The Real World

December 7, 2006 4:59 AM

If chat rooms were real. [You Tube video, via Digg]
posted by punkfloyd (30 comments total)

An oldie, but a goodie. That short, The Parlor, was part of Chrysler's Million Dollar Film Festival.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:10 AM on December 7, 2006

OOPS Sorry NSFW!!!
posted by punkfloyd at 5:11 AM on December 7, 2006

Hey, that wasn't bad.
posted by intermod at 5:14 AM on December 7, 2006

It's ancient, but it's so old, it was from when I still had dial-up and I couldn't watch the video because there was only a DSL steam and I could only catch the audio.

I remember this because of the "Shut up, Bambi!"

But thanks for reminding me about this. Now I can, you know, actually watch it.
posted by champthom at 5:25 AM on December 7, 2006

I'm a little dissapointed they went straight to the predator.
posted by furtive at 5:28 AM on December 7, 2006

That's poor old Tom Smykowski from Office Space playing Beth.
posted by emelenjr at 5:32 AM on December 7, 2006

Okay... it starts out a little slow but picks up momentum pretty quickly once the characters are established. Cynical ol' me was surprised to find myself entertained.
posted by RokkitNite at 5:38 AM on December 7, 2006

I've seen this before but it's pretty funny. Surprised it's never been posted here before.
posted by grouse at 5:47 AM on December 7, 2006

I liked it more than I expected, actually, and this is the first time I've seen it.

Now, tell me, punkfloyd, you wouldn't happen to be Floyd, a software engineer from....
posted by micayetoca at 5:51 AM on December 7, 2006

I think I found this snooping around our college network freshman year.

Still funny.
posted by kdar at 5:58 AM on December 7, 2006

First time I've seen it, thanks for posting. It was very well done.
posted by rsanheim at 6:10 AM on December 7, 2006

You probably shouldn't have spoiled the punchline with your post.
posted by Evstar at 7:58 AM on December 7, 2006

I saw this on late-night TV a few years ago, sandwiched between two movies on some cable channel, and always wanted to see it again. Thanks for dropping it in my lap like this.
posted by chudmonkey at 8:15 AM on December 7, 2006

^10:54 of mild amusement. Is it wrong that I fancy randibare^{14 y.o.a}?
posted by econous at 10:30 AM on December 7, 2006

Ah, the old days of IRC. And nights... and weekends...
posted by hal9k at 10:31 AM on December 7, 2006

First time seeing it also. I loved it.
posted by hellphish at 10:38 AM on December 7, 2006

Thanks, punkfloyd.
posted by deborah at 11:13 AM on December 7, 2006

This is why I don't go to MeFi meetups.
posted by anthill at 11:25 AM on December 7, 2006

Surprised it's never been posted here before.

So old the link is dead. Now I regret my one and only FPP even more.

Do I win for oldest repeat call ever or something?
posted by dogwalker at 11:36 AM on December 7, 2006

I was first linked to this in the personal-universe-consuming IRC channel I was part of for years. I could never find it again, so thanks.

Wow. I still don't quite believe how much time I spent on IRC.
posted by ninjew at 12:39 PM on December 7, 2006

You managed to escape IRC? What'd you use, a briefcase nuke? Orbital railgun? Thermite lance?
posted by loquacious at 2:43 PM on December 7, 2006

I uninstalled every IRC program from all of my computers. And then I discovered the ability to use my mouth to speak to other real humans. And that weather patterns change according to these things called seasons.
posted by ninjew at 2:52 PM on December 7, 2006

I wonder if the short's executive producer, Alan Ball, is he of Six Feet Under fame?
posted by matildaben at 3:03 PM on December 7, 2006

Okay, this was hilarious, and I hadn't seen it before.

The middle exchange between the girl and the boy really made the entire movie.
posted by blacklite at 3:05 PM on December 7, 2006

Wonderful. I'm another former IRC addict. As such, of course I hissed when the cops came in to remove the guy for profanity. I hadn't expected an AOL experience. (Get a real ISP!)

Escape IRC? No problem. I found my partner and hardly bother with IRC anymore. I do miss it sometimes. It worked very well for me. I think it was that having so many conversations going at once was able to hold my interest and focus, so I got more social contact than ever in my life.
posted by Goofyy at 6:24 PM on December 7, 2006

IRC consumed 2 years of my single life. Oddly, mudding also seemed like being on IRC at times what with all the chatting and cybersexing.

Maybe I belonged to a particularly randy mud!
posted by UseyurBrain at 7:17 PM on December 7, 2006

I too escaped IRC after it consumed almost 3 years of my life. What helped was that my ex-girlfriend was in it, and after realising that continuing to talk to her was not helping me move past her, I simply went cold turkey.

That and the room started dying.

And then almost four years later I went in there about 2 months ago to ask them to remove my profile from their webpage. There was all of about 3 people in there (one of whom was still there after all of this time, presumably because in the interim she'd been made an op) and no-one was talking. An hour later the one person I knew responded and told me she'd remove my profile. And once she did, my break from IRC was complete.

Good riddance.

Thanks for posting this link. I enjoyed it very much.
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:11 PM on December 7, 2006

Err… all muds were that randy. Anything made popular by furries is going to be insanely randy on average.
posted by blasdelf at 10:22 PM on December 7, 2006

matildaben - I wonder if the short's executive producer, Alan Ball, is he of Six Feet Under fame?

I'm guessing it is, since a "Special Thanks" go to "Everyone at 'Six Feet Under'" in the credits.
posted by pruner at 12:18 AM on December 8, 2006

Pretty awesome.

I spent most of high school in some chat room or another. Little did I know that all of the other 15y/o girls were really 45 year old men. *sigh*
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:31 AM on December 9, 2006