What makes a title?
Maybe it’s a quick attention
grabber. A one-word sucker punch
that knocks you off your feet and
leaves you wondering where it came
from. I’m talking about movies like
“Her” (Spike Jonze) which implies
some sort of a romance, “Raw”
(Julia Ducournau) which evokes
a … meaty (?) feeling or “Parasite”
(Bong Joon-ho), whose abstraction
has the ability to evoke different
thoughts in different people. What
these words might refer to remains
to be seen, but they light fires of
intrigue in the mind.
Maybe a title is some strange
phrase hitherto unheard by the
audience. “The Bad Sleep Well”
(Akira Kuro-sawa), “You Were
Never
Really
Here”
(Lynne
Ramsay),
“Eyes
Wide
Shut”
(Stanley Kubrick), “Man Bites
Dog” (Benoît Poelvoorde), “There
Will Be Blood” (Paul Thomas
Anderson). These titles may lack
deep meaning, yet they find the
cash to lease significant mental
real estate. They’re catchy, zingy
and rad as hell.
What
if
instead
of
being
completely
meaningless,
titles
hold
intense
meaning.
I’m
talking about the movies that are
ultimately spoiled by the title.
There’s
“The
Empire
Strikes
Back” (George Lucas), “Death of a
Salesman” (Volker Schlöndorff),
based on the famed play of the
same name and the fantastic
progenitor of this subgenre in
1957’s “A Man Escaped” (Robert
Bresson), a movie built around the
imprisonment of a prisoner of war
in World War II.
Drawing on Hitchcock’s theory
of tension, these films build
suspense through dramatic irony.
Instead of worrying and fretting
about what may happen, the
viewer is left to cope with how
it will happen — you learn about
the bomb under the table before
the movie even starts. No matter
what the Rebel Alliance does, you
know for a fact that Darth Vader
will prevail. No matter what Willy
Loman does with his life, you know
that he will die and be reduced
down to a salesman. No matter
what conflicts our POW hero will
deal with, you know he will escape.
In these films, the creator and
viewer share a twisted knowledge,
allowing them to delight in a kind
of horrific anxiety. When the
movie begins, the director looks
you in the eye and says, “Get ready.
You have two hours to prepare,”
knowing full well that no matter
what we do, we won’t be ready for
what the title has preordained.
What if you could pack even
more into a title? What if you
wanted your title to not only grab
one’s attention but also to stand
alone as a one-line poem? To do
that, you’re going to need a larger
character limit. I’m not talking
about one, two or three words
anymore. Oh, no no no. It’s time for
the big boys.
Andrew Dominik’s 2007 anti-
Western
“The
Assassination
of Jesse James by the Coward
Robert
Ford”
exemplifies
the
long-winded title’s majesty. The
title alone gives us so much. We
are again given the ending before
the projector can even get warm.
The title fails to provide insight on
character and theme. There’s the
obvious: Robert Ford is a coward.
But that distinction adds an air of
curiosity to the film. How could
the last great American outlaw be
assassinated by a coward? That
seemingly oxymoronic concept
serves as the seed from which this
movie’s conclusions on bravery, the
Western and myth grow.
Long Titles can also be used for
comedy, like Sacha Baron Cohen’s
“Borat:
Cultural
Learnings
of America for Make Benefit
Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
and its sequel, “Borat Subsequent
Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious
Bribe to American Regime for
Make
Benefit
Once
Glorious
Nation of Kazakhstan.” Both titles
find humor in their own absurdity,
mixing broken English and word-
salad resulting in an … *ahem*…
Great Success! Titles can also be
unintentionally hilarious, like the
Rise of the/Dawn of the/War for
the/Kingdom of the Planet of the
Apes series (Matt Reeves) that
seems to add an element every
time you blink.
There are the long titles that
opt for dual-self: the Ors. Stanley
Kubrick’s
raucous
satire
“Dr.
Strangelove, or How I Learned
to Stop Worrying and Love the
Bomb,”
Alejandro
González
Iñárritu’s
dreamlike
drama,
“Birdman or (The Unexpected
Virtue of Innocence)” and Pier
Paolo
Pasolini’s
wholesome,
family-friendly
comedy,
“Salò,
or the 120 Days of Sodom” all
serve as examples of this naming
convention. These films offer the
best of both worlds: You get the
quirky, one-word sucker punch
while gaining early exposure to
the films’ themes. As cool as these
titles are, I can’t help but find
them a little cowardly. Instead of
running full steam ahead into the
land of the wordy, they chicken out
and settle for compromise.
4 — Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Hundreds
of
University
of
Michigan students and Ann Arbor
community members took to the
Blind Pig’s sold-out dance floor
Friday night to laugh and cry, sway
and mosh, bob and headbang,
clap and create harmonies under
a disco ball as Ann Arbor’s best
bands performed for Battle of
The Bands. MUSIC Matters — a
student organization dedicated
to showing that while igniting
social
change
through
local
philanthropic endeavors — holds
the Battle of The Bands every
year, allowing students to vote on
their favorite local band. The top
act wins a cash prize, and all the
acts — Cherry TV, Hemmingway
Lane, VUP, Tea & Sympathy and
Joe and the Ruckus — increase
their rapidly growing popularity
and student fanbase.
