Text 10028, 69 rader
Skriven 2007-01-11 11:50:19 av SLerman (13448.babylon5)
   Kommentar till text 9995 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (13415.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Suspension of disbelief - an open debate
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In an instance like this, I think it's actually easier to accept the
more unreal aspects of the advertisement. The moment you see a cow
jumping onto the roof of a car, you immediately stop parsing that part
of the scene for any resemblance to reality. The parts that are
realistic, though, such as buying hamburgers at a drive-through, can
still seem to be "wrong" if some minor detail is off. Cows jumping on
to your car is very far from normal, so you can instantly dismiss it.
Buying hamburgers is very normal, though, so you're still assuming
everything is realistic, making the slightly weird part (putting the
hamburgers in the back seat; personally, though, I put the bag on the
front seat next to me if I'm alone, or have the person in the front
passenger seat hold it) stand out more. Science fiction shows can be
easier to handle suspension of disbelief, since you know right from the
start that most of the show will be unrealistic (relative to the
current real world). Seeing a telepath on a cop show that takes place
in 2007 would be really strange, but none of us even think twice about
seeing the stuff that Centauri or Minbari telepaths can do.

David Williams wrote:
> OK...  Here we go.
> As mentioned in another post, I haven't contributed much to the group in
> quite a while.  But, after a two-person... "discussion" with the wife, I
> thought this might be an entertaining forum to open it up a little more.
>
> Suspension of Disbelief (or SoD)
> It's the technical term for the mental adjustment we all have to make to
> accept the basic premises of dramatic presentations.  Sometimes we need to
> adjust more than at others.  E.g. "Frasier" requires a lot less SoD than
> "Babylon5."  Etc.
> BUT, regardless of how fantastic the premise is, the characters and plot
> still have to follow a certain sort of logic, within that premise.  And when
> they don't, that's where a plot fails.
>
> OK, real simple example that started the... err... "discussion" with the
> wife:
> Chick-Fil-A restaurants has a long-running ad campaign that features
> intelligent cows trying to convince people to Eat Mor Chikin.  Cute campaign
> that is funny.  But one current TV commercial annoys me because of what I
> feel is a violation of SoD.  The ad is part of a campaing that features
> Cow-mandos doing outrageous stunts to change people's eating habits away
> from burgers.  In one ad, a couple with a small child in the back seat pulls
> through a fast-food drive-in and gets a bag of Circus Burgers.  The mother
> (front passenger seat) places the bag of burgers into the back seat, and
> they take off down the highway.  A Cow-mando lands on their roof, and does a
> daring (cliche) Hollywood stunt, reaching down through the open sun-roof,
> and extracting the bag of burgers.
>
> Fine.  Suspension of Disbelief WOULD allow this to be funny, except for one
> HUGE glaring logical error:  WHY were the burgers placed in the back
> seat?!?!  Think about it - when you go through a fast-food drive-through,
> you don't buy your burgers, then calmly place them in the back for a
> leisurely drive through the country..!  You pass them out and eat them!
> Immediately!  While they are still hot!  Regardless of driving safety, you
> pass out ther burgers and EAT THEM!
>
> The wife couldn't understand why I would "nit-pick" THAT detail, when the
> commercial featured a cow doing stunts on the roof of a moving car.  And
> that started the whole... "discussion" about SoD, and its rules and
> limitations.  She eventually decided she had serious Disbelief that she was
> having this discussion and went to bed.  (She has to get up much earlier
> than I.)
>
> So, does anyone else have any thoughts on the subject, and/or examples of
> violations of SoD they'd like to share?
> 
> Regards,
> David W.
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