Log in

No account? Create an account

Remember me

Forgot password

Facebook Twitter Google

Zack and Miri... what about them? - The online computery journal thingy of a turtle

Oct. 31st, 2008

11:16 am - Zack and Miri... what about them?

I'm reading the paper this morning and I've just gotten to the section with all the movie ads. At lower right is an ad for a film starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, titled "Zack and Miri".

"Zack and Miri"? That's funny, I've been reading about this movie in Entertainment Weekly, but I thought it was called "Zack and Miri Make a Porno". Have they officially shortened the title, or did they just surreptitiously leave out the last three words to avoid angry Christian housewives canceling their newspaper subscriptions?

In which case, get a GRIP, people! It's called "Zack and Miri Make a Porno". DEAL with it! If you don't like it, don't see the movie!

EDIT: Aha. Yup, it's just for the ads, and yup, people are overreacting. Sheesh. I'll bet in France the movie will be called "Zack et Miri font un porno" and nobody will make a fuss about it, except possibly language purity types insisting they should use some native French equivalent of "porno" or something.

EDIT 2: Hey kids! Ask your mommy and daddy what the word "porno" means. If they ask where you heard it, just tell them you were bound to come across it someday.

EDIT 3: Oh hey! I hadn't gotten very far in the paper when I first wrote this entry. Today's paper also has a movie review identifying it by its full name, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", accompanied by a picture of Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks in a nightclub, looking up at what I guess is a stripper, whose bare legs go all the way up to the top of the photo. This is all a mere five pages away from the ad with the three-word title. So much for consistency!

(24 comments | Leave a comment)

Comments:

From:	nefaria
Date:	October 31st, 2008 04:27 pm (UTC)

(Link)

It was filmed in Monroeville, where I live! I never made a porno though.

(Reply) (Thread)

From:	bradhound
Date:	October 31st, 2008 04:34 pm (UTC)

(Link)

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/zackandmiri_blog.html

Irony, isn't it?

:P

(Reply) (Thread)

From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	October 31st, 2008 04:46 pm (UTC)

(Link)

That they're banning "Zack and Miri" while showing "Saw V"? Yeah! I'm not sure how we got to the point where sex, which is beautiful and fun and sometimes creates life, is considered worse than violence, which is nasty and painful and sometimes ends life.

(I'm reminded of George Carlin saying he'd like to take old western movie dialogue and replace the word "kill" with the word "fuck". "Okay, Sheriff, we gonna fuck ya now!")

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	tilton
Date:	October 31st, 2008 05:05 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Couldn't have said it better myself!

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	bikerwalla
Date:	October 31st, 2008 06:38 pm (UTC)

(Link)

"Prepared for what?"
"For the death of the king!"
"Why, is he sick?"
"No you fool, we're going to fuck him! And Simba too!"

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	October 31st, 2008 07:04 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Didn't I see that on FurAffinity? :}

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	yakko
Date:	October 31st, 2008 09:47 pm (UTC)

(Link)

If not, you probably will after this... :o)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	doodlesthegreat
Date:	October 31st, 2008 09:12 pm (UTC)

(Link)

"But we're gonna fuck ya slow..."

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	thecanuckguy
Date:	October 31st, 2008 09:54 pm (UTC)

(Link)

I'm thinking of a Simpsons THOH ep featuring Mr. Burns engaging in the "sport" of human-hunting - the FOX commentators say, after a relieved-that-he-wasn't-killed Homer starts kissing Marge something like "you know, this network has shown dozens of gruesom murders in this episode, but I bet they'll cut to a commercial before depicting the tender act of love! [Homer starts unzipping Marge's dress as they fall to the ground to "snuggle"] Woah! I spoke too soon! There they are!" Ironically, of course, the murders were shown in their graphic brutality, but Homer and Marge's lovemaking was not visible to the camera.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	varro
Date:	November 1st, 2008 07:12 am (UTC)

(Link)

Somehow, I don't think people got the point of the South Park movie.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

(Deleted comment)

From:	deckardcanine
Date:	October 31st, 2008 05:30 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Are they, y'know, short bus shelters?

