You get a call from one of your buddies. He tells you that the boys are going to a bar with two-dollar beers and mud wrestling. You tell him that you’ve been battling a wicked stomach virus all day, and that you’ll just have to sit this one out. But you don’t have a stomach virus. In fact, you’ve got a beer of your own in your hand. You just don’t want to go out because there’s ice skating on TV.
Guilty pleasures. We’ve all got ’em. If you don’t have ’em, then you’re either not human or, worse, boring. We at Bullz-Eye have bared our souls for the world to see, revealing the movies, TV shows and music that make us giddy. When no one is looking, of course.
A few examples:
Styx
It’s not horrifically uncool to like Pieces of Eight-era Styx…which is a good thing, because I nearly wet my pants with giddiness when Chris Daughtry sang “Renegade” on “American Idol.” What’s not so cool is to dig late-period Styx. Specifically, Kilroy Was Here-era Styx. Specifically, “Mr. Roboto.” When this song came out in 1983, I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever heard. Most people grew out of that. I never did. This poignant saga of the tragic figure that just needed somewhere to hide, to keep him alive, spoke to me at a very primal level, and raised a million questions. Is he a man? A machine? Both? His heart is human, his blood is boiling; his brain IBM. What will he do? Where will he go? Can he ever take that mask off? What if he gets a zit underneath it? Does he still have to pee? Can he have sex? Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto, for helping me escape whenever I need to…even now. – Deb Medsker, Contributor
William Shatner, “Common People”/”I Am Canadian” (2004/2000)
There’s just something about the idea of the Shatman crooning that begs it not to be taken very seriously, and how can you when the guy’s musical history includes that god-awful rendition of Elton John’s “Rocket Man”? On the contrary, not only is Shatner’s version of the Pulp track “Common People” better, but it’ll completely throw your friends for a loop when Captain James T. Kirk starts blaring from your car stereo speakers. And as a companion piece to “Common People,” the pop icon’s candid “Just for Laughs” performance of “I Am Canadian” (which features lyrics like: “I’m not a Starfleet Commander or T.J. Hooker / I don’t live on Starship NCC-1701 or own a phaser / I don’t know anyone named Bones, Sulu or Spock”) is absolutely priceless. – Jason Zingale, Associate Editor
Check out all our lists here.
