Blog post #6 for Monday’s reading on March 2, 2020

Reading Summary

Kristen Schall and Kurt Braunohler do a comedy bit where Kurt say’s “Oh Kristen Schall is a horse, Kristen Shall is a horse, look at her dance, oh look at her dance, oh look at her dance like a horse” as Kristen dances like she is riding a horse. They continue to do this repetitively for a very long time until the audience is no longer laughing at it. Jesse Thorn explains why doing this makes the audience laugh, then not laugh, and then finally it is funny again when it is over. 

The podcast then transitions to have Mary Sue Campbell and Christine Campbell as the guest. They explain a story about how Mary Sue has a weird loop in her head where she is stuck in the past and forgets the present. Jonathan Vlahos explains that Mary Sue has Transient Global Amnesia. She had lost the ability to form new memories temporarily. Every ninety seconds her memory reset. She slowly starts fading out of this loop till she escapes it.  

Source: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/segments/161754-repeat

Outside Example 

The first thing that came to mind was Live. Die. Repeat. also known as Edge of Tomorrow. The movie has a lot of cgi and is a fiction story. It is a movie starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. It is a science fiction action movie where every time Tom Cruise’s character dies, that day starts over. The monster that the U.S. is fighting is responsible for the creatures invading and is also responsible for him being stuck in a loop of that day. The movie ends by Tom Cruise’s character learning from every time he dies till eventually he gets to the monster and kills it ending his loop of that day.

Reading Connection

The horse joke that Kristen and Kurt make is funny. The thing is that it becomes unfunny after sometime. The reason it becomes unfunny is that repetition becomes scary over time. The thought that it might not stop makes it no longer funny, but rather wondering when it will end. Then at the end it is funny because it happened. The same thing happens in the Mary Sue story, except unlike the horse joke and the movie, the story is seriously scary because it is an uncontrollable loop.

Edge of Tomorrow is a fictional story that’s created by Hollywood. The story of Mary Sue is pretty scary because it is not. The idea that she was stuck in a loop and could not force her way out of it is pretty scary. It shows how the human brain has a way of taking over even when we think we are in control. It also shows how we have no control of it when it does take over. Unlike the Hollywood movies that show they have no control in their loop, they can just walk off a set and it is all okay. The Mary Sue story shows, we don’t have that same luxury.