Mailbag - A Pile of Questions and Answers

[@jamesivan24]

"Go in peace, my children. In the name of Blart, Mall, and Paul Cop. Amen."

[@frnknstn64]

paul blart mall blart paul mall cop blart 2 mall paul 2 cop... Foldey.exe has encountered an error and will be shut down.

[@BrotherAlpha]

I've never understood the aversion to the phrase, "guilty pleasure". It doesn't mean "guilty" as in "I feel guilty for stealing from that orphanage." It means "guilty" as in "I just ate a second serving of strudel and I'm about to eat a third. I really should have stopped at one."

[@dstinnettmusic]

Sometimes it can be one and sometimes the other.

[@xourbo8734]

my aversion is that no one should feel guilty for taking a third serving of strudel.

[@LeoTheMonts]

I never thought that guilt could be a good feeling sometimes!

[@Lismakingmovie]

I think it's pretty fair to accept that you can enjoy things for different reasons and simultaneously value those reasons at different levels of importance. One can be entertained by Jurassic World, and enjoy it in that sense, without it having spoken to them as a piece of art. I don't think people who are willing and able to appreciate deeper artistic meaning are immune to pure, mindless entertainment, but i also think it's pretty obvious those things aren't equally valuable.

[@Morgformer]

Those are the same thing

[@TinyPirate]

2 Cops, 1 Mall.

[@elixorvideos]

Can we get a 10 hour video of Dan saying the Blart Paul 2 Mall Cop segment?

[@DavidB75311]

The Star Wars: Rogue One movie is DLC

[@jewthulhu]

Paul Blart Mall Cop 3: Semantic Saturation

[@uneek35]

Man I love this video. I really wish there was a way to support you. Maybe by giving it some kind of gesture of approval. Or some feature that allows me to automatically show it to everyone who follows me on social media. Or by creating a feed on my account that is updated with new videos from this same channel. Dammit, Dan! If only you could've informed us of such ways at the end of this video!

[@jmalmis]

+uneek35 BlartPaulMallCop.

[@rachelb.684]

I'll never cease to be impressed at your ability to say ridiculous stuff with a straight face

[@gailcbull]

@2:50 And here we see how a stroke can be induced in an intelligent person by forcing them to think about truly stupid media.

[@latrodectahespara2728]

I was in Canada last year, and nobody ever informed me that butter chicken poutine existed. I feel betrayed and failed, that sounds so good...

[@michaelberg9348]

"great trash", nice one. Doesn't top "the cream of the crap", but i like it

[@crispysteve42]

To me "cream of the crap" implies that it's the best of a bad lot when I think it's more that they're bad movies that a person likes for some reason Maybe "my kind of crap"?

[@michaelberg9348]

***** "my kind of crap" I like it. It sound like more of a commitment to 'similar stuff' than most who use "guilty pleasure" or variations thereof would probably want to use, but that's mostly an issue with the concept of 'guilty pleasure'. And while i see your argument against "cream of the crap" (pretty good argument btw), "my kind of crap" has a similar (but opposite) limitation. I think for e.g. 'i like b-movie 80s race stories that look like they were made as a student-film project/budget' would be a case of "my kind of crap" whereas 'i'm not a fan of 'guy is out of touch with a world that outgrew him, needs to find a place he belongs'-excuse for action-scenes compilation(made for trailer) stuff, but Scott Pilgrim is pretty awesome' would be a "cream of the crap" one. (hmm.. looking at my own examples: i think you're right: "my kind of crap" is more likely to be an accurate description of a 'guilty pleasure' than "cream of the crap" is)

[@crispysteve42]

Maybe using both cream of the crap and my kind of crap to describe different movies is the best plan And great trash might even be useful to describe stuff like The Room or Birdemic or The Happening, movies that are so poorly made they become entertaining

[@Seth9809]

Correction: Cream de la crap

[@Red-in-Green]

My favorite saying is “It’s awful, I love it” It covers everything I enjoy despite it being poorly made, confusing, or even problematic. I’m looking at you movies made for nothing and pervy anime protagonists.

[@gameworkerty]

I remember the supplementary comic for Fury Road simultaneously undermines the thesis of the movie while totally failing to understand the movie at all.

[@cheezemonkeyeater]

Lindsey Ellis calling some movies "my trash" is the most honest statement ever made on KZbin. I actually have an opposite: "guilty non-pleasures." Movies or other forms of media that I acknowledge have just a lot of good elements to them and are overall very good artistic works, but I still don't like them. Stanley Kubrick's movies tend to be guilty non-pleasures for me. I feel bad for not liking them because they're usually really good, but I still don't like them.

[@docseamonster3491]

the paul blart segment is still one of the funniest things i've seen in my entire life

[@docseamonster3491]

IT HAS LIVED RENT FREE IN MY BRAIN FOR NINE YEARS

[@jayjeckel]

Something can be a guilty pleasure without you actually feeling guilty about watching it. It's a turn of phrase, not words that are meant to be taken literally. There is no need for a different term.

