Outside of the In-Crowd – How quickly we turn
![]() Courtney Enlow |
We all need to have a little chat about what two-faced bastards we all are. And I’m not talking about the time you told me how pretty I looked the day I wasn’t wearing any makeup and had a huge zit that was basically a dead twin hanging off my face. No, I’m talking about how we all get when we say the following words: “That used to be good, but it sucks now.”
This is so prevalent that I couldn’t even make it a Things Assholes Like. No, my friends, this affliction plagues all of us, and not unlike forest fires, only we can stop it.
With this week’s release of Observe & Report, I’ve been hearing this a lot: “I’m getting pretty sick of Seth Rogen.” You tend to hear this more from your Superiors, the ones who two years ago probably gave this glowing review of Knocked Up, “You know, I hate to say it, but I actually kind of liked that movie.” I have a hard enough time with them during this stage, because I have nothing to offer them but confusion. What do you mean you “hate to say it”? What’s with the “actually”? It was a good movie. You don’t have to justify your enjoyment of a film just because those you look down upon also liked it. But it’s not just these people who are turning on our affable be-Jewfroed friend, because that’s not shocking, just your fairly standard pretension release. They have to do it every few months or so or they get blocked up and all bloated with negativity. I hear they make vitamins for that kind of thing.
It’s a weird human nature quirk – we love deeply and unconditionally, we wish good things upon someone, and then as soon as those good things start coming to fruition, we grow tired and that’s when it’s time to show the former object of our affections that they are worthless and we kind of hate them. This is why I prefer dogs to people, in no small part because I’ve also basically just described cats.
Seth Rogen is the latest victim of this phenomenon. He starts out in beloved and quickly-canned television shows, then gets his breakout role in 40 Year Old Virgin, then everyone becomes obsessed with him and clamors for more, then the studios grant the world’s wishes, then he becomes ubiquitous and the world decides that he should die alone in a pit somewhere.
Maybe it’s not that extreme. But give it time. Just ask one Lindsay Lohan.
I don’t mean to compare Seth Rogen, someone I enjoy a great deal, with Lindsay Lohan, someone whose self-destruction I’ve enjoyed a great deal in a schadenfreudey sense, but it’s fitting because it’s the only way I can understand the anti-Rogen brigade. This is our shared common ground.
I liked Lohan well enough in the remake of The Parent Trap. She was a pretty not-terrible child star. Then she did a couple assy movies that I can’t be bothered to Google for titles, and then she did Mean Girls. <digression> Anyone who thinks she was in any way integral to that movie’s success is a moron. That movie is completely made by Tina Fey and every single other cast member besides Our Ginger Lady of the White Powder. </digression> Then she did what all child stars do and discovered cocaine and scandal and more cocaine and couldn’t get hired anymore, and now she’s famous for dragging a defenseless lesbian DJ into her trainwreck of a lifestyle and is now on full meltdownwatch. And I’m part of the problem.
This is someone I enjoyed, someone I hoped would have a successful career. And then during her performance in the most famous and the only loved movie in her oeuvre, all I could think was, “You don’t deserve this.” I can’t say for certain what made me turn so quickly, though I’m mostly sure it has nothing to do with my documented ginger-phobia. Ever since my turn, I’ve eagerly read the gossip sites for her every fuckup, relishing each one and hoping for more. I don’t enjoy the misfortune of others on a regular basis, and one would think my die-hard defense of Britney Spears would preclude me from getting all joyed up by this, but it’s just kind of what’s happening. I turned on her, and I turned on her in a big bad way.
To generally lesser extents, we’ve all done this same thing. Take the TV show we all love until it becomes a top rated show on its network and then suddenly no one can stop talking about how it’s no longer any good and it peaked two seasons ago (I’ll give you one hint, its name rhymes with The Office, but I could just as easily be referring to most shows on TV except for Friday Night Lights or any other show no one else watches). Or the band who stops being an indie secret when its song is played during a Zach Braff movie and sorority girls like them so they’re suddenly not as good as they used to be.
Is this an example of the innate inability to love any one thing for longer than a few years, or is that just the recent viewing of High Fidelity talking? People, we all need to open our hearts and love harder. Only then can we see that Seth Rogen is still just as funny, The Office is just as good, the latest The Shins album is actually their best and maybe if we just be nice and lovingly ignore the crazy red-headed bag of freckles and bones on the cover of Us Weekly, she’ll just go away.
Love out of spite is still love. The more you know.
Courtney Enlow is a writer living in Chicago and working as a corporate shill to pay the bills. You can contact her at courtney@hobotrashcan.com.
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I agree with everything that you said today Court. I think that Seth Rogan is one of the funniest guys out there today. I loved 40 year old virgin, Superbad and Knocked Up. He is funny, usually irreverant in a likeable way and just an all around goofy guy you’d like to have for a neighbor kind of person. As far as Lindsay Lohan, as a parent I feel a little sorry for her but I’m sure that her parents were a big part of how she turned out. She has definitely brought everything down on herself and deserves what she’s getting. At least Britney Spears had obvious mental issues that aided her decline, but seems to be recovering nicely. As a country music fan I can say that I haven’t a clue who the Shins are so I defer to your wisdom on that matter. I do enjoy the Office though. Keep on championing the cause.
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I think it’s just a matter of good versus terrible projects. I think anyone who disavows a piece of entertainment on the basis of sheer mass is missing the damn point. Were there people in the 1930s saying “man, I used to love those Marx Brothers, but after the fifth amazing movie in two years, I can’t watch any more of their comic brilliance?” Well, there probably were, but I hate them retroactively.
I like “The Office” when it’s good. This season I’ve just drifted away from it, mostly because “30 Rock” is infinitely better and is all the awkward I can take on one Thursday. When I come back, it’s still decent, even if everybody and their brother is talking about it. Yes, I’ve soured on “Juno” because y’all didn’t shut up with the praise, but only because it was only good in the first place. The Shins still have one perfect album (“Chutes Too Narrow,” none of this “Oh, Inverted World” pretentious nonsense) no matter how many people buy copies of “Garden State.” Seth Rogen was in “Freaks and Geeks,” so he’s allowed to do whatever he wants as often as he wants until the sun goes nova.
What I’m trying to say in my long-winded manner is that it shouldn’t matter how many people like a thing, or how much of that thing there is. If the output is fantastic, then I’ll continue to get behind it. Even if the entire world finally wises up and starts watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (hint) or finds out about the musical genius that is Arthur Lewis (double hint) I’ll still love them if they maintain the same level of quality. That’s why Lohan is so friggdamn annoying: one good movie since “Mean Girls” (if you can consider her an integral part of “A Prairie Home Companion”) does not an endlessly-discussed career make. Why aren’t we talking about Lacey Chabert? Amanda Seyfried? Anyone? Bueller?
And when Outside of the In-Crowd becomes the most read article on the Interwebs (triple hint), I’ll reserve my right to point out that I liked it before all those other people.
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I don’t know about this opinion. Of course, Seth Rogan has never been funny too me, so opinions very.
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Ken, this is the internet. The correct response is always “your opinion is wrong.” Or better yet, “you’re opinion is wrong” for even more internetness.
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I believe the correct internet term would have been. “ur so wrong.”
have you heard a lot of people using the phrase, “I used to like Seth Rogan, but then he went all Will Ferrel.”?
This one I find particularly vexing, and because of it I fear for Paul Rudd. Could he be next?
thanks for this:)
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