Too Much Hype?

Too Much Hype?

The wonderful thing about Glee is that Glee is a wonderful thing...

And that's where I stop plagiarizing A. A. Milne.

But seriously, I really do like the show.

My Very Best Friend and I had one of our characteristically long, long talks and it came across that he doesn't like Glee. Well, he doesn't watch Glee. Mainly because of the hype.

This I can understand, because when you don't watch something, having everyone around you never shut up about it is annoying. There is such a thing as too much hype in my opinion. I think he would absolutely love Glee [or at least like it], but having everyone talk about it all the time is very off putting. This is for anything, like music, television, music television, and even books.

See, I like discussing things that I like with other people, but the majority of things it seems that you can't really discuss them so much as freak out about how awesome they are. Besides, even if you do pinpoint what makes them so awesome, discussing how awesome they are isn't going to make them anymore awesome [but could possibly make them less awesome to other people who don't care who awesome they are in the first place].

The upside of hype is that people who want to get your references to whatever you think is so awesome will get into it. The down side is that it will drive away those who are really tired of hearing that high pitched squeal a lot of people seem to emit to express how super they think something is.

Think of it this way: you hear you favorite comedian tell the funniest joke in the world, no lie. But your friend wasn't there to hear it. Oh no! So you tell them it, but you're laughing during half of it and you get the set up punchline wrong twice that by the time you finish it properly you are laughing to the point of tears and everyone thinks you're insane.

And your friend? Well, they're sitting there, not amused at all, and not just because you screwed up the joke, because even if you told it correctly it would have only been a pale comparison to the original. That special thing is missing. I'm willing to bet that special thing is voice.

I think voice is the thing that makes a book ask, "How awesome am I?" and the fans of it go, "OHMIGAWD you are *so* awesome!" Even if the book has no literary merit. Even if it's full of plot holes. Even if there is some massive duex es machina at the end. None of that matters if pacing and voice is right because while voice makes you read pacing keeps you reading. They're two halves of a whole.

Too much hype ends up drawing certain people and repelling others, but either way typically speaking hype dies down. Sure, people still like it, but not as many people are freaking out about it. Plus, there is an upside to the hype dying down, and that is having all the people who were repelled by all the hype in the first place get into the show/book/song/whatever and really enjoy it.