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A Slightly Harsh Headline……in Salt Lake City’s City Weekly, for a piece by Bryan Young about people who talk in movie theaters.
52 Replies to “A Slightly Harsh Headline…”Commenting at Satellite News
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As a Salt Lake City resident, I can tell you that the real asshole is Bryan Young. He’s actually being nice in this article. The guy’s a turd.
It’s just a guess, but I’ll bet the MST fans are *less* inclined to talk in movie theaters than others. Fans of bad movies are still movie fans, and are more likely to respect the theater experience.
I find it amusing that the author is complaining about people talking during a movie at a place that seems to be like a pub/theater combination? alcohol+ bad movies + groups of people = recipe for unruly conduct ;)
If this guy honestly thinks that being rude in a movie theater began with MST3K, or has anything whatsoever to do with MST3K, I think he should be spending his time honing his critical thinking skills rather than popping off in some obscure local blog.
Idiot. . .
“It’s just a guess, but I’ll bet the MST fans are *less* inclined to talk in movie theaters than others.”
Never been to a “Rifftrax Live” showing, then?
There’s always at least one group of guys (sorry, but they are always guys) who think they have to try to beat the guys to the riff, shouting it out…90% of the time getting it wrong.
The guy isn’t legitimately blaming MST3k for this, just using it as a pop-culture touchstone to get people to read the article. Aside from the limp-wristed ties to MST he makes some good points.
There’s a brilliant little piece in (I think) an Elmore Leonard novel where a man has just shot a woman in a movie theatre because she wouldn’t shut up. It seems pretty clear that the film in question is “Out of Africa,” because he recites almost every comment and question she makes during the film, and you can piece together the movie from that. The character who is explaining himself gets so pissed that he ends up shooting her–and the implication seems to be that it was justifiable homicide. (If anyone knows what I’m talking about, please supply a reference–I’m going on rapidly-deteriorating memory here).
I agree with Josh that the article makes some good points, although I, like everyone else here, question the MST3K connection, even as a “pop-culture touchstone.” Sampo’s comment on the website defends the Brains beautifully.
Kathy: it may be guys at Rifftrax Live spoiling the fun by trying to show their cleverness (I can totally see this happening), but the last time I encountered unforgivable movie-theatre rudeness was with a group of teenage girls, who weren’t even trying to riff the movie; they were just not even paying attention: giggling during serious bits, checking cell phones, loudly asking each other who the main characters were, pretending the whole thing was a big joke. Given the price of movie tickets and snacks these days, they must have a lot of income to dispose.
I guess I should have mentioned that the novel I’m talking about predates MST3K, so the phenomenon Bryan Young complains about is hardly anything new.
Blast,
The worst experience with audience chatter I experienced was when I went to see Good Night and Good Luck. As far as I could observe, I was the only member of the audience under 55, most well over 65, and everyone around me was giving historical commentary to just about every scene – who’s this guy, who’s that guy, what guy are they talking about now – all in nearly normal conversational levels. I was too amused by it all (none of it was notably incorrect) to complain, but it was the talkiest experience I’ve had in a theater. I can’t imagine for a minute that any of them would have tolerated jabberings of a bunch of teens in the same screening, but that concept never entered their minds.
One of the reasons why I like MST so much is because I’ve had the “riffing gene” in my makeup for some time. Unfortunately, as a kid it took me a while to start keeping it to myself. (Of course, there was one annoying instance where a friend said “he’d better not hear me talk” when we went to a movie — and then he did more talking than five people put together!)
These days, I only MST a movie in my head when I go to a theater, unless I’m sure I have a sympathetic ear next to me, in which case I’ll whisper the VERY occasional observation into it. Other than that, I will not say a word.
Now, at home, all bets are off…
That writer was clueless….he is blaming the wrong people. Fans of the show are movie fans who totally respect the concept of being quiet during a film.
I suspect that most of the people who behave rudely in movie theaters have never even heard of MST3K.
