MovieChat Forums > Superjail! (2007) Discussion > A watershed of viewer desensitization

A watershed of viewer desensitization

posted 15 years ago by birdy123
32 replies | jump to latest

Read first: This is my opinion, you are entitled to your own, I am entitled to mine.

This show is offensive in the extreme. It does not take "one or two viewings" in "order to get used to it". In one episode I watched, creative ways of killing little kids was explored. Little kids! And people find this funny? To me that's becoming desensitized to a new level. Watching torture, spewing and guts, gore, and more gore and finding humor in it doesn't wash.

In one respect you're lucky to have it as it befits our society in one respect: We've certainly come a long way from "Marijuana leads to heroin usage!". Because if I took that tack with this stuff, you'd all be doing the same thing: killing and torturing. Now, I know that doesn't happen unless you're predisposed anyway, but ARE you predisposed? Watching this stuff certainly doesn't help.

Oh, I suppose it's an art form. The fact that it works on you the way it does (if you like it) and that it works on me quite differently is because there's enough mental sickness in the world the way it is, and this show glorifies that sickness.

But to me, it's freedom of expression carried to the extreme.

Besides, I can always turn it off. Can you?

[–] DashTheGreat 15 years ago

It's so stupid and ridiculous, how could anybody possibly take it seriously?

The excess gore in itself is funny because it's so out there.

[–] TheMightyMonarch 15 years ago

No one even really dies for good in that show. It's entertainment. Much different then real life. I was really sad when I saw the end of All Quiet on the Western Front, and I've been a Superjail fan for two years.

This sig has something you wish you thought of first, now you can't use it cuz I used it already.

[–] birdy123 15 years ago

Yes, that's totally true. The problem I still have with it is that this sort of material works on different people in differing ways. To you, you are able to step aside from it and view it at arms length. To me, it's uncomfortable and unnecessary in the extreme to watch. This is part of my original point: When you cross certain boundaries, you are bound to affect people in different ways. I do agree that if I watched it over and over again (not that I would want to), I would become desensitized to the violence after a while. I would still care that it affects me, but I might be able to let part of that go. After all, it's a cartoon.

But, to what extremes to you want to bring that sort of logic to? And, if you are already predisposed to having a traumatic experience watching this stuff, or you can't separate that it's a cartoon, what's that going to do to you in real life?

My point is that this show doesn't help. I do agree with you totally that you certainly shouldn't NEED to watch it. We're already a violent society, this just brings the bar a tiny bit higher along with everything else.

Are you still sure this show makes you feel good?

[–] TheMightyMonarch 15 years ago

I like Superjail and always will. Think about the people who make the show, they're just normal people if you've seen them. In the video commentary they do for Superjail, you can see behind them all these storyboards and sketches of the episode....You're thinking of it as this great, imposing thing that will change tons of people for the worse, but it's a show that has writers, and artists, and is really just an outlet for creativity like many other shows. Of course there's violence, but it's nothing like real life violence. Take the violence in a History of Violence, that's hard to watch because it's so real and right there in that world much like ours. But then in Sin City, the violence is much different, much less unnerving because it's so stylized. Superjail is like that. When it comes down to it, you're taking it too seriously. Not many people even watch it, and the only people who this would really desensitsze is the people who shoot up schools because of Grand Theft Auto, and they're not as plentiful as we think. Most of those people are already predisposed anyway.

On another note, I'm happy that nobody's getting super pissed or anything here. I don't have those types of arguments, and it's good to know that there's some decency on the internet.

This sig has something you wish you thought of first, now you can't use it cuz I used it already.

[–] AshleyCi 15 years ago

people that say they're entitled to their opinion are rarely ever entitled to their opinion, which makes pretty much everything you said pointless. it's unassailable internet logic.

[–] phuxed 15 years ago

I actually do not like the show just based on my taste of entertainment programming, but wanted to put my 2 cents in and respectfully disagree with the violent society inclinations. I believe our society is sliding more and more into becoming WAY too passive. We're all so worried about everyone getting hurt that it's getting to the point that kids can't even have fun anymore. I remember reading about legislation that was going to ban tag and other chase-type games in schools in one state so kids wouldn't get hurt (or so crazy parents wouldn't try to sue the school over a scraped knee which is more likely the case). I don't know if it passed or not, but the fact that it was considered actually scares me. If I ever have children, I think they need to play and even maybe get hurt so they can learn to pick themselves back up (not anything serious mind you!)

I think violent societies existed hundreds of years ago (and in some parts of the world still today, just not really the US) where people were thrown to animals and others fought each other to the death in front of giant audiences. TV and movies may be violent, but a few cartoons or actors killing each other is far less horrible, and it falls on the shoulders of parents to explain to the developing young minds that what they see should not be taken to school/public, or maybe just don't let your 8yr old watch Steven Seagal movies lol. My dad let me watch violent movies on occasion at a young age and I never remember a time when I thought that was right...basically, I don't think entertainment programming or video games are the problem our society is really dealing with, just a common way for parents to place blame and not take responsibility.

[–] ransax 14 years ago

If you have a traumatic experience as an adult watching a cartoon show, maybe the mental illness isn't inherent in the characters in said show, but the viewer.

[–] tawdry_hepburn 14 years ago

I agree with you personally, but disagree with your overall point.

I too dislike this show. In fact, I find it kind of depressing to watch. The endless sadism just turns me off.

That said, there is NO significant data to show that violent media causes violence. In fact, since the rise of video games and the mainstreaming of hardcore violence in cinema there has been a statistically significant DECREASE in violent crime.

So yeah, the show is sort of sad and plays to the worst elements of society, but it's not training any murderers.

,Said the Shotgun to the Head--
Saul Williams

www.myspace.com/ohhorrorofhorrors

[–] jsangspar 15 years ago

"But to me, it's freedom of expression carried to the extreme."

And that's the point!

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"I don't question why I'm here, but I try to think what I can do."
- Takashi Miike

[–] Ouji-sama 15 years ago

I happen to think that over-the-top violence in a psychedelic animated show and over-the-top violence in reality are quite different matters. It's all about separating fantasy from reality.

[–] magicwalnuts 15 years ago

All I can say is that I've never seen as many people die on screen as I have in Superjail, and for that reason alone it is awesome.

[–] fooljeff 15 years ago

"Because if I took that tack with this stuff, you'd all be doing the same thing: killing and torturing. Now, I know that doesn't happen unless you're predisposed anyway, but ARE you predisposed? Watching this stuff certainly doesn't help. "

The human brain understands the differnece between fiction and reality. I can watch superjail and not have an emotional response. If I saw someone get murdered in real life I would be terrified, disgusted and puking my guts out; As well as needing therapy.

Television probably fails more when over the top things aren't happening, and people are convinced that relationships/characters on T.V. can exist in real life.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jlittlebass 12 years ago

I agree. The idea that watching a cartoon that entertains by depicting violence in the most unrealistic and over-the-top possible way will somehow make you more inclined to actually hurt someone is just not correct at all, and therefore the only legit argument you could make against the show is just that you don't like it, in which case, who cares?

For sure, there are some people that don't realize that hurting people in real life is generally something you shouldn't do without a very good reason--those are the people that need to be locked up!

In jail...

Or, if they're really, really messed up...

Maybe even SuperJail...

Come to think of it, I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the fact that this show makes it very clear that the prisoners in SuperJail (by far the most common victims of the ever-present ultra-violence in the show) are the type of people that the world is very much better off without, people that seemingly have no impulses other than to take and kill and no desire to control themselves in any way.

[–] Lynchkicksass 15 years ago

i find the show somewhat disturbing...it's just sooooo far out there. i've seen some other animated shorts by the same guys behind this show and theres something about the way its drawn that is just really unnerving and disturbing.

and yet, i also find it really funny and creative and thats why i love it. the violence is just so far over the top that i can't see it driving anyone to actually want to commit murder or anything like that. like you said, people who end up snapping and killing people are predisposed to that type of behavior. people don't see violence on tv and all of a sudden want to go on a shooting spree, they have certain experiences throughout their lives that make them into violent people.

[–] jamie_mactell 15 years ago

So, wait, let me get this straight... All you people are saying killing children is wrong?

;-)

Anyway, it's kind of been said, but a hundred and fifty years ago, taking your kid to a hanging was considered healthy entertainment and moral training. This is much, much less affecting. I would be more worried about those who can't stop watching actually depraved viewing like 'August Underground', or some of the more extreme material coming out of Asia like 'Grotesque'. As you may have guessed, I can't stop watching either...

So, in summary: better watch Superjail rather than torture porn, eh?

[–] Arremer 15 years ago

Atlest with Superjail I can have some laughs, the torture porn movies make me feel squick.
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Gown removed carelessly, head less so.

[–] Electric_Napalm 15 years ago

We're not entitled to anything OP

[–] keithulhu 14 years ago

Ahh gimme a break. People predisposed to violent acting out and the sort of mutilation you see in SJ are not watching SJ, they are watching old concentration camp footage and writing fan mail to Sarah Palin.

Of course you are free to the opinion that you need a nanny to keep you from doing something you admitted to doing by your own free will--watching a cartoon. I am free to the opinion that I should not be held to the standards of my inferiors.

Its called dark- or gallows-humor. If you don't like it, they still run old episodes of Leave it to Beaver. Knock yourself out.

[–] Prof_Gotham 14 years ago

I think the violence in Superjail! is so over the top, there's no way anyone could take it seriously.