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Super Social Analysis: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and LGBT in Movies


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5 hours ago, starri said:

But hasn't that been a constant problem in a lot of movies or TV shows?  Each high school has exactly enough gay students so they can date?

...I loved Get Real.

Oh, I liked it a lot, too, and it is a common problem in almost all movies and TV shows that actually have LGBT characters (Riverdale is a glaring current example); it's the first movie I remember seeing, though, that really leaned into that trope.

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This has inspired me to have a Beautiful Thing/Get Real double feature.  May also throw in Latter Days, since the end of DST has made the day longer than it seems.  And since Beautiful Thing isn't available for streaming, I've had to break out a DVD for the first time in probably years.

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On 10/29/2018 at 5:44 PM, Just Here said:

Lena Dunham will write the harrowing survival tale of a Syrian refugee stranded at sea for the big screen.

Dunham has been tapped by co-producers Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams to adapt “A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival.”

The nonfiction release comes from author Melissa Fleming, the chief spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner [for Refugees] and Flatiron Books. It documents the true story of Doaa Al Zamel, a mother of two fleeing Egypt for Sweden by boat. Shipwrecked along the way, Al Zamel survived for days in open water holding two small children in each arm with only the support of an inflatable water ring.

Wow. None of the people involved are POC. Doaa Al Zamel had better get a producer credit considering it is her story.

On 9/23/2018 at 1:24 AM, galax-arena said:

I was watching a clip from a couple of years ago featuring Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy reminiscing over The Breakfast Club. Molly said she wasn't really on board with a straight-up remake - she said she thinks Hollywood could do a movie inspired by TBC instead - because, as much as the movie spoke to a lot of people, in hindsight the movie is "so incredibly white." lmao I liked that.

I agree that a remake would have to be more diverse. But I went to high school in Illinois when Bueller, TBC and Risky Business were made and a lot of those suburban Chicago high schools were "so incredibly white" at the time. (They still might be. Chicago is pretty segregated.)

On 10/1/2018 at 10:30 PM, methodwriter85 said:

I'm also really obsessed with the idea of him updating Do the Right Thing, but against the backdrop of a once-black Brooklyn neighborhood becoming increasingly white. His whole rant on hipsters was interesting to read.

I watched Do the Right Thing a couple of years ago and found it totally relevant for today (Unfortunately). He saw gentrification coming back in 89.

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I brought this up in the Romantic Comedies thread, but Rebel Wilson is being very white feminist and erasing black women by not only 1) claiming to be the first plus sized woman to star in a romantic comedy but also 2) doubling down on this when this claim is questioned and criticized, and refusing to apologize and 3) blocking many black women on Twitter who try to discuss this issue with her, or even just tweet about the issue in general.

https://mashable.com/article/rebel-wilson-blocking-critics-twitter/

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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Triple feature completed.  All three of them hold up.  Although the upscaling from DVD to HD makes it pretty clear that Beautiful Thing began its life as a TV movie.  I had also forgotten that there are two versions of Latter Days.  The version that streams is R, the version I have on DVD--which I probably haven't watched in years--is unrated.  They are a bit...different.

Somewhat ironically, the stars of all three movies ended up moving on from acting.  Glen Berry from Beautiful Thing sells cars, Ben Silverstone from Get Real is a barrister, and Steve/Max Sandvoss is a goat farmer.

And all three end with lovely music, although the winner is still "Dream a Little Dream of Me" from Beautiful Thing.

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I haven't seen A Home at the End of the World for a long time.  Maybe I should revisit that one when I have another day when I don't want to leave the house.  And I think someone borrowed my copy of the book and never gave it back.

I had never realized that Rob McElhenney from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was the other missionary with a speaking part.  I just remember thinking he was really hot.

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Is it that only black people seem to be criticizing her or is she letting white people's criticism stay? If the later, that is FUCKED UP.

Never could stand her, so I'm more than willing to think the worst of her, and either way, I have zero respect for celebs (or even non-celebs, or folks who think they are celebs because they have a lot of followers) who delete or block those who say negative things about them or their comments. Grow up and stand by your claims or admit you were wrong (which in this case she totally was, as evidenced by the list of plus size women in romantic lead roles), don't just block anyone who doesn't agree with you. That's what children do. 

