I just don't get why that's popular

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2007-12-17 02:48pm

OK, I've been thinking about this for awhile. When perusing the forum for any length of time you get to know what the forum considers good or gets very popular and when you compare it to what you like you're surprised so many people whose tastes and interests mirror your own find it so likeable/awesome.

For example, Transformers the movie. There are many people here who obviously really liked the movie. Many found it plain awesome, some putting it in their sigs or quote from it in other great movie threads, etc.

In my instance I found the movie awful and dull. The characters and the way the transformers were portrayed were so Bayish that to me it was like Pearl Harbor with transforming robots. Plot points telegraphed themselves from miles away and cheap tricks and hack writing only made it worse. The main villain was an absolute waste of build up and a let down.

But people here really seemed to have liked it. What am I missing here?

So what other trends, movies, tv shows, comics, hell - anything that this board generally finds popular and cool just puzzles you?

This is not a license to bash or tell people their stupid for liking x or z but more of a "What is it that I'm missing that people who are like me are getting out of this?"

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2007-12-17 02:53pm

24 Just never understood why its so popular.
Normal cider - Can't stand the stuff but everyone down her generally loves it, it being the regional speciality. Gimmie some Perry or real ale, heh.....

East fucking Enders or for that matter, any soaps whatsoever. They are the most brain numbing bollocks I have ever, ever seen. Yet millions enjoy it, so I dunno what I'm missing that appeals so much.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-12-17 02:58pm

I was completely baffled how the popularity of poker suddenly exploded out of nowhere a few years ago. Seriously, 2004-2006, it was freaking everywhere.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2007-12-17 03:05pm

I still have no idea why NASCAR "stock car racing" became so popular.

They all drive the same generic looking cars which have almost nothing to do with stock cars anymore and then they go round and round in a fucking oval. It can't be about the speed because then Indy car or Formula 1 would be popular here.

I'd at least be able to understand it if they were super tuning a car that I might eventually be able buy or doing something interesting technology wise but what little they do on that seems more like tweaking things than anything really interesting.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2007-12-17 03:06pm

24, gambling, Israel bashing, gay redheaded man-porn, obsesiveness over army equipment beyond a certain point (obviously, this is a relative thing, nukes are fun

), Board gaming (IT's fun. But seriosuly, more than 7 hours a game without breaks? every game?), B5, Buffy (Allright, so it has generic Vampires and semi-cute characters. Yeah, so?).
Up to recently, I also thought this of Cowboy Bebop and some other anime series, then I actually saw CB, and now I'm a massive fan

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2007-12-17 05:41pm

As for why I liked Transformers, despite the numerous flaws:

1) Nostalgia for my childhood. Yeah, the shows probably won't seem as cool if I go back and watch them now, but with the rose coloured glasses effect they were cool.

2) Characterization of Prime dead on. Cool designs. Very good CG.

3) Giant robots beating the shit out of each other. I have a weakness for certain things, like capital ship battles in space. Giant sentient warmachines kicking the shit out of each other is another one of those things.

Big Phil · Post by **Big Phil** » 2007-12-17 05:51pm

Tsyroc wrote:I still have no idea why NASCAR "stock car racing" became so popular.

They all drive the same generic looking cars which have almost nothing to do with stock cars anymore and then they go round and round in a fucking oval. It can't be about the speed because then Indy car or Formula 1 would be popular here.

I'd at least be able to understand it if they were super tuning a car that I might eventually be able buy or doing something interesting technology wise but what little they do on that seems more like tweaking things than anything really interesting.

1. Because fans can envision themselves as race car drivers, whereas they can't really envision themselves as pro football/basketball/baseball players.

2. Because NASCAR drivers are accessible and seem like they could be the guy next door (and in some cases they are), whereas F1 and Indycar drivers strike people as the rich jerks from high school who think they're better than everyone because their dad bought them a Lexus.

3. Because Dale Earnhardt Jr. is sooooo cute

Frankly, I don't get this one at all; I think he's halfway to troll myself.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-12-17 05:52pm

Stravo wrote:OK, I've been thinking about this for awhile. When perusing the forum for any length of time you get to know what the forum considers good or gets very popular and when you compare it to what you like you're surprised so many people whose tastes and interests mirror your own find it so likeable/awesome.

