Okay so apparently I haven't been making myself clear.
I don't know why people THINK I watch Whose Line, but it's because it's funny. It cheers me up on a bad day and lets me appreciate a good one. It's the show that reminds me that, hey, you can laugh, remember? You should do that more. Hey, you were embarrassed today? Well this is a bald forty year old man break dancing on national television. Shamelessly. PERSPECTIVE. You had a fight with your friend? This is a clip of two forty year old (straight married) men kissing each other. You're lonely? Join in with Ryan making fun of Drew or Colin, they know it's all in fun! "Oh go on, it's comedy."
It is NOT because I took a look at Colin and went "Boy is he attractive." That's not at all how it happened. I saw a clip, went "Hey, these guys are funny," and began to watch more. After months and months of watching it, Colin's talent drew me in.
I watched a Whoser rant recently where the girl talked about how talent ALWAYS comes before looks for Whosers and their Whose Line crushes. And that's true. Yeah, I understand that maybe Jeff is attractive or whatever, but you wouldn't be fangirling over him just for being attractive, you fangirl over him because he's a talented dude. And maybe Colin's humour or his style or whatever just spoke to me more, but either way he's my Whose Line crush because of his TALENT.
Some girls like athletic guys. And that's cool. Some girls like musicians. And that's cool too. Some girls like nerds and some girls like bad boys and some girls like emo guys. And that's all cool. But me, I like funny guys. I don't care how he looks, cause if he makes me laugh he's got cutie points from me. That's just how I'm wired. I sometimes notice when a guy is hot without them even saying anything - sometimes, but seldom. It makes me suspect I may in fact be pansexual, but that's not the point. My point is that for me, humour/mind>looks, and that's a sure fact.
I bring it up again because since I tried to show Aileen and Courtney that episode of Whose Line, they haven't given it a chance since.
"Hey what should I look up on Youtube?"
"Whose Line clips, maybe?"
*exasperated look* "Seriously, Megan?"
And it puzzled me because I couldn't understand what they had against the show or why they wouldn't give it a chance in spite of my clear love for it. I listen to 1D for my Directioner friend, I listened to Marianas Trench for people who are into that, hell, I even watched Star Trek for my trekkie cousin. And for the life of me I couldn't understand why they wouldn't give WLiiA a shot.
Until it finally occurred to me:
It makes them uncomfortable now that they know about my feelings for Colin.
They think I'm some kind of reverse cougar for laughing at his jokes.
It makes them uncomfortable to watch it with me, or when I fangirl because they know who Colin is now and it's not a twenty year old actor who plays the hearthrob in every movie.
I'm not sure what it is they don't understand. Maybe Courtney gets it just a little more than Aileen, but the first thing Courtney showed Aileen, rather than explaining what Whose Line was, was my extensive collection of Colin Mochrie on my computer and telling her I'm in love with him. So now Aileen thinks that that's all that it's about. She thinks the only reason I watch Whose Line is to see Colin (which I guess would be the only reason people watch movies like Warm Bodies or whatever - yay heartthrobs, whoop-dee-freaking-doo, what is this plot you speak of, story, whatever, OMG abs), which is ridiculous and weird and upon realizing that I understand her discomfort, but knowing what she does about me is she going to believe me when I try to explain the whole story? Or is she just going to think I'm embarrassed? I wish I understood the dynamics of the mind of the normal teenage girl, because I seem to be on a completely different wave-length.
People should never introduce a show with "...and I'm in love with this balding forty year old man." And had it been my choice, I wouldn't have. Thanks for that, by the way, Courtney. But the reason that shouldn't happen is because that knowledge is distracting to those who don't understand it, but also because if that's what you lead with, then that's what they think it's about. Someone trying to introduce a person positively to something like...... I don't know, let's say Third Rock, doesn't start with "OMG isn't French Stewart so hot?" even if that person honestly thinks that. They start with "The show's about these aliens who are coming to Earth to learn about the human race, so they came and took the bodies of humans and now they're trying to learn how to act like regular human beings because the commander made them stay longer because he has a soft spot for a woman he met. It's REALLY funny." That's an interesting concept, something that'll make a newbie go "Hey, that's worth a shot." Whereas Aileen didn't even know Whose Line was improv until I'd started the episode. I'd just kind of assumed she knew. Which, sure, was partly my own fault, but also Courtney's for starting this introduction with "OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS GUY MEGAN LOVES ISN'T HE OLD AND UGLY? MEGAN YOU'RE SO CREEPY."
Do you really think it doesn't hurt when you say things like that? I can take a joke. I get that it's a little weird. I get that it can be percieved as even a little creepy. I can take a joke. My sense of humour is twice the size of yours. What I CAN'T take is when you IMMEDIATELY give someone else a negative bias to something that I really love, for no reason except that you don't get it. I say with absolute honesty that Whose Line and Colin have been the only thing between me and insanity sometimes. I mean that literally. And you don't have to understand it for it to be true, and you don't have to have felt it to be considerate of it.
Remember how mad you got, Courtney, when I said I didn't particularly want Lady Gaga on my iTunes? That wasn't even meant as an insult. That was simply meant as a fact, and I expected it to be taken as such, like if you told me you weren't particularly tempted to buy a Whose Line DVD. I wouldn't get mad, I would accept it as fact. Still, you went ahead and snapped at me for the rest of the time. And I could say much worse things about Lady Gaga then what I did, or even than what YOU could say about Whose Line, because at least Whose Line doesn't pretend to be something it's not for the sake of popularity (awww snap). It doesn't need to scream "WE WERE BORN THIS WAY" cause you know what? Just the fact that Colin doesn't wear a toupee means that they don't have to.
Now I consider myself to have a fairly wide sense of humour, so I can get things like that, and I'll even chuckle along with you if I feel like it. But when you start showing downright, not-even-trying-to-hide-it CONTEMPT for something so influential on me as Whose Line, then yeah, I'm going to get a little disgruntled. But what I can't stand more than anything else is when you SPREAD that contempt, when you teach others that what I like is dumb, that no one should even watch it if they want a social life.
And why? Because I admire a man who can 100% guarantee brighten my day no matter WHAT happened? Because a person I admire happens to be in his fifties?
Being older isn't a disadvantage to the show, guys. I'd say it gives it an even stronger identity. This is what it is, if you'd rather watch Friends then go ahead but Whose Line will never be anything but Whose Line. This is our show, and this is the way we like it.
I bet you didn't know that one of the first tapings of Whose Line, producers met in a board room and decided they didn't like the Whose Line guys. They weren't telegenic enough, they were too old, too unknown, too this, too that. And they started throwing out names.
"Oh, I have a connection to Lisa Kudrow!"
"And she has a connection to Jennifer Aniston!"
"What about Dustin Hoffman?"
"Nah, Dusty isn't hot right now."
Until finally, someone said:
"You know.... what these guys are doing is kinda hard."
And so they kept people like Colin and Ryan and Drew and Greg on because on an improv show, mind creates content, not looks.
That is my point.
Their MINDS create the content - and let me tell you, their minds are spry with reactions and setups and punchlines! - NOT their looks.
So get off my goddam back about it
and give the show a chance
from the perspective of what they're saying and doing
not the look of the person who's saying and doing it.
The show is the way it is because it's better that way. We love it that way. And also bear in mind that you don't have to be obsessed with the show in order to enjoy it. There are thousands of people who, while aren't Whosers, enjoy the show and watch it when it's on. It's not freakin' Doctor Who, guys. Anyone can enjoy it if you'd freaking let yourself.
Are we understood? Capice?
Good. It's about frickin' time.
No comments:
Post a Comment