Sidetracked
Jul. 24th, 2009 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amanda_loddenToday, I want to talk about assumptions.
I've encountered links to this video several times now. Probably, you have too. God knows it's been passed around a lot. But there's never really been any explanation of what it is, other than "it's funny, watch it". And the title doesn't really help-- "Vader Dances To Hammer You Can't Touch This D[the rest always gets cut off]". I'm left to either watch it to figure out what it is, or guess.
Previously, I'd opted to guess. I've been to science fiction conventions; random geeks dressed up as stormtroopers and sith lords is nothing new to me. If you've ever wandered into one of the dances at those conventions, you know that people tend to forget what they're wearing and just dance, and it's not uncommon to see Legolas dancing with Superman. Also, I've seen the sort of crap that Hollywood is passing off as funny, and I don't find it funny to watch others make fools of themselves. So every time I'd encountered this, I'd shrugged and said "I don't care to waste my time watching some poor geek dance poorly while wearing a costume."
I don't know what finally made me click on it this time. And that's when I realized how completely and utterly wrong I was in my assumptions.
It's not a single geek getting his groove on, it's a choreographed dance. And it's not done poorly; the moves are pretty good, especially for the song. And yes, it's funny. But the humor comes not from watching some poor schmuck who doesn't know he's pathetic but rather from the dichotomy of a serious character doing a not-at-all-serious dance. And from hip-hop stormtroopers. Especially from hip-hop stormtroopers.
I've encountered links to this video several times now. Probably, you have too. God knows it's been passed around a lot. But there's never really been any explanation of what it is, other than "it's funny, watch it". And the title doesn't really help-- "Vader Dances To Hammer You Can't Touch This D[the rest always gets cut off]". I'm left to either watch it to figure out what it is, or guess.
Previously, I'd opted to guess. I've been to science fiction conventions; random geeks dressed up as stormtroopers and sith lords is nothing new to me. If you've ever wandered into one of the dances at those conventions, you know that people tend to forget what they're wearing and just dance, and it's not uncommon to see Legolas dancing with Superman. Also, I've seen the sort of crap that Hollywood is passing off as funny, and I don't find it funny to watch others make fools of themselves. So every time I'd encountered this, I'd shrugged and said "I don't care to waste my time watching some poor geek dance poorly while wearing a costume."
I don't know what finally made me click on it this time. And that's when I realized how completely and utterly wrong I was in my assumptions.
It's not a single geek getting his groove on, it's a choreographed dance. And it's not done poorly; the moves are pretty good, especially for the song. And yes, it's funny. But the humor comes not from watching some poor schmuck who doesn't know he's pathetic but rather from the dichotomy of a serious character doing a not-at-all-serious dance. And from hip-hop stormtroopers. Especially from hip-hop stormtroopers.
