Not, like, politics or racism or anything like that, but everyone should have some weird or obscure thing they like that is definitely not something everyone likes. There is some kind of weird, obscure, maybe hard to find thing that speaks to you on a specific level that only a certain amount of people also like. I think it’s an important part of finding yourself.
For instance, my favorite book series is John Dies At The End, not just because it’s the most fun you can have reading a book, but because it introduced me to gonzo lovecraftian as a genre. I try to get everyone I know to read those books. A lot of people just don’t get it. Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place might have been the most formative experience in my life. A lot of people just don’t get it. (I’m from the states, I understand a lot of folks from the UK understand how great it is. Even better than quantum leap.) Tetsuo: The Iron Man is probably my favorite movie of all time. My brother loved it, it has made some people stop talking with me. I like weird shit, I could go on. I raced home from school to watch Beetleborgs.
What weird, obscure, specific thing have you fallen in love with that it seems like nobody else is aware of?
Also, Phantom Crash is the best game there ever was. I will fight you.
(This was an actual thought I had in the shower. I take long showers.)
I don’t care for the Beatles.
They insist upon themselves
I think most artists do, but a lot of people also insist upon them. They also suffer from the problem of being so influential that they were copied to death, which makes them sound derivative even though they were the inventors.
I will die on the hill the Velvet Underground was profoundly more influential on rock music than the Beatles. I’ll give the Beatles they were a cultural phenomenon but only like 10 of their songs are still listanable in 2026. Where I can listen to all 4 VU albums back to back and like most of what I hear.
Right there with you. I just don’t get the appeal.
I like my polarising sunglasses. And old exploitation flicks.
I picked up some sunglasses that said they were polarizing on the tag, but so far everyone likes them.
Any recommendations?
so far everyone likes them. Any recommendations?
Keep wearing them?
Solid advice. Thanks!
Oh god, I’m a little slow. Nice one :)
Vinegar Syndrome has done plenty of impressive restorations and re -releases of classic exploitation movies and other obscure stuff in the last ten years, making them accessible to the curious and the arty and the insane. Check out their catalogue and pick out some that sound interesting.
I think the charm is to go find your own way through this wilderness of b-/c- and z-movies, plow through awful but entertaining grindhouse and every once in a while you stumble across something that blows your mind that neither past or new audiences seem to appreciate in any way.
Best of journeys! Feel free to report back when you come across your nuggets of gold.
Fuck yeah, thanks! I will be checking them out.
You know how when someone asks you to tell them about yourself and suddenly you can’t remember a single trait you have? That’s this question for me. I have trouble talking to other people because the stuff I’m into is so weird and obscure and I’ve definitely been like “well most people don’t like this but I really love…” , so I started to get really excited reading this question because finally one for me! except now I can’t think of a single obscure thing I’m into :)
I’ve gotten into pro cycling in the last few years. But living in the US, I haven’t met anyone in person who has any idea what I’m talking about when I go on about Tadej Pogacar.
In fact, I’ve met a few people visiting from Europe this year (Netherlands and France) and they didn’t seem to follow cycling that much either.
Most people know who Pogacar is in France, because anyone who has cable likely watches the Tour de France. It’s kinda like the Super Bowl, even people who don’t care about cycling tend to have it on at least in the background.
The Pogi reference was more for the American friends, but I did ask a French cab driver about the tour (late June this year) and he was more interested in talking about indoor soccer/football than cycling.
Fair enough. Guess there’s really nothing that is truly universally liked.
My preferred sleeping temperature is to be a little bit sweaty.
For instance, my favorite book series is John Dies At The End
Love that book!
I will die on the hills that:
- Conan the Barbarian is a philosophical movie asking deep questions about family and identity…a true masterpiece.
- Darth Jar-Jar is 100% true and I wish wish wish Lucas had had the guts to actually follow that storyline.
I’m obsessed with a genre I can’t quite find a solid name for, but it’s the middle of a venn diagram where the circles are “surreal horror” and “uncomfortable comedy”.
Stuff like Adult Swim Infomercials, Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, Buffet Infinity, and Greener Grass.
I watched that new movie Buddy this weekend and was absolutely cackling at the most horrifying parts because the context made them hilarious.
You should check out the movie Friendship with Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. It’s like an I Think You Should Leave skit that just keeps going, which quickly turns into a surreal psychological horror situation. It’s fucking hilarious.
Have you watched Monkey Dust?
No, but I just found a stream for it and just a few minutes into the first episode I’m digging it. The bit with the dad killing himself because he thinks the kid’s life with his mom is so much better, then the kid yelling up the bloody stairs “can I come live with you?” Perfect.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’m going to binge this all tonight and then be a bit sad when it runs out.
Aye, that storyline gets pretty dark like
Probably a few genres that fit that description, but one i enjoy a lot is Afro-surrealism.
Media like “Atlanta” and “Sorry to Bother You” are a couple of personal favorites, but there’s lots more
Adultswim’s ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ is also very good at this experience, but I wouldnt call it afro-surrealist.
Oh yeah Too Many Cooks is great, that’s one of the Infomercials. Casper Kelly did that, Buddy, and YPFIGTH. He’s one of my favorite creators in that sphere. The Adult Swim Yule Log specials he did are also really good.
