Anyone else old enough to remember Short Circuit? A 1986 family comedy about a military drone turned into a mechanised hipster by a lightening strike, Frankenstein style. The 1988 follow-up was one of those rare sequels that's as good as the original, if not better.
In hindsight, Neill Blomkamp's Chappy (2015) borrows as heavily from Short Circuit as it does from the Robocop franchise. All 3 are coming of age stories for sentient robots.
(1/2)
In hindsight, Short Circuit's Jonny 5 appealed to me because their onscreen experiences - like those of Spock and Data - were so relatable to me, an #autistic person navigating a world run by and for allistics.
Jonny doesn't want to return to the military, or even fight off the street thugs who menace them, and doesn't understand why anyone would. They just want to live ("no disassemble Jonny 5!"), make friends, read encyclopedias, and explore a wondrous and mysterious world.
(2/2)
(1/2)
@alienghic
> Dead? Disassemble?
OMG yes! "Disassemble", not "unalive", that's a much more recent coinage. I've fixed the quote in my second post, even though it required me to tinker with the wording in others parts to make "disassemble" fit.
(2/2)
I don't know if using "disassemble", in place of "disect" or "kill", was a subtle reference to the dehumanising euphemisms that were emerging at the time ("friendly fire", "special rendition", etc). As noted by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy in Television: Drug of a Nation;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD9pJzZ1XGI
But it sure does serve that purpose in hindsight.
BTW: I'd love to see a 2026 remix of Television about Social Media.
#music #HipHop #SpokenWord #AgitProp #DisposableHeroesOfHiphoprisy
Strypey
Diane
burgerthing