doodledee

I dragged Libby to see the 'Super Size Me' movie on Saturday night. It's the one where the one wacko dude switches to a diet consisting only of McDonald's food for 30 days so he can prove that... well... uhh... okay, I'm not really sure what he's trying to prove, but I was pretty sure the movie would have a bunch of good McDonald's rips in it, and in my book, that justifies the $8 ticket and the trouble of finding someone to watch the kid.

The show was good. Nothing revolutionary or anything, but neat to see. The dude gained a bunch of weight and drove around to a bunch of different McDonald's in different parts of the country, all the while giving lessons on what's going on with The American Diet and how The Man is making us all fat and stupid. He also met some guy who has eaten 19000 Big Macs. That's a lot of frickin' Mac.

I dug the marketing/brainwashing side of the story the most. Mostly because it's the angle I rage against personally, but also because it's usually the funniest. And by 'funniest' I mean 'creepiest'. And by 'creepiest' I mean 'saddest'. I only hope I'll be able to thought-control my kid that well some day.

On the less-good side, one thing that bugged me was how after the 'experiment', the dude's girlfriend put him on an "all organic detox diet" to nurture his body back to health. There was this "lecture" quality to it, like we're supposed to wake up and go vegan or something. Maybe in NYC can you switch to all that organic stuff and still expect to a) find reasonably fresh, quality ingredients to work with and b) not pay four times as much, but good luck doing that in Minnesota in January or February or any of the other 8 months of the year when local stuff isn't available at the Farmers' market. Maybe I'll make my own movie where I try and live on organic produce for 30 days on the same budget that I could eat at McDonald's for. I'll call it: Super Rip Me Effing Off: The Story of Hella Overpriced Crappy Organic Produce in Minnesota. (A Yuppie Dirtball joint, natch.)

But whatever. It's just a movie. And the audience sees and hears what it wants to see and hear in a picture like that. It's almost kind of gross. Not gross like it's gross to listen to guy eat a double quarter pounder with cheese in blistering dolby digital surround sound - though that is WICKED gross - more like gross in a "don't forget to tell me what to think" kind of way. I wrestle with that conundrum quite a bit.

When the movie ended, everyone spilled out on the sidewalk in front of the theater. Across Hennepin is a McDonald's. I had tried to mentally prepare myself for the onslaught of ironic comments from the hipster crowd, but I still felt myself starting to lose it as I waddled through the swarm of dorks trying to impress their dates with their razor sharp observational wit. "You wanna get a Big Mac? huh huh. huh huh." Well crafted, Beavis, well crafted.

Favorite overheard conversation while waiting in line: "Like, I am *so* not going to go to, like, a college where, like, Republicans go."

We went home and I had a bowl of Special K Red Berries for a snack. Yum.

Super Size Me - Official Site [supersizeme]
Media Statement: McDonald's Response to "Super Size Me" Movie [mcdonalds]