Ask Lemmy

I remember really enjoying How I Met Your Mother when it was airing. I tried for a rewatch recently and only made it a few episodes in because I was so disinterested. It felt empty, and the humor wasn't hitting. I think it's a combination of I've changed (I've aged out of the "20-something singles fool around in a fantasy version of NYC" demographic) and TV has evolved (good comedy shows are no longer just goofy hijink situations and setups for one-liners).

So instead I rewatched Archer season one (same era as HIMYM) and fortunately that one still slaps.

Oh man. So many and so much. Most of the "comedy" from the 80s, 90s, early 2000s is unwatchable. Older movies are sometimes straight up disgusting. I think it's a sign for how we grow as a society to be more aware of the sexism, racism and other forms of disrespect that has been sold as comedy or just as "normal". I consume much more consciously and through a more meta lense. For reference: I'm turning 40 this year

There's just a lot of anti trans stereotypes in media that I tolerated before. It's a lot harder to turn a blind eye to it when people use the same misunderstandings to try and tell me I'm sick and confused and bad for just being myself these days

I quit smoking pot and no longer enjoy the Spin Doctors. Well, that's half true. I heard them straight one day and decided if that's the kind of thing I like when I'm high, I should quit.

I can no longer make it through a show with a laugh track. They just spoil the flow.

While they don’t always ruin the thing, so many old shows, movies, and music have a ton of blatant racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. sprinkled in that makes it less enjoyable. South Park’s Chef Aid album has a song that is a combo of Crystal Method, Ozzy, DMX, and I think Wu Tang called Nowhere to Run. It is pretty awesome, except for DMX inserting a few homophobic lines. That asshole ruined a great song!

Overall I notice mean jokes and cruel humor, which is still around to some extent but far less often without the person making the joke clearly an asshole. Stuff like Mel Brooks that included some humor about groups that were frequently mocked, but in a way that is mostly self aware parody, aged pretty well.

If I were to watch Dragon Ball Z now, I'd probably drop the series. I still remember it fondly, but it's too slow.

The first two seasons of the Pokémon anime aged well for me. Individual games, too. But the series as a whole felt from an "I know all 386!" to "...it's a Tentaquil".

Chrono Trigger went from "it's okay, it's fun" to "...I spent my whole life underrating it, didn't I?" So did Final Fantasy VI.

Same deal with Dostoyevsky. I guess you need some maturity to understand things.

Baudelaire, though? Hard pass.

I still love 1984 and Animal Farm, but I want to drown 90% of the muppets talking about them.

I can't stand Legião Urbana any more. Pink Floyd on the other hand aged well, so did Nenhum de Nós.

To be honest I was never too much into movies. There's one or another thing that I like (Modern Times, 8 1/2, The Shining), but it's mostly unchanged.

Gremlins, watching it as an adult I realized it is not suitable for young kids 😅

CBS laugh tracks are like nails on a blackboard to me now.

Watched Beetlejuice with the kids last night. Not as funny as I remember, and they weren't laughing either.

OTOH, we all thought The Lost Boys was still pretty cool.

Blazing Saddles next?

gilmore girls

after a few re-watches i realized what a terrible person lorelai is, making it hard to watch

I watched tons of anime. Now everything feels like a redo of something from years before and it’s hard to get into anything. I feel the same about movies.

The show Psych used to be a favorite of mine. When rewatching it recently, there's a string of episodes a few seasons in that are just straight up all racial stereotypes

Comedy in general. Others have given specific examples of things that are discriminatory, including racism and sexism.

On the one hand, it's sad to realize that your old favorite movie is no longer that, but when you realize why I think it's actually uplifting. You can feel that you've learned something, you've improved as a human being, that you care more about society.

And because there are many genres other than comedy, it's not like you lost all of your favorite movies.

I've avoided rewatching Ace Ventura Pet Detective due to the transphobia

I recall in Boston Legal, William Shatner's character said he liked Trump (this was before his presidency) and that has made me less interested in a rewatch

superhero movies. when the first Tobey Maguire Spiderman premiered, it was magical. i had wished for this exact thing for years.

now i can't stand any of them. they're cringe af, like watching a bunch of toddlers play pretend grown up.

Other way around for me. I used to find "stupid humor" obnoxious, but now I can appreciate it better.

I rewatched the usual suspects for the upteenhundreth time, I think it lost a little bit of its magic. Michael Baldwins character is just a bit too camera hungry and angry for me, some of the scenes have just lost their luster. It's still a 9/10, but after 20 years I think it's no longer my 10/10 go to for a guaranteed love rewatch movie. It hurts. Have I become jaded?

I have problems with a lot of scripted television now when I used to love it as a kid.

Hell, I have problems with some parts of TNG because there science has progressed so much since then. THE EXOCOMS ARE SPECIAL BECAUSE THEY HAVE SAPIENCE, THEY AREN'T LIFE!

Watched Beetlejuice with the kids last night. Not as funny as I remember, and they weren't laughing either.

OTOH, we all thought The Lost Boys was still pretty cool.

Blazing Saddles next?

It's hard line between classic and temporary. Anything that follows trend hard usually doesn't last the test. Things that try to relive the past usually don't last.