For example, Transformers the movie. There are many people here who obviously really liked the movie. Many found it plain awesome, some putting it in their sigs or quote from it in other great movie threads, etc.

In my instance I found the movie awful and dull. The characters and the way the transformers were portrayed were so Bayish that to me it was like Pearl Harbor with transforming robots. Plot points telegraphed themselves from miles away and cheap tricks and hack writing only made it worse. The main villain was an absolute waste of build up and a let down.

But people here really seemed to have liked it. What am I missing here?

The movie's appeal is based upon a medieval mythological archetype about a boy and his pet dragon. Bumblebee is the pet dragon. That's why it drags a bit near the end, even though the action goes over the top. You have to think of it as fantasy and boyhood wish fulfillment, not an action movie in the conventional sense.

Roger Ebert commented that he used three exclamation points when quoting Megatron, and that he'd probably never used three exclamation points before in his entire writing career. But, as he said, "Megatron is a three exclamation point kind of robot".

So what other trends, movies, tv shows, comics, hell - anything that this board generally finds popular and cool just puzzles you?

This is not a license to bash or tell people their stupid for liking x or z but more of a "What is it that I'm missing that people who are like me are getting out of this?"

I don't get anime. At all.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-12-17 05:57pm

Friends. I honestly can't understand how that fucking show lasted as long as it did. Then again I feel that way about most one-trick sitcoms.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2007-12-17 05:58pm

I was going to say anime as well, but Darth Wong stole my thunder!

Seriously, though. While I have run into the very occasional anime series/manga/whatever that I don't mind, for the most part I find the whole art style and common thematic elements unpleasing. I'm very aesthetically-minded, and the anime style just doesn't do it for me.

Vampiress_Miyu · Post by **Vampiress_Miyu** » 2007-12-17 06:16pm

I agree with General Zod, Friends always confused me.
Same with 24. My sister's a nut for that show and watches it religiously... I never really understood it.
Hmmm. Akira. I'm going to get mauled for this, but I tried watching it, and just could NOT get into it at all. And I'm a huge fan of anime myself.
Also... I never got into nBSG. I watched the first few episodes, but never really got into that either.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-12-17 06:23pm

The Smashing Pumpkins.

I never really liked them all that much to begin with, but now with ten years hindsight they sound just atrocious, even for mid-90s alt-rock, and I can't believe how they ever got such a huge fan following.

Schuyler Colfax · Post by **Schuyler Colfax** » 2007-12-17 06:27pm

Myspace.

Seriously

.

nickolay1 · Post by **nickolay1** » 2007-12-17 06:30pm

Alcohol, sports (particularly football).

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-12-17 06:34pm

Beer. I don't understand the appeal of beer. It has a bitter taste by design (that's what the hops are for), and I don't particularly like drinking bitter-tasting things.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2007-12-17 06:42pm

Anime. Why? Just...why? One need look no further than Lucky Star to know I am right.

ps The Doctor is not half human.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-12-17 06:57pm

Alcohol in general: I don't understand the appeal of drinking a liquid that turns you into a moron.

Nascar: Why does it even exist? My dad and the rest of my family like it, I personally can't even stand to hear it, it's so pointless.

24: This show is utterly incomprehensible to me, I see people on here who are typically more liberal than I am, and they're watching this neocon wank show.

Lord of the Rings: People keep telling me it's so God-Damned great, but I can't for the life of me see the appeal to it, and I'm a huge D&D fan.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2007-12-17 06:59pm

Anime Bashing-I just don't get the appeal. People can be fervorently against anime, note the ASS phenomenon that happened on this board, and it only gets worse from there. All this mountianous hostility towards something that i have never understood it. Anime is, when you boil it down to its core, just a broad artistic style of animation with many subvarients that came out of Japan and is used in a broad amount of fiction ranging from childrens edutainment to Hentai. If it was "i dislike this artistic style, it sucks in comparison to the style in Titan AE or Disney Style" i could understand it, but instead, anything with that style is to be ruthlessly bashed for no good reason. How did bashing anime for the sake of bashing anime get popular?

