Do you use that to call your mother?
Lately I’ve been thinking about this clip from 1999, when Triumph the Insult Comic Dog roasted Star Wars fans waiting in line to see The Phantom Menace. It’s one of the funniest things committed to video.
Yes, it’s mean. Yes, it’s a certain style of comedy. But there’s something celebratory about it.
I loathe reminiscing about “pre-internet” times but this video gives you a glance into the last moment before fandom became a THING. It’s also funny to hear Star Wars fans being referred to as “nerds” and “virgins,” as if being a Star Wars fans is means for exclusion from society. I suppose the current sense of entitlement comes from a dark past where liking Star Wars was a sign of exclusion. We are also rewriting history to pretend that the prequels were worse than war crimes, but at the time, they were pretty darn popular.
So what has changed? Why is the Star Wars discourse so annoying?
I don’t even want to talk ABOUT Star Wars as a narrative film , because one, I haven’t seen the recent one, but I want to talk about how we talk about Star Wars. I have a hard time believing that there is this army of toxic fans that are ruining Star Wars. Yes, there are some on social media, but have we blown this up to create a media event, scrambling to talk about this legion of toxicity? Is it toxic, or are we just talking about the alleged toxicity? Does the reporting on toxic fandom actually make it so?
Regardless, Star Wars can no longer be a film. It could never be a narrative. JJ Abrams, sitting at his computer, could never write anything that is art. There’s lots of arguments that the film was simply fan service (side note, aren’t all major studio films fan service?) AND that the movie betrayed the fans. This thing, this cultural legacy of Star Wars has become a collective monster of mass media. It’s all fan fiction at this point.
Is Star Wars good? I DON’T EVEN KNOW ANYMORE. DOES ANYONE? Is it even “art” that can be judged on its own merits? Is the making and culture of the movie more important than the film? Is the real drama….ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CAMERA?
If you didn’t like the most recent film, I’d like to know, do you feel personally hurt? Do you feel betrayed (by JJ? The other fans?) I don’t understand liking something THAT MUCH. And this is coming from someone who is literally getting a degree in popular culture- so I am invested, but not invested too much in one thing. What does it mean to be personally devastated from a fictional character’s death (SPOILER, I MEAN I AM SURE SOMEONE DIES) that it actively affects your everyday life? Does it compel you to be ANGRY at Lucasfilm, JJ, whatever, Disney? Do you think films are transactional, where they should meet expectations? Should I judge people for being too invested in fictional worlds? [Too late, I am judging.]
I’m skipping the film in the theater not because it is bad (OR IS IT? WHO KNOWS) but because I cannot watch it as a film. I’ll wait for someone to combine all of Adam Driver’s scenes in one youtube clip, thank you very much.
Is this anyone’s fault? Is this the internet’s fault? Have we ruined art? I don’t know. I’m just begging someone to see Cats with me.