There Needs To Be a Better Respect of Opinion Around Here

[D'Snowth]

Muppet Central, for the most part, tends to be a very civil place, where certain topics are generally discussions intelligently, albiet sometimes they can get a little heated, especially if the topics tend to be on the social and/or political side.

But there is one thing that MC seems to have a problem with, and that's differences of opinions, especially when it comes to discussing new and upcoming projects for the Muppets, SST, the Fraggles, the Creature Shop, whatever... it almost seems as if the general concensus among MCers is that your opinions about these new and upcoming projects just have to be all sugar-coated and rainbow sprinkled, Teletubbies level of happy, otherwise, everybody gets their bloomers in knots. Honestly, if anybody so much as mentions one insignificant thing they have concerns with, all of the sudden, those anybodies become negative, pessimistic douchebags as far as MCers care.

That's why I don't even bother discussing upcoming projects anymore, because I know if I mention even the slightlest little thing that causes me to raise an eyebrow, all of the sudden, the rest of MC will jump on me with, "D00D! UR LIKE SOOOOOO NEGATIVE! UR SOOOOO PESSIMISTIC! UR RUING DA HOL FORUM 4 ALL OF US W UR NEGATIVITY! WAH!" Back before THE MUPPETS (2011) was released, was I excited? Yes. Did I have reservations? Yes. My biggest reservation was Jason Segel's involvement, because his humor tends to be far more vulgar and adult than the Muppets, which is why I was worried that he might have turned the movie into another IAVMMCM... but of course, anytime I said anything about it, "DOOD! THERE U GO AGAIN W UR NEGATIVITY AND PESSIMISM! Y U EVEN HERE?! U JUST RUIN EVRYTHING!"

And it's not just me, it's anybody who expresses any concerns like that that get pelted with the same kind of reaction; as I understand it, someone here was recently expressing concerns that MMW is putting too much emphasis on its human cast and celebrity cameos rather than the Muppets themselves (especially with the soundtrack listing naming the celebrities more than the Muppets), and he too was met with the same outcry from MCers that he's being negative, pessimistic, and ruining it for everybody else.

What's the point in having discussions if we can't even have differences of opinions? Yes, any new project involving the Muppets is something to get excited over, especially since it's taken all this time for Disney to finally do something with them (there, I said it again, I guess I'm just a gloomy gus), but I don't think it's necessary that everybody has to be in a sunshine and unicorn mentality, because otherwise MC would be polluted with "negativity". Expressing concern isn't even necessarily negativity, it's just a difference of opinion, which seems to be something MC can't seem to get behind.

 

[beatnikchick300]

THANK YOU. I've expressed numerous unpopular opinions on here (such as when I said I didn't like The Muppets (even though I gave perfectly legitimate reasons for it), and gotten nagged for it (it seems the "OMG-how-dare-you-express-an-opinion-that-most-people-don't-share" mentality thrives on a lot of fandom/geek culture forums [looking at you, TV Tropes]). Seriously, it needs to stop. Everyone has a right to his/her opinion in fandom.

 

[Twisted Tails]

I agree with you guys. Everybody has a different opinon good or bad. When I say that something was "meh" or good. Then, I get a jerk from a new post from saying, "I LOVED IT!" Sometimes, they don't understand how serious my criticism really is. Liking my "post" don't do any justice to me, but when someone else's opinon that is different and my opinon is almost the same as anybody elses, that is prejudice, or betraying and doing no good to my express of opinon.

 

[D'Snowth]

I remember here a while back, while discussing Phil Robertson's controversial comments, Jamie said my two cents on the scandal were like looking through rose-colored glasses (NOT ragging on you at all Jamie, I'm just bringing up a point), and that's exactly the kind of glasses it seems you have to look through around here when it comes to these things. Now, I liked THE MUPPETS (2011), and I'm pleased with how respectful Segel was with their sense and style of humor and comedy (okay, I was bothered by the fart shoes), however, if there is one thing that I didn't like about the movie were the songs: Muppet movies tend to have really fun and memorable songs, either from one or more of the characters, or the entire cast... the songs in this movie, however, just really fell flat with me, I found them to be rather sappy, cringeworthy, and forgetable (DEAR GOD, DID I JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD?! THERE I GO AGAIN WITH MY NEGATIVITY AND PESSIMISM, I JUST RUIN THIS WHOLE FORUM FOR EVERYBODY!)

