Thank you

Was that an example of a good post?

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+1

I think it's also the only time in the last decade where the movie I was rooting for won (and the competition that year was insane). I guess I was also happy that Parasite won, even though I liked Marriage Story better.

Nomadland, Green Book, and Argo were particularly bad decisions.

PS: The Shape of Water was worse than all of these, but the competition was also markedly worse that year, so I'm not as perplexed it winning BP.

The Shape of Water was like the second-worst movie in that year's Best Picture category though (I've got Phantom Thread as the worst on that list). It wasn't a very strong category, but that win still makes little sense.

Fair points. I suppose I should amend the "bad decisions" list to include that one, but unlike the others, I wasn't actually rooting for another film with a chance to win that year. I had already resigned myself that something shitty was winning, so there was no disappointment.

So, when Ohio State stole that national title back in 2003 when a phantom DPI flag kept the game alive when it was over, it always felt to me like the uproar was minimal compared to what an atrocity it was.

This was surely because:
(1) **** Miami; and
(2) Miami was a solid favorite, and people were doing their silly "automatically root for the underdog no matter how unlikable" thing.

That was only two years after the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, where a nation came together and also judged that likability doesn't matter; the only thing that matters is being the underdog.

When these unlikable underdogs prevail, and then become powerhouses, people don't seem to bother to go, "Wait a minute. Maybe I should not have been rooting for these *******s to rise up." They're too busy rooting for the next unlikable underdog.

(I'm not really part of the Patriots hate group. I don't like them, but the haters hate them way more than I do. They're just a crowd-pleasing go-to when making reference to unlikable teams, much as a band screaming the name of the city they're in is for some reason the greatest crowd-pleaser ever invented.)

Was ok with the phantom DPI cuz literally **** miami

Was ok with the Patriots bullshit cuz **** seattle. To this day I’m still ok with it. Cuz **** seattle

Was ok with Boston winning the WS the first time despite human garbage curt schilling cuz **** the Yankees

For the record the entirety of Massachusetts could be laid to waste and id do nothing but laugh, **** them all

Patriots over Seahawks and Red Sox over Yankees were not officiating injustices like Ohio State over Miami. (I wasn't referencing Patriots over Seahawks in my post at all.)

I mean, I really didn't like Ohio State or Miami, though college football is the sport that basically always has heel vs. heel in any big game. I ended up shrugging and going for Miami on the basis that Miami at least fielded a non-boring offense, as opposed to Ohio State having Maurice Clarett ram the ball up the middle as the center of their offense. But given the heel vs. heel nature of the game, I'm pretty sure that even if I had defaulted to rooting for Ohio State, I would have been pissed about the phantom DPI.

Anyway, the grievance is with the "automatically go for the underdog without considering anything else" bullshit. I will always champion the strangely radical "root for the more likable (or less hate-worthy) team." And I guess don't assign such grand nobility to losing that this measurement is somehow a proxy for "which one has won before."

By the way, the 2004 ALCS featured two options to root for:
(A) Yankees win, normal championship coverage occurs and fades;
(B) Red Sox win, people write fawning articles for ****ing months about how it's the greatest story ever told, including the endless romanticizing of Curt Schilling's bloody sock, and a whole lot of make-believe about how we should all be happy for these long-suffering Red Sox fans.

People resoundingly chose B. People are ****ing bad at this. There's no getting around that.

Well that may be, but at least I didn’t sleep with Lumburg

The best part of that scene is the rage she induces with the reaction of, "Who? ... Oh yeah, Lumberg."

Whilst the underdog thing is a UK thing too we also suffer from nationalism in non-UK only competitions. In terms of football you're meant to support the UK team against non-uk teams despite the fact you actively root against them at all other times.

In terms of films I ended up watching The Suicide Squad yesterday as I saw the reviews were good and just wanted something to watch. I haven't seen the first one, but I fail to understand how it could be that much worse. This was dreadful. With the cast it had that is insane, some of of the worst character development I've seen. The CGI stuff looked outdated and honestly unimpressive, it was weirdly overly gory yet so fake it had no impact. Boring story, bad jokes and sadly fake cynicism.

We have stuff like this also, particularly in college football conferences. It's nonsense. Naturally my most hated teams are the ones from my team's conference who we play every year, and I'm not about to turn around and root for them in any spot where it doesn't immediately significantly help us.

You don't root for the Ducks against Auburn, Ohio State?

I’m a Coug, so UW is enemy #1. But I hate the Ducks also. And no, I don’t root for them ever except for rooting for Oregon when they play each other.

I can't speak to college football, since I grew up in NYC and never had an affinity to a NCAAF team, but being a huge St John's basketball fan, I'd definitely say i'm 'pro big east' for the most part.

Besides Villanova. **** Villanova and their endless resume of championships. I despise them.

But, I'll likely root for anyone else in the conference to do well in the NCAA tournament. Especially because it feels like the Big East always gets **** on in terms of how good 'we' are.

On a related note....watch out for the Johnnies this year. Most excited I've been for the team in the last decade. Mike Anderson really has something going here I think.

Feels weird to hate a college team to me, unless they have an active roster of douchebags

I may feel different once college athletes can rightfully cash in on tens of millions of dollars made off their likenesses/performances

Until then, they're exploited 20-somethings sacrificing their youth/bodies for the sake of our entertainment

I was happy when the Pac-12 did well in the NCAA tourney last year. If it's not Washington or Oregon then I'll generally get on board. But **** rooting for Washington or Oregon ever (save for the Oregon over Washington rooting) unless there's one hell of an immediate reward for WSU.

Objectively Oregon is more toxic and unlikable than Washington, but I have more personal animosity toward Washington since I spent so long living in the heart of Husky country.

It's a proxy for hating their university, their fans, their program, and/or their coach.

And then obviously some individual players are dicks too, but I think that consideration is below everything named above.

You must be happy tonight.

I spent a while spinning like a top, but my team needs to actually show up and mop up their own game for me to be able to properly enjoy the football evening.

Of course, no matter what happens in our game, nothing will change the fact that UW fans are now on their 30th straight season of going into the year being national title contenders entirely in their own heads. ****ing delusional idiots.