There is a scene in an episode of The Simpsons where they are showing a flashback of Marge and Homer coming out of the film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Homer says, as only he can ‘Wow who would have believed that Darth Vader was really Luke’s father!?’ or words to that effect (cool I found the video).
The problem here wasn’t that Homer was:
- excited about the film
- enjoyed the film
- could not believe such a great twist
- wanted to talk to someone about the amazing twist.
No, the problem was that he happened to be standing in front of the line of eager film goers waiting to see the film, the majority of, one would imagine seeing the film for the first time.
So the other day I had my own ‘Simpsons Empire Strike Back’ moment, I wasn’t however out and about, it was on Twitter and after being on there for over a year and a half it was actually the very first time. The fact that it hadn’t happened before is I suspect a minor miracle in the Twitter universe. But it really pissed me off.
As you may have gathered, I love movies and television, more importantly I love stories, I just happen to prefer the filmed or comic book medium but if it is a good story I’ll go anywhere for it. Often it’s the experience of the story, which is why I can say that a book series such as Twilight had my attention, the writing was not good but the story had me and I just wanted to know what happened, I wanted to experience it.
So when someone ruins a story by blurting out the pay off, they’ve robbed me of an experience, an experience I like to savor much like a rich cup of coffee. Actually that’s a good metaphor.
Being told that a cup of coffee is great is not so nearly as satisfying as actually drinking the coffee.
Now it’s the internet, I’m not so naive to expect there to be no spoilers, collaboration is all about sharing and when talking about movies or books often one is completely unable to avoid spoilers. What Homer Simpson should have done though when leaving the movie is wait until he was in the car before announcing plot details.
When I complained about spoilers on Twitter, the reaction my tweet got was interesting, ranging from mocking to actual discussion regarding how best to handle spoilers especially in a real time environment like Twitter. The latter comments inspired this post.
So I can’t say what the rules are for dealing in potential spoilers online, the internet has yet to announce me the lord and master of all things online and so my oppressive rule is still some time off. But I do personally have a code regarding spoilers.
In here, if there are going to be spoilers I’ll let you know. I won’t tolerate spoilers in the comments if the spoiler warning wasn’t mentioned within the post and I sure as shit don’t post spoilers on other people’s blogs if they haven’t opened it up for them.
If a movie has left the cinema and is now on DVD I generally relax my spoiler concerns a little unless I know that the spoiler is the pay off in the film, an example would be The Sixth Sense (which in my opinion is old enough now to get a spoiler pass) and the twist in that film.
If I know someone hasn’t seen the show or movie and are going to see it then I’m not an asshole and ruin it for them, because you are being dick by doing so.
If a scene is in the trailer then it is not a spoiler. Although some film companies seem to think it a good idea to have spoilers in the trailers (Terminator: Salvation for example).
I personally watch a lot of imported shows which are yet to actually show here on Australian television so I do tend to try and be a bit more careful with those as I have two or three local readers.
Specifically on Twitter, if you spoil a show or movie then I will unfollow you. It’s the brilliance of the system in that I don’t have to follow you and you most certainly are welcome not to follow me. If someone has just watched a show that has a cool twist and I want to talk specifics then I will direct message them. If there is a sporting event or a show like MasterChef that I can’t watch but will later I will turn Twitter off.
Twitter is amazing for real time reactions from people and to illustrate the point I would show people the ‘Star Trek’ search which would show people’s immediate reactions to the film and not once did I read what I personally would consider a spoiler so it is possible.
I might also mention that the person who did drop the spoiler on Twitter did DM me after the event to warn that I should avoid his tweets as he would be writing spoilers.
So what are your spoiler guidelines?
What do you think is fair game and have you ever had anything really spoilt for you?
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6 Responses to “The subtle art of the spoiler”
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Heh, I’m not all that worried about movies and TV shows and stuff, but once last year I heard the outcome of a particularly nail-biting one-day cricket game on Twitter, and that really did spoil it for me because we were looking forward to sitting down and watching the last couple of hours, delayed telecast.
It’s a problem for us in Perth because we’re two hours behind the east coast and people discussing something on TV don’t even realise there’s people in “that other timezone” who haven’t seen it yet, they’re discussing it “as it happens”.
I think in this day and age, the responsibility falls to the individual to make sure they don’t see or hear something they don’t want to, unfortunately! Although people accidentally giving something away is forgivable, whereas people maliciously giving away something because they know it will ruin it for other is just nasty.
goatlady´s last blog ..Metal Journalism
You know that I am sometimes a little rigid about the spoilers thing. I mean, when I first broached a particular video game death for one of your podcasts, I wouldn’t even mention the game or the character name even though it was a massive title and it was released over a decade ago. That is commitment to keeping things spoiler free.
And as someone who watches wrestling, I know the pain of spoilers… since there is one live show a week, and then 3 shows that get taped the following day in front of tens of thousands of people…. and half the fun of wrestling is not knowing what is going to happen. There is a show I have to pick up on Friday mornings because I don’t get the channel it is on and I avoid spoilers like mad the 16 hours between its airing and the time I finally get to see it.
I believe in reasonable spoiler restraint (like if you don’t talk about television, don’t suddenly decide to talk about a show the night it aired or even the next day on your blog)… I generally hold myself to a slightly higher standard though…. I don’t like to spoil anything for someone else… though it kills me sometimes because I want to talk about something and I can’t.
In these days of boxed set TV, where everyone is watching, say, Battlestar galactica at a different rate, then the spoiler is killing geek conversation.
In the old days when you pretty much had to watch a show as it aired then the playground and the office was full of talk and speculation about last nights TV. Now everyone has to be restrained and bland and just say something like “it was awesome”. There now has to be a subtle and intricate dance to work out if both conversationalists are at the same stage of their viewing.
For example in the 4th season of Alias when you find out that, see, you nearly stopped reading then didn’t you Lee.
There’s no answer to this obviously, and I hate spoilers as much as the next man, I just think it’s a shame that they can suck the enthusiastic conversation out of a gathering of geeks.
Dan´s last blog ..Another fine mess
I try not to spoil anything. A friend of mine and me watch like 90% of the same tv series and we just avoid talking about a serie if the other didn’t see the episode yet or just keep the talk to ‘awesome’ or ‘really great episode, you’re in for tons of fun..etc’.
It díd go wrong once or twice though..really irritating because you can’t forget it haha.
Arjan´s last blog ..Magnetized
The most irritating is when you are spoiled once, finally manage to forget it, and then are spoiled AGAIN for the same thing just before you see the film/show/whatever. That just happened to me with the new Harry Potter film. I got wind of a major character development back when the book came out (which I haven’t read) and finally managed to forget it until 2 days ago, when someone re-spoiled it for me now that the film is coming out. Gack.
My spoiler code is pretty much the same as yours, fwiw.
Jeff´s last blog ..Google Wave – abridged
I have different rules, depending on how ‘into’ something I am.
E.G Supernatural Series. If you told me what was going to happen in that, I would rip out your innards and feed them to the vultures. However, with Harry Potter, I couldn’t wait and got the Teen to give me a brief overview of the books (we have the 7 of them) and am ok with knowing and amlooking forward to seeing how they put it to screen. Same with the Twilight series.
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