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Blocking is fine, but all the people were doing was pointing out that she was not the first plus-size woman to star in a movie!  It's simply a fact, not even an insult or a real criticism, IMO!  It's an extremely strange reaction.  Some people did not even TAG her in these comments, meaning that she had to SEARCH for her name on Twitter to block these folks - now that's a VERY extreme reaction.  She wouldn't even get notifications for those tweets.  They'd just be on the platform and she'd never have to read them.  She could have just ignored those.

I haven't heard of a white person being blocked by her for same.  Maybe I missed one.

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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6 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

Is it that only black people seem to be criticizing her or is she letting white people's criticism stay? If the later, that is FUCKED UP.

According to The Root, it's the latter

Point one, have you seen Mo' nique or Queen Latifa? On point two, technically you could call Pretty Woman the tale of a sex worker. But no, it's universally seen as a rom-com.

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Something must have happened - it was reported in Variety, for one - because 'the great unblocking' has now begun.  Anyways, I refuse to pay 1 cent toward this woman in future because I'm petty like that.

Edited:  The new rumour is that she only unblocked black people that have the "Verified" checkmark on Twitter.  This woman has incredible balls.

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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RW’s quote: Hey girl! Yeah I of course know of these movies but it was questionable as to whether: 1. Technically those actresses were plus size when filming those movies or 2. Technically those films are catorgorized/billed as a studio rom-com with a sole lead. So there’s a slight grey area

She probably has no idea who these actresses are, and she definitely doesn’t know what movies they’ve lead. Hey girl! Just because you’ve never heard of Rom Coms with black female leads doesn’t mean they don’t exist or that they weren’t successful. 

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I've never liked her.

I never DISliked her. It's weird but for a theater fan and former choir kid, I never watched any of the Pitch Perfect movies. I did watch Super Fun Night (which was mostly painfully unfunny) and How to Be Single (which was mostly fine but she was just doing her regular shtick). 

That said, back down, girl. Just take the L. It's only becoming a thing because you're making it a thing. Also, I love The Last Holiday. Queen Latifah and LL Cool J are adorable together. Been a fan of them since Living Single. 

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I think it's really weird and kind of gross that she originally thought she could double down on her totally inaccurate statements and block out all the "haters" and that most people (white people maybe?) would be fine with it.  

At first it was, "I am the FIRST plus sized woman".
Then it became, "I know about all of the others.  Technically, they don't count."
Now her publicist has made her list all sorts of women that came before her "and likely many others".   Bahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhaha

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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On 11/5/2018 at 6:35 PM, topanga said:

She probably has no idea who these actresses are, and she definitely doesn’t know what movies they’ve lead. Hey girl! Just because you’ve never heard of Rom Coms with black female leads doesn’t mean they don’t exist or that they weren’t successful. 

 

On 11/5/2018 at 9:29 PM, aradia22 said:

I never DISliked her. It's weird but for a theater fan and former choir kid, I never watched any of the Pitch Perfect movies. I did watch Super Fun Night (which was mostly painfully unfunny) and How to Be Single (which was mostly fine but she was just doing her regular shtick). 

That said, back down, girl. Just take the L. It's only becoming a thing because you're making it a thing. Also, I love The Last Holiday. Queen Latifah and LL Cool J are adorable together. Been a fan of them since Living Single. 

 

9 hours ago, callie lee 29 said:

I never got the Rebel love. As others have said, painfully unfunny and rather desperate. The admittedly few things I've seen her in she always seemed to be an unpleasant person.

This reminds me of the time she was on Graham Norton with Matt LeBlanc & Kit Harrington (? - Jon Snow) and was so consistently and determinedly proud of her ignorance of Friends, Game of Thrones, and popular entertainment generally that Matt LeBlanc snapped at her. She's just vulgar and stupid.

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I also saw her on an episode of Million Dollar Listing NYC last season.  Did you guys see it?  Fredrik took her to a couple of apartments and she seemed so uninterested; I 100% think she was on the show simply to promote herself.  50 Cent kind of did the same thing - EXCEPT he ended up donating some multimillion dollar mansion to a charity for children.

If you check Twitter for examples, others have discussed her being racially problematic before.  Not new for her.

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I've not commented on this because I don't know that much about her and I've only seen her in one thing, the first Pitch Perfect. She appears to be a thoroughly unpleasant person though. I could swear that sometime back there was something about her claiming to be younger than she was too. I just don't understand stuff like that, it's not like it's that hard to find out someone's real age. Why lie about it?