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	wakkowarner
Date:	October 31st, 2008 05:18 pm (UTC)

(Link)

The problem is that a great deal of adult-age Americans have the emotional maturity of children. Sex is taboo, yet violence is celebrated. It's pretty pathetic.

It should be the other way around.

(Reply) (Thread)

From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	October 31st, 2008 06:34 pm (UTC)

(Link)

I've heard that it is somewhat the other way around in other countries, such as Australia, and maybe Canada.

What I wanna know is, what happened here?

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	thecanuckguy
Date:	October 31st, 2008 09:58 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Not Canada. French Canada for sure, I remember seeing a movie on the French language CBC (albeit around midnight) that had full frontal nudity and mother-son incest!

English Canada is just as prude as our American cousins.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	orv
Date:	October 31st, 2008 10:33 pm (UTC)

(Link)

It does seem a little less hung up on language, though. If I remember right, four-letter words are allowed on the radio up there, for example.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	deckardcanine
Date:	October 31st, 2008 05:33 pm (UTC)

(Link)

I recently theorized part of the rationale for deeming extreme violence less objectionable than sex: The violence is almost always fake, whereas the sex might just be real.

BTW, Wii gamers sometimes briefly conflate "Zack & Miri" with "Zack & Wiki." This conflation is WOSML.

(Reply) (Thread)

From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	October 31st, 2008 06:37 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Written On Some Man's Locker?
Worth One Sad Measly Lira?
West Of Southern Metairie, Louisiana?

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	deckardcanine
Date:	October 31st, 2008 06:52 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Wrong On So Many Levels. It's not common yet, but I'm trying to spread it.

Nice guesses, tho.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	October 31st, 2008 10:24 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Anyway, that hypothesis doesn't explain why the puppet sex in "Team America" had to be toned down.

(using Kate Monster icon because there's puppet sex in Avenue Q too, but it's never had to be toned down because [a] it's a stage play, and [b] the Avenue Q puppets don't have lower halves.)

(And having seen both sex scenes, I'd have to say the one in Avenue Q is more fun than the one in Team America anyway!)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	deckardcanine
Date:	November 1st, 2008 08:41 pm (UTC)

(Link)

that hypothesis doesn't explain why the puppet sex in "Team America" had to be toned down.

Probably by association with things that do have to get toned down. Judged by the company you keep and all that.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	octan
Date:	October 31st, 2008 09:31 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Interesting. People are complaining enough about the film's name to get it cut from the paper, but apparently they don't mind that the film itself is being advertised.

Frankly, if I were the paper, I'd be smart enough to know that the advertisements would be completely ineffective with that critical part of the title eliminated. I didn't even remember, until now, the names of the people, just "So-and-so and Such-and-such Make a Porno." So now even the people who had heard about the film might not even know it's out yet, despite there being ads for it in the paper.

This wouldn't happen if the newspaper industry weren't hurting so bad and could afford to ignore a few stupid complaints.

(Reply) (Thread)

From:	deckardcanine
Date:	November 1st, 2008 08:50 pm (UTC)

(Link)

I'm glad you pointed that out. I now recall some years ago when people complained to Computer Gaming World for showing a character with a gun on the cover. The game was Enter the Matrix. An irreverent columnist pointed out that anyone halfway familiar with the franchise knows there's a lot of gunfire in it. He also mentioned complaints of the depiction of smoking... in a WWII simulation with not just violence but "Jap" slurs.

Here's what gets me: If you want to prevent kids from seeing certain things, does it actually help to cut them out of the ads entirely? If all you knew about this movie was that it featured a Zack and a Miri, might you not think it was presentable to your kids? (Assuming that the R rating wasn't enough.)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	November 2nd, 2008 12:04 am (UTC)

(Link)

Yeah. This whole thoughtless knee-jerk way of handling things -- "OMG it's bad, get rid of it!" -- doesn't actually do anybody any good.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	lcremeans
Date:	November 6th, 2008 12:38 am (UTC)

(Link)

Here in the DC suburbs, the bus signs for the movie happily use the full title, and I haven't heard a peep of complaint.

-lee

(Reply) (Thread)