It seems that with the prevalence of streaming services and the decline of broadcast television that a cherished genre has faded away. I’m talking about the spoof film.
With broadcast television, most of us watched the same popular show at the same time. When the majority of films had cinematic premieres, the buzz around them sent us to the cinemas. We were all on the same page, an expression which sounds near-archaic but you get my meaning.
We can now watch what we wish when we wish. Personally, I discovered Game of Thrones about two years after the series finished. And of course, I may never get to see some popular movies or shows because I don’t subscribe to the services that have them in their libraries.
By seldom watching the same shows at the same time our media references are no longer uniform. How would it be marketable for a film producer to create a spoof movie when the majority of people would not even know what was being spoofed? Of course, it’s impossible so that genre has faded.
We’ll get over it; with the exception of classics like Young Frankenstein and Airplane, some of the spoofs were awful. But, more importantly we’ve lost a shared reference point that had the power to make us smile. A few weeks ago at volleyball, I muttered a completely appropriate and on-point reference to Seinfeld. One person got it, a man also in his 50s, and we both laughed, but we were the only two.
Given the vapidity of social media influencers and the fleeting celebrity of Youtubers, I wonder what younger people will talk about around the office water cooler on Monday morning. They will ever know a chuckle from a well-timed “Kiss my grits” (Alice) or a “Do or do not, there is no try” (The Empire Strikes Back)?
I’m pretty sure there aren’t many office water coolers left but you get my meaning.
