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Geek out, do good. Join us every week as we explore the potential benefits of comics, games, TV shows, and movies through the practice of Geek Therapy. Hosted by Lara Taylor, Link Keller, and Josué Cardona.
Welcome to GT Radio on the Geek Therapy Network. Here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona. I am joined by Marc Cuiriz.
Marc:Yellow.
Josué:Lara Taylor.
Lara:Hi.
Josué:And Link Keller.
Link:Hello.
Josué:I paused because I almost mixed up your first names and last names. My ending. Marc Taylor sounded so good.
Marc:It's almost like it's a brand or something.
Josué:Awesome. It was so weird. It just sounded right to me, but it wasn't.
Marc:Sorry to disappoint.
Josué:Yeah, it's okay. Alright. As I mean, mean, the last I'd say the last eight years have been pretty eventful lives, you know. But lately, something that that I've been just appreciating a lot is kind of how I've seen people processing current events, the news, using pop culture, a lot of references and fiction. And I I think that it has even I mean, I know that it has helped me a lot in process of information.
Josué:And so I'm I want to basically call out and kind of appreciate some examples of this that we may have seen any personal examples as well. Of course, Marc and Lara, Marc Taylor, if you could please share any any examples of this that have come up maybe with your your clients that have stood out. And, yeah, I think I think even I think a big a big part of this is that I've been spending a lot of time with my niece and nephew over the past couple months. And and to see them, like, how different it is the way that they get their news. Like and and my niece, she's 13, but, like, she loves that I actually watch the news.
Josué:But then she'll she'll she'll make references, and she'll and she'll see different memes pop up, and and they make sense to her. And so it it's been it's been a lot of fun to see that as well within different ages. I'll tell you, I was thinking was like, I don't know. I'm not sure. I had a few different topics and kinda lined up for for this week.
Josué:And it was when I saw the I saw someone talk about the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting and talking about it in the context of, well, how bad health care is in The United States. And, like, how do you illustrate this example to people around the world who maybe don't understand or maybe that kind of put in a particular perspective? And it's something I'd heard in in the past when talking about health care, but they brought it up again. And it was that the TV show Breaking Bad, like, the whole premise of that show is that the main character, Walter White, is has a cancer diagnosis, and he can't afford his cancer treatment. So in order to pay for his cancer treatment and and even more so, like, make sure that his family is okay, you know, by by extension, he he starts cooking meth and selling meth.
Josué:And over the course of five five seasons, he that that escalates. He makes a lot of meth and becomes very good at it. But the but that if if we had a completely different system in The United States of health care, like, you would you would have to write that show very, very differently. And I don't know. It kinda hit me in that moment of like, oh, yeah.
Josué:No. No. That's a great that's a great example. So it's kind of the the the impetus for me for for this one. So have there been any examples lately in the news that you felt again, not not the news, but, like, stuff that has helped you process the news or maybe even explain it or even understand current events or or particular things yourself?
Josué:Anything that stands out recently?
Lara:You've stumped the audience.
Josué:Unbelievable. Truly. Unbelievable.
Lara:Unbelievable. I mean, I spent most of my sessions, was it not last week, week before, talking about Wicked and fascism and the power that it's given people, at least my clients, just like, oh, yeah, this is this is a story that children are watching and Mhmm. Can can see, oh, this is wrong that people do this thing, that people oppress other people and try to brush it under the rug and disguise it.
Josué:That's one of the biggest examples that I've seen over the last couple weeks. Like Mhmm. Wicked is is extremely popular, at least in our feeds. Definitely. Those of us who have watched it, I'm sure it's it's it's pretty popular.
Josué:And having having see, you can sing it.
Lara:I'm not gonna sing it. We might get we might get copyright infringement.
Josué:Right. And it's one of those things where, like, it just if you if you explain what who the wizard is or how he he acts, it sounds it doesn't sound all that fantastical. Right? And then and then, like, you hate that asshole so much, and then you compare it to current events. You're like, oh, wait a minute.
Josué:That seems familiar. And I think that's one of the things that I found really funny, which is people walking out of the movie. And sure, there are some you do see some reactions. This is and maybe this is a part of this conversation. But those complaints of the people who complain that, like, oh, it's not political, you know, like, like, they they say that, like, things are not political.
Josué:Those those arguments are always funny to me. But, like, oh, why does it have to resemble real life? Or like, are they trying to point something out in particular? Are they trying to call somebody out or something out? It's like, are are they?
Josué:Does it remind you of anything? Because it doesn't necessarily have to be specifically addressing a particular person. But if it reminds you of that, like, right, there's like a villain or villainous organization in a movie or in some kind of media that you're watching, and it reminds you of a group of a real life group. Conversation started there. Right?
