The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I remember when I was young, and we had Comedy Central. Late at night, at the crazy late time of midnight, they would show Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was a magical show, and I remember trying, each and every time when I didn’t have to get up early the next day, to stay up and watch it. Almost always I would fail, but those times when I didn’t were the best times. True comedy times.

Now I live in an age where I would say that the majority of my non-video game entertainment, and significant amount of my entertainment overall is based in watching things that have taken this general format and ran with it. Stuff like Spoony, the many, many LPs I watch, and so on, are all comedy similar to that which I tried my hardest to get to see over and over again. Still, I guess I wonder why I gravitate to spending my time on that, when so many other avenues of amazing entertainment are out there. I’m behind on Community, 30 Rock, and Archer. I hear Important Things is on Netflix streaming now. So many things I could be watching. Yet this is what I spend my time on.

Here’s my current theory: it turns viewing into a pseudo-social experience. Now, that seems kind of potentially depressing, that I’d be replacing the people commentating in these videos for “real friends,” but it’s kind of true. I never see films alone, nor do I want to. I never watch TV shows unless I’m watching them with people, really. If I’m turning a television on, it’s because I need inoffensive background noise, I’m going to play a game on that television, or I’m watching something with someone. I don’t really watch things on my own. It’s slowly gotten to the point where it just doesn’t fit with how I go about doing things.
So I watch Let’s Plays were I have commentators “watching” with me and cracking jokes, adding to the experience. And I sit there, enjoying their humor, obviously, but also thinking about what they’re missing, reacting accordingly, and so on. It gives me the extra level of interaction I have sitting around doing something with my friends, but I can have it when my friends are busy or otherwise indisposed.

Did I manage to write that in a way that didn’t sound lame? I don’t feel like it’s lame. I feel like it makes sense. I watch things because I want to have the social interaction around watching something, whether it be discussing an episode over dinner or whatever. These sorts of internet entertainment let me have that in one complete package when I can’t figure out how to make schedules work.
And hey, if you have a better explanation, I’d love to hear it.