Glee

No, it's not because she's ugly. She's not ugly. She just looks like a man.

Yeah... I can totally see that◊

Edit: Oh I forgot already. ??

edited 26th May '10 2:19:34 AM by wellinever

Okay, so I am totally unfamiliar with Gaga. I just had a look at this◊ while looking up her real name, and it kind of struck me.

I'm not a huge Lady Gaga fan but from what I've heard she's inspired by the Glam Rock movement with people like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. Androgeny is kinda a big factor in the Glam sector. She's also a gay icon so she's probably playing up that element deliberately.

Edit: Also if your unfamiliar with Lady Gaga why d'you call her an embarresment to humanity?

edited 26th May '10 2:26:05 AM by wellinever

Lady Gaga just plays a character like Alice Cooper.

As someone who is a fan of Cooper and not of Gaga (bias laid out on the table) I have to vehemently disagree.

Cooper's showmanship is all about the show and the artwork. It's shock-rock splatter horror at it's best. It's a testament to both Cooper and his crew. It's very clearly something he does because he loves both music and horror. Outside of his life he, is a sweet man with children who teaches sunday school and is one of the nicest men in the world. Oh, and he plays golf.

Gaga, on the other hand also shows shomanship. Unlike Cooper, however, I'm not convinced it's out of a love for the art like Alice Cooper. What she does is much too carefully constructed, blending acts like Madonna and Britney Spears into something that seems avant garde, but not too much. It's all so prepackaged, with no substance as opposed to the b-movie love and the morality tales to Cooper's work. Gaga comes off as something that was mathematically calculated to sell and to her credit she succeeded. She's gone to the same work at being big that Cooper puts into actually being good. Not to mention that unlike Cooper, the mask never comes off. All you ever hear about her is how Cuh-RAZY she is and all the controversy she spreads and oh did we mention she's bisexual? Fuck's sake, she doesn't even seem like a goddamn person.

So yeah, not the biggest Gaga fan.

And no one's answered my question. Why is this show so popular among nerds?

^ The comparison is still valid even if Cooper (who I have to agree is wickedawesome) is the better showman. Alice's persona may have been a more natural progression as a result from his music and stage performance while Gaga is probably a deliberate media produced character. However that doesn't mean that Gaga and Copper aren't BOTH playing characters. It's like saying that Dan Brown and Emberto Eco aren't both writers. They are. One is just way better and does it for the love rather than the money.

edited 26th May '10 5:29:11 AM by wellinever

Okay, after last night, I totally hate Finn now.

I was well prepared to go to Monteith's house and say hi...With my shot gun.

...he looked cool in that shower curtain dress, though. Like some kind of camp superhero.

A lot of celebrities don't seem like goddamn people. A lot of people I interact with on a daily basis don't even seem like goddamn people.

Now that we've thoroughly discussed why inspiration behind the only part of the show I liked is an Eldritch Abomination, could we get back to my question?

Should I give the show another chance? Try to watch it from the beginning (which I don't think IC an because they don't have all episodes online)? I'm wondering if because I jumped into it in the middle of everything I might be taking for face value things that are actually stealth parodies or purposely ridiculous. Or maybe I'm just trying to hard to justify the obsession everyone around me has with this show? Since very few people I know love absurdism and the like as much as I do I'm sadly leaning towards the latter. Which would be a shame, because there's a lot of potential in the concept.

I'm going to watch what they have online until I get to the NPH episode (because NPH is a god), and then if that doesn't have me convinced that the melodramatic bad writing isn't somehow subversive, or that at he very least its worth it to sit through it for the music numbers, I'm giving it up.

edited 26th May '10 9:15:48 AM by Nonsensical Lyric

Dude they have the first half of the season on DVD.

Malkie, all I can say is that Gaga's live shows are as integral a part of her act as Cooper's. There's a helluva lot of stuff in those shows that is very real and genuine (and creepy) that just doesn't get seen anywhere else.

Anyhow, bloody hell I have a conflicted relationship with this show. I mean, I just want to be able to write it off as not being worth it overall.

Then they get fucking Menzel singing Poker Face.