Josué:Maybe what do you think is similar? What do you think are the similarities? I think that that's been helpful in in in discourse, in my opinion. Until Wicked has definitely been one of those that has been that has been super helpful. I mean, I mean, it's been entertaining to watch, for sure.
Josué:On the one hand, the wizard stuff, but then also people relating to the characters of of Glinda and Elphaba. And even even people calling out people like, oh, really? You're an Elphaba? Really? When have you ever been an Elphaba?
Josué:You're a Glinda. And that alone, like, if you haven't seen the movie or you haven't watched the play, that may not mean something. But if you've seen them, that those are those could be fighting words, depending on how on how much you identify with one character or or the other.
Marc:I think when you when you're talking about it like that, I wouldn't say necessarily for, like, current events or anything like that, but I think definitely using these forms of media as a way to kind of explain or as a way to kinda like shed light or or almost characterize people. So, like, for example, like, when you talked about, like, this idea, like, oh, like, I'm an alpha bar. I'm a Glinda. I I remember when my wife and I, when we walked out of the movie, we were immediately thinking of people in our lives who were like, yep. They're they're Glenda or, yep, they're a Fierro.
Marc:Like, they're like all these different types of people because we were just thinking like, yep. Like, in in the context of how the reality of and the way life is now, we're like, this is exactly how they would respond to all these different situations. And so, like, we were using the movie as as, like, that stepping stone of, yeah, this is how we can characterize them. This is how we can discuss this. It's almost like it gives us that tool of like being able to discuss these types of things.
Marc:And now we both have this from a reference of like, when we say that we know exactly what, what we mean when we call somebody, you know, whatever. Or we say that they they're doing a certain thing.
Josué:Who's a who's a Fierro? What's a what's a Fierro?
Marc:So, I mean, it's that the person No.
Josué:No. No. No. Anybody out. Yeah.
Marc:Yeah. I would say a Fierro is like the person who just acts like they don't really care, but they actually care a great deal. You know, they just they act aloof, but when when you actually get to know who they are, now they're actually a much more deeply complicated person.
Josué:Mhmm.
Marc:They're the people that kind of do stuff quietly, but then, like, they don't, like, make a big deal about it. You know?
Josué:Okay. Okay. One example that really, really got me was when people were talking about again, going back to the health care piece, it's not it's not the to me, the interesting conversation is not like, how do you feel about someone getting murdered? It's, oh, it's what is the what is the issue behind how the health care in The United States, and how bad is it? And when people are talking about how they feel about that, which connects to how you feel about about, you know, someone getting assassinated, who was a CEO for a company and for, like, an evil corporation.
Josué:And the example and I saw this multiple times, and and and I thought it was pretty great of the scene in Spider Man two. Do you guys remember the scene where Tobey Maguire's Spider Man stops the train on the tracks? Right? And he's, like, throwing the web shooters off to both sides. And by the end of it, he's able to stop the train, and he's so exhausted that he's basically passed out and is about to fall.
Josué:And the people on the train catch him, and they grab him and they bring him into the train, and they kind of move him slowly into the train. And over the years, that's that movie is 20 years old now. More than that? More than 20 years old? Right?
Josué:And and that scene, people have always used it as, like, oh, it's like a great Spider Man moment, but it's also, like, it it characterizes New York City as a character. Right? People talk about, like, oh, and the people, like, people in New York City, like, they take care of each other and they look out for each other. And one thing that happens there is that they they bring Spider Man in and his mask is off. And so the characters there are telling him, like, don't worry, we won't tell anybody.
Josué:And they kinda give him the mask back, so he puts it on. It's like, don't worry, we won't rat you out. We won't snitch. And and then people using that, right, in to explain how they feel about the the United Healthcare CEO shooter that, like, I don't feel like I wanna snitch on this person. Like, to me, that person is a Spider Man.
Josué:Right? Like, that that says a lot. Like, when I was working, there's and and I bring this up in training sometimes. I would do in home counseling, and I had these little, like, finger puppets of different superheroes. I remember this little girl, she saw Spider Man and she knows that Spider Man is a hero.
Josué:Right? Like to her, like, I don't think she was pretty small. I don't think she'd ever watched a movie, cartoon series. I've definitely never read a comic book, but she knew that Spider Man was a hero. And so she took that particular character to represent an adult in her life that had protected her during a very difficult time.