The night started with a steady
roar at 8 p.m. People huddled in
from the cold, grabbing drinks
from the downstairs bar and
sprinting up to the center of the
dancefloor for Ann Arbor indie
rock/funk/pop
band
Cherry
TV. Music, Theatre & Dance
freshman Erek Mirque and LSA
fifth
year
Trevor
Soranno’s
steady guitar riffs quickly melded
with the soulful voice of Kiran
Mangrulkar, Music, Theatre &
Dance and Kinesiology senior,
and smooth song of LSA/SMTD
Senior Anna Agrawal, LSA and
Music, Theatre & Dance senior, to
create a near-symphonic quality
to the band. Agrawal belted out
a reinvented rendition of Billie
Eilish’s ballad “wish you were
gay”; Music, Theatre & Dance
junior Aidyn Connor brought a
new instrumental bassline and
bluesy solo; and Music, Theatre &
Dance junior Annie Hayes held a
danceable rhythm on the drums.
In the final moments of the set,
the whole crowd joined in as the
band danced to Mangrulkar’s
rendition
of
dance
anthem
“Everybody Talks.” The band and
the audience had the time of their
lives; everybody was ready for the
night.
The
crowd
hummed
with
restlessness as we awaited the
next set. Small talk and whispers
floated over a soft house-y playlist,
allowing everyone to absorb the
energy and rest up for the second
set.
Local
indie
rock
band
Hemmingway Lane played only
original songs, but by the way the
crowd reveled in their sound, you
would never know they weren’t
playing top hits. The band had
the perfect garage-rock/surf-rock
sound, with none of the cheesiness
and all of the great noise and
great hair. Gunther Gottschalk
and Logan Floyd created catchy
riffs, bringing an electric melody
to the bass/guitar-heavy sound.
Drummer Noah Jankowski “made
as much noise as possible” for
the band’s top single, “Teenage
Fever Dream,” with a danceable
yet moody beat. As LSA junior
Oliver Satola “tickled the ivories”
with a subtle melody and rocking
solo, vocalist Elija Flood’s soft
yet gritty voice rang out through
the audience. In the final notes of
the set, the audience, exhausted
from thrashing their heads to the
music, took out their phones to
download the setlist.
The stage began to crowd
as we awaited the next band,
buzzing with slight drunkenness
and the energy that only comes
with a disco ball and hundreds of
antsy beanie- and piercing-clad
students with ‘M’s on their hands
(for under 21).
VUP brought a new, jazzy
feel to the venue, as hundreds
of people swayed to the rhythm
of their original sound. LSA
sophomore
Ariana
Kertsman’s
sweet and powerful voice sang
out, scatting and singing “you put
a spell on me” as the audience fell
for the band’s jazzy, instrumental
sound. Music, Theatre & Dance
sophomore
Adam
Hayes’s
trumpet roared as Music, Theatre
& Dance sophomores Darren Lee
and Oh Cook kept an energetic
sound on the saxophone. Every
instrument made gorgeous noise
while never competing for the
spotlight, and the entire band
quietly
sang
along,
dancing
around the stage and feeding off
of each other’s energy. The band’s
cohesive sound was completed
by the rhythms of Annie Hayes’s
steady and powerful drumbeat,
guitar and bass harmonies from
Music, Theatre & Dance freshman
Jackson Manfredi and Connor and
a dancy rhythmic solo from Music,
Theatre
&
Dance
sophomore
pianist
Rowan
Tucker-Meyer.
The set reminded me instantly
of “La La Land,” as jazz-snob
protagonist Sebastian says “Jazz
is conflict and it’s compromise,
and it’s new every time. It’s brand
new every night. It’s very, very
exciting. And it’s dying.” But the
last part is false; it’s alive.
VUP put the audience in a jazzy
trance as we hummed all the way
into the next set.
Next up was Tea & Sympathy,
an indie rock band with pop
and punk influences and a total
funk feel. The crowd was hooked
from the start as Music, Theatre
& Dance senior Molly Schwall
stunned us with a powerful vocal
range. Music, Theatre & Dance
sophomore bassist Andres Soto
took over with a punk-tinged
rendition of “Después de La
Playa,” and incredible melodies
rang from Engineering senior
saxophonist
Raj
Koorapaty,
Music, Theatre & Dance junior
trombonist Thomas Hodgman and
Music, Theatre & Dance junior
trumpeter Eric Bressler, whose
solos made the band shine. Music,
Theatre & Dance sophomores
Casey Cheatham and Corazon
Szell created the perfect punky-
funky-rock sound on drums and
guitar, respectively, and Music,
Theatre & Dance sophomore Liam
Charron had the perfect synth-y
piano sound to round out the
performance. The band picked up
energy for their final two songs
with the whole audience dancing
to “Rolling on a River” and belting
along to Schwall’s rendition of
“Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” By the
end of the set, as the band held the
audience’s hearts, Schwall had a
crowd member’s bra in hand.