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The best part about that age lie is that she apparently bitched about how younger women in Hollywood aren't treated as seriously as older women are despite shaving a good 5-7 years from her age. And then she sued an Australian tabloid for outing her about it and won a 3.4 million dollar settlement.

Edited by methodwriter85
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She claimed that the tabloid defamed her by calling her a serial liar.  Except, you know, in addition to lying about her age, she also lied about her upbringing.

ETA:  I'm also assuming Australian libel laws are similar to the UK ones, where it's on the defendant to prove that they didn't libel the plaintiff, unlike the US where it's the other way around.

Edited by starri
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13 minutes ago, starri said:

She claimed that the tabloid defamed her by calling her a serial liar.  Except, you know, in addition to lying about her age, she also lied about her upbringing.

Is it defamation if it's true? I mean, look, she's still doing it by claiming to be the first plus sized lead in a romantic comedy. lol She's basically proven them right over and over again.

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On 11/4/2018 at 9:36 PM, starri said:

I had never realized that Rob McElhenney from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was the other missionary with a speaking part.  I just remember thinking he was really hot.

That really was a pretty talented cast with a surprising amount of names/future names given how lowbudget it was- still a shame that Steve/Max Sandvoss didn't get anything substantial after. He pretty much played the pretty frat boy in his subsequent movies and t.v. shows. I really don't blame the guy for moving on when he hit his 30's. Wes Ramsey was able to land a steady gig with Charmed and then various soaps and so he's stayed in the game. Still looks pretty good, too.

I think my favorite part of Latter Days was when Christian meets up with this slutty gay dude and he only wants sexy roleplay instead of anything relating to intimacy. I don't do the online thing now, but I spent a lot of time chatting back then, and it was bang-on accurate, especially at the beginning when Christian thinks he's meeting a guy who went by the username Str8Curious. It just really seemed to capture that moment in time of being gay in America in the early 2000's- being gay was acceptable by the mainstream at that point, but you were still kind of expected to be either some flamboyant queen or a str8-acting, discreet jock type, and everything was set to some raver music soundtrack. LOL.

I did think the spectre of AIDS had really receded by that point so Erik Palladino's plot feels really dated more to the mid-90's, but whatever. I did like how Latter Days showed the influence of the internet on gay culture in the early 2000's. I kind of wonder what Christian's chat name was. My guess would be HotBoi4U78. LOL.

Anyway,I got back from seeing Boy Erased, I liked it, and Lucas Hedges acquitted himself well, but I kind of felt like things were sugarcoated a little. Giving that this got an R-rating, I was expecting to see much more brutality within the confines of the conversion therapy procession. Things were hinted at, and

Spoiler

one guy does commit suicide while Lucas's character gets raped by the guy who eventually outs him,

but I really expected something more searing. It just felt more soft-focus than it should have have been. I still remember getting a talk at school back in '09 from a guy who went through it, and he was given electroshock therapy. As a result, his memory wasn't what it was, and he had to carry a ton of index cards with him when he was giving his speech. That kind of stuff wasn't even hinted at, although I didn't read the book so I don't know if the real Jared saw things like that happening.

Also, Joe Alwyn. Mmm. I mean, his character's a putz but man that dude is pretty.

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I'm going to take a moment to mention Regina Hall, because she basically ensured that she will never appear in a Tyler Perry movie, which have kept a lot of black actors and actresses employed over the years. But she's actually looking set for a pretty good year and that's awesome. Way to buck the system and still thrive regardless, Regina.

Regina King is the actor on The Boondocks, though.  (And Regina Hall is the actress in the article linked upthread).  They are two different people.

Regina King is the actor on The Boondocks and is getting a lot of buzz this year because of If Beale Street Could Talk.
Regina Hall is the actor who is getting a lot of buzz this year because of Support the Girls.

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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10 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Regina King is the actor on The Boondocks, though.

Right. Corrected. Still, my point remains- she made the conscious decision to slam the door shut on appearing in any Tyler Perry movie after she did that episode of the Boondocks. I thought that was pretty chill of her to do that because Tyler Perry movies have kept a large amount of black actors and actresses employed throughout the years. As a black actress past the ingenue age who has worked steady but never really hit A-list, it says a lot about her convictions about the kind of messages that Tyler Perry movies send out that she'd forsake the chance to work under that juggernaut in order to help illuminate how problematic those movies are.

