(This is from this week’s New Yorker, so presumably references the current sorry state of the world)
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People use VR headsets for simulating exciting situations such as flying a plane or fighting aliens.
After several weeks of isolation, this guy finds it exciting to simulate being in a crowd.
The joke is that standing in line is usually boring and frustrating, but in the current situation, it can seem interesting.
The device keeps him 6 feet from everyone
Given the current state of affairs, I found the comic amusing.
Pete has it.
I smiled.
I see it exactly as Pete does.
Also, there are some special features of movie lines, such as watching the faces of the seating before yours on the way out , or even receiving their unsolicited one-second reviews.
C W A A
It could be that the VRnaut is seeking the thrill–or novelty–of being in a crowd after being removed for so long. Or it could be related to the OT thread we had on going to the movies. Maybe this is saying that watching movies has become an at home experience, thanks to streaming, and now technology is about to bring home the “unique” experiences of attending the movie theatre.
I think the cartoonist’s intention was the former, but I prefer the latter.
I agree with Mitch4 that the experience of seeing it with others and having the shared experience and reactions is one of the (usually) good things about the cinema experience.
When CGI first came out it was often used in movies to create things like impossible monsters, futuristic high-tech cities and spaceships circling distant planets. Even then I wondered if there would come a time when the world was so denuded of natural elements that CGI would instead be used in movies to create cows and woodlands (and spaceships circling distant planets).
I don’t think anyone has made this precise point: he is simulating something dangerous that he can’t do in real life because it is perilous: standing in a crowd.
I don’t think it has anything to do with keeping people six-feet away. It doesn’t look like it moves, and it’s clearly for simulation. Just a very sophisticated VR device.
I keep waiting for Hank Hill to pop-up to say: “There’s something not right about that boy!”
And perhaps a nod to all the tech-based ways cinemas have been trying to escape the traditional movie experience: Reservations, restaurant food delivered, 3D glasses and seats that shudder and rock in sync with the movie.
Oh, it most definitely moves. But it stays in one spot too. Looks like the multi-axis trainer. It allows for movement in any direction. It would be the ultimate VR accessory.
It looks like the artist sort of based the look at least partially on the Aerotrim, though, as the user is in a standing position.
Any ideas to reprise Smellovision?
The experience is unforgetable, even if the movie isn’t…
Mitch4, you can get an at home version. The Criterion Channel’s release of John Waters’ Polyester comes with a scratch-and-sniff “Odorama” card just like you would have received during its theatrical run. I think it’s probably a better solution, as it gives each viewer control over whether they wish to smell the smell and how much they wish to smell it. https://www.criterion.com/films/28714-polyester
My impression was that he wanted to simulate being in line for a movie as he misses doing so. (Though we don’t generally have to wait in a line (gee, so much want to use the NY “wait on line – another difference by area in how things are said in different areas from a strip that comes after this for all of you,before it for me it comes before as I start at the new strips and work my way back) when we go to the movies as we go to the late show,we both sure miss going to the movies every Saturday night. Watching a movie on TV is just not the same.
People use VR headsets for simulating exciting situations such as flying a plane or fighting aliens.
After several weeks of isolation, this guy finds it exciting to simulate being in a crowd.
The joke is that standing in line is usually boring and frustrating, but in the current situation, it can seem interesting.
The device keeps him 6 feet from everyone
Given the current state of affairs, I found the comic amusing.
Pete has it.
I smiled.
I see it exactly as Pete does.
Also, there are some special features of movie lines, such as watching the faces of the seating before yours on the way out , or even receiving their unsolicited one-second reviews.
C W A A
It could be that the VRnaut is seeking the thrill–or novelty–of being in a crowd after being removed for so long. Or it could be related to the OT thread we had on going to the movies. Maybe this is saying that watching movies has become an at home experience, thanks to streaming, and now technology is about to bring home the “unique” experiences of attending the movie theatre.
I think the cartoonist’s intention was the former, but I prefer the latter.
I agree with Mitch4 that the experience of seeing it with others and having the shared experience and reactions is one of the (usually) good things about the cinema experience.
When CGI first came out it was often used in movies to create things like impossible monsters, futuristic high-tech cities and spaceships circling distant planets. Even then I wondered if there would come a time when the world was so denuded of natural elements that CGI would instead be used in movies to create cows and woodlands (and spaceships circling distant planets).
I don’t think anyone has made this precise point: he is simulating something dangerous that he can’t do in real life because it is perilous: standing in a crowd.
I don’t think it has anything to do with keeping people six-feet away. It doesn’t look like it moves, and it’s clearly for simulation. Just a very sophisticated VR device.
I keep waiting for Hank Hill to pop-up to say: “There’s something not right about that boy!”
And perhaps a nod to all the tech-based ways cinemas have been trying to escape the traditional movie experience: Reservations, restaurant food delivered, 3D glasses and seats that shudder and rock in sync with the movie.
Oh, it most definitely moves. But it stays in one spot too. Looks like the multi-axis trainer. It allows for movement in any direction. It would be the ultimate VR accessory.
It looks like the artist sort of based the look at least partially on the Aerotrim, though, as the user is in a standing position.
Any ideas to reprise Smellovision?
The experience is unforgetable, even if the movie isn’t…
Mitch4, you can get an at home version. The Criterion Channel’s release of John Waters’ Polyester comes with a scratch-and-sniff “Odorama” card just like you would have received during its theatrical run. I think it’s probably a better solution, as it gives each viewer control over whether they wish to smell the smell and how much they wish to smell it. https://www.criterion.com/films/28714-polyester
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-O-Vision
My impression was that he wanted to simulate being in line for a movie as he misses doing so. (Though we don’t generally have to wait in a line (gee, so much want to use the NY “wait on line – another difference by area in how things are said in different areas from a strip that comes after this for all of you,before it for me it comes before as I start at the new strips and work my way back) when we go to the movies as we go to the late show,we both sure miss going to the movies every Saturday night. Watching a movie on TV is just not the same.