OK. That just got better and better the longer it went on. It's one of those kinds of gags. posted by SPrintF at 10:48 AM on April 5, 2012 [8 favorites]
Hahahaha, great. I love the look the last person gives their glasses in the last frame. posted by Rock Steady at 10:54 AM on April 5, 2012
Oh this is the BEST.
One of my favorite subversions of the trope was on Arrested Development wherein GOB assumes Kitty will be more attractive if she takes off her glasses and lets down her hair and, well, she isn't, and the scene ends with him trying to find some serviceable configuration of glasses on/off hair up/down. posted by griphus at 10:54 AM on April 5, 2012 [34 favorites]
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs owns this trope. Underrated flick in general, actually. posted by Sticherbeast at 10:55 AM on April 5, 2012 [11 favorites]
*looks in mirror, notes massive bald spot, short hair, and full beard*
*gives up and moves on to Vonnegut thread* posted by Greg_Ace at 11:02 AM on April 5, 2012
This is exactly the sort of thing that made me decide that tumblr might not be so bad after all. posted by elizardbits at 11:12 AM on April 5, 2012
Please, please wear your glasses. I don't care which of the genders you are or aren't. I am sick of being whomped in the face by umbrellas the rest of you little baby people are hauling around in what only you imagine to be unoccupied airspace.
Its hard enough for you to see my imposing presence beyond the lip of your umbrella with glasses, without glasses and obscured by filly dodads and paint I see little hope for the continued survival of mine eyes. posted by Slackermagee at 11:25 AM on April 5, 2012 [3 favorites]
Glasses are hot. However, I will still resent people who wear lensless or faux glasses. I needed these to see before it was cool. posted by Kitty Stardust at 11:26 AM on April 5, 2012 [4 favorites]
I kind of hope no one tries to top the last one, since it's the perfect punchline, but then I also kind of hope someone does try - and nails it. posted by tzikeh at 11:37 AM on April 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
Slackermagee: "I am sick of being whomped in the face by umbrellas the rest of you little baby people are hauling around in what only you imagine to be unoccupied airspace. "
What is it with people being unable to navigate an umbrella on a crowded street without decapitating their fellow pedestrians? Or stabbing them in the neck, face, head with the spiky parts? posted by zarq at 11:39 AM on April 5, 2012
I saw the first couple frames at pageload and was totally prepared to hate on it ... "Well, she didn't only take off her glasses..."
Good for me, I kept going. Couldn't help but grin by the end. posted by owtytrof at 11:49 AM on April 5, 2012
Wearing contacts totally ruins this effect. And if you're close enough to see the outlines of the lenses, well, you're entirely too close. posted by tommasz at 11:53 AM on April 5, 2012
Back in the olden days, when I was a single, glasses-wearing woman on the dating scene, sooooooooooo many guys would ask me to take off my glasses...(and presumably whip my hair around after, right?)
At first it was irritating, like, don't they know I can't see shit without my glasses on?
After a while, it was just a really fast way to weed them out. Nope, glasses stay on, shmucks.
What is it with people being unable to navigate an umbrella on a crowded street without decapitating their fellow pedestrians?
There is an especially cruel and gruesome section of hell for idiot who keep their 6-foot golf umbrellas open under crowded downtown awnings that stretch for entire blocks.
my goal in life is to be in charge of that section of hell tbh posted by elizardbits at 11:59 AM on April 5, 2012 [5 favorites]
Wait, nobody has mentioned the fact that they're putting makeup on as well? Change one thing at a time, people.
(Also, I do make passes at girls who wear glasses. In fact I am probably more likely to make passes at them. That is, if I made passes at people regularly, which I don't, because I am a Socially Awkward Internet Person.) posted by madcaptenor at 1:14 PM on April 5, 2012
Wait, nobody has mentioned the fact that they're putting makeup on as well? Change one thing at a time, people.
I knew it was part of the joke. But I wasn't sure if nobody had mentioned it because you're all cooler than I am and don't point out why jokes are funny, or because you're all oblivious. posted by madcaptenor at 1:16 PM on April 5, 2012
Slackermcgee, zarq, and elizardbits -
I thank you for the comments regarding umbrella safety and etiquette. Sometimes it's lonely fighting this battle in a rainy town full of short texting douchebags carrying gazebos on sticks, and I'm glad to see I have allies abroad. posted by Hoopo at 1:21 PM on April 5, 2012
Was it a derail or did the wind simply turn the brolly inside out? posted by infini at 1:30 PM on April 5, 2012
I'm aching and ashamed of myself, but it's a moderately amusing tumblr instead of barnyard porn that's responsible. Huh. posted by malusmoriendumest at 1:55 PM on April 5, 2012
Yeah, this doesn't work in real life. Let's see...
