matthewh806

It was just a person, on the internet making a 4 word reference to a famous movie... I don't know why you're intent on endlessly attacking the "lack of insight" from the poster.

Have you seen the Jerk? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jerk

Yeah, but it seems like you're trying to have it both ways. On the one hand you're arguing that the insights into society can be absolute garbage and on the other implying (or suggesting) that Brazil doesn't necessarily fall into this category.

So what is it then? Brazil does make interesting points about encroaching bureaucracy (and therefore the parents post is justified)? I think you took the point about Brazil a bit too literally, the poster was never suggesting that the world is suddenly exactly that way, more highlighting the parallels. I think you need to allow yourself to suspend disbelief a little more and realise the very deliberate allegorical nature of these movies...

I mean, judging by the greyed out appearance of all your posts on this topic I would say it seems you're in the minority with this kind of opinion.

So why are you criticising someone highlighting annoyance of encroaching bureaucracy referencing a work of fiction that deals with this "shared part of human experience" in a "simple way"?

No one is saying its a 1:1 guide to reality, but as a nightmare vision of a dystopia gripped by unnecessary administrative apparatus, silly or not, it is a work of fiction that takes its root from reality and then makes a farce of it.

There are reasons works like kafkaesque, orwellian, ballardian become part of the lexicon despite all dealing with fictional universes of their own making...

matthewh806on In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

Um... Yes, Brazil is fiction but the dystopia it portrays is rooted in extrapolations of the times in which it was made.

Its absolute nonsense to shoot someone down on the basis that they draw parallels to movies or other artforms. Especially if those works of fiction are intended as warnings / cautionary tales.

As it is i thought the parent comments comparison to Brazil was fairly apt in this situation...

Yes, unfortunately that seems to be the world we live in.

The parent poster is not advocating for profits over ethics - just pointing out the reality for companies like Apple etc

Yeah, you're right - I hadn't seen the shapes of stories video in quite a while, i was just taking the authors comment about it.

I think if you watch that Vonnegut video and come away with the conclusion that there are only "x" ways to tell the story then you've missed the point entirely, agreed with your post basically.

There is infinite space to explore within those 'story shapes' (like how we still get fresh + unique takes on the Heroes Journey for example) that it doesn't really matter

Yeah, as another comment mentioned I was specifically referring to the UK Office. I've seen the first couple of seasons of the US Office and so not enough to really comment on this particular scene being removed.

However, they are vastly different shows tonally and so I imagine a scene featuring black face would be handled very differently by the US version

https://screenrant.com/original-office-show-ricky-gervais-ca...

He's such an idiot

> "Now [The Office] would suffer because people would take things literally...This was a show about everything — it was about difference, it was about sex, race, all the things that people fear to even be discussed or talked about now, in case they say the wrong thing and they are cancelled...I think if this was put out now, some people have lost their sense of irony and context."

> “…They’re even more scared now because people don’t take an explanation for an answer, they just say, ‘Well, I don’t want to see it, so let’s ban it.’”

Obviously the Office isn't in the limelight anywhere near as much as it used to be, but I never hear people having a problem with its tone or style of comedy. A few other sitcoms have had scenes removed from streaming platforms / boxsets (Peep Show, Fawlty Towers etc). But the Office I've never really seen mentioned in a similar way. In fact it's still pretty much beloved by everyone and regularly polls amongst the best British sitcoms of all time.

So, how do you explain Ricky Gervais' ongoing presence in TV, standup & social media where he routinely says objectively worse stuff than ever appeared in the Office with no real damage done to his career?

His recent standup work has far more objectionable content in it than the Office ever did

Yawn, everyone always uses this film as a "prime" example. I don't even think it's true. This film (like Borat) was clearly satirical and the real targets of the jokes quite obvious...

I think a better example of movies which "wouldn't be allowed today" is probably something like the Hangover, which just mines outdated stereotypes & slurs for laughs. Just a sign of society moving on really (as much as Todd Phillips likes to cry about it, I feel his inability to adapt to the comedy landscape is really just a failure of the imagination). I thought the 21 / 22 Jump Street movie addressed this issue quite well it seems the shift took place sometime between the two releases

Shock horror, society has moved on in the 40 years since Airplane was made...

How do you even know it wouldn't be allowed? People love to spout this kind of stuff, but... have you even tried?

Edit: A very nice example I've come across is Ricky Gervais stating that the British Office couldn't be made today. I think he's being very disingenuous saying that because while out of context it could appear to have a lot of controversial jokes touching on taboo subjects, within the show it was always clear who the real target of the jokes was (same with Borat). Masterfully done and I believe (from what I've seen in terms of comedy recently) that kind of stuff would still fly at the BBC. There's even a documentary from a couple of decades back about the success of the office and a BBC producer admits even back then they had to reign in a few of the areas Gervais wanted to go in terms of race & disability (it was also mentioned that he is quite obsessed with these topics), so its all bullshit that people like him are shouting about "THESE DAYS...!".

In fact maybe he's right and the Office couldn't be made today. But that's primarily because Gervais isn't funny these days

Why would you choose Borat as the kind of comedy which "isn't allowed to be made today" when you know you're going to have to contrive a reason for the existence of a sequel which was near enough made today in a footnote...?

Most of the points express a disappointment with mainstream Hollywood movies, which if you don't broaden your horizons is eventually going to lead to disappointment for any cinephile.

"The sitcom-and-laugh-track era appears to be over, thank heavens" I would agree about the laugh-track era being over - but thats hardly a new development. I've been watching the Larry Sanders show from the early 90s which was a landmark show without a laughter track. But to say the era of the sitcom is over is nonsense? There are so many great recent ones.

The one thing I agree with is that scrolling through Amazon Prime / Netflix is a draining & dissatisfying experience

Otherwise, I don't know... I've been watching movies at varying frequencies for decades and I certainly don't feel I've come close to even really tapping the surface, don't feel like I can guess immediately where the director will take me & don't feel really constrained by Vonnegut's theory about there only being six types of story.

It doesn't make me mad in the slightest, I just think the guy sounds like an idiot and I find it funny to point this out.

Feel free to do the same to me if you wish.

Edit: On a more serious point i think its actually potentially damaging. Burnout should be recognised as a real problem in industries such as tech. And I don't believe the way to cure burnout is to immediately start jumping into things like:

"About 2 weeks ago I decided to make this a business. I formed an LLC, got an EIN, got Insurance, and built a website.

I started running google ads and I’ve had some good success in the short two weeks I’ve been doing this on weekends."

"So far I have sunk every penny I’ve made back into the business. I have bought a bunch of equipment."

"I’ll be taking on some short term gigs. If you want a decently competent React/C# developer to go through your backlog and fix some old bugs that no one else wants to tackle, well that’s my favorite type of work.

You can hire me for an hour, two hours, 60 hours, etc."

Of course this is just my opinion but i believe he should take some time to really have downtime and reflect, rather than immediately sinking all of his time / energy into a new venture... which once the honeymoon phase ends, hello burnout

Yes, but his first tweet also says "I’m also leaving the tech industry at the end of the month."

So, it's a bit contradictory?

Oh my God. I didn't notice that. Classic.

He also writes in his bio "I’m a father but I’m not like all up in your face about it." and then has a barf worthy banner image related to fatherhood and makes numerous comments to how "dad jokes" will still be routinely made.