Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Say My Name

I watched some episodes of the first season of Supergirl on CBS, mostly because of lead Melissa Benoist.  I haven't been watching since it moved this season to CW, but I just noticed that last night's episode feature Mister Mxyzptlk.  I wish I'd watched (even though he now seems to be a dashing young man rather than a cigar-smoking pixie) just to hear how they pronounce his name.

I always found Mister Mxyzptlk a fascinating Superman villain.  How do you threaten someone who's invulnerable?  Well, you create something dangerous, like kryptonite.  You take away his strength under a red sun.  You put his loved ones in danger.  Or you introduce magic, which is where Mxyzptlk comes in.

He was a mischievous imp who'd come to our dimension just so he could mess with Superman.  And the only way to get rid of him (for only 90 days) was to get him to say his name backwards.  Even as a kid, this cracked me up.  Here's a trickster, having fun at Supe's expense, and literally the only thing he has to worry about is not saying his own name backwards, which is hard enough to do even if you want to.  Yet somehow, someone always figured out a way to get him to do it.

I'm sure Supergirl figured out some way.  Or did they change the character so much there's some other way to deal with him?

5 Comments:

Anonymous Lawrence King said...

In elementary school, the following technique was the most effective:

A: "I bet I can make you say 'Orange'."

B: "No you can't."

A: "What color is the grass?"

B: "Green."

A: "What color is a banana?"

B: "Yellow."

A: "What color is the sky?"

B: "Blue."

A: "Aha! Toldja I could make you say 'blue'!"

B: "No, you said 'orange'."

A: "HA HA! YOU SAID 'ORANGE'!"

8:02 PM, February 21, 2017  
Blogger ColumbusGuy said...

I want to love Supergirl, doubtless some silly carryover from Lois and Clark in my affections, but I just find it boring. You actually like it?

3:06 AM, February 22, 2017  
Anonymous Denver Guy said...

I only made it through the first episode. Too soap-opery for me.

But I am enjoying Legion on FX, which apparently is a Marvel superhero comic, though it looks quite different. Its somewhat non-linear presentation keeps your interest as you try to connect the dots. More like Westworld than Agents of Shield (which I also dropped after a few episodes).

8:25 AM, February 22, 2017  
Blogger LAGuy said...

I don't watch it any more, so I can't even say if I like it or not. From what I can tell, they turned it into a mindless actioner with silly villains.

9:02 AM, February 22, 2017  
Blogger ColumbusGuy said...

Sounds about spot on. Especially the "mindless" part.

9:30 AM, February 22, 2017  

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