I am sick of being whomped in the face by umbrellas the rest of you little baby people are hauling around in what only you imagine to be unoccupied airspace.
OH YEAH??!! Maybe you should try to keep your giant, coarse, hairy elbows out of my face and my hairdo, and not sling your grossly overloaded bookbag over your shoulder without looking to see if you are going to clock me (hint: you are.) Also don't shove your way to the front of the stage at every goddamn show because I would like to see at least a little something other than a sea of lumbar vertebrae, and for GOD'S SAKE do not hold your lit cig at my eye level and wave it around like th--- OH CHRIST!!
-- squeaked from down by your ankles somewhere, King Kong. posted by jfwlucy at 2:01 PM on April 5, 2012 [19 favorites]
I kind of hope no one tries to top the last one, since it's the perfect punchline, but then I also kind of hope someone does try - and nails it.
Notice how she very cleverly holds her glasses at an angle where you can't quite tell whether or not they are identical to the ones Austin Powers is wearing. A+ posted by straight at 2:26 PM on April 5, 2012
I have noticed that this does not work for David Caruso no matter how many times he does it. He's still ugly as sin. posted by Splunge at 2:57 PM on April 5, 2012
Wow. Now I have to get glasses! posted by sexyrobot at 2:57 PM on April 5, 2012
Yes. Those people are also mostly likely to ask you if they can wear your glasses, and when you let them, exclaim "YOU ARE SO BLIND". posted by saturnine at 6:43 PM on April 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
As a former glasses wearer (LASIK! ftw) I miss having eyeglasses sometimes.
Naw. I hated those things when I needed them, and contacts made me look more like a stoner than I was.
..and when you let them, [they] exclaim "YOU ARE SO BLIND".
Hah. My last encounter with that was in grade 9 or 10. I didn't get rid of my glasses until my mid-20s. posted by porpoise at 7:22 PM on April 5, 2012
I almost don't even dare to not wear my glasses. I wouldn't even be me, I don't think.
It would be me, incognito. posted by Grlnxtdr at 7:35 PM on April 5, 2012
The only thing that happens when I take off my glasses is I can then magically read fine print. Darn bifocals. posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 8:04 PM on April 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yes. Those people are also mostly likely to ask you if they can wear your glasses, and when you let them, exclaim "YOU ARE SO BLIND"."
I like having people who do that stare straight down and then teeter as the floor tilts away. I'm not just myopic, baby; I have astigmatism. Actually, though, because I have a relatively mild prescription for someone for whom glasses are not optional, I occasionally get "Huh, that actually kind of helps." posted by Karmakaze at 6:06 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
The thing that's kind of sucky about that trope is that it assumes I'm 85 times more sexy without my glasses on. Hell, no. IF I got contacts, and IF I put on lots of eyeshadow and eyeliner and IF I did my hair up, I'm still me, aren't I? I still sexy old me.
So this always felt like an underhanded compliment, or it tries to be...oooh, sexy librarian, unpin your hair, take off those glasses, you are a goddess behind those glasses!
No, motherfucker, I'm a goddess all day long, glasses or a clown wig. posted by Grlnxtdr at 6:19 AM on April 6, 2012 [6 favorites]
Further, only special people ever get to see the sexy, ultra-feminine, made-up, without spectacles, goddess librarian me.
If you're special, she'll show you all kinds of tricks. The glasses trick is just one of many. posted by Grlnxtdr at 7:11 AM on April 6, 2012
I discovered early on that myopia is natural beer goggle when circumstances require the removal of the spectacles. posted by infini at 7:22 AM on April 6, 2012
There's a bit of a bell-curve to that, though; if your eyesight is too good or too bad without your glasses on, you don't get the beer goggles effect. Instead, you get:
You look the same, but now I can't read the titles on your bookshelf 50 feet away, and without the halo effect of David Foster Wallace, I find you less sexy
haaaaaaaaaay baby where are you let's get naughty (CLUNK) help help i fell in the bin
I'm usually within the bounds of 'personal space' by the time the glasses come off, for those very reasons, subbes posted by infini at 9:18 AM on April 6, 2012
Dude does that one dude who takes off his glasses to become River Song look uncannily like Hugh Grant to anyone else? posted by Devika at 9:57 PM on April 10, 2012
« Older "In October of 1973, Bruce Severy — a 26-year-old ... | "The basic foundation of this ... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:47 AM on April 5, 2012 [6 favorites]