Friday Fight: Will Twitflix Ruin The Already Bad Experience Of Moviegoing?
Even though Lindsay and Gabe are friends, they very rarely agree on anything. Every day, they have a fight about something. On Fridays, we publish one.
lindsay: Do you think Twittering during movies should become a big thing?
gabe: what?
lindsay: Well last night Aziz Ansari and a bunch of other comedians went to a screening of Crank 2 and live twittered it for something called #twitflix
gabe: right
gabe: i read all about it on harry knowles twitter
lindsay: and there's this debate
gabe: because i read harry knowles's twitter
gabe: because i hate myself
lindsay: it seems like this could become a "Thing"
lindsay: like, a big thing that people do
lindsay: that simultaneously saves and destroys movies
gabe: saves movies?
gabe: what's wrong with movies?
gabe: is there something happening to movies that i don't know about?
lindsay: All I know is, I had ZERO interest in seeing Crank 2
lindsay: but now that I've read the #twitflix twitters, I want to buy a ticket for it.
lindsay: with my money
gabe: to be fair, if aziz and paul scheer and rob huebel twittered about drinking battery acid
gabe: you would porbably at least look into it
gabe: such is your devotion
gabe: to the giants
lindsay: hahaha
gabe: i feel like you're actually asking two questions but pretending like it's one question
lindsay: I can't really make my mind up about this
gabe: because "do you think twittering is good in movies" is different from
lindsay: I want smart funny people to twitter in movies
lindsay: but I don't want every idiot to
lindsay: the principle of universality is the problem
gabe: "do you think organized events where people twitter from teh back of the theater as a joke in movies"
gabe: "is good"
gabe: those are really different scenarios
lindsay: Oh, I think everyone but Harry Knowles thinks that's okay
gabe: i also think that you have taken a pretty sharp elitist turn about who should get to twitter
gabe: right off the bat
lindsay: yes, I have indeed
lindsay: I have to say it does really bother me when people text in movies
gabe: duh
lindsay: maybe there should be special screenings
lindsay: texting allowed screenings
lindsay: like the smoking section of restaurants
gabe: well that's never going to happen
gabe: when people can just text freely whenever they want already
gabe: whether it annoys you or not
lindsay: WHO KNOWS WHAT CAN HAPPEN?
lindsay: in this weird kutcher vs CNN, teabagging on TV week
lindsay: it seems like anything can happen
gabe: the real problem with criticizing this is that going to the movies has been pretty miserable for awhile now
gabe: in harry knowles's twitter war with aziz
gabe: he complained that it ruined the sanctity of the theater going experience
gabe: as if people shouting at the screen and kicking your seat and using their phone wasn't already ruining the sanctity of the theater going experience
gabe: when i went to see the dark knight, there was someone sitting next to us LISTENING TO HER IPOD
gabe: the whole movie
gabe: opening weekend
gabe: loudly
gabe: it's like people complaining about the sanctity of marriage in the age of Mama's Boys and Joe MIllionaire and whatever
lindsay: hahahahaa
gabe: and yes, comparing twittering in the movies to the marriage debate
gabe: is a perfect comparison
lindsay: I think the worry is that it will become a huge thing
lindsay: in all movies
lindsay: like, Crank 2 is one thing
lindsay: but what if a twitflix group descended on Revolutionary Road or something?
gabe: OH NO! NOT REVOLUTIONARY ROAD!
gabe: no offense to human giant
gabe: but i think that's giving them too much credit
gabe: if it becomes a big thing, it won't be because human giant organized a funny event
lindsay: hahaaha, no, I don't mean them
lindsay: I just mean as a sign of the times
lindsay: the way things are going
gabe: but things are already going that way
lindsay: I can see the studios encouraging it
gabe: it's done
gabe: the movement in that direction is complete
gabe: we are in full constant-communication mode
gabe: if people haven't been twittering like crazy in the movies
gabe: it's because a lot of people still don't know what twitter is
gabe: and don't have it installed on their iphones
gabe: because they don't have iphones
lindsay: right
gabe: new york makes you think that a lot more people have iphones than they actually do
lindsay: I don't have one!
gabe: well, you have a blackberry
gabe: so let's not play the populist card
lindsay: hahaha
gabe: Lindsay Kutcher, everywoman
lindsay: but I don't call it a "crackberry"
lindsay: Do we actually disagree on any aspect of this?
gabe: i think the most important way that we disagree on this is that my opinion of crank 2 has not changed at all
lindsay: hahaha
gabe: i think that this twitflix thing
gabe: is really just a lightning rod for everyone's anger
gabe: about how much it sucks to go to the movies these days
gabe: even though that's independent of this event
lindsay: yeah
lindsay: I like how harry knowles kept saying "movies are about escaping your life"
lindsay: I don't really want to escape my life into crank 2.
