Do you ever despair of other people's opinions?

[TC Raymond]

I know a bloke who reckons Love Thy Neighbour is the best comedy series ever, giving Fawlty Towers a grudging 4 out of 10 and admitting he can't "get his head around" Monty Python. Worse still, he loves all the On the Buses films, openly admits to watching the 'bored housewives and students' end of the television spectrum (This Morning) whilst rating it as top television, and to make matters even worse he's one of those "the BBC would go to the wall if it had to support itself, meanwhile ITV is brilliant and everything they've ever done is ace" bores. The pisser is, he's a really decent bloke, but his tastes are absolutely dire. Just now he's sent me an e-mail moaning at me because I like Life On Mars, and he, of course, thinks it's shit - yet he loved the fucking Grimleys and Baddiel and Skinner's unplanned smugathon.

Each to their own and all that shit, but COME ON. I also feel close to committing murder whenever I see anyone wearing a Mighty Boosh t-shirt.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

Block his calls and pretend you don't know him when you meet. The fellow is scum, pure and simple.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I think I despair at consistently abhorrent opinions and received opinions. If someone goes out on a limb and is a cunt on one particular subject/issue, it doesn't nark me as much as knowing what someone is going to say about something, before they say it. Even sometimes if I agree with them, which I acknowledge, is quite odd.

[Captain Crunch]

TC I think you love it really, I bet you and your friend go at it like a couple of Hoxton Queens (verbally only of course) and you both slag each other off but secretly love the venting.

The only thing that gets me mildly irked these days is people who come out with glib toss like "yea well when I was young and naive I only listened to metal but now I like all sorts of music".  Not so much the opinion, just the compulsion to tell everyone how mature and eclectic they are.  What do you want, a fucking biscuit for owning a bit of Bach?

[Banana Woofwoof]

Yeah, that fucks me off too.  And the "eclectic" bit of music people throw into their profiles, like their token Doris Day or something.

[The Mumbler]

The cliche goes that if everyone liked the same things, it would be a very dull world. So my mother said when my brother and I would have arguments about which band was better. A cliche, but sort of true. I don't mind if other people have different opinions to mine, just so long as a) they're not trying to be clever for the sake of it, and b) are just trying to be fashionable. Because we have a weird kind of reversed cliche now, which is "There is a set text of stuff that's good and rubbish". Which is a dull world.

As long as people have made up their own minds, what's actually wrong with that? I might disagree with people who don't like Monty Python, but if they have interesting reasons about why they don't like it, what's the problem?

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

I don't really care if other people like things I don't, because I'm not full of hate like [banned troll], but I do get pissed off when people make some wildly innacurate/immature/idiotic dismissal of a band that means a lot to me then refuse to take part in any kind of adult exchange about it. People who take glee in stating how things are crap in front of people who like that thing. Any discussion that starts 'You like the White Stripes? But they're shit!' is never going to turn into an interesting exchange.

[thewomb]

Fans of rock group The Killers.

[surreal]

I don't really care if other people like things I don't, because I'm not full of hate like [banned troll], but I do get pissed off when people make some wildly innacurate/immature/idiotic dismissal of a band that means a lot to me then refuse to take part in any kind of adult exchange about it. People who take glee in stating how things are crap in front of people who like that thing. Any discussion that starts 'You like the White Stripes? But they're shit!' is never going to turn into an interesting exchange.

I think its the phrasing that annoys me the most - I know people who will say "oh such-and-such is shit" when really its just that they don't like it, which doesn't automatically make something shit.  Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but please bear in mind that "everyone" is not just you...

[ccab]

I don't agree. If something is genuinely shit, I can understand why its critic might not want to bother itemising its weaknesses.

Your opinion, surreal - it's SHIT.

[surreal]

I don't agree. If something is genuinely shit, I can understand why its critic might not want to bother itemising its weaknesses.

Your opinion, surreal - it's SHIT.

I may not agree with your opinion, ccab, but I'll defend to the death your right to express it... (your death, of course)

[The Duck Man]

Well, as someone said, it'd be dull if everyone thought the same. I do despair many opinions I expressed (HYS, anyone) but I console myself with the fact that I'm always right.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I was thinking of starting a thread like this recently. There are some posters on here who I think are genuinely brilliant, who make me laugh on a day to day basis, and who also contribute to a variety of fascinating threads.

And then I'll see one of them ripping apart a comedy I love like Arrested Development, and I'll think, arrrgh, how could you?!?! You seem to be such a great person, but how can you not like something which is so utterly wonderful?

It's not as if it taints my feelings towards them on a long term basis, but it really does confuse me sometimes how someone can seem to be so fantastic and yet so very wrong at the same time. : )

[CaledonianGonzo]

I had an experience of this at a dinner party tonight.  When asked if I was going to any festivals over the summer, I answered that I was off to the Isle of Wight to see the Rolling Stones.  Cue much tutting and shaking of heads and a bit of:

THE STROLLING BONES!!!LOLLLZZ!

But one guy just couldn't let it go.  "They're old", quoth he.  Why?  It doesn't make sense!  They'll just play old songs!

No amount of 'They'll rock your face off' would persuade him that this was completely irrational behaviour.  

Knowing he had recently shelled out a fortune to go and see Madonna, I pointed out that today's pop kids may hold a similar opinion of her, viz. she may be a relic of an older era, more people are there for nostalgia than for the new stuff, if she did a set consisting of entirely recent vintage people'd feel short changed, etc. etc.

Completely unable to see the comparison, he ploughed on with 'They've got wrinkles' and 'It's undignified' (as if there's anything remotely dignified about Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out).  Towards the end I pulled out the - 'She doesn't even sing live.  She's miming to backing tapes' defence, to which he responded that it didn't matter.  She could do a headstand.  Could Mick Jagger?

My response: 'He doesn't have to' still failed to sway him.  Some people just won't swallow a spoonful of Brown Sugar.

[session9]

TC I think you love it really, I bet you and your friend go at it like a couple of Hoxton Queens (verbally only of course) and you both slag each other off but secretly love the venting.

The only thing that gets me mildly irked these days is people who come out with glib toss like "yea well when I was young and naive I only listened to metal but now I like all sorts of music".  Not so much the opinion, just the compulsion to tell everyone how mature and eclectic they are.  What do you want, a fucking biscuit for owning a bit of Bach?

Yeah well when I was young and naive I only listened to metal but now I like all sorts of music. And I do want a fucking biscuit, it's 3.25 in the morning and I've got the munchies. So fuck off.