I’ll have to check out Atlanta, I guess I assumed it was some basic standard dramady. But I liked Sorry to Bother You. I thought the second half was some fever dream I had for a while.
Atlanta is definitely more subtle and less horror-comedy, but the surreal elements can catch you when you’re not expecting it and it has the same effect IMO
I also love that book so you’re not special. Take that.
Or maybe we’re both special.
I like sex. Not just doing it, but talking about it, thinking about it, studies about it, philosophies around it, who different cultures view it, etc.
It’s largely taboo where I live, but my girl friend get it and my best friends are chill about it, but I’d love to be able to talk about the interplay between taboos and gratification in the grocery store with the clerk instead of the weather. You know?
I like the idea but not so much the title. I think everybody should have something they like that not everyone else does, but not for a goal. But just to have something unique about them.
My favourite singer is Enya, which is hardly unpopular given that she is the best-selling solo artist out of Ireland (she’s behind U2, which is a band, so they aren’t counted against one another). I don’t just like her music, I know some trivial information, like how she lives in a castle, doesn’t tour, and with her songwriter, invented a language (Loxian) after opting to sing the song from The Fellowship of the Ring in freakin’ Elvish, though nobody asked her to do that. It just made sense to her that part of the song should be in that language that Tolkien invented about a century ago. Following that, she not only made her own language, but wrote this whole sci-fi manifesto behind it, most of which I believe is unpublished, it’s just a guide they use for the language. In summary, the descendants of the Irish go to Mars, discover something between a Stargate and a Mass Effect relay that sends them to a faraway galaxy. Yeah, Enya, of all people, came up with that. Why? Who knows. It’s just background for her whopping five songs in Loxian. And it may not be any more since it’s been 11 years since her last album, her longtime/exclusive producer passed away last year, and she and her songwriter (who is also the producer’s wife) are getting up there in years.
I’d say most people who have heard Orinoco Flow don’t know all that (and most of them call that song “Sail Away”).
My second favourite singer is ReoNa, from Japan, and way fewer people know about her. She’s licensed some of her songs to anime, such as Shadows House and Sword Art Online. She played the singing voice of one of the main characters in the SAO spinoff in the gun world. Her character was batshit crazy, she wanted a true life-or-death stakes VR game like the first season of SAO, and she was secretly everyone’s favourite rock star. Anyway, she’s done a lot of music that isn’t in anime, and her range goes from folksy pop music to hard rock, with a lot of in-between. She also has a “private” YouTube channel where she plays English covers of western songs (I mean, as a Japanese person, she isn’t singing them in Japanese, she’s singing them in English). And by private, I mean it’s her personal channel. Anyone can view it. It’s just what she does on the side. She also cosplays the Vocaloid character, Hatsune Miku (skinny girl with aqua twin tails and “01” tattooed on one shoulder — even if you’re not into anime, you’ve probably seen Miku before). I’ve actually never seen her cosplay. I’m really just here for the music.
I really want to read Enya’s sci-fi now.
I like magnets
Magnets are fucking rad!
Do you also like milk steak and ghouls?
Fuck you
I keep coming back to this ambient/instrumental track called “Blooming Scape” by Ryo Yamazaki, for at least the last decade and a half. It rests my heart and raises my spirit and I’m almost entirely positive I’m the one who’s listened to it the most.
I fucking get it. Gunship sent me a personal message on spotify for listening to them as much as I did the first year I found them. I know they make shit per play, but I probably paid for a car.
(My sister pays for spotify and I got a free thing from her family plan because she owes me favors. Feel free to crucify me.)
There was a six part series called “Snuff Box” on the BBC about 20 years ago. Out of context a few clips are quite famous but nobody has ever mentioned the series to me by name. It’s still my favourite TV programme - alongside Monkey Dust; an absolute gem of an animation.
Snuff Box shares a few actors with G M’s Dark Place so thought I’d give it a mention.
I love Snuffbox! Found it specifically because of Garth Marenghis’s and Matt Berry. I need to rewatch that, it’s been a very long time. Thank you!
I love Alice in Wonderland and there is this rather obscure claymation version that was done by Czech director and artist Jan Švankmajer called Alice. Its very creepy and off putting, but also a surreal masterpiece, with things like animated animal skulls and other animated taxidermy. Its one of my all time favorite movies, but I’ve talked to other people who have watched it and for the most part people seem to dislike it.
You can watch it in full here and come to your own conclusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK_l74cSPGY
I havent thought about Jan Švankmajer in ages, thanks for reminding me of him! All of his stuff is so off putting and surreal, I really like his works.
He is great right? I think under appreciated really. Loved this one too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1THMc9g5SaU
The best zombie movie ever made is Kuolleiden talvi (Winter of the Dead), a small short indie film, by some finnish folks. It is corny in the best way possible, and has all the elements, to make it a perfect example of the best sides of the whole genre. Amazing. Nobody ever watches it, and if they do, they do not understand, why I hold it in such high regard, haha. You can still find it on youtube, with English subtitles even. I highly recommend it, obviously, but it definitely is not something, most people would enjoy.