Josué:So Spider Man is one of those things that's just a what's it called? A nice stereotype, like, like an archetype of a hero. Right? And then so to have people sharing that, right, that scene from Spider Man to talk about how they feel about the the shooter was was pretty, pretty amazing to me because that I know exactly what what that means. And so to have them at that, like, have the shooter at that status for some people, comparing it to somebody like to that archetype of a hero was pretty pretty amazing to see.
Marc:I I don't appreciate how you just made me feel twenty years older by saying that that movie is at least twenty years old.
Lara:Marc didn't listen to any of your poignant points?
Josué:I could well, no.
Marc:Because my hearing just went completely out. I was like, ugh. Do. I do
Josué:I think was distracted by the gray hairs that came out while I was explaining it.
Link:Mhmm. I do think there is something to be said that the heroic Spider Man that we are referencing is the 20 year old one because the more modern Spider Man is very much a tool of the system rather than vigilante hero working against the system.
Lara:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Link:Mhmm. I feel like there's something something there that's meaty.
Josué:Are you trying
Marc:to say it in the sense of, like, how this Spider Man as a character has always been one to go against the system to fight for the people and be there for the people, like the friendly neighborhood Spider Man. And then in the newest renditions that we have He's already in the game. Exactly. All of that is in in the sense of, like, no. He's trying to be a part of the system and therefore working for the system and trying to emulate it and and still give off the vibe of like, oh, yeah.
Marc:I'm still your friendly neighborhood Spider Man. But in reality, like, no. He's very much a part he's still a part of the system and therefore part of the problem.
Link:Yeah. I think I think part of it is that a lot of the MCU movies, the villains are threats to the status quo. And so the superheroes are there to protect and save the status quo. And something in the early 2000s, Spider Man, this Sam Raimi Spider Man is very much recognizing that these villains are products of the system that created them. And, yeah, yeah, I just I just just do I think it is very, very funny part of it is also that the social media we engage with is oftentimes more people our age so those are the references that we are making but I do interesting that that is no.
Link:Nobody is talking about Tom Holland's Spider Man.
Josué:It's true. Yeah. In this kind of context, right, there's nothing there's nothing there that in this particular instance that would that would be like that. It's the connection point. Yeah.
Lara:I find it very interesting that way. I'm not seeing any. Well, I
Link:think in that way, it's sort of the symbolism that we are drawing to is not Spider Man. It's the people's reaction to Spider Man in that moment. It is it is the personification of New York City as being rude, but ultimately is gonna save your ass and protects its own is like that is the part that people are relating to more so than the fact that it's Spider Man.
Josué:Yeah, yeah. Kind of, I think I think you're right. But I still think there's something about that archetype of the hero.
Link:Oh, absolutely. I agree. I think I think that like Jungian archetypes are it's all over this stuff if how we tell stories to each other.
Josué:It's so funny because I tried. It came out of my mouth explain the conversation where I I mentioned Robin Hood and Robin Hood feels like such a like an old reference. Right? It's like, oh,
Lara:it isn't it isn't because there's so many versions of Robin Hood. Right?
Josué:Yeah, yeah. But like, it couldn't like we I feel like there's there's there's better ones, right? Like like that, or that particular example. Mhmm. It's it's a good point.
Josué:I mean, there are many different versions of Robin Hood and different stories. So they might work. Maybe for our our demographic, our audience, Spider Man might might hit harder until we get an MCU Robin Hood who's actually more faithful to the character. Who knows? Who knows?
Link:I don't I don't think the MCU can do a Robin Hood. I'm sorry.
Josué:It might be MCU might be something else. But yeah. But a current version that has mass appeal.
Lara:Yeah,
Link:I you brought up Robin Hood and how there's so many versions of it. Robin Hood is in a folklore tale that predates movies by a significant amount of time. Would have to look up. I do not know the numbers there, but definitely predates film. And so you used a phrase earlier on talking a discourse about how using these media examples to contextualize and understand current events as a way to start a discourse.
Link:The way that I see it is that it is a continuation of the discourse that in the more academic use of that term, discourse, and that media is part of an ongoing conversation that people are having with each other over time. And sometimes that's very intimate, one to one, and more often in media, it is larger communication to large groups of people. But that these stories are coming up, and we're using them to explain the real things that are happening in our lives. And then more stories get made using those same kinds of reference points that we go, Oh, that I think that's referencing, you know, I'm, I'm the the idea that's coming up in my mind is that you can look at a lot of movies made after 09:11, and you can see how they are in conversation with what happened with nine eleven. And so there is this ongoing, always inflow of this is the discourse, is the art that we are making is us trying to process and contextualize and understand the world we are living in, but it is also being shaped by that art.
