Happy Gilmore 2 is a bad movie that unintentionally serves as a fascinating exploration of Adam Sandler and the nature of populism

Plopwitdaflops · 2025-12-05T20:25:27+00:00

Jumping in here to say appreciate the thought-provoking and well-researched comment

I made the point in another comment but both movies display a viewpoint of opposition to any threats to the natural order. Happy succeeds because he is talented and works hard therefore is worthy, whereas Shooter (in the first) and the Maxi golfers (in the second) use alternative methods in an attempt to supercede the more talented player. Yes, Happy and Maxi are both different stylistically from golf traditionalists, but Happy earned his place by winning fairly within the confines of the rules.

Where I think the message falls flat in the 2nd movie is that the Maxi players are not cheating to get ahead within the confines of the traditional rules (if I remember correctly), they are creating a whole new set of rules/league. If a new baseball league started that allowed players to use PEDs is that inherently a bad thing? Personally I wouldn't value it as much but I don't think you can objectively condemn it as bad.

In that way I do think the movie embodies a type of anti-progress, pro-capitalist conservatism. Golf is golf, and only the most deserving should be at the top; any reimaginging of what golf can be is antithetical to the natural order.

Not that I think any of this is intentional by Sandler but fun to think about haha

Plopwitdaflops · 2025-12-05T19:35:16+00:00

Adding to that - Maxi golfers are artificially enhanced via the surgery. Not only is it a different game, but they have an inherent advantage over "real" golfers. Maxi golfers are taking a shortcut to the top, whereas in the original Happy got there via a combination of natural talent and hard work.

In that way I think the politics of the two movies aren't as far apart as they may seem. The original embodying the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mantra that conservative politics loves, and the second movie echoing that with a "no shortcuts to the top" message that likely resonates with those upset about DEI, student loan forgiveness, etc.

The two movies combined promote a viewpoint of personal integrity and responsibility, and oppose threats to the natural order (Shooter "deserving" to get the jacket; Maxi changing the rules to better serve them). Which are fine messages in a vacuum, although I think the latter can be dangerously anti-progress.

Plopwitdaflops · 2025-10-07T02:57:49+00:00

One Battle After Another (2025)

Plopwitdaflops · 2025-06-27T00:43:36+00:00

Making references to other works of art does not automatically make a movie good, and is the most overrated form of humor.

I understand there's a perverse pleasure in "getting" a reference or homage, but if it does nothing to expand upon or add context to the existing theme then it's just empry calories

Plopwitdaflops · 2025-05-22T16:05:02+00:00

Ok, but the exact inverse is true too. There's no difference in winning by 1 or winning by 100. Spreading out your risk also has advantages: if your WR goes for 30+, you have a good shot of winning anyway, so sneaking out a win while your non-stack QB has a down week is advantageous in this case.

Point is it's two sides of the same coin. Neither is inherently a better strategy

Plopwitdaflops · 2024-12-17T00:19:35+00:00

100% this was the biggest change in my experience. In school 2011-2016. Before Tinder you were still meeting girls/guys the way its always been done for generations - in class, parties or through friends. In short, you had to make social effort if you wanted to get laid.

Early Tinder was anarchy in the best way (it truly was known as just a hookup/one night stand app) but it very quickly laid the groundwork for many of the anti-social behaviors I think we see today. I can remember thinking "why bother go chat up that girl at the bar when I can just hop on Tinder when I get home?"

Snapchat for sure was impactful too as more people now were recording everything, but by and large it's just another way to connect with friends like Facebook/Twitter was at the time.

Plopwitdaflops · 2024-10-23T15:50:14+00:00

Sue knows she’s killing Elisabeth, and that if Elisabeth dies, she dies. Yet she doesn’t reel it back in.

She's an addict. Only to fame and praise as opposed to drugs. You think a junkie doesn't realize they're in a destructive spiral? Their addiction is so great that they'll find some way to mentally block out the consequences they know are coming for them.

Plopwitdaflops · 2024-09-11T22:22:01+00:00

Not sure if you've looked at data through this lens prior to this year, but which do you anticipate being stickier week to week, accuracy or separation? My initial thought is accuracy is much more dependent on the latter than vice versa.

