I admit that I may be a pop-culture snob at times, but in this day and age where our relationship with Google is more dependable than the on-again-off-again dude of the moment, there’s no excuse for anyone to be ignorant.
This stems from the most important lesson that a certain primary school teacher has taught me, “If you don’t know, ask until you find out.”
From then on, I always made sure I got to the bottom of things – whether it’s knowing exactly how many children are in the Brangelina brood or finding out who took the last piece of chocolate cake in the office pantry.
So colour me surprised when I went to the recent premiere screening of The Great Gatsby and was just completely floored by the things I heard around me. The fact that people knew nothing absolutely nothing about the movie they were going to watch (wouldn’t you have googled it before buying the tickets?) or have already watched was shocking (so what have you been doing for the past two hours?)
My feelings for the movie aside (whether you like it or not is largely based on whether you read the book and if you’re a Baz Luhrmann devotee), I was really amazed and amused by some of the bits of the conversations I manage to overhear before and after the movie. There was a whole lot of ignorance and some truly hilarious jibes in the mix.
Did I roll my eyes at some of them? You bet I did. But did some of them make me laugh out loud and made me think a little bit more than I should? I have to say that surprisingly, they did.
So thanks to my super sharp hearing, here are some quips just for your entertainment.
Middle-aged lady A to middle-aged lady B after the movie – “Huh, you mean it’s based on a book?”
Young girl during the movie – “Why is Leonardo going swimming in a tank top that’s not made of lycra? Was lycra not invented in the 1920s?”
Teenage boy trying to join in a discussion post-movie – “So who’s the Great Gatsby?”
Very observant man during the movie – “Why were there no traffic lights in the town?”
Girlfriend to boyfriend – “This is not the sequel to Moulin Rouge?”
Office lady – “It’s so unrealistic! How come there was rap music back in the 1920s? There’s no way.”
Teenage boy – “Where’s Spiderman when we need him?”