Link:Yeah. So there's always that feedback. It is always in discourse. It is a verb that we are participating in.
Lara:I can see that with all the procedurals that I watch. I watch like how many medical dramas and I'll be like, wait, they just covered that like this week on a different show, but it's the same kind of thing that's come up. They they're not all ripping each other off. They're writing these things about the same time COVID happened. And then there was many different ways that they handled that on these different shows.
Lara:And I think we were talking about Breaking Bad and Walter White and cancer treatment and that kind of thing. I think that's something that gets brought up on these shows all the time. And the doctors not being the villains, them being part of the system and them trying to work within the system to say, Screw you, insurance. We need to pay for this thing. Or We need to get this thing done.
Lara:But that's something that is a common thing and I think is probably at least next season, because this season is these shows have probably already been written is going to be another thing that comes up again for for these shows. I mean, Law and Order does rip from the headlines and they do a whole like, whatever goes on in our world, they do something very similar to it.
Josué:And, Lara, are you saying that you expect next season for there to be storyline about the like, a CEO of a health care company getting shot.
Lara:Right. Or something like that happening and Another and another insurance company.
Link:They already did the shooter in the in the hospital in Grey's Anatomy season five.
Lara:They've done it a few they've done it a few times.
Link:Doctor. I bailed out. They're still doing it. It's pertinent in the conversation of a barricade existence.
Lara:I mean, it's literally it's a different story, but it's a similar theme. The cliffhanger on the winter break for, Chicago Med right now had the head of the hospital get stabbed because she gave someone blood instead of someone else blood and that person died. There was a blood shortage. Right? There's nothing she can do, but it's this bigger theme of people taking control of a situation and taking vigilante justice.
Lara:Right?
Josué:And like, and you and and you're saying also that, like, we're not telling new stories. These are the same, like, like, we're able to reference an old story because it's an it's what what's happening now is has happened before.
Link:Yes. Robin Hood is coming to mind because Robin Hood represents an oppressed person fighting back against the oppressor, taking their resources and giving it to the oppressed people. That is still a story that applies and is valuable and important and engaging and inspiring currently, as much as it was when kings were a more pertinent issue immediately to few list lords and shit out.
Josué:What are what are some modern retellings of Robin Hood in particular? Oh, man. Like, are we talking reasons about why Yes.
Link:But I don't think that Robin Hood is as popular of a figure. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna put this back on to Marvel again, is because Marvel and Disney own so much of our storytell, our stories, our culture. Yeah. That they, they get to decide which ones are being told at any given point. And so Robin Hood is sort of antithetical to
Josué:the system.
Lara:Yeah. It's inherently good.
Link:The fact that there there was an animated Robin Hood in what the eighties? '90 early nineties? Late eighties? I can't remember when Disney animated Robin Hood came out, but the fact that it very impressive.
Josué:That could have been
Lara:That that one was I think Robin Hood was when Sixties or '70. Was still alive. Yeah.
Link:Robin Hood.
Josué:I say sixties. But
Link:I mean '3.
Josué:'73.
Lara:Okay. There was a Russell Crowe Robin Hood not that long ago. Well, I say that, but it's probably
Josué:at When least was Russell Crowe one?
Lara:But then but then there's also there's another one. I mean, Kevin Costner, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, which in that situation, he's a rich guy, but he's been fallen out with his family. So he steals from the rich to give to the poor, which kind of reminds me of Green Arrow. It's not the monetary thing, but he does see corruption in the city and he Yeah. Failed the city and all of that.
Josué:Green Arrow literally based on, right, like the the Mhmm. On the the archetype of at least visually and in many ways based on on Robin Hood. But it was like, right, like talking to my, to my, to my niece who's, who like reads a lot is pretty, pretty Oh, in touch in tune. Uh-huh. What?
Josué:Oh, sorry.
Link:I didn't realize I wasn't muted. I apologize for that part. I pulled up I, I Wikipedia searched adaptations of Robin Hood. And there is a page for that which was well, yeah, that's dope. But the my reaction was there was an episode of What If MCU?
Link:What if? What if T'Challa became a Star Lord? And that is basically Robin Hood. That is a Robin Hood story in that one. So we are still seeing the Robin Hood character show up.
Link:The archetype is still showing up.
Josué:To me, I mean, I think and I'm not a 100% sure on this, but there is before I say that, yes, I think that there there is incentive for companies to turn to to refuse to fund and green light stories like Robin Hood explicitly. Right. And I think that in what's the show called Falcon
Marc:and
Josué:the Winter Soldier? I'm pretty sure that there was a the bad guys there were basically a Robin Hood esque group that was oppressed and stealing from from the rich to give to the poor. And, of course, our heroes took them out. And it was one of those very, very strange. It did the thing where it humanized the villain and then supervillainize them afterwards.