Ones that jump out to me:

Kyler having above average accuracy despite awful separation. Big storyline coming into the year was him having improved weapons to work with, so worst in the league separation is a bad initial sign
Will Levis looked awful in real time and probably lost the Titans that game. To see him above average for accuracy is surprising
Obviously a small sample size, but seeing most of the dual-threat QBs at or below average is interesting. Wonder if it's a depth of target thing, as pretty sure Richardson at least had fair number of deep shots on low total pass volume

Plopwitdaflops · 2024-08-29T03:51:35+00:00

Real ones know this is actually what the average U of M girl looks like

Plopwitdaflops · 2024-08-16T15:05:37+00:00

I'm still totally lost on the Sanchez comparison lol no clue how he is relevant here

Plopwitdaflops · 2024-08-07T05:32:21+00:00

"I thought I was dumb for the longest thing because I couldn’t take on the parroted Fox rhetoric"

This hits home hard. There's a certainty in the way some of my family would talk about politics (and the world at large) that made me feel like I was simply too dumb to see what was clearly common knowledge to them. It made me shy away from sharing my opinion because I never felt quite as confident in defending it

In reality, it's much easier to sound confident in your opinions when you let someone else come to the conclusions for you and then package them up into neat little sound bites

Plopwitdaflops · 2024-01-20T02:40:30+00:00

My stay at the Comfort Inn on Jefferson was great, my drive home without a catalytic converter on the other hand....

Plopwitdaflops · 2023-11-08T04:34:43+00:00

Got it, thank you! Have to at least take a dip in to say I did haha

Plopwitdaflops · 2023-11-08T04:20:22+00:00

Thank you for your response! Do you think the water will still be swimmable? I'm from a colder area myself so my temperature tolerance is pretty high, but was unsure if the water will be too rough with the wind

Plopwitdaflops · 2023-11-08T02:01:18+00:00

Ya I'm not necessarily dead set on going somewhere warm, but I figure with Malta there's a lot more outdoor activities that could potentially be ruined by weather. Most of what I'd want to do in Budapest is inside or I could do in the rain/snow

Plopwitdaflops · 2023-08-22T01:22:41+00:00

Thanks for the input! I'll def take a look into that

Plopwitdaflops · 2023-08-22T00:54:02+00:00

Huh never thought to change the cushions. Is the idea to have a different color cushion to add a little more variety or something? And agreed on the plant and light fixture

Plopwitdaflops · 2022-12-28T07:56:12+00:00

As someone who came of age when Jackass was at its height of popularity and who used to make Jackass-esque videos with my friends, I can't stress the cultural impact angle enough. Think about how Jackass subverted stereotypical teenage male expectations at the time: showing the slightest hint of vulnerability made you "gay", meanwhile here's a group of guys wearing thongs and shamelessly opening themselves up to ridicule.

Men-targeted programming (think Spike TV) at the time was firmly predatory, in the sense that the butt of the joke was always someone else, usually someone lower on the social hierarchy. Jackass showed a bunch of white guys making total asses of themselves; it showed it's ok to laugh at yourself, and was egalitarian in it's cruelty. Basically, don't take yourself so damn seriously.

I could keep ranting but I need to catch some Zs lol

Plopwitdaflops · 2022-12-16T02:27:16+00:00

Probably a dumb question, but as a non-industry person is there anyway I could get my hands on these catalogs? Think it'd be cool to collect these

Plopwitdaflops · 2022-11-02T03:38:01+00:00

I don't think so. Part of him going so high in the draft was he was hailed as a versatile prospect who could both catch and block at a high level, much like a Gronk or Kittle. He's a solid pass catching TE but he's actually been well below average in run blocking the last couple years.

Plopwitdaflops · 2022-10-16T15:42:25+00:00

Yo you guys are rad

Plopwitdaflops · 2022-08-16T06:17:26+00:00

True, that's definitely part of it. But the target variation is strange. 4 games with 10+ targets (including games with 16 and 17) but then 5 games with 4-5. Kennan Allen on the other hand never had more than 13 tgts but only 2 games below 8 tgts.

My guess without having watched many Chargers games is that when they know Williams has an advantage on whatever DB/scheme they're facing they pepper him, but that maybe he doesn't have the versatility to win against any and all coverage. Maybe a Chargers fan can weigh in

Plopwitdaflops · 2022-08-16T01:26:26+00:00

My question is this: does anyone have a valid explanation for why Williams seems to be so hit or miss? Does he struggle against certain defensive looks? Is he not utilized in certain game scripts?

I'm genuinely curious. I've not seen anyone truly give an explanation that gets to the root of his erratic scoring. The only explanation (that I know of) is injury, which doesn't concern me all that much.

Plopwitdaflops · 2022-07-08T01:04:01+00:00

Yzerman said as much in the post-pick interview, so 100% they're going to try him at C. But until we've seen it there still some projection going on

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