[@JuiciferPandoraRex]

the safe word is "plarmblartballmaulmall blarfartblotcrop"

[@CrimesOptimal]

The whole point about DLC is really interesting in regards to FFXV, where the game that shipped and the game that's going to exist in a year or two are going to be very different products Even just the recent March 2017 Update Trailer shows entire plot elements that arguably should have been in the original game, such as an actual confrontation with one of the major villains and other information that fleshes out the world being added in a free update Because the update, and many like it coming over the next year, are free, people picking up the game in 2018 and 2019 are going to have very different first experiences with it than people who played it through in 2016 and never picked it up again; people talking about how that villain got no resolution or how they wish there was more gameplay variety or more playable characters or wishing they could have listened to the in-game music player while walking around or while mounted are going to be technically wrong about a product they did, in fact, complete correctly It's interesting to consider if that makes a different answer to "Should DLC impact my perceptions of the game?"

[@jdprettynails]

Excellent point, I was going to bring up FFXV if you hadn't. It's interesting talking with fellow Final Fantasy fans about that game now because I bought it the day it was released, but due to various circumstances, never got around to playing it until 2020. So I played everything, in the correct order. All the side content, DLC and read the follow-up novel. Over the span of 8 months. I had a fucking blast! It's one of my favourite Final Fantasy games and it has definitely skewed my perception of what to other people, is an extremely flawed, unfinished mess of a broken promise. I always make sure when talking to people to keep in the back of my mind, we basically played 2 very different games. After talking to me, some people have decided to give the game another go with the DLC at least. It still has problems, the flaws aren't all gone. But I still had a great time overall.

[@gameworkerty]

The term "problematic fave" is my guilty pleasure

[@QuotidianOli]

I've been rewatching lots of your videos and it really makes me wish I could Like things more than once.

[@matthewclements3476]

I think he forgot 2 Mall Paul: Blart cop.

[@danguillou713]

Deep Blue Sea. Just saying. So, the follow up question is: what happened to Shyamalan? How did the director that made The 6th Sense morph into the creator of Last Airbender?

[@Feasco]

late answer, he was that creator the whole time, his reputation as The Twist Guy blinded us to the fact he had nothing else in his tool box

[@dylanvickers7953]

Okay, so one of my favorite movies is the Gun-Fu driven violence porn Christian Bale movie that rides so beautifully the line of great trash or generic attempt at true greatness. The totalitarian regime is so vague and stereotypical and it all feels so beat for beat familiar. It's too predictable even if you have never seen it, but GOD DAMN do I love that movie.

[@Seth9809]

Equlilibrium? A film that pays homage to many of the best books about oppression ever? A movie that shows that any system that level of fucked up has to die at some point and thus can't live forever like in 1984.

[@mu8242]

Equilibrium has many problems and even more cliches, but it still ranks as one of my favorite films because dang, that film made me feel so many things. I have never found so much joy in a sunbeam or in the touch of a railing as I have after watching Equilibrium, and Bale's performance has an incredible depth of emotion. Beautiful film. That, and the fight scenes are freaking awesome.

[@chaosof99]

Papa Burch HEAVILY disagrees with your opinion on Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

[@Awezome4studios]

and now Split is a huge hit :P

[@QuikVidGuy]

your stance on DLC is how I think about the Dragon Tattoo sequels

[@SpinsterOlive]

On DLC: All I can think of is Outlast, and Whistleblower. And the Dishonored DLC.

[@peterdietrich8810]

Off the wall mart blart: Don't blart the blart mart.

[@somedude2748]

Ketchup, Mayo, or a Ketchup Mayo mix. We are a rare breed my friend, we must protect each other. We are hated by mainstream condiment users.

[@nfmaster4851]

Some dude A ketchup mayo mix is completely normal wth?

[@somedude2748]

Really? I can't count the number of times friends have made fun of me for it. I envy where you live.

[@nfmaster4851]

Some dude Germany, it's unusual to hate the combination here xD

[@nelumbonucifera7537]

Another vote for mayo+ketchup here. I think most people secretly like it, as long as you don't actually call it mayo+ketchup. Mayo scares people off.

[@hermes2002000]

Here we call it "golf sauce" (pretty sure is not the real name, but it's a name) and some places sell it as a standalone product.

[@omnicatalyst]

I would have watched an hour and a half episode of more Paul Blart riffing. XD

[@joshuawinestock9998]

Great response on DLC there; also think it's worth mentioning that, if you are talking about a text, it's because you have some kind of opinion on it, or a specific reading, interpretation or perspective to show, and so if that opinion, reading or perspective involves the DLC then definitely include it in the text, but don't feel like you need to if your interpretation has nothing to do with the DLC. The authoritative version of a text is an entirely constructed concept, so feel free to construct it in a way that suits your own discourse I'd say.