Josué:Right?
Link:No. We made them too agreeable. We better have them kick a dog. When you when you notice the main villain harms own underling trope,
Josué:you know, they're villains
Link:that shows up. That's that that in the harms an animal those go hand in hand of the shorthand of like, we have to make sure our audience knows that this is an evil character and even if they say some ideas that actually are maybe kind of good ideas, they won't agree with them because they killed that dog.
Josué:Also, mean, you have you have you seen the Apple and Android stuff? So Apple Apple, the company Apple Computers has a cause that if you use their products in your in your films, it can't be used by a villain. So, like, just, like, they they can't do a switcheroo on if they're using an an an iPhone, and you're not sure if they're good or bad. Technically, according to the story, they're not a villain. That's funny.
Josué:To to the point of, you know, Disney owning so much of the story landscape. Thankfully, there's still a lot of Star Wars and Star Wars is is is good for referencing. And one of the one of the funniest I think I think it's funny, but but I think it I still think it makes a really good point where people are and and not just about the CEO, but like in any case like this, right, where it's like, oh, this person was we'll use the United CEO. Right? It's like, oh, this person was killed.
Josué:This person was a father and a and a and a husband. How can you and then people are like, oh, well, emperor Palpatine was a father and and a a a husband, or you can use any figure in history. Right? That's like like like how that's not a great argument. But it's funny when you're like, oh, I've never thought of that particular villain in any other way but as a villain.
Josué:And it's like, oh, yeah. But but but I I do I have seen this person, you know, like, I I can recognize that and still see that, like, they're they're they're a a villain. And that that particular Emperor Palpatine example, I thought I thought was was I I've seen that one go around a lot. And I think that that it it makes a a like a it makes a good point if, for example, you're a Star Wars fan and you never thought of, like, oh, yeah, I guess so. I guess he was also
Lara:I don't I don't. But the I think the thing with that is I don't think people ever thought of him as that until they saw Rise of Skywalker. Right?
Josué:Independently. Right? Whether it's true or not.
Marc:Right? Just the idea that you
Josué:never even asked yourself the question. Right? Is
Lara:Did he have a wife? Is he
Josué:Yeah. Yeah. Or that even in stories, you you try to again, like, you're demonizing the villain to a point where, like, they don't have you know, there's other things where in real life, you could be a terrible person and also be other things and do other things.
Lara:That reminds me of the Comics Code Authority, which would make you had to like, kids couldn't talk back to adults or I can't think of any other examples, but there's a lot of examples of how they controlled narratives. The message was you had to act and kids should act in this certain way and you shouldn't like try to speak out against things that are wrong. Like, you shouldn't speak out against authority figures, systems, all of that. Police always had to be shown in a good light. Yeah.
Josué:I my my niece is very into Star Wars. And I recently asked her the question, how many people did Luke Skywalker kill in the movies? And she was like, wait, what? None. Right?
Josué:And I'm like, I don't know. Think about it a little more. Think about it a little more. Right? And she's like, you mean like killed like like like Anakin killed people like in the movies?
Josué:And I'm like, yeah, yeah. She's like,
Lara:I shot a lot of people.
Josué:I was like, I don't know. I can't think of any. I was like, it's 1,200,000. She's like,
Link:we want to manifest for the dark.
Lara:You gotta have her read. You gotta have her read lost stars, whether it's the book or the the
Josué:Is that what it quantifies? How many people were on the Well,
Lara:it humanizes the people who are working in the system on the on the Death Star, especially people that didn't wanna be there. Right?
Josué:Yeah. My my my niece was like, wait. Wait. Wait. Okay.
Josué:Wait a minute. But then those were only Empire soldiers. Right? I was like, I don't know. It's a military base.
Lara:They might have had families
Josué:on board. Probably families. And she's like, there are darn families on military bases. And then I just called out people that she knows in her life who lived on military bases. She's like, oh, it's like all of a sudden, Luke Skywalker, this, you know, infallible hero is like, oh, wait a minute.
Josué:No. I guess he also killed a bunch of people on his way to save the empire. I guess at that He's a mass murderer. Does happen.
Lara:Mhmm.
Josué:Hey, I'm putting labels on on anybody. Just I'm just I'm just pulling up manifests.
Lara:He probably killed more people than Anakin. I mean I
Josué:mean, we had this conversation, like, do you attribute Altron exploding to to Vader?
Lara:No. You don't?
