Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Let's talk about sex, baby

Actually, let's not just talk about it. Let's watch it, gossip about it, laugh about it, and be seventh graders about it. Not even an even an Amherst degree can keep me from chuckling whenever I hear the word "nuts." What can I say? It's funny. It's TABOO!!! (speaking of which, I'm dying to play that game with someone right now, here in Korea).

But that's just the thing. Sex is so taboo and yet in the US it is EVERYWHERE. And what better place to get your night full of innuendos than the good ole television. When people slam doors and cry tears and point fingers at the opposite sex, it's because he or she slept with someone, gave an STD to someone, or *gasp* got someone pregnant!!! These tried and true plot mechanisms are so cliche and yet we tune in season after season, show after show to see who's sleeping with who and who's daddy is the actual baby's daddy. When people in Korean television shows slam doors and cry tears, it's because of....something else. Lies, perhaps. Or maybe even *gasp* bribery! Like I said...it's something else; my Korean's not so good, but trust you me, it's not because of any sexual misadventures.

Come on, Korea! We need you to broadcast things on weekly dramas that create a sense of escape, a detachment from reality. What are the chances that you'll be in a group of some of the most prominent surgeons in the world who sleep with each other, give STDs to each other, AAAAND coin nicknames starting with "Mc." It's just not fair! But it isn't real life. This is TV. Korean TV is not TV. It is what we see everyday with our parents and dare we say it, our grandparents. No more tears please, unless you've just hooked up with your best friend who's had a crush on you for ages and has now moved onto a sexy ethnically ambiguous vixen.

I know this is very immature of me and I'm sure some of you are going to roll your eyes and remind of how much a prude I really am. But sexual innuendos ARE FUNNY! And I can't say a single one in Korean! I walk by a clothing store on my way to the gym called "le coq sportif" and yes, you got it, I give a little chuckle every time I walk by. Sexual innuendos are my cigarettes; they're my "harmless" (as some of you may call it) way of being bad. And they don't cost a thing...except for perhaps a bit of my dignity. And I am not about to start smoking.

* Getting ready to tear up Hongdae with my dear friends from Hoyah Academy this Friday. Felix cumpleanos, querido Hae Jin!

3 comments:

cheryl said...

what's that? csi? paul, you're so random. but all those morning glory ads? innuendo city!

Champagne Socialist said...

hehehe. But perhaps the lack of sexual innuendos on TV (or tv as you put it) means people are more open about real sex? Let me know what you discover. I only say this because I was shocked to watch a series of Lebanese movies recently which had More Explicit Sexual Innuendos Than I Have Ever Heard. They were no longer even innuendos. Just loud jokes that everyone understood. You'd have to be blind and deaf not to...and yet outside of the movies I presume...? well, i don't know. I haven't been there. Back to watching the world cup...Spain and France.

cheryl said...

paul, i looked for you guys after class today, but you mmm-boppers had already left. glad you guys had fun!