Again, someone has put a Y where it just doesn't belong. It didn't belong in "Kym" in Rachel Getting Married and it doesn't belong in Science Fiction either, unless you are describing something as "science fiction-y."
Sci Fi Channell announced the other day that they will be changing their brand name to "SyFy" in effort to dash away their association with "geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that," says TV historian Tim Brooks. Um. What? As a long-time viewer and fan of the network, I feel like I should be offended by this. I mean, I'm not, because I don't get offended that easily, but what the hell? You air Star Trek: Enterprise for Christ's sake, widely considered to be the worst Star Trek series--even by real Trek fans. You air Doctor Who, which I love, and you're going to tell me you're not Sci Fi even though you air some of the longest running science fiction series ever? Mr. Brooks also said "when people who say they don't like science fiction enjoy a film like Star Wars, they don't think it's science fiction; they think it's a good movie." These people are just as wrong as you, Timothy. It doesn't matter if they don't THINK it's science fiction; it just IS science fiction. Genres are not up to subjective interpretation. Would you listen to the The Ramones and decide they're heavy metal because you don't like punk music? If so, the X is in the corner. Press it.
SpikeTV airs a lot of "geeky" shows and movies. They air Star Wars once a month! They air lots of Star Trek series, as well as CSI which you can't tell me isn't geeky; it's all science. Spike has a lot of other stuff though, being "men's television" with shows about death and sex and UFC and all that jazz. Sci Fi has two regularly airing shows that don't qualify as science fiction: ECW and Ultimate Gamer--both of which are very geeky in their own rights.
What's worse is what Dave Howe, the company's president said when they polled their 18-34 demographic."When we tested this new name, the thing that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, which is quite a lot of our audience, is actually this is how you'd text it. It made us feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip, which was kind of bang-on what we wanted to achieve communication-wise." You are not cooler because you made a mistake that happens to be what you wanted to achieve. SyFy is still a stupid spelling in texting just as it would be on television.
I'm probably the only person who gets pissed off at this type of thing, but I'm a writer. I've been writing for my whole life and I can't just turn off the part of me that flinches when I hear people speak incorrectly or can't bear to read manuscripts by people who have no grasp of grammar. I just can't do it.
What's more is this: I'm a nerd. And I'm okay with that. If I wasn't a nerd I wouldn't be throwing my opinions of pretty nerdy things on the internet. I remember when Sci Fi had a Doctor Who marathon about a month back, and when I got to school and told my friends about it, they went into a nerd-rage for having missed it. Nerds are the kinds of people you want being interested in your programming; most people won't lose any sleep about missing an episode, but nerds have so few things to get really into and those things are what keep us going. Of course, this is a huge generalization, but you get my idea.
You cannot take my language and the identity of so many away. Or you shouldn't, rather. You CAN do whatever you want, you uncool closet-geek bastards.
-Evan "Dez" O'Connor
"I'm probably the only person who gets pissed off at this type of thing"
ReplyDeleteNo, you're not. I'd read about the change, probably, about a week ago. I thought it was completely stupid and causes me to have much less respect for the channel--the made-for-TV movies were bad enough, but at least those had a chance, however slim, at being good. There is nothing good about the name change.