HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

Nathan Rabin: Confessions of a Trash-Culture Connoisseur

Views:796
@ReasonVids

"I am a professional rememberer," writes Nathan Rabin in The Joy of Trash. "It is my duty to remember not just for my own but for society."
------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ReasonTV?subconfirmation=1
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------
Rabin is really taking one for the team here, especially since his new book accurately bills itself as the "definitive guide to the very worst of everything." Among the godawful things he explicates are Academy Award-winning actress Joan Crawford's bizzare and patently false 1971 lifestyle guide, My Way of Life; the misbegotten Brady Bunch Variety Hour, which improbably included numerous "water ballet" routines along with endless dad jokes; cocaine-addicted movie producer Robert Evans' 1981 court-ordered, star-studded, anti-drug TV special Get High on Yourself; and the entirety of billionaire Mike Bloomberg's 2020 presidential candidacy.

Rabin was the headwriter for The A.V. Club for two decades and the inventor of the popular-but-controversial term "Manic Pixie Dreamgirl" to describe a recurring film character who "exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." He now runs his own website, Nathan Rabin's Happy Place, where he sifts through all manner of cultural detritus with endless wit and energy. He also co-hosts Travolta/Cage, a podcast about "the greatest actors in history."

The 45-year-old Rabin talks with Nick Gillespie about how his Gen X roots inform his appreciation for and critique of consumer culture. Kids his age, he explains, learned early on through D.A.R.E. and transparently phony TV shows that adults and other authorities were often lying. Gen X came of age in the 1990s, he says, a time when the belief that technology would make everything perfect was widespread, an optimism severely tested both by the bursting of the tech bubble and the 9/11 attacks. "Irony and satire and comedy," he says, "can bring light to a very dark situation, and it can be very cathartic being able to laugh at things that you're not supposed to laugh about or being able to laugh about things that are incredibly dark."

Rabin also discusses how musician Grimes, who had a widely covered relationship and two children with billionaire Elon Musk, is reclaiming—or perhaps satirizing—the manic pixie dream girl trope and why Weird Al Yankovic, the subject of a good deal of his writing, has had a career far longer than most of the people he parodies.

Interview by Nick Gillespie; edited by Adam Czarnecki.

