Based Camp: The Science of Being a Villain

Join Simone and Malcolm as they dive deep into the intriguing narrative tropes of heroes and villains, exploring societal expectations and the status quo. They draw upon popular culture references, such as Batman and Spider-Man, to illustrate their points. In this thought-provoking conversation, they ponder the concept of "Villains Act, Heroes React," the paradoxical portrayal of heroes and villains in media, and the real-world implications of these stereotypes. If you've ever wondered how societal norms impact the narratives we consume daily, this discussion will open new avenues of thought. So, get ready for a journey into the depths of societal constructs and perceptions, and don't forget to vote for your favorite 'villain'.

Transcript:

Malcolm: [00:00:00] inheriting your powers is a really common trope of heroes. Mm. And achieving powers on your own is a very common trope of villains. Interesting. Yeah. Even when heroes didn't inherit their powers, like Batman, he inherited his money. well, you want the rich, the people who deserve like the, the inherited rich, this long aristocratic, the people who inherited their powers, the people who, that they are there to maintain social order,

Simone: I recently heard the screenwriting trope Villains Act heroes react . While there are counter examples, it does seem like the good guys are more likely to protect the status quo rather than try to change the world,

Malcolm: the villain trope is somebody who's fighting against the status quo to try to make things potentially better because . To really make things better, you have to move things past the status quo. You have to move things to the next potential stage.

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Malcolm: Hello Simone. It's wonderful to be joining you today for my super villain layer.

Malcolm: We're talking about villainy more generally today, but I like to be. Super. [00:01:00]

Simone: You are always super

Malcolm: in my car. People may be wondering why I don't have my ring today. I lose it all the time. And in today's one of those instances, she jokes, I'm like, Sonic's a hedgehog. I I bump into something and rings go flying everywhere.

Simone: I think I have one. Tied to the car keys. You do do

Malcolm: that. I haven't taken that one. Cause it's hard to get off the car thing. But I'll, I'll use it. That's exactly why it's there. We're going meet with some like. Senator types. And

Simone: so that's why we always have backups all over the place.

Malcolm: I gotta look like a traditional conservative male if they're gonna fund our campaign.

Malcolm: So we gotta look normal. But actually Simone's the one who we're hoping to run.

Simone: Yeah, that's gonna be interesting. But, we'll see if people vote for villains, which I honestly think is how we're often framed in the media. But we read a great tweet recently about heroes and villains from a friend of ours that I thought was just brilliant.

Simone: So she, she noted. I recently heard the screenwriting trope Villains Act heroes react for the first time and it destroyed me. [00:02:00] While there are counter examples, it does seem like the good guys are more likely to protect the status quo rather than try to change the world, and that is so true and I find it really interesting.

Malcolm: Yeah. No, I, I think it is really interesting and I am, well, , the series that both of us were immediately thinking of when this came up was the Kingsman series. Mm-hmm. , because the Kingsman is always about, somebody has some like vision for the future often how they can make the world a better place.

Malcolm: And then there's this secret society for like wealthy, or at least culturally wealthy, if not individually wealthy, but, but it seems like the vast majority of the members do come from wealthy families. British, like elitist who are maintaining the status quo. Yeah. It's like about a secret society completely dedicated to maintaining the status quo of the world.

Malcolm: But in the second movie one of the things we thought was really funny is to say one of the villains. Basically they're lacing, spoiler, by the way. Drugs, with something that kills people to remove the, the dangers of drug addicts where what do they, the other villains like, doesn't [00:03:00] care.

Malcolm: And they're like, yeah, we'll let it happen. Because it removes the drug addicts from society and will make the world a better place. And it's like, that's brutal, but like an interesting theory at least. But what I loved, and Simone pointed this out to me, is how do they demonstrate that they're actually the bad guys?

Malcolm: And you definitely shouldn't be on their side. They, they

Simone: started doctoring festival drugs, which is just a step too far.

Malcolm: They started to potentially hurt upper middle class people. And they, no, the real scene when you're supposed to realize, oh, these guys are really the bad guys.

Malcolm: It is, when it turned out the like, Well-paid office worker was using like Adderall or something as like a performance booster and you're

Simone: like, oh, I thought it was when like a, a bunch of basically Instagram influencers were using the like laced. Lace drug and like talking about it and then talking about the side effects, and that's how it showed up in society that this was a widespread issue that many people were being affected.

Malcolm: Well, no, but I'm thinking about how they coded for the audience. Cause it was [00:04:00] clear that they were afraid that a little too much of the audience would agree with this person. So they need to show it affecting upper middle class people as well, because that's the way most people identify. Regardless of their actual economic circumstances, it's, it's really interesting.

Malcolm: There was a study done on this that's like something like 95% of Americans identify as middle class. Yes.

Simone: Yeah, actually I was just reading a 1982 Ms. Manners book while we were on a call like earlier today. And she Emily post joked that there are three classes in America, lower middle class, middle class, and upper middle class, and there's like literally nothing else.

Malcolm: Is great. Yeah. The versions I, I love that you say that. That is, that is so true because that's how everyone identifies Totally. That because nobody wants to identify as upper class in our society,

Simone: except for us, because we're scared. Quotes

Malcolm: elite, right? Yeah. We're scared. Quotes elite. We will take on the, we will be the only upper class family in all of America.

Malcolm: That is what we're gonna do. We will just take that segment in society. Just for us, just for Malcolm and

Simone: Simone and, and no bless o bleach.

Malcolm: You could [00:05:00] say No. Bless o oblig. Yeah, I I remember I got a, a long thing about basically Noble o Oblig when I got into Stanford Business School, but it was from, from a family member.

Malcolm: They like sent me this, but they, they, they said with great power comes great responsibility. Of course, I'm thinking, Spider-Man, right? I'm like, oh, this is a Spider-Man quote. And what I love is that Spider-Man, and I realize, no, that's just like no blessed beliefs summarized Spider-Man is Spider-Man based on no blessed