This was over 20 years ago, but it’s kinda funny and thought people might enjoy my teenage pain.
I was in high school and The Phantom Menace had recently come out. When I saw it and the STAR WARS logo appeared, everyone cheered their asses off.
Cut to a lecture being given at my school a short time later. 200+ students, all boys school, and the teacher had put the STAR WARS logo clip in his PowerPoint presentation to spice it up a little.
Instantly, I shout “WOOOO!” and start clapping like I had in the theatre a short time ago.
The thing is, I wasn’t doing this to be a little shit. I somehow, in that moment, stupidly, fully believed everyone in the lecture was going to do the exact same thing. That we were all onboard with a thing that I had zero reason to believe we were all onboard with.
So there I was, alone, in a quiet lecture hall, cheering for STAR WARS. I was not a popular kid (you think?) and everyone just started snickering and laughing at me. The teacher goes, “Mr. ThingCalledLight, see me after class.” And I sat there thinking, “why the fuck did I do that?”
I can’t recall if I got detention or not. I was generally a good kid and the teacher may have let me off the hook. But it was embarrassing as hell.
TL;DR: Hooted and hollered in class over Star Wars thinking everyone else was gonna do it with me for no good reason whatsoever, fully embarrassing myself.
Comments
I don’t even get why people do it in theaters, it’s a screen, why are we hollering at a screen, I paid to consume this media and I want to hear it
edit: full transparency I’ve never been excited to go see a movie so maybe I don’t get it, but like hypothetically speaking, if I were excited to see something I’d never seen before, I’d like want to pay attention or something
To be fair, my experience even with episode 7 midnight premier was everyone cheering at the star wars logo popping up! It’s honestly a common reaction! Maybe moreso in the theater than in a lecture hall, but your logic is valid
Nah, man, own it. Don’t kill the part that’s cringe, kill the part that cringes.
Reasonable reaction right after the phantom menace came out. Everyone was so psyched for Star Wars then.
The ultimate teenage misread. You got hype for a crowd that was all dead inside. At least you made the lecture memorable, if only as a cautionary tale.
Lmao, that’s both painful and adorable, ultimate Star Wars fan moment
At least you didn’t argue with the professor, loudly and incorrectly, while referring to her by her first name out of nowhere. It was an uncomfortable WTF moment for the rest of us in class.
The only difference between based and cringe is owning it.
If you own it, you’re awesome.
But the second you come across as embarrassed, it swings hard and violently into cringe.
It’s not actions that are cringe, it’s your reaction to your own actions and whether you own it or not.
Fully realizing that is like inputting a reality cheat code.
In a few years the students will be shouting out “Chicken Jockey” to a Minecraft slide!
Honestly I find this heartwarming
Many teachers now 20 years later would kill for any engagement, much less your enthusiastic reaction.