Monday 3/2: Radiolab

SUMMARY

This podcast in summary was about loops. We first hear about comedians who do a bit where they repeat the same phrase over and over again, sometimes for even up to 10 minutes straight. This is an opener for the main part of the podcast, the story of Mary Sue’s amnesia. We learn about a mother who gets trapped in a temporary loop of amnesia for hours on end that only lasts for 90 seconds at a time and then resets.

EXAMPLE

This reminded me of an episode of Spongebob Squarepants called “Missing Identity”. Spongebob loses his name tag, and for the entire episode he retraces his steps, making the entire 15 minutes one big, repetitive loop. At first it’s funny but after a while you start to become frustrated with the episode.

CONNECTION

What I realized from this is that in media, loops/repetition can have multiple different effects. It can be quite comedic and get a big laugh from an audience, but can eventually start to become frustrating/annoying. The satisfaction though by the end of the episode/song/video when the loop finally ends is huge from the viewer. Although it got quite annoying, this is still one of my favorite Spongebob episodes to this day.