Category: Entertainment

Man shaming in commercials

~ SA Otey

Why are so many companies choosing to throw men under the bus in television commercials? Not sure what the motivation is to make men seem like the lowest levels of animals and that they are worthless. There is probably more examples and more that needs to be said but here are just a few.

Panera Bread


Two males eating delivered sandwiches because they can’t even do that simple task? Or maybe it’s a passive-aggressive shot at women because they are not there to make them sandwiches?

Nationwide

A man can’t eat in his new kitchen? The women are cleaning up after him before he even gets a chance too. Some men like to clean, stop stereotyping, Nationwide.

Allstate


A man wants to do a home improvement project but the wife laughs at him is the most condescending way? Getting a bonus check for not using your insurance turns into a fat-shaming incident because she wanted a refund for his gym membership? Wow.

Nutrisystem
I’ve written about this before, but calling men fat pieces of garbage on the couch “so to speak” and stop shoving our holes full of pie might motivate some dieters, but abuse is no way to sell your product. Yes, I’ve tried Nutrisystem and you can do just as well by eating the cardboard it came in.

There are numerous other commercials for home improvement projects where the woman is humiliating the man in front of other people.

Disney’s Pirates Ride Controversy: A Closer Look

~ SA Otey

Remember when Disney had the “human trafficking” scene in the popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom? Yes, the ride that features pirates. Just look up what real pirates have done in the past. So if you really think about it, the whole ride should be shut down. This scene was removed and replaced with a lady pirate with red hair trying to move Rum to keep the men drunk. However, the war-mongering, torture, arson, thievery, drunkenness, and domestic violence toward men scenes will stay.

Please just leave the rides alone.

How to talk during a movie.

~ SA Otey
marketing man person communication
Louder for those in the front

It’s okay to laugh or cry, but how do you properly converse during a movie? Well, you don’t. When you go to a movie, you sit and enjoy the film and do not run your mouth. We are not paying to hear your commentary. If you don’t shut up during a film, you should probably wait until the DVD/Blu-ray/VHS/Laserdisc is released. There are people who are sitting near you that are on the edge of dumping a soda in your lap. Yes, I purchase the option for free refills.

The Benefits of Reserved Theater Seating

~ SA Otey
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Don’t reserve the seats outside the theater

Why does something get compared to sliced bread whenever it’s considered the best new thing? With a good knife, bread is easy to slice.  However, if I had to pick something as the best thing since sliced bread then I’m going to go with reserved theater seating. I’m so glad that my local theater has deployed this method of sitting.  Using your smartphone to pick the seat you want as soon as tickets go on sale is super convenient. It allows for dinner time beforehand without the pressure of waiting in a line that snakes out the door. It also allows you to skip the 20 minutes of previews that you’ve already seen on Youtube. During that time people have polished off their trough of popcorn so you can skip the part where it sounds like everyone around you is eating wicker furniture.

So what happens when you get to your seat and someone is perched there? It hasn’t happened yet, but in our age of entitlement and equality, it’s only a matter of time before someone complains that it’s not fair that you got the best seat in the house. You know,  because you planned ahead.

Why Star Wars’ May 4th Joke Has Lost Its Charm

~ SA Otey
Vader is annoyed

May ordinal number 4 be with you? Well, that doesn’t make sense. That’s because we live in a society where grammar no longer makes sense. I know it’s supposed to be a play on “May the force be with you” and it was cute when it first started. However, now that you see it posted for every Facebook friend you have, the luster is lost. I mean I guess if everything else can have a day, why not Star Wars? Why not release a Star Wars movie every year on May the 4th?

The Decline of TV Durability: A Look Back

~ SA Otey

Remember when you would visit your grandparents and they had the huge oak box with a TV in it? You go back to visit 20 years later and the same TV is still playing reruns of Andy Griffith. What happened to those quality-built TVs?

In 20 years I’ve owned a bunch of television sets. Every single one has failed me. You can’t get them repaired because replacing a button costs $500 and a new TV will cost you $550. So just toss it into the landfill and get some new tech.

I bought a $4,000 HDR UHDTV recently and it has been worth every penny of digital currency. If granny were still around, she would probably fuss. She would complain about me sticking my face so close to the screen to see those glorious pixels.

Man standing next to the wooden box that will eventually make his coffin.

How to turn Netflix autoplay previews on or off

~ SA Otey

Dear Netflix,

Thank you for providing us a way to turn off the automatic music and previews when we browse for shows. The auto preview usually flashes up the most gratuitous violence or critical plot points. I understand having the theme song or overture for the movie, but this made-up music is terrible. It gets even worse if you share the same music across different movie titles. Yes, I know there is a mute button, and I’m glad there is finally a way to stop the mini trailers.

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/2102

How to buy snacks at the movies

~ SA Otey

I wonder if those Pre-purchased snacks are worth the extra coin? Because recently at the movies I was getting a few overpriced snacks to finish during the previews. Because really, who waits on the movie to polish off a tub of popcorn.  Anyway, I try to pick the shortest line but it never works out for me. I spotted a line with 4 kids and I assumed they were with an adult. To my delight, I saw that each child had their own ziplock bag of money. What I thought was a one to one parent/child transaction now turned into four minor transactions. At this point, all the other lines had snaked into a j-shape near the ticket booth so there was no turning back now.

Oh, it gets better! None of these kids could do simple addition and subtraction so they didn’t know how much money to give the cashier. Thankfully the cashier was able to compute the calculations without the need of an abbicus. Listen, I’m all for teaching kids that paper and coin money exists to be earned and spent. However, movie theaters won’t pause the movie while kids spend a year’s worth of allowance on costly snacks. Parents, do us all a favor and teach that lesson somewhere else. Kids are useful to haul away the goodies but not to partake in the commerce exchange. Maybe I will try Atom next time.

Why Vinyl Records Are Popular Again

~ SA Otey

I think it’s hilarious that vinyl has become popular again. For the longest time, it was all the rage and the only thing that existed. Did you ever listen to a 78-speed record at 33 and a third, it was pretty amusing. Cassette tapes made music portable. CDs made it even easier to abuse other’s ears with your terrible music choices via your car loudspeakers. Now that we have music on our phones, you can carry a Bluetooth speaker. You can walk inside every building and play your horrible music on everyone’s eardrums.

I’m sure the people buying turntables and listening to vinyl are the same people who use typewriters at Starbucks. The next logical step is for people to install floppy drives into their computers and trade files via disk. USB is too mainstream.

Unforgettable Odors: The Worst Smells in Life

~ SA Otey
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This DQ Fountain smelled like puke

I’ve got a pretty sensitive nose and I’ve always smelled everything since I was a kid. I have no idea why but whenever I pick something up no matter what it is I smell it. The smell is also linked to memory somehow, so I guess that’s why I have a good memory.

Here are a few top choices for worst-smelling things

  • The back of my ear after I forget to wash there for a few days (take your index finger swab the length of the back of your ear and try it)
  • A blackhead is growing on your back, and you can’t reach it. You were unaware of it until your wife wanted to dig it out with a pair of tweezers.
  • A sippy cup of milk that has been under the seat for months until the stink escapes the one-way valve.
  • I used to own a toy called a Stink Blaster. It was fun to play with at work. I had to keep it in a zip lock bag in the garage.

Probably the worst thing I’ve ever smelled is when I got home from school one day. As soon as I got out of the car, the smell was overwhelming. It hit me like a sack of soiled diapers left out on the beach during the summer months. We finally tracked down the source. Apparently, there was a dead cow on the hillside and it was halfway decomposed and apparently exploded.