Holy ****! Those cityweekly people froze my mouse for like 10 seconds! (seemed like an eternity!!) I’m afraid. Very. Afraid.
Jack Lemmon and Fred McMurray would not approve of all this mouse tampering when I’m trying to enjoy my intranets surfing! I hope cityweekly people get haunted.
The author is guilty here mainly of overgeneralization. I have been to quite a few movies in first-run, expensive-ticket venues where the audience was totally silent (well, barring annoying babies inappropriately brought into the theater). When you go to, say, an art-house showing of a trashy movie, hipsterishly being shown as a way to revel in its ironic po-mo badness, then you should logically expect the audience to respond a little differently. When I took my wife to see The Pit here at the Loft in Tucson, the audience was really into the movie, and the spontaneous riffs were fun and really added to the experience. I would not expect (or tolerate) such behavior at, say, a showing of The Muppets.
Anyway, to sum up: it’s all contextual.
Must have been a slooooooow new day. I’m not Bryan Young, but if I was I’d also be a turd.
Sensationalistic headline that he never actually develops for an article that needn’t be written on a cliched subject. I give it two wiggly Tom Servo thumbs down.
Randy
It’s definitely a dumb headline.
Cubby:
Wow, sounds like a night out in Hell–and perhaps not totally attributable to age and Pete-Townshend-level hearing loss. And you’re right, they would have been shushing the teens. ‘Course, as you suggest, they lived through the era, so perhaps they felt they had a right to provide footnotes. I keep thinking about my mother, in her early 70s and otherwise quite compos mentis, who makes non-sequitur comments during movies–things like “I like that necklace she’s wearing” or “George Clooney never seems to age, does he?” They’re more baffling than annoying–I always wonder how much of the film content is getting through.
schippers:
I think you’re right about art-house rules–especially if everyone is there to see a film they expect to be riffable (of course, by definition, if more than three people in the audience have actually seen the film before, it ceases to be hipsterish, right?). And I was certainly one of the people dancing in the front rows during “Stop Making Sense” at the local rep cinema in 1984: and no one minded a bit (since half the theatre was doing the same thing). Otherwise, silence is golden. Yup, context is everything.
(Sarcasm mode on): Yeah, because people never talked over movies before MST3K.
This is the type of person that blames suicides on playing a record backwards or blames a murder on horror movies.
And here I thought Andy Rooney died last month…
One can also blame the theaters that have no ushers (remember them?) to either warn the offenders or give them the boot ASAP.
Go to Hell, Young!
(And kiss Satan’s butt on the way out, OK?)
I tried to look at that article on my phone and gave up after about 5 minutes. I’ll take everyone’s word for it that this guy is an idiot.
That guy just needs to stop going to the movies alltogether, like I did. I haven’t been to the movies in 20 years and don’t miss it at all, and have seen all the movies i have wanted to see. Besides,as much as it costs to go to the movies, you could by the DVD three times over.
This is great publicity! He has no idea how much this rant helps the show’s popularity :)
For the record, people calling me an asshole are assholes.
I’m not an asshole, promise.
I’ll take “Angry Mobs” for 500, Alex.
Oh, this could get interesting.
I didn’t know that we could say ‘asshole’ on this website. Neat.
And seriously guys, lets stop calling Bryan Young an asshole. Unless you’ve personally been insulted by the guy, had him cut in line in front of you at the Olive Garden, or push your kid down in the snow, then you’ve really no right to call him an asshole. Lets chill.
Now, I agree, his usage of MST in a disparaging light in his article headline is uncalled for, a slightly cheap attention grab, and factually erroneous, but you know, dude’s got a point about people talking in theaters and/or using phones. That stuff sucks, and should be publicly outcried against.