As the crowd prepared for
wherever the night took them
next, feeding off of the energy of
the live music, the venue slowed
down for a bit. That all changed
when Joe and the Ruckus took the
stage.
The band came out booming
with a brassy, funk-filled noise
from Music, Theatre & Dance
seniors trumpeter Ryan Venora
and
saxophonist
Sam
Uribe.
Vocalist (and trombonist) Joe
Thomas’s powerful yet smooth
voice kept the audience in a
dancing
trance
as
the
band
changed moods from smooth
and jazzy to funky rock. Music,
Theatre & Dance senior Stephen
Oduro kept a powerful beat and
Music, Theatre & Dance junior
Jack Nissen held a funky bassline
through each song, with Music,
Theatre & Dance senior Mercer
Patterson playing perfect piano
melodies. The band had the
audience wishing the night would
never end, asking us “who has
the best moves out there” as we
danced to an energized recreation
of “I Wish.” Guitarist and alum
Alec Greene held catchy guitar
riffs through every song, adding
a special layer to “Foxy Lady”
with a powerful solo and Uribe’s
rasping voice. As the gig came
to a close around 11 p.m., the
audience seemed to beg for an
encore.
While scrolling through my
TikTok feed in a mindless daze,
I had to make myself stop. How
many “Family Guy” clips had I
seen at this point? By now, they
were almost more frequent than
the advertisements. Sure enough,
as I swiped up through the 40
or so videos I had dipped in and
out of in the last half hour, an
overwhelming amount of them
were clips from the show — a show
which I have never seen a full
episode of before.
If you’ve been on any video-
based
social
media
platform
within the last few years, you’ll
understand this scenario to some
degree. Whether it be TikTok,
Facebook,
Instagram
Reels
or
the
god-forsaken
Youtube
Shorts, clips of “Family Guy” are
everywhere. The show — which is
now in its 21st season — has always
been ingrained in internet culture,
especially meme culture. But this
is something new, something that
seems a bit more elaborate than a
simple meme.
In trying to understand how
the show had become so prevalent
lately, I came across something
called the “Family Guy” Funny
Moments pyramid scheme. In
the comments on a now-deleted
channel, the owner posted a link
to a website where they claimed
that people could make several
thousand dollars a month while
only working 20 minutes a day —
if they paid a $47 fee for lessons.
These lessons would teach users
how to build their own channels
to post “Family Guy” clips to,
including instructions on how
to hire people to do the work for
you. But how any of these tips for
seemingly basic things could be
worth $47 is beyond me, and the
claims of how much money you’ll
make from them is a bit suspicious.
Now, I’m not trying to say that
every account you see clips from
on social media are a part of some
massive
pyramid
scheme.
As
funny as that would be, I highly
doubt that there’s that level of
cooperation between the massive
glut of uploaders. But in some way,
this must be lucrative for them.
Otherwise, who would take the
time to cut, edit and post all of
these videos? Sure, there might be
bots behind all of it, but someone,
somewhere, is profiting massively
from these clips, especially on
TikTok.
I totaled up the views of the
last 10 videos posted by one of
the accounts that popped up in
my feed and, using this article for
an estimate of TikTok’s payout
rate, found that they would have
made around $600 — and that
was just within a one-month
span. This is assuming that the
videos aren’t being demonetized
according to TikTok’s copyright
guidelines, something that I’m
sure isn’t an issue considering
the sheer amount of copyrighted
content that is being posted. This
is nowhere near the thousands
of dollars that you could have
made by taking the class, but still
— it’s never been easier to profit
off of someone else’s intellectual
property.
“Family Guy” isn’t the only
show to proliferate in my social
media
feeds.
I’ve
also
seen
countless clips from “Fleabag,”
“Big Bang Theory” (as well as its
prequel spinoff “Young Sheldon”),
“Rick and Morty” and “Bluey.” It
is, however, the most frequent one,
and the one that I’ve heard the
most people commenting about
recently. It seems like everyone I
know is getting funneled into the
“Family Guy” pipeline, especially
on TikTok.
Local music scene thrives at MUSIC Matters’s 2023 Battle of the Bands
SURI GAIANA/Daily
We’re all at the bottom of the ‘Family Guy’ clip pyramid scheme
Good movie titles, or How I learned to stop worrying and love the
overly complex naming scheme
Design by Tye Kalinovic
KAYA GINSKY
Senior Arts Editor
RAMI MAHDI
Daily Arts Writer
Design by Iris Ding
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Read more at MichiganDaily.com
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HUNTER BISHOP
Senior Arts Editor