Punch in the Face Meme

[dlgood]

Gakked from my Flist: Five fictional characters I'd like to punch in the face...

1. Brandon Walsh - There was something irritating and insufferable about any number of the 90210 characters. But for whatever reason, Brandon is the one I'd actually want to punch. Maybe it's Jason Priestly's hair. I'm not sure.


2. Dr. Sean McNamara - Pretty much every character on Nip/Tuck is a bastard. Christian is a giant dick. And Matt is a sociopath. But Sean's the one I most frequently want to smack. Probably because, watching the show, he's the character I expect something of and despite how f'ed up Troy is, Sean seems like the character that has no soul.


3. Alf - When I was a kid, I thought this show was really awesome. I've since caught re-runs and seen the commercials. And whoa boy do I wanna punch that stupid f@!$ing puppet.


4. Monroe Ficus - It's not like I have some hate on for the "Wacky Neighbor" character. Usually, I like these characters. But man, I never liked Monroe. Really, what the heck was that dude wearing that he made George Michael's Wham! outfits look ordinary. But in any case, for me, Too Close For Comfort would have been better with more Cosmic Cow and less Jim J. Bullock. Monroe!


5. Al Bundy - Al's crass and obnoxious, though he's pathetic and miserable way that makes him somewhat sympathetic despite it all. And I want to punch him. Really, it's not personal. It's just this - Ed O'Neill - as Al, makes this face that, as he's getting punched and he's going to just turn his head, wobble, and collapse into an unconscious heap. It's a tremendous bit of physical comedy. And if I have to punch him in the face to get it, well then so be it...

Comments

Re: Sean McNamara

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

So . . . you think Christian doesn't have this thought process? Or . . . that he's figuring, "Well, someone's going to get carved up regardless," and just doesn't give a shit when it happens

I think Christian is thinking about it, and I think he does care that someone else is probably going to get hurt regardless. Ultimately, I think his act comes down to this - he doesn't want to get confined. In a lot of ways, Christian acts more like a wounded animal than a man. But - I don't think Christian is actually amoral - he knows his actions are morally dubious... it's not that he doesn't care, so much as he's weighing things against each other and making decisions...

For some reason, it's always hilarious to me to hear people described as "tools."

It is pretty hilarious. I was trying to decide whether I thought Sean was a tool or a douche. I don't think there's a real definition there - you just have to go with your gut.

And Matt - man, time was, back in S1 that I thought that Matt was the only decent one of them... but then there was the whole incident where he and his buddy got high and drove over that girl, and Matt pretty much lost me forever.

Re: Sean McNamara

[carlyinrome.livejournal.com]

In a lot of ways, Christian acts more like a wounded animal than a man. But - I don't think Christian is actually amoral - he knows his actions are morally dubious... it's not that he doesn't care, so much as he's weighing things against each other and making decisions...

But it doesn't seem fair that we just discount someone from moral responsibility. I mean . . . how do you run a society like that? How often do you choose to let someone off the hook from a moral existence, and under what pressures? What is enough to say, "Okay, you had it really tought, you don't have to be moral anymore?" I mean, yes, Christian has been scarred, but he wasn't raised by wolves; he wears Armani for Christ's sake. And I realize that a lot of his Lothario, four-hundred-dollar-sunglasses tendencies are to offset the no, I'm not okay, somebody please save me side of him, but it's not fair to just completely excuse him from morality altogether. Is it? Can we do that? That's not the point of Christian, is it?

It is pretty hilarious. I was trying to decide whether I thought Sean was a tool or a douche. I don't think there's a real definition there - you just have to go with your gut.

haha. I'm just imagining you sitting there, wilting under this internal struggle. Classic.

And Matt - man, time was, back in S1 that I thought that Matt was the only decent one of them... but then there was the whole incident where he and his buddy got high and drove over that girl, and Matt pretty much lost me forever.

Yeah, Matt . . . I used to like Matt. Before . . . well, before his hair started to scare me, for one. Now he's just fucking creepy. I'm sorry, but he is; I almost flinch when I look at him. I'm really, really sorry for his friend though. Henry? Poor little guy. And that poor girl . . . everything he touches just turns black and withers. *shivers*

Turd Sandwich vs. Giant Douche

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

But it doesn't seem fair that we just discount someone from moral responsibility.

True - but what is it that he has control over, that he's morally responsible for? He "knows" the carver is free and going to hit someone again, and this is going to happen regardless of what he does. His action, morally repugnant as it may be, is also the one thing guaranteed to (1) free an innocent from jail and (2) get the cops to pursue the actual criminal who is victimizing actual people. How much of this is Christian's selfish desire to be free, his desire to show up Kit, and how much is a genuine concern about justice... I'm not sure. But I do think he's only mostly a monster, and not entirely one - and justice is a genuine part of it. Which is why it's even a point I'd debate instead of writing him off as a simple monster.

We can come to different value judgements, which is fine, because we all formulate values in our own way. Utilitarian, Kantian morality, Jewish ethics, and so on and so on... debating this stuff is a good way of probing and testing ourselves and refining our views, and in theory making us better at making value judgements in our own lives.

One of the many points of Christian is that he's such a dark mirror - particularly, his lack of scruple points in contrast to Sean's attempts and failures to be a paragon. There are any number of things that Christian has done to people that should be condemned and a strange number of cases where he would appear (to me anyway) to a better man than Sean. Sometimes, one wonders if the difference between the two is that Sean looks at what Christian does and sometimes thinks the difference is just that Christian has the balls to do what he doesn't. And this is sometimes both for good and for ill.

I suspect if I wanted to over think it, I could start pulling up many bad Buffy-Faith parallels...