{"id":1808,"date":"2009-09-14T11:38:27","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T11:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=1808"},"modified":"2009-09-14T11:38:27","modified_gmt":"2009-09-14T11:38:27","slug":"i_like_crap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2009\/09\/14\/i_like_crap\/","title":{"rendered":"I Like Crap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reading the Sunday funnies yesterday brought me to an important moment of self-realization.<\/p>\n<p>No, really.<\/p>\n<p>You see, <a href=\"http:\/\/comics.com\/get_fuzzy\/2009-09-13\/\">yesterday&#8217;s edition<\/a> of &#8220;Get Fuzzy&#8221; turned on a disparaging reference to the TV sitcom <i>Two and a Half Men<\/i>, a series that seems to be deeply loathed by a not-insignificant number of people. I like it, myself; it&#8217;s not remotely deep, but I find it is consistently laugh-out-loud funny, at least to my sensibilities, and I&#8217;m frankly baffled by the level of ire I often see directed at this amiable &#8212; if admittedly crass &#8212; little show.<\/p>\n<p>So I was thinking all of these things about <i>Two and a Half Men<\/i> and suddenly it struck me.<\/p>\n<p>OMG&#8230; I like crap.<\/p>\n<p>The things the sophisticates, connoisseurs, intellectuals, and hipsters generally decry as lowbrow, superficial, or &#8212; how I have come to loathe <i>this<\/i> word! &#8212; cheesy are often the things I most enjoy. And in turn the things that make them gush with enthusiasm and sweet, sticky joy tend to leave me, well, unimpressed. Consider the evidence:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>Two and a Half Men<\/i> makes me laugh. Critical darlings such as <i>Arrested Development<\/i> and <i>The Office<\/i> do not.<\/li>\n<li>I prefer the version of <i>Battlestar Galactica<\/i> that has a chimp in a robot-dog suit to the dark &#8216;n&#8217; gloomy version where the lead Cylon looks like a Vegas call girl.<\/li>\n<li>Most days, I&#8217;d rather listen to The Monkees than The Beatles. And I <i>never<\/i> want to listen to Pink Floyd.<\/li>\n<li>I think Bono is a pretentious twerp.<\/li>\n<li>So is Bob Dylan.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;d rather look at a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepinupfiles.com\/vargas1.html\">Vargas<\/a> than a Van Gogh.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;d rather read pulp than <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thomas_Pynchon\">Pynchon<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t think the hair-metal bands were all that bad compared to the shit that followed them.<\/li>\n<li>I actually liked the clothing, hairstyles, and general aesthetics of the Eighties. And those of the Seventies, too. At least those decades <i>had<\/i> an identifiable aesthetic.<\/li>\n<li>I think Benny Hill is funny. There, I&#8217;ve said it.<\/li>\n<li>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spaceagecity.com\/googie\/\">Googie<\/a> coffee shop is cooler than any design Frank Gehry has ever so much as winked at.<\/li>\n<li>I have never &#8220;read&#8221; Mark Hamill&#8217;s performance in <i>Star Wars<\/i> as &#8220;whiny,&#8221; at least not inappropriately or irritatingly so.<\/li>\n<li>I liked <i>Darkman<\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And now for the big one&#8230; get ready&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I think William Shatner is actually quite a good actor. When he puts his mind to it. Which admittedly isn&#8217;t often. But there have been moments&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And there you have it. Incontrovertible proof of my low standards. I&#8217;m sure there are other examples. Feel free to note any you can think of in the comments below. I can take it&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading the Sunday funnies yesterday brought me to an important moment of self-realization. No, really. You see, yesterday&#8217;s edition of &#8220;Get Fuzzy&#8221; turned on a disparaging reference to the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men, a series that seems to be deeply loathed by a not-insignificant number of people. I like it, myself; it&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,6,13,24,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-and-architecture","category-film-studies","category-general-ramblings","category-music-and-pop-culture","category-the-bookshelf","category-the-glass-teat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}