the reasons you mention above, plus it’s damn near impossible to decorate or hang things on exposed brick walls in your rental apartment. Plus, in the winter they make your interiors colder (but that same feature is a blessing in the summer).

    In podcasts and public radio shows, I despise two things (well, more, but I’ll talk about two right now):

    1. I’ve noticed a good number of male hosts and guests who don’t enunciate. I hate listening to their mush mouth-ed narration and commentary. Yes, media is quite a bit looser, more accessible, and egalitarian these days, but get thee some basic elocution lessons if you’re going to appear in an audio medium. [Yeah, I said it. And I feel comfortable saying this because women have had to spend the last two decades being criticised for vocal fry, when men do it, too.]
    2. An extension of the oft-ridiculed “NPR Voice” would have to be the obvious efforts I hear in podcasts and public radio segments wherein hosts try rather too hard to make their segment narration and storytelling sound too conversational, dumbed-down, and “I’m affable”. The telltale vocal signature is when the narrator severely stretches out a vowel syllable and then ends the phrase with an AQI/question inflection. Example: Could that maaaaaaaybe, kiiiiiinda explain this???????

    • How about  pukey-voiced sports guy/gal?

      • As butcher might say:

        No.

    • I suppose in both #1 and #2 I’m halfway bemoaning all the copycats who are so blatantly going for This American Life or RadioLab.  It’s annoying enough, but tolerable for one or two shows.  I don’t need to listen to 8,000 clones of that style.

    • The NPR News affectation that drove me crazy before I gave up on them is the way they use fake engagement sounds in interviews.

      So an expert might say “Years later, Flint’s water still has high lead levels” and the host won’t use words to agree or challenge, just a vague, meaningless “hmmm.”

      The announcers were clearly being coached to sound engaged without actually taking sides, because heavens forbid NPR has an opinion on anything. Hunh. Hmmm. Ahhhhh.

  2. Puns in newscasts piss me off like no other thing!

    • Same. Charlie Brooker did a spot-on sendup of TV news reports. Sigh. I miss when he still did Screenwipe.

    • I don’t mind puns in local news covering sports or weather. Because they can be fun with sports and weather is a joke anyways.

    • Holy shit. Recalling all the other dead celebs they find in hotel rooms, it’s almost never natural causes :/

      • Somehow, death by choke and stroke, would almost be kind of fitting considering how dirty Saget’s comedy really is.

        • Yeah while it’s possible that he had an aneurysm or stroke or heart attack, I find it really odd that he died in a hotel room and of course my mind went to unnatural causes.

          Shit one of my friends saw him in stand up a few weeks back and she even was like he didn’t seem anywhere close to his age.

          Maybe a drug overdose? Do we know if he did drugs?

          • im going to assume someone finally offed him for the terrible puns in americas funniest home videos…

          • No evidence of drugs or foul play, apparently.

    • Oof. Cue the Dave Coulier digs.

      • I’ve seen Dave’s act on TV from the 00s.  He’s neither funny or fun. Kinda racist actually.

        • I’m generally inclined to believe Alanis Morissette.

    • I liked Saget in the Aristocrats. The other family friendly stuff… nope.

      • His standup was always what got me, not Full House bs.  I can think of no better tribute to him than the roast…

         

  4. I always hated Alex Trebek’s Perfect French Enunciation.

     

     

    • Was it just too perfect? Annoyingly good?

  5. Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff pointed out that almost every US astronaut, test pilot or fighter jock from the 50s/60s onwards emulated Chuck Yeager’s West Virginian Twang as if that was the only correct accent to be a fighter jock.

  6. things that make me go whyyyy: monday

    double whyyyyy! : it was still raining when i went to bed….now its -5 and pea soup…havent seen or heard any gritters….my backyard and the road out front are skateable….gonna be an interesting ride in

    anyways….time to go find out how many of my coworkers have covid today…..if the ride in doesnt kill me

Leave a Reply