Josué:Okay. And you
Lara:know off dark it's grandmoth dark in.
Josué:Okay.
Lara:Yeah. They don't like each other.
Josué:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Josué:Yeah. Then then one's less of a murderer than the other one. Mhmm.
Marc:I I'm also thinking of, like, I again, kind of falling back to, like, Disney and and Marvel with Black Panther. You know, when when that when the first Black Panther came out and we have Killmonger, and I remember we had the conversation and even just the conversations I've had with other people that watched it when we when it first came out and everyone was, like, siding with with Killmonger. They're like, yeah. No. That my voice spitting facts.
Link:Who was right?
Marc:Yeah. I was like no. I was like, yeah. No. He he's he's spitting facts.
Marc:Like, I don't know what to tell you. And, like, he, like, kinda had the mindset that ultimately, like, when we think of today with with the United Health shooter, like, it's Killmonger is Robin Hood.
Josué:He literally wanted to arm the the the oppressed people.
Marc:Yeah. Exactly.
Josué:Yeah. There you go. Yeah. See? So Had to die.
Josué:But,
Marc:yeah, at the same time, it's like, yeah. No. He he had to die because it's ultimately, like, no. Let's work with system. We gotta go in be within the system and and and make these changes.
Marc:But in in reality and this is something I saw a TikTok on yesterday. I can't remember if I sent it to you guys or not, but it was the idea of, like, revolutions and how, like, no there are no revolutions in history that have been successful that were nonviolent. Like, every successful revolution had a great amount of violence, and it was usually at the start of something. Right? And in this case, like, here in this k like, we have a shooter who took the vigilante action of of doing something for the beliefs that he held.
Marc:And then we look at Killmonger in in Black Panther when we look back at it, and it's, you know, he took all these steps because he himself grew up and and was oppressed and was denied the things that whether or not they should have been granted to him is is one thing. But, you know, he was denied certain things, and he grew up with that. And so he decided to take action against that. And, of course, then that is is shown in the light of being demonized because it's like, oh, well, just because you didn't get the things that you felt that you needed or wanted, that doesn't mean that you should be going out and exacting your personal vendetta or acting out on this way. Even though it's not really just him, he he kinda becomes the manifestation of all the oppressed people that he's grown up with that he knows that are continuing to suffer.
Marc:And he's like, we need to do something about this. But clearly, trying to have faith in the system or just trusting it isn't working because it just continually screws them over.
Josué:And I a a lot of these conversations, I will admit, are I'll call them revolutionary theater. Right? Like, people might think that they're I don't I don't think that they're necessarily I my point is that they are good for self reflection in the sense of, like, questioning, like, oh, why did I agree? I did disagree. I did agree with Killmonger, or I did agree with, or, like, I had no problem with I didn't even think about the fact that there were people on the Death Star.
Josué:Right? But now, like, maybe I am thinking about it. And like, what do I think that's okay or not? Do I think it's worth the the the cost, etcetera, or like in terms of self reflection? But I do I do always think it's funny, like, like, just having these conversations alone doesn't I don't think does anything in the grand scheme of things.
Josué:But I do think that they're good for for self reflection. And the more we're into these stories, and the more we can question them and kinda see them differently, I think that's where the biggest effect lies. Because, again, even for me, when I when I, I had never questioned, oh, yeah, they're real people on on the Death Star. And when you're talking about a story that from the nineteen seventies has been, you know, like, a huge part of pop culture. And for some of us here who are older, it's like our entire lives.
Josué:Star Wars has been a a huge part of that. So then revisit a movie that came out, you know, a decade before I was born, and then no. Not a decade before I was born. When did when did the new Hulk come out? Wasn't
Lara:It was six years before
Josué:we were born at Housewives. Yeah. Yeah. '74. Okay.
Josué:Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I was right.
Josué:I too, Marc, am sometime. I'm like, time? Wait a minute. That can't be right. Is that right?
Link:Ten years ago. A new hope. 1974.
Lara:Yeah. No. A new hope was '77.
Josué:'77? Okay.
Lara:Okay. Yeah. It was '77, and then Empire Strikes Back was '80, and then
Josué:Return of
Lara:the Jedi was '83.
Josué:Yeah. I knew it was before I was
Link:born. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Josué:Before we were all born to be clear, even Lara.
Lara:Even me.
Josué:And yeah, yeah.
Lara:Technically, of them came out before I was born. Just so you know. All three of the original truly just just so
Josué:you know. Yeah. Just yeah. It's good to clarify. But, no, like, that that was a I have found that very I have found it very valuable to be able to go back and and, know, and re question some of the stories that that that you love through a new lens.