AAAARGH! You bastards! How did you know combining my favourite musical with my favourite charting pop artist would weaken my resolve against your GODAWFUL WRITING so?

Never mind. Tomorrow is the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final. Just be strong and brave till then and you will get enough Camp over the following three days to last at least a month.

Yessss. Embrace the Worldof Ham Korgmeister. Embracccee it.

What is it with so many of the fans (or the ones who edit out page, at least) attempting to pick a character as the "villain" for a given subplot in an episode? Take the "fag" scene from the most recent episode, for example: for each of the three characters involved, there seems to be at least one person considers them to have done something disproportionately horrible to either Kurt or Finn. I don't know if it's just me (well, no, I know it's not just me, considering that at least one person has made an edit indicating otherwise), but part of what makes the non-singing bits work is that everyone is...human. While I sometimes quite often don't agree with what the characters do, I at least understand why they're doing it. I like trying to find the find the most/least sympathetic character in a given subplot and coming up with decent arguments for each involved character to be in either position. I dunno, it sorta me when people think we're "obviously" supposed to be rooting for/hating a particular character (who typically doesn't deserve it in that person's mind) when it never seems that clear to me. Then again, these are viewers who seem to be missing some of the Stealth Parody bits, so...

Another example of the Who's the Villain game is the Emma and Will subplot (which is in Glee's Just Bugs Me page). You guys, you're supposed to feel for both of them, even if you disagree with their actions. Why do we need to argue about who is more wrong?

Why do we need to argue about who is more wrong?

Fan Dumb? I actually see Shue as the wronger, but still not truly villanous.

Well, Shue did just decide to seduce Sue deliberately so he could break her heart. Which is... kind of Don Draper of him.

Well, Shue did just decide to seduce Sue deliberately so he could break her heart. Which is... kind of Don Draper of him.

I was talking about Emma/Will specifically, I honestly would prefer consider last episode discontinuity >_<

Wow, that last episode was...Kind of weird.

I liked the last episode. He broke Sue's trophy - that was actually kind of badass, no?

My coworkers and I pretty much unanimously disliked the last episode. Yes, we get together on Wednesday morning and go, "So, Glee: Carry on." We were very much agreed that some writer was trying to Jump the Shark - attempted character derailment with Will (the pot thing, seducing Sue to get back at her), creepy pedophilia subtext (oh hell, not even subtext) with Terry going googly-eyed over Finn, and nearly going into Badass Decay territory with Sue. This one was not pleased! Though I've come to understand that at least two of the show's primary writers aren't even interested in character development so much as using given characters per episode to work out their wacky plots. It is kind of a brain twister, the way characters can change episode by episode on a whim. Hell, sometimes I LIKE that.

Anyway, there's always a silver lining! I really loved the Beck cover. Could listen to Mark Salinger's vocals forever and an age.

What creepy subtext? Terry heard Finn, and momentarily fancied it was Shue. When she realised it was Finn, she was visibly phased. Even if there was subtext, Finn is a high-schooler, and it's not remotely pedophilia subtext.

Hell, it's been mentioned that Puck had sex with someone's mom once.

Considering it is largely a comedy, they'd definitely be playing with little plots just to fill up an episode. That's not bad; that's just television. And who are we?

Was anyone else confused by the scene in "Funk" in which Quinn apologised to Mercedes after singing? I'm not exactly sure whether she was apologising for singing a "funk" song (which seems unnecessary; there's no rule saying Mercedes is the only one allowed to sing that genre) or for making assumptions about how it feels to be a minority (which may be a valid issue, but doesn't really have anything to do with her performance). It kind of seems like she was conflating the two, implying that by performing the song, she was pretending to be a minority. Is this another bit of [1], or was the "white people aren't allowed to sing funk" message supposed to be genuine? The same episode showed Finn and Puck rapping in their number with Mercedes. Why was Mercedes so upset at Quinn's performance, and why did Quinn feel the need to apologise? Anyone have an opinion?

Actually, I think that when she said 'I'm so sorry' she was more empathising with Mercedez than apologising.

Tearjerker Scene of The Year: To Sir With Love. That is all.