    Thumbnail for Do Studies Show Gun Control Works?16:13
    Do Studies Show Gun Control Works?
    ReasonVids
    1029 views
    Thumbnail for Swindlers Grift. Another great song by foundring2:42
    Swindlers Grift. Another great song by foundring
    bestofvoatxyz
    891 views
    Thumbnail for If Bill Gates is Henry Reardon, Who is Paul Krugman? An Interview with Donald Luskin6:08
    If Bill Gates is Henry Reardon, Who is Paul Krugman? An Interview with Donald Luskin
    ReasonVids
    980 views
    Thumbnail for How did you clean up the eraser shavings? #shorts | Stationery Pal0:26
    How did you clean up the eraser shavings? #shorts | Stationery Pal
    invidious
    203 views
    Thumbnail for 雨ニモ雷ニモ負ケズ☔️⚡️#SnowMan #EMPIRE #RAYS #阿部亮平 #本気はまぶしい #YouTubeShorts | Snow Man0:33
    雨ニモ雷ニモ負ケズ☔️⚡️#SnowMan #EMPIRE #RAYS #阿部亮平 #本気はまぶしい #YouTubeShorts | Snow Man
    invidious
    220 views
    Thumbnail for 【中天直播#LIVE】離奇! 美客機"倒栽蔥"降落 乘客"蝙蝠掛"砸天花板18傷 20250218  @中天新聞CtiNews  ​ | 中天電視5:43:35
    【中天直播#LIVE】離奇! 美客機"倒栽蔥"降落 乘客"蝙蝠掛"砸天花板18傷 20250218 @中天新聞CtiNews ​ | 中天電視
    invidious
    152 views
    Thumbnail for pride month in india0:47
    pride month in india
    bestofupgoat
    158 views
    Thumbnail for ศึกโยนเผือกร้อนตัดไฟ ไทยเลี้ยงเมืองบาป โรมจี้ ไม่ตัดเพราะเอื้อไทยเทา? | THE STANDARD NOW1:04:27
    ศึกโยนเผือกร้อนตัดไฟ ไทยเลี้ยงเมืองบาป โรมจี้ ไม่ตัดเพราะเอื้อไทยเทา? | THE STANDARD NOW
    invidious
    106 views
    Thumbnail for Will California Legalize Pot? Q&A With Tom Ammaniano9:44
    Will California Legalize Pot? Q&A With Tom Ammaniano
    ReasonVids
    936 views
    Thumbnail for MORTAL KOMBAT 1 STORY MODE Walkthrough Gameplay Part 10 - TANYA (MK1 2023) | theRadBrad22:51
    MORTAL KOMBAT 1 STORY MODE Walkthrough Gameplay Part 10 - TANYA (MK1 2023) | theRadBrad
    invidious
    420 views
    Thumbnail for Don't Date Damaged Goods | Popp Culture23:53
    Don't Date Damaged Goods | Popp Culture
    Terrence Popp
    1556 views
    Thumbnail for We Used Evolution To Create The Deadliest Beyblade! - Trailmakers Multiplayer | ScrapMan26:06
    We Used Evolution To Create The Deadliest Beyblade! - Trailmakers Multiplayer | ScrapMan
    gaming.topic
    776 views
    Thumbnail for I promise I won’t get all political. Me at the in-laws after a spiked cider on Thanksgiving: | FunnyMemeSpot0:45
    I promise I won’t get all political. Me at the in-laws after a spiked cider on Thanksgiving: | FunnyMemeSpot
    invidious
    199 views
    Thumbnail for Biden/Fetter doesnt matter. Same retard0:15
    Biden/Fetter doesnt matter. Same retard
    voatcatbox
    387 views
    Thumbnail for [LIVE] LEGO Cars: Best Videos Compilation and More Magical for Monyet Hewan mengendarai motor LEGO 9 | Ox1Gaming91:00
    [LIVE] LEGO Cars: Best Videos Compilation and More Magical for Monyet Hewan mengendarai motor LEGO 9 | Ox1Gaming9
    invidious
    390 views
    Thumbnail for Remy: Why They Fought2:19
    Remy: Why They Fought
    ReasonVids
    1005 views
    Thumbnail for When you've killed 5 zombies, 2 vampires, and 3 witches but start wondering why they all had candy | FunnyMemeSpot0:11
    When you've killed 5 zombies, 2 vampires, and 3 witches but start wondering why they all had candy | FunnyMemeSpot
    invidious
    184 views
    Thumbnail for Is Selfishness a Virtue? A Debate With Yaron Brook and Gene Epstein.1:21:00
    Is Selfishness a Virtue? A Debate With Yaron Brook and Gene Epstein.
    ReasonVids
    758 views
    Thumbnail for Dying Patients vs. the FDA: 'Right to Try' Laws Give Hope - And Time4:52
    Dying Patients vs. the FDA: 'Right to Try' Laws Give Hope - And Time
    ReasonVids
    884 views
    Thumbnail for Ending the Global Drug War: Voices from the Front Lines6:19
    Ending the Global Drug War: Voices from the Front Lines
    ReasonVids
    963 views
    Thumbnail for When Democrats Loved Deregulation4:54
    When Democrats Loved Deregulation
    ReasonVids
    964 views
    Thumbnail for Where Are the Female Libertarians? Allison Gibbs on the Ladies of Liberty Alliance5:45
    Where Are the Female Libertarians? Allison Gibbs on the Ladies of Liberty Alliance
    ReasonVids
    1026 views
    Thumbnail for Build More Housing! San Francisco's YIMBY Movement Has a Plan to Solve the City's Housing Crisis8:32
    Build More Housing! San Francisco's YIMBY Movement Has a Plan to Solve the City's Housing Crisis
    ReasonVids
    1030 views
    Thumbnail for He Really Should Be in Trouble For This | The Civil Rights Lawyer11:59
    He Really Should Be in Trouble For This | The Civil Rights Lawyer
    invidious
    332 views
    Thumbnail for "Kontra 24" με τον Μάριο Αραβαντινό και τη Λουκία Γκάτσου 11 Νοε.2024 | Kontra Channel1:56:28
    "Kontra 24" με τον Μάριο Αραβαντινό και τη Λουκία Γκάτσου 11 Νοε.2024 | Kontra Channel
    invidious
    177 views

points

Permalink
Reply
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle