underrcanyonlou

[underrcanyonlou]

When Nathan Fielder said "Sincerity is overrated and ends up punishing those who can't perform it as well as others." I think my brain shut down for a second, i need to ramble.

I don't care how much Fielder is or isn't playing a character, this sentiment didn't just come to be, it isn't just something you come up with. It really got me good. It's something that I think about constantly-- the inherent performative feeling of everything. I could go on and on about this holy fuck. My "favorite" thing about it is the implied base assumption that any kind of sincerity is performative, the question isn't at all if someone is genuine but rather if they're perceived as that and rewarded via likability. Nobody actually means it, they're just talented liars waiting to be found out (or not). HOWEVER then you have a scene were Fielder implies that he can't voice his genuine feelings sometimes (he gets an actor to relive and observe them) which means he truly means the act of voicing an emotion or experience in a sincere manner can be performed well or not, though that doesn't mean the person isn't actually genuine about it.

Like, I'll be honest, sometimes turning over human interaction that way makes me feel like a psychopath touching and dissecting life with gloves. And the worst thing is I'm someone who seemingly performs sincerity well irl which actually feels just as bad as being the person wondering what they're doing "wrong", checking their rating. At some point - like the original statement indicates - you look around and think of everyone as a performer in the way you are, so nothing is sincere.

The pilots judging the contestants are being nice (not sincere though these are conflated by the contestants), because they fear confrontation. The same thing that ultimately causes the plane crashs Fielder studied. So I'm sitting here wondering if everything I ever do in service of being perceived well by others isn't just the same thing.

Truly being yourself will crash the plane. But the plane will crash regardless. There is actually no reward.

[underrcanyonlou]

Cohen being an "autism advocate in congress" but not knowing what masking is is fucking wild I'm sorry

[underrcanyonlou]

and also like i think being in denial/afraid of being autistic is one interpretation, but the explicit vagueness is required. he cannot tell us if he did see the results or if he does think hes autistic without losing his license. you MUST be fine.

[underrcanyonlou]

[underrcanyonlou]

this made me cream

I 100% believe that Nathan Fielder made a deliberate choice in focusing the episode around footage of him interacting with two autism "advocates" who are ultimately ableist and reductive in their understanding of autism. A congressman who doesn't even know what masking is, and an advocacy organization founder who uses outdated tests and won't acknowledge that not-autistic folks might benefit from rehearsing difficult social situations? That's not an accident.

If you look up Doreen Granpeesheh, you'll see that she is known for promoting the idea of autism "recovery," and that she has a history of publicly supporting the claim that there's a link between vaccines and autism. Her Wikipedia page makes very clear that she is a problematic figure whose work has been critiqued, and that she should not be taken seriously. Fielder, along with his writers and producers, would have known her reputation when booking her for the show.

A screenshot from Granpeesheh's website. Yes, it would appear she is actually proud of this headline.

And I think he's using the meeting with Cohen as a commentary on how autistic folks (and minoritized people in general, most likely) are treated by people in authority. Instead of masking and politely leaving the room, instead of picking up signals that Cohen is wrapping up the meeting without wanting to announce he's doing it on camera, Fielder purposely doesn't "take the hint" so that Cohen has to flounder and keep trying to wrap up the meeting in a way that is ultimately vague, dismissive, and rude. The longer the audience has to sit and watch that dynamic play out, the more likely we are to recognize Cohen as the bad guy in the situation rather than Fielder. It's brilliant.

And it's the exact same strategy he's using by spending the first half of the season ostensibly focusing on the first officer in those cockpit interactions, while deliberately giving screen time to guys like the "banned from every dating app" pilot to make it clear who is actually the source of the problem (and to hopefully trigger an FAA sexual harassment investigation in that one instance). In all three of these situations, he's showing us how a problematic person in power holds all the cards and is unwilling to budge.

I know there are differing opinions on what aspects of the show and his character are exaggerated or performed. As a very self-aware autistic comedy writer, this is my assessment: I think he's semi-deliberately not filling silences with masking behaviors, and asking questions he probably knows are uncomfortably direct, to create a space where others (often the neurotypical folks in these situations) have no choice to fill in the silence, which ultimately makes them say or do something relevant. I think he also acts like an unaware, unbiased observer in situations where he has a strong idea of what's going on. So whenever he says "I didn't know why" or "I didn't understand," he probably mostly does know and understand, but he knows that performing the role of an unbiased observer is a stronger strategic choice to get his message across.

He's basically playing the role of a journalist who knows that two of the most effective tools in his toolkit are a) silence when he wants a subject to reveal crucial information, and b) an "unbiased" narrative frame that makes the audience feel as if they're coming to a conclusion on their own, rather than being told what to think.

It's a nuanced approach but I think it's a smart one, especially considering that autistic-coded folks are very easily dismissed when speaking truth to power. And yeah, he's not gonna get his Congressional hearing. But pointing a camera at the problem and airing it for a massive audience, while saying "Me? I don't have an agenda; this data just presented itself in response to my neutral, unbiased question" is a pretty autistic—and often effective—approach to problem-solving.

[underrcanyonlou]

I 100% believe that Nathan Fielder made a deliberate choice in focusing the episode around footage of him interacting with two autism "advocates" who are ultimately ableist and reductive in their understanding of autism. A congressman who doesn't even know what masking is, and an advocacy organization founder who uses outdated tests and won't acknowledge that not-autistic folks might benefit from rehearsing difficult social situations? That's not an accident.

If you look up Doreen Granpeesheh, you'll see that she is known for promoting the idea of autism "recovery," and that she has a history of publicly supporting the claim that there's a link between vaccines and autism. Her Wikipedia page makes very clear that she is a problematic figure whose work has been critiqued, and that she should not be taken seriously. Fielder, along with his writers and producers, would have known her reputation when booking her for the show.

A screenshot from Granpeesheh's website. Yes, it would appear she is actually proud of this headline.

And I think he's using the meeting with Cohen as a commentary on how autistic folks (and minoritized people in general, most likely) are treated by people in authority. Instead of masking and politely leaving the room, instead of picking up signals that Cohen is wrapping up the meeting without wanting to announce he's doing it on camera, Fielder purposely doesn't "take the hint" so that Cohen has to flounder and keep trying to wrap up the meeting in a way that is ultimately vague, dismissive, and rude. The longer the audience has to sit and watch that dynamic play out, the more likely we are to recognize Cohen as the bad guy in the situation rather than Fielder. It's brilliant.

And it's the exact same strategy he's using by spending the first half of the season ostensibly focusing on the first officer in those cockpit interactions, while deliberately giving screen time to guys like the "banned from every dating app" pilot to make it clear who is actually the source of the problem (and to hopefully trigger an FAA sexual harassment investigation in that one instance). In all three of these situations, he's showing us how a problematic person in power holds all the cards and is unwilling to budge.

I know there are differing opinions on what aspects of the show and his character are exaggerated or performed. As a very self-aware autistic comedy writer, this is my assessment: I think he's semi-deliberately not filling silences with masking behaviors, and asking questions he probably knows are uncomfortably direct, to create a space where others (often the neurotypical folks in these situations) have no choice to fill in the silence, which ultimately makes them say or do something relevant. I think he also acts like an unaware, unbiased observer in situations where he has a strong idea of what's going on. So whenever he says "I didn't know why" or "I didn't understand," he probably mostly does know and understand, but he knows that performing the role of an unbiased observer is a stronger strategic choice to get his message across.

He's basically playing the role of a journalist who knows that two of the most effective tools in his toolkit are a) silence when he wants a subject to reveal crucial information, and b) an "unbiased" narrative frame that makes the audience feel as if they're coming to a conclusion on their own, rather than being told what to think.

It's a nuanced approach but I think it's a smart one, especially considering that autistic-coded folks are very easily dismissed when speaking truth to power. And yeah, he's not gonna get his Congressional hearing. But pointing a camera at the problem and airing it for a massive audience, while saying "Me? I don't have an agenda; this data just presented itself in response to my neutral, unbiased question" is a pretty autistic—and often effective—approach to problem-solving.

[underrcanyonlou]

nathan fielder has created a career for himself such that he can turn his autistic hyperfixation on aviation disasters into the second season of an acclaimed HBO series. there is truly no one else doing it like him

[underrcanyonlou]

Nathan Fielder jacking off in a replica plane cockpit to recreate the life of Sully Sullenberger is absurd and also so comparatively normal to the rest of the episode nobody is talking about it

[underrcanyonlou]

🛫 "No one is allowed in the cockpit if there's something wrong with them. So if you're here, you must be fine."🛬 | The Rehearsal, Season 2 Episode 6 : My Controls

[underrcanyonlou]

Nathan refusing to see the results of the test because that would mean he might not be able to fly…he continues to fly even with the knowledge that he is probably neurodivergent, but putting a label on it would disqualify him because of the FAA’s rules.

If you’re here, that means you’re fine

[underrcanyonlou]

Imagine you have your 15 minutes of fame as a national hero and you write a nice little memoir and they even make a movie where Tom Hanks plays you and you move on with your life and spent over a decade fading back into anonymity and then out of the blue some twisted fuck gets his hands on your story does this on national television

[underrcanyonlou]

emmys are not enough. this man needs the nobel prize

[underrcanyonlou]

[underrcanyonlou]

[underrcanyonlou]

my man my man my man

[underrcanyonlou]

daniel in the background of this pic is that friend in minecraft who's like "no dude i swear i'm not in creative mode right now. i swear bro"

[underrcanyonlou]

wait. that’s what Midnight was about.

it made everyone turn their backs on each other.

and that’s what made it dangerous.

but now that’s literal. you turn your back on someone and you kill them. you go behind someone’s back and it kills you.

because that’s what it learnt the first time it met the Doctor. the first time it met any other life. it learnt how they turn on each other, how it can gain power by making monsters out of people.

so this is what it became. because of what they did to each other.