People talking in theaters, using their cell phones, and not paying attention to the movie has NOTHING TO DO WITH MST3k. It’s people just being rude (being assholes, if you will) and too self obsessed to actually care what others think of what they’re doing. I always find it humorous that MST could be linked to such behavior (I’ve run into this comparison before), as if MST is even remotely popular enough to have that sort of cultural impact.
As far as people talking back to the movie, making little jokes during a film, well that existed well before the days of MST, stretching back to the drive-ins and the grindhouses of 42nd Street and probably beyond that even. In some modern situations, a brew-n-view for example, that sort of behavior would be welcome and not out of the ordinary. Someone above nailed it with the word: context!
Let me share this:
I spent a week in Olympia, WA at the 28th Olympia Film Festival. Saw 26 films in 7 days, it was rad. As a yearly part of the fest, they have an all night horror film fest called ALL FREAKIN’ NIGHT that runs from midnight to 10am, 5 movies played back to back, vintage trailers run between. It’s a great time, pretty intense viewing experience. Actually, this year the second film was SQUIRM and it was pretty cool to see it on the big screen. I shouted out a “Mr. Beardsly?” or two. . . . . . . .because that’s what the crowd does at All Freakin’ Night. They are a rowdy bunch, yelling at the screen, talking back, making jokes, generally just enjoying the hell out of themselves watching weird, gore-y, freaky, goofy movies. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a helluva experience. And it’s all about CONTEXT. In a theater with a bunch of freaks like that, it’s okay to yell out “BANNISTER!” every time there is a railing on screen (why they do this, I don’t know; it’s like a callback that exists within the All Freakin Night collective).
So in summation: It’s all about context. And it’s never cool to be an asshole. Thank you.
Bryan’s mistake was suggesting that MST3K has ANYTHING to do with rude people ruining the experience of watching a movie in public. I think it it was 11 years ago (when The Exorcist was re-released to theaters) there were maybe 4 or 5 people there in that theater and two of them were teenage girls babbling about fluff and laughing when they shouldn’t have been. I’d bet money that those girls had never heard of MST3K and even right now still don’t know what it is.
Considering that the show got canceled twelve years ago and reruns haven’t aired on TV in seven years, I think he could have picked a better title for his article than “MST3K Must Die”.
Yeah, that particular phrasing of the headline was a BAD idea.
Ok, in my defense I’d like to point out two things:
1) I don’t pick the headlines.
2) I write the geek culture column and my editors wanted a geek reference for pop culture before letting me write the article. I love MST3K, and if you go down 3/4s of the way down the article it says, “Now, we won’t blame MST3K for all of the rude behavior we see in movie theaters these days. The blame obviously lies with the people who think their tiny little lives are more important than all of the other customers—paying or otherwise—who are there to enjoy the entertainment.”
But the editors picked the headlines and asked me to write it so it would get attention. Clearly that worked.
My apologies if it offended anyone. I love MST3K.
Watch-out-for-snakes:
I thought the preferred term among MSTies was “dickweed.” Not that it applies here to Mr Young (maybe his editors?).
I agree with your sentiments completely. I suggest we put our torches and pitchforks away now.
“But there is a more sinister side effect of this phenomenon that we’ve witnessed over the last 20 years since the show’s inception.”
Sinister? Oh, good grief…
A few good points in the article, and a good topic for an Andy-Rooney freestyle competition. It’s just plain rude in a good movie. If you’re watching a horror movie with a black crowd, however, you’re in for some fun; be prepared to chime in and talk or shout back at the screen; it’s expected. i wonder who would be available to do an urban MST3k? there’s money to be made. . .
Fred, you’re such a racist to say that about Black people! What you think we are all apes yelling, screaming at a movie, trash talkin at the screen like sum uncivilized trash?!?!? You don’t think we can be civilized like you white people?!?! Damnnnn :no: :no: :no:
white people? I think the correct term is “HONKIES”. :)
When I was 12 me and dad went to the ice cream man’s wagon. It was a old black fella selling the ice creams. Dad said “Two Honkies..” (he meant fudge bars or something, I don’t know) The old guy just smiled and handed them over. For the years of laughter telling that story he should have given us freebies.