Josué:And and then and having that story having that happen in real time just mean, I it makes sense. Right? It's something that that just seems natural. But I don't, you know, I would never dismiss. I've I've had this.
Josué:I've wanted to do an entire branch of of content on kind of this type of of discussion. But we're using very specific current events and and and news and looking at it through the lens of popular stories just to see how they how they differ, how they're similar, how we feel about them differently. And I feel like those conversations are always pretty, pretty great. And the ones that have surprised me the most lately are the ones where people see the characters very differently. Or yeah, we're like, you watch the same piece of media, but is interpreted in completely different ways.
Josué:I've seen that a lot with Wicked lately, which is interesting where, like, people don't want to see Glinda as a bad person. Right? But like, oh, yeah. No, no, no, no. Like the whole movie, there's like, the movie tries really hard to show you a blonde, white, very compassionate person who is actually not not your friend at all times.
Josué:And and it and it's interesting to see I think I sent you guys a video of that, where this woman was saying, my son was like, oh, like, Glenda's a terrible person. He's like, Glenda, oh my god. Like, Glenda's so great. I don't I know. That's a pretty good conversation you can have with your son Mhmm.
Josué:About why you might feel that way and what actually is is going on. And again, it's like, are you still talking about real events? Are you still talking about real things? Of course. But like, you just saw this movie, you want to talk about it, you can have a conversation in a space that feels a little I don't know if safer, but at least more comfortable.
Josué:I think it's great. I've been quoting wicked, like, way too much lately. It's just it's just it's just it's it's been good for the different I'm like, oh, you just said this thing. Remember, you just saw that in the movie? And I'm like, oh, yeah.
Josué:Yeah. I guess I guess I guess that is similar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Josué:Yeah.
Marc:But has this changed your view for good? Well, I don't You'll you'll get that inactive.
Josué:I haven't watched it inactive. You can't you can't hit me with the reference or part that hasn't come out. You know, I haven't seen the play.
Marc:Well, maybe it's motivation to start seeing the play.
Lara:Maybe you should go see it because we're gonna have to wait till next year.
Josué:Mhmm. It's okay. It's okay.
Marc:You know, actually, this just dawned on me, and I don't I don't know why it took me this long. This is a real failure on my part. The with the with the shooting and everything, it's assassin's creed. The the start of assassin's creed.
Josué:Okay. We have
Marc:we have Abstergo Pharmaceuticals.
Link:That's right, folks. We did it. We brought it back.
Josué:I got it.
Link:The night where you needed to go home, it's time to settle right back in.
Marc:I just I just had a just had a, you know, bring that back in. This is the start of it, you know. This is how it this is how it begins. Because then you have all the cryptic messages trying to expose the truth. What is the truth?
Marc:Is this decoding DNA now? Like, what what what are we doing?
Josué:I lost the poll the pool. I thought he would I thought he would make a connection twenty minutes in, but it took him forty.
Marc:You know, we were just having a great conversation. I wanted to just I just wanted to to let it
Lara:I mean, the real
Link:question is which Percy Jackson character would shoot a CEO.
Josué:We may need
Link:to cut that out of the episode.
Josué:That up to the editor. The there there was right. There was an article talking about the video games that he played, and how he would play an assassin in a particular video game. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought it would be something like Assassin's Creed, maybe Hitman. I was
Link:certain it would be Hitman.
Josué:Maybe Hitman, but that was Among The When I saw a tweet from the Among Us account, I was like, what a day.
Marc:Turns out he was the impostor.
Lara:Oh. The memes I've been seeing. I haven't seen any Spider Spider Man Man references, references, but but I've I've seen seen the Luigi Mario's brother sitting at my car.
Marc:I've seen Smash Girl one time.
Lara:At him. I saw a fake post from Burger King saying we don't snitch.
Josué:It's it's nothing. It's so okay. So so much fake stuff. At this point, the same week that OpenAI released Sora, which is like a video creation platform that makes realistic looking videos. I've stopped trusting everything I see online for Mhmm.
Josué:Like, for the last it's been a few years. I'm and I'm getting better and better at it. But, like, anything that looks that good, I'm like, I love it. I'm gonna I'm gonna share this. Know it.
Josué:And I hope that it's like, it's understood that this is like not not this is this is satire. This is parody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Josué:Yeah. Still got to do some fact checks. But yeah, that was that one got me. The Burger King, we don't snitch. That was pretty good.
Josué:Oh my goodness. The amount of
Marc:things I see where people are like, all these, like, companies, like, all these fake things of companies that are posting, like, alibis, like, wow. Like, shout out to her new employee, Luigi, who works twenty four hours on this day from midnight to midnight. No breaks. No nothing. No clocking out.
