None of us will listen to Robin Thicke’s discography willingly. Or you know, be caught dead with a FILA disruptor on. But if we share any “Shrek” or “The Bee Movie” meme, we can mark ourselves safe on Facebook.
We love dank memes or shitposts about films that are not exactly criterion worthy. And why do we love them? It’s because we’re apparently smarter than an average viewer.
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According to this study from Poetics, trash films are often enjoyed by film buffs because they view them through a satirical lens. Through their findings, they learned our enjoyment comes from our analysis of production value, like dialogue and plot structure.
Well, no shit. That’s how we harvest our fresh memes. How else will we get them if we don’t break down the “Shrek” series’ mis-en-scene? Or have an analysis of “The Room’s” rooftop scene?
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“To such viewers, trash films appear as an interesting and welcome deviation from the mainstream fare,” said Keyvan Sarkhosh from Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. “We are dealing here with an audience with above-average education, which one could describe as ‘cultural omnivores’. Such viewers are interested in a broad spectrum of art and media across the traditional boundaries of high and popular culture.”
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We can thank science for justifying our questionable life choices. So fellow intellectuals, please consume more trash films. If we stop, we’ll stop getting tasty content like “Shrek Does ASMR 3 (Haircut Roleplay).”
Still from “Shrek Compilation”