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In 8th Grade, we see Elsie Fisher's character get

Spoiler

propositioned by a 17-year old guy and it's a bad thing.

In Mid-90's, we see

Spoiler

the 13-year old boy played by an 11-year old actor make out with an actress who looks at least 17, and then there's some inferred 3rd base action that happens, and it's a triumph.

I thought it was an interesting contrast. I personally find that Mid-90's scene squicky as hell and not something I wanted to cheer on, but I felt like we were supposed to. Meanwhile, we get the message from 8th Grade that

Spoiler

girls find out pretty soon that they have to fend off advances from lecherous guys, who will often try to take advantage of a younger girl because they think they can manipulate her. Meanwhile, the lesson in Mid-90's seems to be that it's kind of a sweet for a hot older girl to give a young boy his first sexual experience.

Yeah, I don't know, that part of Mid-90's just left a bad taste in my mouth. It also just kind of makes me think of the double standard that exists with how teen girl and teen guy sexuality are often portrayed. Basically, that girls are often taught how to say no, while guys are often taught how to say yes. What does that say about society?

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On 12/3/2018 at 1:39 AM, methodwriter85 said:

Right. Corrected. Still, my point remains- she made the conscious decision to slam the door shut on appearing in any Tyler Perry movie after she did that episode of the Boondocks. I thought that was pretty chill of her to do that because Tyler Perry movies have kept a large amount of black actors and actresses employed throughout the years. As a black actress past the ingenue age who has worked steady but never really hit A-list, it says a lot about her convictions about the kind of messages that Tyler Perry movies send out that she'd forsake the chance to work under that juggernaut in order to help illuminate how problematic those movies are.

I agree with you. Roles for women over 35 aren’t plentiful in Hollywood, and being a WOC on top of that (even after years in the business) and many people would take what the can get to keep working- which I wouldn’t blame them for. I do respect someone standing by their convictions in this way. 

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On 7/18/2016 at 5:57 PM, Kel Varnsen said:

It just makes  me wonder, because I get the feeling if a British actor was cast as Captain America, you would probably hear lots of complaints. If a French actor was cast as James Bond people would lose their shit. With Black Panther you aren't seeing the same thing even though being from Africa defines him the same way being British defines Bond. Now is it just because people aren't as familiar with the character? Or is it the kind of thing where people are just happy that they are getting a black super hero movie and figuring that is god enough? Kinda settling as it were.

If memory serves,  there was a flap about Henry Cavil and another.

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1 hour ago, Morrigan2575 said:

Christian Bale as Batman there were complaints about both "American" characters being played by Brits.

Bale is actually Welsh, but the point stands. Who gives a flying fig noodle? Certainly not me. If the actor or actress can play the part.

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1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Bale is actually Welsh, but the point stands. Who gives a flying fig noodle? Certainly not me. If the actor or actress can play the part.

Sorry, I’m going to put on my geography-nerd hat for a sec: “British” refers to anyone from the UK (not just people from England), so Bale is indeed a Brit, specifically a Welsh Brit. In any event, I also don’t care if a non-American actor is cast in an American role, as long as the actor can do the accent. I cannot stand poor accents, but there are plenty of American actors who can’t do regional American accents (Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help is a prime, horrifying example), so I’m an equal-opportunity hater on that front.😆

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25 minutes ago, NUguy514 said:

Sorry, I’m going to put on my geography-nerd hat for a sec: “British” refers to anyone from the UK (not just people from England), so Bale is indeed a Brit, specifically a Welsh Brit. In any event, I also don’t care if a non-American actor is cast in an American role, as long as the actor can do the accent. I cannot stand poor accents, but there are plenty of American actors who can’t do regional American accents (Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help is a prime, horrifying example), so I’m an equal-opportunity hater on that front.😆

I stand corrected.😀

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On 12/3/2018 at 1:39 AM, methodwriter85 said:

Right. Corrected. Still, my point remains- she made the conscious decision to slam the door shut on appearing in any Tyler Perry movie after she did that episode of the Boondocks. I thought that was pretty chill of her to do that because Tyler Perry movies have kept a large amount of black actors and actresses employed throughout the years. As a black actress past the ingenue age who has worked steady but never really hit A-list, it says a lot about her convictions about the kind of messages that Tyler Perry movies send out that she'd forsake the chance to work under that juggernaut in order to help illuminate how problematic those movies are.