[@quiroz923]

I'm gonna disagree on the DLC question, although it's a very nuanced issue, but specially when you brought in the "tie-in novel" to the equation. Suppose this: Writer A, director A, and project lead A, along with their team, let's call them Team A developed a game or a movie called... hmmm.... "When the angry game smasher attacks". Team A had a vision for that story and those characters and it is reflected in the final product. Let's call it product A. Product A has its own set of rules and ideologies and artistic rules and devices and etc., which is the collective vision and ideals of Team A. However, Team A don't actually own the product. They developed that product while working with Producing Company "Smash Hits". Smash Hits has seen the success of Product A and owns the rights to the brand and to license spin-offs of the product. And they do. Sometimes they bring in Writer A or director A as creative consultants, but sometimes they don't even hear about it. Soon, there are "When the angry game smasher attacks" comic books, novels, online shorts, etc., done by different peopole who are in no way related to Team A. In fact, the comic book ended up having a completely different vision that Team A had of the story and the characters. In Product A, the angry game smasher was a sympathetic but misguided figure, in the comic book he is unequivocally despised and portrayed as evil. And the novel ended up with a completely different political ideology than Product A, only sharing the basic universe and the main character. In fact, they made a completely different story where the game smasher is actually the hero. Furthermore, years down the line, Project lead A decides to create one more product based on the "Angry Game Smasher" universe. The final product, Product B, has a completely new set of diegetic rules that refute elements of Product A. The interpretation will be forcibly different. Now, there are two ways to look at these issues. The first one is "we have to take everything into account because these products are technically all canon and are part of the angry game smasher lore. Thus, if we are to interpret this franchise we need to look at the whole thing". But that's a thermian attitude. That's looking at canon as if it were a historical document, and not different products with different vision made by different people. So I don't think you should necessarily let additional material impact the vision you had of the original product. Sometimes, I don't think you should let it. Other times it might be benefitial or might make you apprecciate the product more, but other times it's just a different vision from a different writer. Sure, this is all hypothetical, but think of Star Wars. Are we gonna stop interpreting the force in interesting, symbolic ways just because Lucas invented midi-chlorians (BTW, if when I talked about Product B you thought of Midi-Chlorians, you win! That's the example). Or hey, is anyone actually still reading the Imperator Furiosa comics that everyone hated, where no one liked how the wives were portrayed? Or take anime, for example. Gen Urobuchi's Kirei Kotomine is more or less modeled as a psycopath, cause the Boochi likes psycopaths, while Kinoku Nasu's original character is more... "inherently evil"-ish. You know what I mean?

[@StephenGillie]

Darth Paul Cop 2

[@cookies23z]

2 large fries in the 24hour drivethru :D :D me too

[@leftovernoise]

Absolutely love you videos! I hate to be that guy, but I'm pretty sure the appropriate plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac. I'm not one to be pedantic, but I just learned that a little while ago and have had no reason to use that information until right now haha. Keep doin your thing man! Wicked awesome content!

[@hrmmmmmm]

Spoken like a man that hasn’t seen Love on a Leash

[@chonious9705]

So i know this five years old and no one has commented on it for a while but if you like the movie Hudson Hawk, you can know how that one person feels about JW.

[@riverw4721]

Paul Blart: 2 Mall 2 Cop

[@mint4876]

Mall plart Paul clop

[@marionsousagraca2031]

Do you have a gf/fiancée/wife?

[@vieuxnez]

2:49 & 4:53

[@vecvecvec]

hand solo

[@jonnay23]

MaulBlart AMEN

[@Wade.Stikmann]

Blarp Mall Plart Cop

[@IanBLacy]

Dan please get that stroke checked out…

[@Noms_Chompsky]

Algorithm comment

[@jonknight4616]

If you'd cut the question about Paul Blart, I think the world would have been better for it.

[@galiciaart]

speak for yourself, i came for the smart ideas, but stayed for the weird stuff

[@jonknight4616]

I like weird stuff... but that was just dumb. :/

[@galiciaart]

you're boring...

[@jonknight4616]

:/ Um, whatever you say, Eduardo.

[@galiciaart]

You know nothing Jon Knight

[@CaptainRufus]

Jurassic World was good and fun. Deal with it.

[@frnknstn64]

+CaptainRufus The movie's writers were so bad that they had to invent a completely artificial species of dinosaur. They were so bad they couldn't write any of the real dinosaur species as scary.

[@Granpire]

UGH you pronounce poutine wrong. It's not poo-teen, it's putsin.

[@LynnHermione]

Shyamalan never stopped being good. People get weird hateboners for creators that have been popular for a certain amount of time, and also can't stand a movie with a clear philosophical stand that isn't theirs. Lady in the Water rocks.

[@scottsbarbarossalogic3665]

"Are you an air, bender boy?" "Plan on killing me in my sleep" "No ma'am" "First name Mister. Last name Glass"

[@jonnil1997]

Why do you hate jurrasic world, lol, thought it was decent.