MMeM, Vol.11 Issue 34 – STOP! Sorry.

…but I’ve just about had enough…

I don’t know about you, but I’ve just about had enough of the toenail fungus medicine commercials on TV. I mean it’s hard enough to listen to John McEnroe sometimes but that voice over animated cartoon fungus infected toenails? And, they’re playing tennis or football while wearing little toenail helmets. Really?

Yeah I’m talking to you Jublia.

Toenail fungus commercial was the least sexy ad ... ever.clipular

Oh, and let’s not forget Lamisil with its nasty little green demon opening up a toenail to jump under it! Gross Out America!

Lamisil - It's Alive (2003, USA) - YouTube.clipular

I know like we all do that commercials pay the bills for free TV …….wait, what? That WAS the mantra years ago, but TV isn’t free anymore for most of us who don’t want to be stuck in 1984 with 3 crappy channels. What if there were these HUGE television monopolies, err providers, out there who could fork over some of their hand-over-fist billions in revenue to the networks so we can just be done with this nonsense?

Yeah, that’s a pipe dream. But, media conglomerates have gotten pretty sneaky with the ability, or lack thereof, to use DVRs to fast forward through commercials. And for God’s sake, watching a program ON DEMAND is like attending a time share presentation from which there is no escape.

UGH. But, the ingenuity of the average American Joe TV user will bring about more techniques and habits to combat this, this fungus of commercials. Heck, with DVRs today, most people consider themselves CFFNs (Commercial Fast-Forwarding Ninjas). Yeah, you know you do that. You have all of the shows you want to watch set to a series recording and then you come home and purposely take your damn time getting to the business of watching any of them. Sure, you mosied into the family room at 8:17pm, Modern Family is already rolling, but you don’t care. In fact, you take great pleasure knowing that those big bad cable/satellite/fiber companies have already LOST this battle as you will view NO commercials.

Now, navigating the fast-forwarding through commercials activity and nailing the post on the show’s reboot is another matter. You’re focused on the screen watching, watching, waiting until you see the rating box in the upper left hand corner. Oh no! You’ve cracked under the pressure. “STOP”, someone else in the room yells. “GO BACK”, follows immediately. “Sorry”, is your reply as you strain to recover said operation.

Have you noticed that any and all forms of common courtesy are completely abandoned when the use of FF and Rewind is poor? Then there’s the Grand Daddy of all remote control errors…..the accidental deletion of a recording! I have begged for more forgiveness over this accident than anything.

What’s more, the abandoning of all courtesy due to remote-control-recording-navigational errors is completely acceptable and proper. Judith Martin aka “Miss Manners” probably nods in approval.

About

Blogger, in search of humor, always. Writer of MidwesternMeditations.com, formerly hosted on Blogger.