For class today we read a fantastic piece by Kev called "The Wonderful World of the Depression: Disney, Despotism, and the 1930s. Or, Why Disney Scares Us". While reading I realised that it was probably some of the best academic discourse ever written, not in terms of quality but how questionable it was. Here is my shortlist of Kev's awesomeness.
1. Kev's carefactor = 0. He really does not care what people think. He ranges from calling Disney a Nazi to saying that the Disney Company is based on war-causing principles to relating a story of his experience of Disneyland which borders on libel. All this is conducive to humes - (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Humes).
2. Kev's analogies = awesome. One of my favourites was his likening his characterisation of Disney's empire to String Theory. Therefore, one of the sections of his essay is titled "A Disney 'String' Theory". If that's not so full of pretention as to be hardcore I don't know what is.
3. At least 1/3 of Kev's writing = not his. He literally quotes other writers for most of his essay. He seems to have a particular man-crush on a guy called Watts. Hell, if I were an academic, I'd try to do as little work as possible as well...
4. Kev's evidence = at times very questionable. He uses Scaramanga (the James Bond villain) to assert that Disney was a terrible individual. See the logic yet? He goes on to comment that Scaramanga's island home - which was fully sick - resembles Disneyland because it had tunnels. Nice, Kev. This place also has tunnels - by Kev's logic, it therefore resembles Disneyland:
By the way, this town is called Coober Pedy. It is the furthest one could get from Disneyland. It's a mining town where the weather gets so hot people have to live underground (in tunnels). As a result, all its residents bear a strong resemblance to Gollum.
5. Kev's qualifications = legendary. I could only imagine his CV: "Kev Shortsleeve, social commentator extraordinaire". Here is an excerpt of his awesomeness: "[Kev's] commentaries on children’s cultures are heard nationally on the public radio program Recess." BOOM! Take that kids! You just got commented on - nationally as well! Pretty much the most ineffective qualification I have ever heard. Apart from that, he's also studying at Oxford and got his master's at Florida - a jump of astronomic proportions...
Picture of the day - Grumpy Cat's opinions on this post:
This is great!
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