- “It lacks a certain respect that is usually associated with fan writing,” he says, pausing to make eye contact with the rest of the 40-person Zoom audience to make sure we’re all in agreement. No one’s camera is on to reassure him, save the moderators and the Disney adult who has looked physically ill since he read a description of Shrek’s turgid ogre penis out loud.
I say this fully knowing how it sounds, embracing the stereotype without caring, noting that if someone will identify their generation with something, that generation's identification is fair game: Every generation that came before Millennials would say "we did this embarrassing thing, we stopped" or "we're still doing this embarrassing thing." The "we did this embarrassing thing, we stopped, except we're still doing it, don't judge us, except we judge ourselves, except you aren't allowed to judge us" approach is keenly millennial. It's a "I know we will be mocked for this thing that we love because we all mock ourselves for doing it DON'T YOU DARE MOCK US" schtick that, frankly, is exhausting to watch. This is also a millennial thing - "weaponized fan communities." I believe this is entirely due to millennials growing up with the internet, rather than watching the internet grow up, or growing up raised by people who grew up without the internet. Prior to the internet, "fan communities" were uhhh Star Trek and that's it. And the only way you interacted with a "fan community" was by going to a convention. After? I mean, k-pop mostly seems to be weaponized against the right wing. GenZ "fan communities" seem to be much more into fucking shit up. The author laments the fact that 4chan stopped giving a shit about Shrek about the time they started feeling like overthrowing the election, but if she weren't so millennial about it she'd know that 4chan has always been about stirring shit up and that their interest in Shrek was transitory and only for shock value. On a related note, I worked with the screenwriters of Shrek. Did some work with them. Cut a sizzle reel, in fact. And prior to writing Shrek, they had written - LITTLE MONSTERS (which also subverted "Disney" despite being a Disney movie) - ALADDIN (Disney) - ZORRO (Disney) - SMALL SOLDIERS (Dreamworks) - THE ROAD TO EL DORADO (Disney) So... pretending that Shrek was anything but business as usual is disingenuous at best. The difference between Disney and Dreamworks at the time was that Dreamworks allowed fart jokes. That's it. I recognize that interferes with an essay in which you mention your Shrek nudes four times but really - it again comes back to the aggressive whingeing for nostalgia. if you are going to forever identify as a "'90s kid" you are forever going to be treated as a child, even by the children that came after you.Which, okay. You had to be there, is what I’m saying.
The Tim and Eric parody promoting Shrek 3 is an overt marketing critique, he explains, and anonymous users in greentexts tend to poke at the capitalistic foam that franchises get worked up into, annoyance at the aggressive purity that fan communities addicted to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings can weaponize to make everything less fun for the casual consumer.