"Happy Endings" controversy

[veganray]

It seems that the disc golf "community" is up in arms about last night's episode of "Happy Endings". I will admit that I didn't see the show, but the gist of the brouhaha is that its producers contacted the PDGA looking for technical advice & some schwag to use on set for an episode that they advertised as "centered around disc golf". Well, apparently the show had only a couple of minutes of disc golf related material, where it showcased a dude throwing a lid into a chick's face (from an orange cone marked teeing area) and referred to the game as "frolf", among other fun-poking gags needling the stereotypes associated with our game.

I don't see what the big deal is. It's a freaking sitcom, for FSM's sake. What did you expect, a detailed analysis of gyroscopic flight physics or a "tips from the pros" segment on the upside-down turbo twist? Think of every sports-related sitcom you've ever seen. Football players are always portrayed as big, stupid, beer-swilling oafs (non-QBs) or gleaming pretty-boy date rapists (QBs); baseball players are always portrayed as chaw-spittin' rednecks; basketball players are always portrayed as homies with hearts of gold, struggling to jump shoot their way out of the hood, but succumbing to the siren's song of the crack pipe. So why be upset about a portrayal as herbal-enhanced, gynophobic über-nerds? The mere fact that disc golfers have a pigeonhole-able identity like football, baseball, or basketball (i.e., "sports") players is proof positive of the growing exposure & appeal of the game, and should be embraced by those who think that the growth & development of the game into a "sport" is a positive thing.

I'm going to try to track down the show online & watch in the next couple of days, but I'm sure that even if I don't get a chuckle out of it (modern-day sitcoms are almost universally unamusing to me), I'm sure it won't make me want to boycott ABC or trash the show online. If I am ever-so-slightly irked, it will be merely for the fact that the airing of the show further publicizes a game which I wish would stay more underground.

Reflect & discuss…

[Frank Delicious]

Can you link me to some threads of people bitching about this because I want to laugh at them.

[veganray]

https://www.facebook.com/o0austin0o
http://www.pdga.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=35994
http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/sh ... hp?t=43902

I also saw some inane Twitter feed like #boycotthappyendings or something like that, but I can't find it now. I'll keep searching.

[Frank Delicious]

aw Rusch, why you gotta freak out caps post on DGCR?

[Frank Delicious]

Wonder if they let the PDGA pre screen the show before it aired. Obviously not since they pretty much bashed it all night.

Are you kidding me? This was an absolute joke... ABC contacted the PDGA about this? WHY? So they could make fun of 'em? Is anyone else as pissed off as I am about this?

I feel like this is a step backward for the sport, rather than what I thought/wished it would be...

Man... WHAT A SHAME.

also JenB, you rule

It'sthe PR equivalent of paying Hitler to burn discgolfers in ovens.

Also I love everyone chiming in and acting like they are superior b/c they don't watch TV normally.

[bcr123psu]

Oh, sorry. I thought this thread was about something else. I'll put this away.

[veganray]

Sorry, bcr, no strip-mall Osakan spas or undercover Health Dept. officers here. Move along…

[dstearns5]

I say it is a bunch of whining about nothing. A year from now it will be forgotten. The folks that are offended by it are just a bunch of overly sensitive nerds. Who cares that the public thinks the sport is laughable? I don't. I like to play, and someone else's opinion isn't going to change mine.

[jsun3thousand]

how am i gonna meet chicks and get rich playing disc golf when abc is fucking up my roll? what will my friends think about my crafty, cultivated disc golfer image now that a tv show has sullied it beyond repair. What about my family, church, and job? "frolf" that's like calling a tv show a grade school play. abc, you are a poorly produced grade school play.

[Leopard]

Disc Golf Butthurt: The Movie

[lowracks]

all i got out of that episode was how hot whatever her name is.

[zj1002]

I watched it. They made more fun of Vibram Fivefingers than they did "Frolf". Best part was that I was rocking my fivefingers and watching the show with some other people.

[jsun3thousand]

have fivefinger owners begun rallying to burn down abc?

[veganray]

all i got out of that episode was how hot whatever her name is.

Elisha Cuthbert. I'd drain a long one inter her pole hole any day.

[garublador]

It's like when Isaac Hays quit South Park because they finally made fun of Scientology. He didn't seem to have a problem with them making fun of every other religion and almost every thing else ever up to that point, though.