Zor

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2007-12-17 06:59pm

Facebook - wat?
Beer - Ugh, it makes me nauseous.
Tarantino's later works - in my opinion it all went downhill with Jackie Brown (are there people that like that movie? If so, I don't understand them either, though I can sort of see the appeal of Kill Bill)

Zim · Post by **Zim** » 2007-12-17 07:08pm

Darth Wong wrote:Beer. I don't understand the appeal of beer. It has a bitter taste by design (that's what the hops are for), and I don't particularly like drinking bitter-tasting things.

Well to be fair most light beers popular in America (don't know how it is in Europe) are pretty tasteless. I've also had some imported from China and Japan and it was like drinking Miller Light redux.

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2007-12-17 07:29pm

MMORPGs. They're expensive. Their gameplay is absurdly repetitive and dull. Their graphics are, by necessity, about three years behind the times. There's no real storyline. There's no opportunity to roleplay: because roleplay requires a small community dedicated to it and a large amount of outflow space for the tossers who aren't, any roleplaying that actually happens goes on in smaller online or non-computer games. The only thing that people seem to do to get satisfaction from MMORPGs is working to improve their personal abilities or the quality of their possessions. Which is what any sensible person should be doing in real life.

What is the point?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2007-12-17 07:32pm

I have to throw my hat in on the 24 bandwagon. I watched the 1st season. It petered out about half way through and the rest was just one ridiculous contrivance upon another to stretch the plot out. When his wife got amnesia I was just done with the contrivances. When Keifer (and don't get me wrong, I like the Jack Bauer character) says "This is the longest day of my life" or something to that effect I feel like replying "I know, I have to watch it."

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2007-12-17 07:35pm

Zor wrote:Anime Bashing-I just don't get the appeal. People can be fervorently against anime, note the ASS phenomenon that happened on this board, and it only gets worse from there. All this mountianous hostility towards something that i have never understood it. Anime is, when you boil it down to its core, just a broad artistic style of animation with many subvarients that came out of Japan and is used in a broad amount of fiction ranging from childrens edutainment to Hentai. If it was "i dislike this artistic style, it sucks in comparison to the style in Titan AE or Disney Style" i could understand it, but instead, anything with that style is to be ruthlessly bashed for no good reason. How did bashing anime for the sake of bashing anime get popular?

Zor

It's not anime bashing for the sake of anime bashing. It's bashing because it's mostly stupid. Mostly.

Listen, The STYLE is fine, it's the shit-ass weird fucking stories they're animating that's getting bashed. It's the anime nuts that want to make it all about "RAR DON'T cENSOR ME!1111onweone IT IS ART AND YUO DON GEDIT BECAUSE UR A IGNERNT CRETIN111"

If you took something like, say, Titan A.E. and anime-ized it, fine. (What I mean is if Titan A.E. didn't exist EXCEPT for in Anime, it'd still be a good story, just animated...you know...anime style.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2007-12-17 07:38pm

Chardok wrote:
It's not anime bashing for the sake of anime bashing. It's bashing because it's mostly stupid. Mostly.

Listen, The STYLE is fine, it's the shit-ass weird fucking stories they're animating that's getting bashed. It's the anime nuts that want to make it all about "RAR DON'T cENSOR ME!1111onweone IT IS ART AND YUO DON GEDIT BECAUSE UR A IGNERNT CRETIN111"

If you took something like, say, Titan A.E. and anime-ized it, fine. (What I mean is if Titan A.E. didn't exist EXCEPT for in Anime, it'd still be a good story, just animated...you know...anime style.

Not only that but I think part of it has to do with the fan base, some of them are so fucking over the top fanwhores that you can't not help but ridicule them out of sheer annoyance. Plus there's this creepy pedophile vibe in alot of anime that I can't get over.

Furlong · Post by **Furlong** » 2007-12-17 07:42pm

Rap: I just don't get the appeal of this. To my ears, it is noise with every fifth word understandable.

Halo: I'm not saying that it's a bad game, I loved it. I just don;t get why sp many people think it is so much better then other FPS.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I just don't get why that's popular

I just don't get why that's popular

Re: I just don't get why that's popular