The thing with Regina King is that she often gets on the radar of people who tend to work/produce a lot. She's very good and professional so they tend to cast her again. She's done multiple projects with John Ridley, John Singleton, John Wells, and Damon Lindelof and she's actually friends with Sandra Bullock. So she's got this slight advantage that other actresses of color or over a certain age might not have.

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8 hours ago, NUguy514 said:

Sorry, I’m going to put on my geography-nerd hat for a sec: “British” refers to anyone from the UK (not just people from England), so Bale is indeed a Brit, specifically a Welsh Brit. In any event, I also don’t care if a non-American actor is cast in an American role, as long as the actor can do the accent. I cannot stand poor accents, but there are plenty of American actors who can’t do regional American accents (Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help is a prime, horrifying example), so I’m an equal-opportunity hater on that front.😆

It's not just Americans that do this.  Remember the response when Rene Zellweger was first cast as Bridget Jones? 

Edited by raezen
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16 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Anne Hathaway's turn in One Day was specifically cited in an article about how British ladies should play British book heroines, in an article about Emilia Clarke playing Lou in Me Before You.

I don't mind Hathaway and have liked her in a number of roles, but she had a terrible accent in One Day. It changed scene to scene and was very distracting. She lobbied the director for the role, but she was really under prepared for it.

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On 12/21/2018 at 6:18 PM, NUguy514 said:

Sorry, I’m going to put on my geography-nerd hat for a sec: “British” refers to anyone from the UK (not just people from England), so Bale is indeed a Brit, specifically a Welsh Brit. In any event, I also don’t care if a non-American actor is cast in an American role, as long as the actor can do the accent. I cannot stand poor accents, but there are plenty of American actors who can’t do regional American accents (Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help is a prime, horrifying example), so I’m an equal-opportunity hater on that front.😆

 

On 12/21/2018 at 6:44 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

I stand corrected.😀

And I'm going put on my nerd hat and point out that British is only somebody from Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales).  People from Northern Ireland are not technically British as the full title of the UK is the 'United kingdom of Great Britain AND Northern Ireland'

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I recently saw Mary Queen of Scots, and while I was disappointed overall one did I did like was that POC were actually cast in a period piece.  There were several minor roles that were played by people of color. Some people seem to be really put of by it, citing historical accuracy. But I tend to think that if we accept an actor playing a historical figures that don't resemble that figure in the slightest to begin with, that skin color isn't more important than height or hair color. The film isn't a documentary and the characters are never presented in a way that implies the filmmakers think they characters would have been poc in real life, so I don't see why it's inherently more historically inaccurate than an Irish woman and an Aussie playing a Scottish and English queen. 

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7 hours ago, Proclone said:

I recently saw Mary Queen of Scots, and while I was disappointed overall one did I did like was that POC were actually cast in a period piece.  There were several minor roles that were played by people of color. Some people seem to be really put of by it, citing historical accuracy.

Every time someone says this, all I can think of is that Psych meme.

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On 12/28/2018 at 3:50 AM, Proclone said:

I recently saw Mary Queen of Scots, and while I was disappointed overall one did I did like was that POC were actually cast in a period piece.  There were several minor roles that were played by people of color. Some people seem to be really put of by it, citing historical accuracy. But I tend to think that if we accept an actor playing a historical figures that don't resemble that figure in the slightest to begin with, that skin color isn't more important than height or hair color. The film isn't a documentary and the characters are never presented in a way that implies the filmmakers think they characters would have been poc in real life, so I don't see why it's inherently more historically inaccurate than an Irish woman and an Aussie playing a Scottish and English queen. 

I agree with you.  Also I bet those people won't have a problem with movies like The Favourite, who made actual, real historical figures in 1708 [SPOILER AHEAD]

Spoiler

lesbians that said "Fuck this" and "C*** that" all of the time.

Was that historically accurate?  We don't know.  Could be, but I tend to think not.  Yet movies like that are always eaten up with a spoon.

On 12/28/2018 at 11:48 AM, PepSinger said:

Every time someone says this, all I can think of is that Psych meme.

Can you show us, or at least tell us what you mean?

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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