Lowered Expectations
{Play the theme music from the vintage Mad TV skit for full effect…}
I want to watch the movie, Up. Since I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews since it released this past summer, it’s inevitable that I’ll come away with some level of disappointment given the expectations it now has to live up to. The same thing has happened to Tropic Thunder, I Love You Man, and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants…I mean, what? Given the targeted demographic for The Hangover, I can only imagine what kind of let-down the patrons felt if they had to watched it anytime after its opening weekend. It just happens. Regardless of how great the story/movie/stunts/jokes may really be, your endorsements will prevent it from living up to expectations.
Think about just how terrible this power would be if it applied to everyday life; you recommend anything to a friend for any reason–a tailor, tutor, caterer, hair cutter (?), stripper, beer, restaurant, deoderant–but they always managed to disappoint. Life would be humorously terrible. Social interactions would be limited to empty salutations since I’m pretty sure that 90% of our conversation topics revolve around a guess-what-I-did-no-way-that-sounds-sick-just-like-when-I-did-this model. Even the most cliche of small-talk topics, the weather, would be susceptible to these limitations. We’d be screwed! Not really, but I felt like being melodramatic.
I’m currently writing this from a plane, 35k or so feet up in the air, as I cruise from SF to NYC thanks to Google and Virgin America. Let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you’ve checked email, sent some IMs, wrote a blog, streamed Pandora while leaving it on mute, placed an online bet, AND updated your Facebook status message purely out of novelty/principle. It’s a feeling of freedom that can only be explained by experiencing it, so I highly recommend taking a flight on Virgin Airlines before January 15. Food will taste better and air will smell cleaner, the sun will be brighter, you will lose weight and befriend beautiful people, and your life will never be the same. Now, if there were more than 6 readers of this blog, I’d laugh because some readers may not know how sarcastic I am being…in which case I would have successfully ruined the internet-on-a-plane experience for them. Good thing my audience is limited to whomever I send the link to.
There’s some gnarly turbulence right now, I wish typing could show it as well as handwriting would.
Bringing it back to the old school ‘cuz I’m an old fool who’s so cool….