Mal: He calls back, you keep them occupied. Wash: What do I do, shadow puppets?

'The Message'


Boxed Set, Vol. II: "It's a Cookbook...A Cookbook!!"  

A topic for the discussion of Farscape, Smallville, and Due South. Beware possible invasions of Stargate, Highlander, or pretty much any other "genre" show that captures our fancy. Expect Adult Content and discussion of the Big Gay Sex.

Whitefont all unaired in the U.S. ep discussion, identifying it as such, and including the show and ep title in blackfont.

Blackfont is allowed after the show has aired on the east coast.

This is NOT a general TV discussion thread.


Vortex - Jul 18, 2005 9:10:14 am PDT #2128 of 10001
"Cry havoc and let slip the boobs of war!" -- Miracleman

Nutty, "Robinette"'s car in G vs E was an orange Volvo -- in fact, "Orange Volvo" was like the second episode where he related how he thought it gave him an advantage because the bad guys never suspected that such a cool guy would drive such a nerdly car.

sigh. such a good show. they really need to put it out on DVD


Betsy HP - Jul 18, 2005 9:21:24 am PDT #2129 of 10001
If I only had a brain...

This is me being Cranky McBitchypants.

It is 2005. It is NO LONGER FUNNY for a woman to insult a man by calling him a lady. In particular, "Ladies first" -- motions at guy -- is not funny. Even as performed by Claudia Black.

In other news, how many feminists does it take to screw in a lightbulb: THAT'S NOT FUNNY!


DavidS - Jul 18, 2005 9:27:12 am PDT #2130 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

It is NO LONGER FUNNY for a woman to insult a man by calling him a lady. In particular, "Ladies first" -- motions at guy -- is not funny. Even as performed by Claudia Black.

Really? It's such a military thing to do, I don't even think of it as humor.


Nutty - Jul 18, 2005 9:56:18 am PDT #2131 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

Sometimes the capacity of men amongst themselves to become hidebound in their gendered humor is staggering. Try hanging out in baseball fandom some time.

I agree it's not funny, and without any ironic contextualizing, it's an exceptionally irritating reflection of reality.

They didn't want to know what made him tick.

Which, considering they still didn't have any definitive is/is-not test at that point, was the kind of thinking that gets people into Iraq wars.

Do you expect that kind of complete objectivity in a Sunday Times magazine article, though?

Well, not objectivity, but putting something debatable into a piece, where the debatableness is not the point of the piece, tends to distract from the point of the piece, whatever that point is. There is entertaining digression, and then there is digressive argumentation, and the latter doesn't fold as seamlessly back into the main narrative as the former.

As you can see, because we've been discussing the digressive argument, rather than the piece's main thesis, this whole time.


Vortex - Jul 18, 2005 10:07:49 am PDT #2132 of 10001
"Cry havoc and let slip the boobs of war!" -- Miracleman

Really? It's such a military thing to do, I don't even think of it as humor.

that doesn't make it any less insulting.


§ ita § - Jul 18, 2005 10:09:59 am PDT #2133 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Is it insulting to us that she said it? Insulting to us that Daniel reacted? Insulting to us that we were supposed to laugh?

Vala teasing Daniel about things that I don't find funny -- par for the character's course, really. I don't think paternity questions are that funny either. I do think it was funny she was teasing him, though, effectively or not.


Betsy HP - Jul 18, 2005 10:25:30 am PDT #2134 of 10001
If I only had a brain...

Insulting to us that we were supposed to laugh?

That's the version I meant.

Character A ribbing Character B is much funnier if she's playing on either Character B's known faults or her own. Spike referring to Riley as Captain Cardboard. Wossname glancing at Vala and saying "You should try it some time." Those are funny on two levels: they're well-phrased and they're the truth.


§ ita § - Jul 18, 2005 10:28:43 am PDT #2135 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Was the "you may be the daddy" thing funny or insulting? Like mentioned above, I didn't register it as funny. Teasing, yes, but I didn't even realise it was supposed to be funny by itself.


Betsy HP - Jul 18, 2005 10:46:10 am PDT #2136 of 10001
If I only had a brain...

I thought "you *may* be the daddy" was supposed to be funny -- Vala's playing on the fact (I assume; didn't see the episode in question) that she's slept with Daniel. Although she then went on to imply that he's bad in bed, not generally a good technique for getting what you want from a guy.


§ ita § - Jul 18, 2005 10:47:59 am PDT #2137 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

My take on Vala was that she was a petty little poker. So the paternity, the sex skills slam, the gender questioning -- all in the same category of being an irritant to him. Never thought they were supposed to be funny to me.