Saturday, August 30, 2008

Which Earth is this anyway?

Well, the folks at MTV wasted no time in spoiling whatever glory I might have felt from being among the Comic Blog Elite.

They sent an email to the CBE folks trawling for "young people obsessed with a pop culture phenomenon", to convince them "this was their chance to be heard" on some new freak-show designed to make their viewers feel better because at least they aren't, you know, that guy who dresses up like a Klingon.

On the one hand, this is great validation for CBE. On the other hand, it's still demeaning that producers looking for obsessed fanboy freaks to make fun of go straight to comic book bloggers. It was so upsetting, in fact, that I spent my entire evening last night bitching about it to my life-sized mannequin of Vibe, ruining an otherwise lovely candlelit dinner for two.

Of course, among our own little troop, it's easy to admit that our fondness for comics has colored our worldview. Heck, that's part of their purpose!

But, sometimes -- admit it -- you can forget for a second just which Earth you're on...

The other day, I glanced at some text in an ad for a certain backpack line named Velocity 9, and, before I could realized what it was, my first thought was

"Great Rao, Vandal Savage's drug cartel has reached Earth-Prime!"

How embarrassing.

I remember another from quite a few years ago. A distraught friend call me on the phone to break the news to me: "Princess Diana is dead!" I replied, "Um, yeah, sure. I know that already, Michael. But don't worry, she'll be back within a year or so, I'm certain."

So, I've shared some of MY "Which Earth is this, anyway?" moments with you. Now, it's your turn. When have you suddenly caught yourself confused or miscommunicating because your head's just a bit too close to the staples in your comics?

11 comments:

Sleestak said...

"Young" people? The true obsessed fans are over 40 who spend hours detailing the minutiae of what it means when Krypto makes an appearance.

Anonymous said...

Off-topic, but I just had to say: that Comic Book Elite thing is rather shocking to read, in parts.

Scipio said...

Shocking? Huh?

Anonymous said...

It's distressing to see Avi Green and Jonathan Nolan ranked so high.

Whoops, did I say that? I must be in a bad mood today...

Diamondrock said...

I think the existence of my co-bloggers makes a pretty solid case that I went off the deep end long ago.

That being said, after the good doctor made his post where he duped thousands of journalists into believing that he had been selected as Barack Obama's running mate I had a dream that Doctor Polaris had been selected as Barack Obama's running mate.

And the funny thing is, I thought it was a pretty good choice. I was thinking "Oh he's a scientist... Good on education. He understands health care, seeing as he's a doctor. And who better to deal with rising crime than a criminal?"

Then I woke up and was very sad.

John Trumbull said...

A couple of months ago I heard a news story on the radio about a baby with two faces being born in India. I swear to God, within the first 5 seconds of hearing this, I thought, "Oh, Harvey Dent would SO kidnap her."

SallyP said...

Oh heck, I have these all the time. Just this past weekend, I was painting my dining room, and realized to my shock that I was REALLY wishing for a Green Lantern ring to make it all go faster. I even say things like "verily" and "forsooth" and "Great Guardians"!

My kids think I'm weird.

I also have a crush on Doctor Polaris. He'd make a GREAT running mate!

Anonymous said...

I buy Hostess Fruit Pies at work and always consider throwing them at my boss.

I'm living on Earth-Hostess. It just doesn't work as well as it should.

Diabolu Frank said...

I sometimes say "Meanwhile..." during scene changes. It's a thing.

Sea-of-Green said...

My husband and I get in argumen -- er, I mean -- discussions over which super-heroes we would SO want to date if we weren't married. Honestly, what "normal" couple does a thing like that?

Anonymous said...

Several years ago I heard about a serial child molester named Wesley Dodd. Three guesses where my mind went to, and the first two don't count.

Poor Sandy.