gabe: well, he also argued that if even one person's viewing experience of crank 2 was affected
gabe: not even ruined, just affected
gabe: by someone twittering, then everyone who took part was, and i quote, "damned"
gabe: which, i mean, i get it
gabe: everyone deserves a non-annoying viewing experience if they're paying to go to the movies
gabe: but also RELAX
gabe: relax, Harry Knowles
lindsay: hahahahaha
lindsay: the Twitter Blacklist
lindsay: of '09
lindsay: the Twitter Hearings
lindsay: Are you now or have you ever been a movie twitterer?
gabe: no
gabe: i turn my phone off during moies
gabe: like a gentleman
gabe: i don't even like twittering normally
gabe: much less when i'm in the middle of soemthing that cost 12 dollars
gabe: that being said, i also don't like kicking people's chairs or yelling shit
gabe: so i'm obviously in the minority when it comes to what people like and don't like when they're at the movies
lindsay: aziz ansari should get harry knowle's number and call him during screenings
lindsay: to see if he turned his phone off
gabe: hahah
gabe: everyone should get harry knowles's number
gabe: and call him to ask him to turn his blog off
Posted by Lindsay at 5:45 PM in Friday Fight
Tags: Human Giant | Twitflix | Twitter
The real question is, is Human Giant funny without that black kid from Role Models in sketches? The answer is no.
Score = -3
This Friday Fight made me hate humanity and myself.
Thanks.
Score = 11
i can do a good stewie impresshun LOL ah fat man i despies you, lois you vyle wemon i curse you. LOL i tink it s about time to watch some famiku\\ly guy
Score = 1
wut kinez of cakes do u liek 2 eet?
Score = 12
he likes the cake i tell him to like
Score = -4
Movie theaters and playhouses really need to install cellphone blockers. Just let them not affect the lobby and the hallways and the theater experience is much improved.
Also, we need bouncers to get rid of unruly audience members...and baby smotherers... you know, for crying babies.
There, I just made going to the movies awesome again. Get on it, theater owners.
Score = 14
I am almost 110% sure that there is nothing about Twitter that doesn't make the modern world more obnoxious.
Score = 31
I think this sums it up nicely
Score = 2
Scott Aukerman was all over this and he didn't get one mention?!? Taint misbehavin, y'all.
Score = 0
Serves him right. That's what he gets for having helped write "Shark Tale".
Score = 4
dude I totally invented this back in the videogum movie club thread. copyright infringement, new york elites
Score = 2
There is nothing more annoying that someone fuckin with their phone during a movie. Seriously, I cannot count how many times I have come so close to smashing dicks in.
Also, can someone explain to me what the hell is the deal with twitter? Really? I can write 140 characters about what I'm doing? WHAT?! Why the fuck is that a thing? Are we that bored? Jesus. Can we like, you know, fuckin land on the moon or something to make me feel badass about people again? Or will we just lower the character limit to 100?
Fuckin amateur hour nowadays.
Score = 0
I....agree with you....?!
Score = 8
You used Jesus' name in vain.
Score = 6
Thanks for pointing that out, man. Shit. I apologize everyone. Sometimes it just get's out of hand, you know? Glad there's people out there like you "briewer" to hold me accountable and keep me in line. Thanks pal.
Score = -2
there is nothing in here to disagree with.
Score = 0
Someone needs to shut Twitter down.
Score = 6
Or in the words of Gabe, "Burn it to the ground."
Score = 7
Twitflixing is like the retarded man's MST3K or Rifftrax. Theaters should offer cell phone blocking during certain showings, most definitely.
Score = 3
yes, and just like with mst3k, some love it, others not so much-- the main difference being, of course that i tuned in to watch mst3k voluntarily, instead of having a planned public outing ruined by pure chance. yet another reason to watch movies online.
Score = 2
Oh man, I WISH someone tweeted Revolutionary Road.
Gabe, I nominate it for the worst movie of all time. I know you'd have a blast writing about Oscar-fellating bullshit.
Score = 2
Why can't people just watch movies together in a group and then talk about it, like, in their house or something?
Score = 5
I stopped reading six lines in and I still want to shoot myself in the face.
Score = 0
i cant say that i understand what the appeal is in twitter, but im sure it just has to do with how its 1. new(see xanga>myspace>facebook timeline) 2. viral marketing 3. celebrites use it(aka america is stupid and is obsessed with people we will ever actually know)
Score = 1
Movie twittering? Where I have I heard of this phenomenon before?
Oh, yeah. Mystery Science Theater. How original.
But the real reason movie twittering is lame is because instead of shouting at the
screen with wild abandon, you must painstakingly type your comments on a tiny
keypad and then submit them at a moment at which they are no longer relevant anyway. How tedious.
Because that' what corny movies are here for. Shouting at the screen.
Score = -1