A Cranky, Rambling Rant – Part Three

Part One was here.  It was about how some people get really upset if you don't love what they love.  Part Two was here.  It was about how some people (including probably most of the same ones) get really upset when you do love something they don't love.  In particular, one guy I know from afar gets upset every time I say I love the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and almost demands that I listen to him, agree it's terrible and stop loving it.

Why I would want to do this, I cannot understand.  Why would I want one less thing in this world that makes me happy?  Shouldn't we all have as many of those as we can find?  I wish I loved coffee because there sure are a lot of Starbucks around.

In Part Two, I predicted I'd get the same reprimanding e-mail from the guy I always get when I say I love I.A.M.M.M.M.W. I was wrong.  He phoned, instead.  I didn't record the call but I think I remember his in-depth analysis well enough to summarize…

This thing in it just isn't funny.  That thing it isn't funny.  There isn't a laugh in this whole sequence.  This performer is especially unfunny.  This particular part is especially long and unfunny.  The people who were sitting there laughing were wrong because it's not funny. And there! I have just proved without a shadow of doubt that the movie is not funny and you have to stop saying you like it.

Well, it went something like that.  And in every other sentence, he kept saying things like, "I know comedy" and "There isn't anyone who knows more about comedy than I do."  And that's really what this is all about. When I don't agree with him, I'm denying the infallible expertise he's so proud of.

You know, I sometimes understand this win-the-argument-at-all-costs mentality with regards to politics and things that actually harm human beings and impact their lives. I don't get getting so worked up over someone liking a movie you don't like or preferring Pepsi to Coca-Cola. It didn't involve me but I once watched a friendship of many years break up over the Pepsi/Coke thing.

Then, as with all of these, I couldn't help but think there was some emotional subtext driving the argument; that someone had some latent need of the "win" and the argument wasn't really about the argument. We might actually be able to discuss the merits of a movie like Mad World if we both agree that in the grand scheme of life, it really doesn't matter a whole heap.

I've been getting off Facebook forums lately because of folks who take things way too seriously or feel they have to give their opinions about every-friggin'-thing that passes under their noses. Please, people. Dial it back. Or at least save it for issues that might occasionally deserve raising one's voice a bit. My second agent had a line he used to use when he found himself in debates that were way outta proportion. He'd say, "Hey, this ain't the moon shot. Nobody dies if someone is wrong." Lately on the 'net, I find that line popping into my head more and more.