Discussing
'Glee': Celebrating the Corny in Culture

Nathan Bierma

Melissa
June 8, 2010

I like this posting because I feel it really speak to those into pop-culture. I think people get stuck into ruts of how things should be, shows should be serious and hard-hitting. I think "Glee" provides a unique opportunity for people to enjoy the lighter-side of life, somewhere we can escape to enjoy the corniness of life.
I also liked this post because you use Think Christian to reach out to people through a pop-culture posting. I think postings like these help the average, doubter of Christianity see the face of a believer and how real you can be-- that you aren't religiou 24/7, but also face the same struggles and aspects of life as anyone else.

zetify.com

Todd Hertz
June 9, 2010

The interesting thing I've found with this show is that the campy corniness can lead me to have fun with thematic content and then realize, "Wait, that's not fun." I feel like the show has gotten better in this regard, but early on especially there were several episodes that made me feel kind of like "Ewww, I am having fun...rooting for adultery?" I think the key is simply having fun with the corniness while keeping the mind in gear.

Jeff Carpenter
June 9, 2010

It is what it is---campy, corny---and it has an appeal. Was it P.T. Barnum (or Mark Twain) who said "there's no accounting for the taste of the American public"--? Not everyone can scale the heights of highbrow culture, as in opera or symphony music; not everyone can appreciate Broadway show tunes. Insert your favorite/disfavorite genre of music or literature for that matter, another whole discussion entirely, and join the age-old argument: is it about an inherent value, or is it about personal taste?
What I find ironic about the show is its "arts-based" vehicle within a school culture, and how time and time again, in real society,when education budgets get tight, the arts are deemed peripheral and get cut first. Dare suggest cutting math or science before art/music/languages . . . . then again, the cop drama "Numbers" had its appeal to the theoretical mathematics crowd.

Rickd
June 9, 2010

I feel like I’m hearing Julie Andrews sing, “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”. Isn’t adultery funny and cute? And isn’t homosexuality cute and completely normal? (cue the laugh track here). The only characters on the show disapproving of homosexuality are vicious school bullies! Surprise! (cue the boos here). The students lie, they cheat, they steal, they lust, they lace the bake-sale cupcakes with pot in order to give the student body a severe case of the munchies. Nearly all the Ten Commandments get violated at one point or another, while the audience is invited to laugh at people's pain and folly and humiliation". Cartoon devil on left shoulder: Oh, it’s just entertainment, lighten up. Cartoon angel on right shoulder: Nathan, why do you do this to me?

Amy Sullivan
June 10, 2010

I don't want to like Glee, but I can't help, but love it.

Bwf
June 11, 2010

Sometimes sinful things are depicted in fiction. That doesn't mean that these things are considered ok.

In fact, sometimes it's a good thing to depict them in order to expose evil for what it is. Don't you think that bullying is a serious thing that needs to be condemned?

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