Marc:Eyes on him at all times. Like, we're so proud of him.
Josué:How unserious do you think we are? Like, people are in general now to where people now where people that's not the right question. I don't even know how to phrase this question. But I feel like as, as I'm getting older, I see more and more levity in terms of discussing current events. I like that, because I think it just means that we're we're we're talking more about things, and we can hit them from different angles, including humor.
Josué:Do you all do it? Is that is that a real thing? Is that that just an illusion from social media?
Link:I think there is an aspect of which that it that is your curated experience of social media. But I do think that there is an aspect to it. And I do think it also ties back into what you said just a little bit ago about not being able to trust things that you see. I think that that is very much a natural reaction of that our generation and the people younger than us have all been trained to, we can't trust the things that we see online, that we can't trust newspapers to report accurately, that we can't trust police to be honest about police work. Like all of that is we've we've been trained that none of those things are trustworthy.
Link:And so very much the reaction of like, I don't know, it's probably not true. Maybe it maybe it's true. Maybe it's not true. It's funny. So let's share it.
Josué:I
Link:think that is very much a natural, a natural outcome of the media we engage with, I guess. The medium is the message. Twitter is full of lies and bullshit. So it's full of lies and bullshit. That's sometimes it makes you laugh.
Link:That's fun.
Lara:I think most of the people I surround myself with respond to stress or being upset or sad about something or devastated by something with humor, lots of lots of gallows humor. And I know plenty of people whose reaction to the shooting are they're not upset about what happened, but it's a sign of a bigger system that they're upset about. But I definitely have a friend who's talking about getting a Monopoly money tattoo.
Josué:Yeah.
Link:That's very funny that that would be the symbol to choose. Fine.
Lara:Oh, that was before other things happened. Right?
Marc:Just get the Luigi hat tattooed.
Josué:Mhmm.
Link:The year of Luigi was a couple years ago, but you know what? Maybe it'll come back.
Josué:I also saw skit on Yeah, Nintendo was when Nintendo's doing about it. It's, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm really not sure. Like, I guess, I guess so you're saying like that, in your opinion, things aren't that different. It's just the content that's being fed to me.
Josué:Like, people have always, like the satire has always been there. The the levity has always been there.
Link:Yes, but probably much less. I think that does change over time. Think I think we change over time. But I do think that that is that is a human reaction. As Lara says, is it very common for people to cope with big negative feelings by making it lighter by laughing at it, sort of removing some of the pain and fear sides of it to turn it into a joke, which is why clowns are so important.
Josué:Yeah, it'll be I don't know. I know I know it's a couple months ago, Donald Trump was there was an attempted assassination. And, like, half the country voted for him for president. Right? So, like, you can make the argument that, like, even if half of half of people were, like, somehow split on on their feelings on that.
Josué:Right? Like, health care doesn't feel that way. Like, health insurance in The United States feels much more lopsided in terms of of a public opinion because of how often people are hurt by it, how unfair it seems, how yeah. So, I mean, obviously, it changes it changes the narrative even though it's a similar it's not just like on the, like, the enemy that is is being despite, like, we've been talking about villains and heroes and and and in different stories, a villain that is being placed there. It's hard to have it's hard to write a villain that is like, oh, yeah.
Josué:We the majority of people are definitely not in favor of of this particular character or what they do or what their mission is. I don't know. It'll be it'll be interesting how this conversation continues. Okay. Those are the majority of the examples that I was bringing up.
Josué:Anybody else think of anything else before we wrap up? No. Okay. Well, I continue to be very thankful that people are using my favorite stories. And I'm also learning of different stories to to help see how people understand and interpret and and relate to current events.
Josué:I'm rewatching Attack on Titan now, which is really cool from from the perspective of of the last couple years. It feels very different in terms of since I saw it before. And that is that is my favorite anime. And I'm rewatching it through, a completely different perspective now. Enjoying it even more.
Josué:But but it it is definitely helping me process current events. So let us know what what you think about this, if there's any particular examples that were that have been either helpful for you or have stood out to you during this time. And tell us your, latest Robin Hood reference that you've seen, because apparently, they're still happening, and we did not know. We did not realize it. Please share those in the show notes.
Josué:For more geek therapy, visit geektherapy.org. Remember to geek out and do good, and we'll be back next week.
Link:Eat the rich. Bye bye.
Josué:Geek Therapy is a five zero one c three nonprofit organization dedicated to making the world a better place through geek culture. To learn more about our mission and become a supporter, visit geektherapy.org.