Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Early Questioners

Do you know this type of person?

You sit down to watch a movie, the opening credits have just finished and the very first scene opens. Immediately you get hit with a series of questions.

"Who's that?"

"What are they doing?"

"Why are they doing that?"

At this point I've only seen as much of the movie as they have. I'm working on the assumption that if we keep watching past the initial 30 seconds the answers to these questions will present themselves. I mean, it's not like I've got a secret guide to the movie in my hands.

This is what you call "Early Questioning" and it is a very common behavior. It's a phenomenon that only occurs at the very beginning of a movie. It's like a kind of panic sets in where the viewer is afraid that they are going to miss some vital piece of information that will cause the next two hours to be completely meaningless.

Jules is what I'd classify as a moderate "Early Questioner". Most times she's fine but there are times where a flood of initial questions like this will result in us having to restart a movie. Not because we needed an answer to these questions but because the questions and their responses resulted in missing the very answers that were being sought (try wrapping your head around that sentence!)

Jules comes by this behavior naturally though. I think it might be genetic, because, as I learned early on in our relationship, Jules' Mom is the undisputed queen of the early questions. You can bank on hearing every single one of the above mentioned questions at the beginning of every single movie.

And now I've discovered that this trait has also been passed along to "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong".

We were watching The Golden Compass last Friday when she started in with the questions and it was driving Jules crazy!

There is one thing I've noticed about the "Early Questioner" and that is that they have zero tolerance when it comes to the questions of another "Early Questioner". They're having a tough enough time trying unravel the hidden secrets to be found in the first 5 seconds of the movie, the last thing they need is someone distracting them a bunch of questions. In fact they're usually the first ones to lash out with a curt "SHHHHH!"

Isn't it strange that the best way to silence an "Early Questioner" is to introduce another "Early Questioner" into the equation? That's like keeping mosquitoes away by having a mosquito in the room!

2 comments:

The Complaints Depot said...

I SOOOOOOO knew this was coming.

This is probably the reason I have to watch the show over and over.

I got confussed buy both the "Southland Tales" and "The Golden Compass"

Mostly cause I kept asking you if you knew what was going on.. (knowing you hadn't seen it)

Oh ya "Little Miss" is fricking annoying as is my mother.... But I totally don't have that problem:)

At least I think I don't, even though I just admitted it.

I'm laughing as I re-read it.

Heather said...

My daughter is one of those also. She also has to talk through a show. Like when we watch Survivor or Hell's Kitchen, she's always asking "What did they say, or do, or eat?" I have actually made her leave the room and not let her watch the rest of whatever is on because she is so damn annoying. No joke, she's really really bad about it.