What’s something you love
that everyone else
seems to hate?
Everyday on the Internet you’re likely to find an article somewhere where someone attempts to proclaim their cultural superiority by denouncing a popular work and explaining why the fact that they hate it makes them the only sane people in the universe.
I’m not a fan. In fact, I’ve had exactly these kind of posts pitched to me by other writers and in each instance I’ve kindly explained why I’m not interested. Each time I’ve suggested they write a post like this instead and they’ve never taken me up on it.
Personally, I can’t understand why people are so interested in focusing on the things they hate, but it definitely seems that such calls to action get a lot more comments and attention. I suppose I could turn this post into a perfect example of what I’m decrying and deride the popularity of these posts (especially around Christmastime where I’ll probably be confronted with 10 more articles on why Love Actually is the most evil movie ever made and how I’m a terrible simple-minding sheep-person for loving it), but instead I’m just going to put my money where my mouth is and write a list of things I love even though everyone else I know seems to think they’re the worst.
1) Marshmallow Bananas
I have a friend who used to work for a company that sold manufactured scents and flavours to food companies and she once explained to me that the artificial banana flavour found in candy and other processed foods wasn’t designed to taste like an actual banana, but instead to taste like something our brain associates with the colour yellow. As soon as she said this, I knew two things: She was right and I LOVE things that taste like the colour yellow. See also: Banana Runts and Green Apple Skittles.
2) Frank Stallone’s Debut Album
Everyone jokes and makes fun of Frank Stallone, largely because of how all his best known songs coincidentally appeared in several of his brother’s biggest 80s blockbusters. But actually listening to his work makes it just a little harder to smirk, because it can be just so damn catchy. While the fact that he often comes across as a slightly beefier Billy Joel isn’t necessarily to his credit, the inherent cheesiness of his work just makes it more fun for people who aren’t overcome by a bad case of the takes-things-way-too-seriouslies.
Steven Bochco’s infamous 1990 post-Hill Street Blues pre-NYPD Blue attempt at creating something TV had never seen before is largely regarded as one of the worst TV disasters of all time by everyone except me–the one guy who will defend it to his dying day. While it could often be absurd and not every number was a winner, sequences like the one above–in which a young drug-addicted mother sings goodbye to her baby before selling him to a couple on the street–show how it could also be transcendent in a way nothing before or after it has ever quite matched.
4) Social Media
Now it may seem weird to include this on a list of things people hate, considering how ubiquitous they have become in our lives, but most of the people I know who have taken the time to think about it (and who don’t merely accept it as a fact of life) seem to regard it as a net negative, which is how it’s most often portrayed in the media via TV shows like Selfie (which I like anyway) and Jason Reitman’s Men, Women and Children (which I haven’t seen). The fact that I feel that my life has improved significant through social media makes it difficult for me to take such criticisms seriously.
5) Any Announcement or Trailer By Any Studio For Any Film Being Made
I’m just happy that movies are still getting made and will be until they stop. Meanwhile the new norm is to endlessly criticize and freak out over every single pre-released detail we’re given. 1000 think pieces will appear as a result of a 3-second shot in a trailer to decry what a stupid or “problematic” decision has been made, but exactly that same amount will NOT be written once the film is released and it turns out that none of the concerns expressed were actually valid. I get excited when I hear news about a movie I’m interested in seeing, because it means a movie I’m interesting seeing is getting made and I believe enough in the creative process to give the filmmakers the freedom to succeed and fuck up–saving my freak out for the finishing product and not a 140 second commercial used to sell it.
So, that’s me. What’s something you love that other people seem to hate? And is it harder for you to think of examples for this question than you would if I had asked the opposite?
Dude, this question is right in my wheelhouse. I love TONS of things that nobody else does: for instance, I’ll see your marshmallow bananas and raise you those orange circus peanuts. And black licorice. And tonic water, which I like to drink chilled by itself sometimes instead of soda. And celery soda. And the movie “Electric Dreams.” The list goes on.
I LOVE banana-flavored Laffy Taffy, it’s my favorite Laffy Taffy, but I think most people prefer cherry and discard the banana. And I agree with the banana Runts. LOVE banana Runts!