I get in trouble for saying that because I deliberately say it in a jerk manner. KNOW EVERYTHING. When someone says “I didn’t know the movie my partner was mentioning” I’ll sometimes say “Well, you don’t HAVE to know it but it would be easier if you knew it.”
And then…
I’m getting frustrated at Tumblr because it’s not reblogging Will’s original post PLUS Matt Little’s response to it, which is in my opinion, a great call. Read Matt’s take here.
To sum Matt up: If you don’t know, you get to choose! Obviously play to the top of your intelligence and don’t quibble, but wouldn’t we all love the opportunity to decide the rules of the game “Guess Who?” or the plot of Hardbodies in the moment?
But what if an audience member is a Guess Who? champion player or was actually in Hardbodies? Will they be mad that you fucked their shit up? Who cares. It’s up to your teammates, I feel. If they call you out, maybe you’re in a world where everyone is a rabid Hardbodies fan and you’re the weird one. Or maybe it’s a throwaway reference. Or maybe you’re normal and these people live in a Hardbodies cult? Or maybe none of you in the scene know anything about pop culture because you grew up in a cave but now have to win Jeopardy? I’d rather be brilliantly, gloriously wrong than panic about it. My favorite TMR scene that we still quote to this day is when Lou and Caroline played Captain & Tennille looking to have a threesome and they made up songs that they felt were C&T songs and it was brilliant and way more hilarious that way.
But all that being said, it’s definitely fucking easier to just be aware of shit. I know I try to take the path of least resistance in both life and improv so I’m on Wikipedia a lot more now. Besides, everyone’s nerdy shit is fun to know about anyway because isn’t it cool to be able to talk about stuff no one expects you to have an opinion on? I don’t think anyone would think I know anything about Batman, but yeah I fucking do.