Remember people, even way back when, different people expressed different opinons of Jim's own work to his face: some people told him THE DARK CRYSTAL was "too long", some people told him they didn't even understand what DC was supposed to be about, some people told him DC would fail because it had no story to it... that didn't bother him.

 

[charlietheowl]

I think that any type of forum with a narrow center, whether it be the Muppets, a certain sport, a certain type of music, etc., is going to have a "group-think" sort of mentality at times, where a consensus is reached and disagreement is looked down upon on certain topics. That's what happened here; people are so excited about the new movie that anyone who says something different is looked at as super-negative. I think disagreement is a good thing, and it should lead to healthy discussion. It's okay to disagree about things, and that should be more respected on here.

 

[dwayne1115]

Well I think that some people can be to negative about any giving project. Take for instance the Lady Gaga thing. Just because she was the headliner of that people doomed that even before they saw it.
There are also those that think anything done by anything created by Jim after his death is just not up to his quality of work, which is also not true. Sure not everything has been great, but they are still the same things we love before Jim's death. We have to give them a chance, and help them through the tough times. I think the Muppets are slowly starting to get out of a very long rough road that they have been on, and are now starting to head in the right direction.
I think what the point I'm trying to make is that we are all fans of the Muppets, and we all have our own mindset on how they should be treated, wrote for, and preformed. That dose not mean that we should be closed minded about how others feel about any giving project that they do. We all should be able to share not only or love for Jim's work but our opinions about them as well without fear of being bashed and named a non Muppet/Henson fan.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

You haven't heard? This is the internet, where your opinion is wrong

I wouldn't even say the disrespect comes from being negative. It comes from both ends. Some people get all upset and attack people to being too negative, while people attack you for finding something redeeming about a movie or special that the majority didn't like.

I think it looks worse because people don't let up about it. There's nothing wrong with questioning why someone has a certain opinion, but when you interrogate them, its crossing the line. And I've seen this too.

 

[D'Snowth]

And one irony is, as I've said before, all Nostalgia Critic does is complain about shows and movies for how bad they are, and he has such a following, that people will agree with him without even seeing the shows or movies themselves... then, if you mention that you found a show or movie to be nowhere near as bad as he says it is, they're all like, "No, you're wrong, it sucks, Nostalgia Critic said so!"

 

[beatnikchick300]

And one irony is, as I've said before, all Nostalgia Critic does is complain about shows and movies for how bad they are, and he has such a following, that people will agree with him without even seeing the shows or movies themselves... then, if you mention that you found a show or movie to be nowhere near as bad as he says it is, they're all like, "No, you're wrong, it sucks, Nostalgia Critic said so!"

People don't seem to get two things:

1. Doug Walker has said that he usually exaggerates a lot of the Nostalgia Critic's reactions to certain things. For instance, take his review of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic SATAM. Doug has said that while he does consider SATAM the superior of the two shows, he thinks Adventures is funny and enjoyable just because of how over-the-top ridiculous it is. He accentuates the negative mostly for laughs, unless it's something truly bad, like Inspector Gadget or Bio-Dome (and yes, I have seen both, and they are that bad).
2. Critics aren't gods (neither are popular opinions). Even if Doug Walker did genuinely hate everything the Nostalgia Critic has reviewed, that doesn't mean everyone who disagrees is wrong or should be shouted down (I've had this experience myself; getting shouted down because I disagreed with his reviews of Full House, Space Jam, and The Pagemaster (the last of those I didn't even see as a kid, so it's not like it was the Nostalgia Filter; I saw it as an adult, and didn't think it was bad, for what it was.))

Yeah, it's irritating...

 

[D'Snowth]

Exactly! Doug actually seems to get this himself, which is why I think he recently started doing reviews as himself, rather than Nostalgia Critic... and you have to remember too, yes, Doug is Nostalgia Critic, but that doesn't mean Doug is Nostalgia Critic... as in, Nostalgia Critic is just a character, he's not Doug Walker himself.

As I've said before, I personally enjoyed SPACE JAM, SUPER MARIO BROS., JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, TOM AND JERRY: THE MOVIE, ROVER DANGERFIELD, TWISTER, ROCK-A-DOODLE, HOME ALONE 3, among others that Nostalgia Critic said were bad. I never even really took any of the reviews to heart, because I pretty much knew they weren't really meant to be taken very seriously; I always watched for laughs.