Clapping

Whether you have noticed or not, I sometimes use my posts to rant about things that have become "my things,"...the stuff I obsess about for one reason or another.

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Let me set the scene for you...you are sitting in a movie theatre, enjoying a great film, eating delicious popcorn, and slurping a tasty beverage. Then the movie ends, and you get up to leave...and everyone claps? You're puzzled, but you start clapping too. Everyone else is doing it, you might as well, right? NO! Don't clap in a movie! There is no one there to receive your adulation. No live actors. No singers. No dancers. The director isn't there. No one who had anything to do with the movie is sitting next to you in your local AMC movie theatre. Why are you clapping!

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Don't tell me that people clap just because they liked the movie. Do you clap in the middle of a restaurant after you eat something that tastes good? No, you pay a compliment to the chef. Do you clap at the doctor's office or the dentist after receiving good service? No, you thank them appropriately. I apologize if you do this, but someone please explain to me the reasoning behind clapping in a movie theatre? You clap after a play because it's a live performance. You clap at the circus and at concerts. You can clap basically anywhere there is a human being there to receive the applause. I'll even let you clap at a movie premiere, just as long as someone who had something to do with the movie is there.

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I propose that if you want to show that you liked a movie, you can either spread the word and tell other people that they should go see it (that's really what the people involved want you to do) or go to the actor/director's website and send them a letter or something. Anyway, I know I will never stop people from clapping after a movie, but if we ever see a movie together, and I don't clap, it doesn't mean that I don't like the movie, it just means I don't see the value of clapping at a projector screen in the dark.