Recently, I was telling some older people about what a Rickroll was, and I mentioned why I thought Never Gonna Give You Up worked so well. Some of the reasons were that it was instantly recognizable in the first second of the song, that Rick Astley doesn’t look like you’d expect if you’d only heard the song, that he dances the whitest white guy dance ever, and that the song itself is actually a pretty good song.
My brother heard that and immediately strongly disagreed with me, saying that Never Gonna Give You Up is an objectively bad song, that everybody agrees, and that’s why they hate being Rickrolled.
It topped the charts in 25 countries when it first came out, but it’s a bad song? I guess that can happen, but I don’t think so in this case. What I think happened is that the song has been associated with a negative meme so prominently that some people judge it by that rather than on its own merits.
Anyways, my point is that I suspect that the Rickroll meme has influenced my brother so that he cannot enjoy a song that he’d otherwise like. I think there are parallels to the well-done steak thing. Sometimes, memes can ruin otherwise enjoyable experiences, even if they’re just jokes.
I think I broadly agree, that while the joke in isolation is inoffensive it’s been the frequency with which that joke is used in a context where it literally “yucks someone’s yum” that has characterized it so negatively for me. That’s a very interesting perspective, thank you!
Man I’ve had some disappointing steak. I’ve finished some crimes to steak and lied through my sore jaw about how good it was. I’ve had steak served so rare it was still cold in the middle. As if it had been cooked until barely warm on the outside, from frozen. Despite that establishment swearing it only ever serves fresh, never frozen anything.
I’ve never once had a steak so bad it made me not ever want steak again.
And on the other hand, I’ve had some very good steak, regardless of its doneness. I’ve had surprisingly good well-done steak, even though I generally order it medium. I’ve enjoyed quite rare steak, as well as raw beef (but not a steak). Each piece of meat, if prepared well according to the standards of that dish, was wonderful.
When people complain about other people’s preferences… Well, my experiences have simply not led me to a point where I think I’d want to do that.
Is it similar to the whole “Nickelback bad” thing? They’re generic commercial rock, bland and easy to listen to, but they’re not really bad. Their sings got played, placed in the charts and all. For many people “safe” and “easy to listen to” are desirable traits in music, and Nickelback caters to that market quite well.
But then some cunt started making jokes about how much he hated them (“they say rock music doesn’t make people violent, but listening to Nickelback makes me want to kill Nickelback”) and the jokes somehow took off and I eventually found myself hating a band I’d never actually listened to.
(I mean, the joke is funny. Tasteless, uncalled for but definitely funny.)
Recently, I was telling some older people about what a Rickroll was, and I mentioned why I thought Never Gonna Give You Up worked so well. Some of the reasons were that it was instantly recognizable in the first second of the song, that Rick Astley doesn’t look like you’d expect if you’d only heard the song, that he dances the whitest white guy dance ever, and that the song itself is actually a pretty good song.
My brother heard that and immediately strongly disagreed with me, saying that Never Gonna Give You Up is an objectively bad song, that everybody agrees, and that’s why they hate being Rickrolled.
It topped the charts in 25 countries when it first came out, but it’s a bad song? I guess that can happen, but I don’t think so in this case. What I think happened is that the song has been associated with a negative meme so prominently that some people judge it by that rather than on its own merits.
Anyways, my point is that I suspect that the Rickroll meme has influenced my brother so that he cannot enjoy a song that he’d otherwise like. I think there are parallels to the well-done steak thing. Sometimes, memes can ruin otherwise enjoyable experiences, even if they’re just jokes.
I think I broadly agree, that while the joke in isolation is inoffensive it’s been the frequency with which that joke is used in a context where it literally “yucks someone’s yum” that has characterized it so negatively for me. That’s a very interesting perspective, thank you!
Man I’ve had some disappointing steak. I’ve finished some crimes to steak and lied through my sore jaw about how good it was. I’ve had steak served so rare it was still cold in the middle. As if it had been cooked until barely warm on the outside, from frozen. Despite that establishment swearing it only ever serves fresh, never frozen anything.
I’ve never once had a steak so bad it made me not ever want steak again.
And on the other hand, I’ve had some very good steak, regardless of its doneness. I’ve had surprisingly good well-done steak, even though I generally order it medium. I’ve enjoyed quite rare steak, as well as raw beef (but not a steak). Each piece of meat, if prepared well according to the standards of that dish, was wonderful.
When people complain about other people’s preferences… Well, my experiences have simply not led me to a point where I think I’d want to do that.
Is it similar to the whole “Nickelback bad” thing? They’re generic commercial rock, bland and easy to listen to, but they’re not really bad. Their sings got played, placed in the charts and all. For many people “safe” and “easy to listen to” are desirable traits in music, and Nickelback caters to that market quite well.
But then some cunt started making jokes about how much he hated them (“they say rock music doesn’t make people violent, but listening to Nickelback makes me want to kill Nickelback”) and the jokes somehow took off and I eventually found myself hating a band I’d never actually listened to.
(I mean, the joke is funny. Tasteless, uncalled for but definitely funny.)
You’re right of course, but the difference is that done Steak is simply not a pleasurable experience as opposed to Never Gonna Give You Up