#40 – radioman970: I got a story like that. Back in college, about 7 years ago-ish, I was working at this local grocery store, in the deli/meat counter area. These two ladies (of the African American persuasion) walked up and were all, “Where’s ya’lls crackers at?” and without missing a beat my co-worker replied, “We’re all back here working.” Uproarious laughter on both sides of the counter, everyone enjoyed that one. I’m sure those ladies tell that story all the time; I know I do. And don’t worry, we made sure they found their Saltines.
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(this comments thread has taken a weird turn)
Lay off the columnist, boys. Can’t you see he’s just a patsy following orders like so many others before him? If he didn’t mention the show someone else would’ve done the job for him. If we really have this passion let’s take it up with his managers and tell them to increase his salary if he stops writing bad things about puppet shows.
Once, in the late 90s, I was ‘shushed’ by group of cantankerous movie-goers for the ghastly sin of laughing aloud at a film. That group of miserable donkeys proceeded to yell & curse at me in the parking lot after the show as I drove away. So what film was was so sacred as to not be laughed at?
It was an art-house screening of Reptilicus, and I’ve never viewed the movie-going public the same since.
@41 I told ma about what dad did and she nearly died laughing. She told that story to everybody. I’ll tell her about your story and remind her about mine, I’ll betshe forgot. :)
U gotta be kidding?! This guys a freaking joke! Im a huge fan but when i went to there theater shows NO ONE TALKS i think us misty fans know better god stupid butt faces!
As a Salt Lake resident, I have to admit I avoid Brewvies for this very reason. But people have been talking in movie theaters since movies began, it’s a fact.
“There is nothing you can say that is more important than anything you will learn watching a show like The Walking Dead…”
…really?
And wasn’t MST3K inspired by the phenomenon of people talking to their media, not the other way around?
I can hear many of you asking, “What would Kevin Murphy say about this?” And, as luck would have it, here’s a bit from his Foreword to “In the Peanut Gallery With Mystery Science Theater 3000” (Ed. Robert G Weiner and Shelley Barba. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011, 1-2):
“Now you can argue all day with me about the Sanctity of the Artist and His [W]ork, about the audience’s role in the experience, which is–what, to to sit there, shut up, and take it? What if the Artist and His Work roundly suck? I mean, just plain awful? What then? Why are we compelled to just sit there, shut up, and just take it?….What makes movies so special other than the fact that you paid upwards of ten bucks to see what’s essentially animation with half-human-half-digi actors chasing each other in digi-cars or sucking face with digi-vampires? I mean, what the Hell, half the people there don’t care and the other half are tweeting.”
Now you know.
I remember this time I was on a first date and two guys behind us were yelling at the screen, kicking the seats, being all around jerks. My date asked if we should move, which my instincts told me to do, but instead I chose to turn around and yell back at them to knock it off or we were gonna step outside and I’d show them what it’s like. They stopped immediately. It impressed my date so much she invited me up to her apartment, I’ll let you speculate on what happened after that.
He starts off with “MST3K must die,” opens with “Mystery Science Theatre 3000 might have been the worst thing that ever happened to the movie-going experience,” THEN says “Now, we won’t blame MST3K for all of the rude behavior we see in movie theaters these days.”
What, is this guy trying to get a job with MSNBC ?????
I have been to the live shows and the “Rifftrax Live” at my local theater. The audiences have never been anything but considerate.
(Sorry kathy #6)
Movie theater etiquette has declined ever sense they stopped having ushers. Theater owners seem more incline to bow to the talkers than to the patrons who are being polite.
Either way, MST3K has had nothing to do with the rise in rude behavior.
And I’d love for Bryan to list a few of the “inappropriate comments [Joel, Mike and the Bots ever made] from their theater chairs.”
That was the point of the show.
Unbelievable what passes for “journalism” these days.