... in which I say NO, you say YES (but you will change your mind)
I thought I'd do that "ten moments which incite geeky glee" meme, because I figured that it had pretty much been invented for me. Heh. Aren't you all lucky? These are in no particular order, and they miss off a whole load that have already been done by other people, as well as being restricted to only one per canon. (Yes, I'm weird like that.)
1. The "Vince and Stuart do lunch" scene in Queer as Folk. Everything about it is unutterably perfect - Vince admitting that he doesn't get why Cameron loves him ("Me, though? I can't be the best shag he's ever had - he's Australian!"); Stuart reeling off the list of Dr Whos, only for Vince to ask "what about Paul McGann?" and them both going "Paul McGann doesn't count!" at the same time; Stuart's speech in which he details every single thing that Vince considers pathetic about himself - "what's so impressive about that? What is there to love?", followed by this wonderfully quiet "It was good enough for me". Dude.
(I'd also like to say at this point that I almost picked the scene in which Stuart drives a jeep through the car showroom window, right up to the Evil Homophobic Car Salesman's desk, then gets out, grins, and says "Where do I sign?" It was a tough choice. The whole show is wonderful.)
2. Pretty much everything in Spaced as well, but special mention here goes to the bit in Ends where Tim does the dance down the street (complete with hugging strangers and headding a random football perfectly) because he thinks Sarah'll get back with him, then he and Mike do the same dance to celebrate Mike getting back into the TA, and then Brian does the same dance, grinning like an idiot because Twist's agreed to go out with him... only gets it all wrong, falls on his arse and gets pelted with footballs. Hee hee.
3. The X-Files episode Small Potatoes, but especially the scene with not!Mulder in front of the mirror. The dancing and the "Stop! FBI! F! B! I!" just made me fall over laughing (I like things which make me laugh, incidentally). It sort of epitomises for me the stuff that made me love the X Files in the first place; it's able to mock itself and have fun while using that to illustrate cool points about, in this case, character. I'd also add the entirety of Bad Blood here, because the different versions of events (including Scully's version being interrupted by Mulder remembering the Sherrif as having enormous buck teeth) are awesome, and Jose Chung's "From Outer Space", but this scene made me squee more in and of itself. :) Plus, y'know, any episode which can give the world this image has to be good.
4. West Wing is a difficult one to do... the In The Shadow of Two Gunmen scenes with Josh and Sam would be the obvious choice, because canon slash makes me happy, but I think I'm going for A Proportional Response - Josh walking into his office, only to see CJ sitting in his chair with her feet on his desk... who then gives him this Look and says "Boy, are you stupid" in the perfect eye-roll tone of voice. Yay! One of the most eeee-y things I've seen on TV. And then there's Sam's speech about how "He's asking if you're gay, Charlie, and I wouldn't answer the damn question"... there's some lovely exploration of idealism and what exactly government should be trying to do anyway along with the lovely characteriness, and it is, quite simply, the kind of television that makes me proud to be a fan.
5. War Stories isn't my absolute favourite ep of Firefly ever, but it does have one of my top ten squee-y moments. I love the bit where Mal and Wash are being tortured and discussing how Mal should sleep with Zoe to keep their minds off it - it's a great mix of disturbing and funny, and I'm impressed they got away with it. And then you've got the moment where Zoe pulls all the stops to get her men back, then to be told she has sufficient money for only one. And just when you're thinking "oh shit", she just... picks Wash, right off. Waaaaaah.
(Plus, there's also the opportunity for Mal and Zoe to have really hilariously awkward fake flirting afterwards, when Mal says he's going to go through with the agreement he and Wash made, but that doesn't make me go "guh" as much.)
6. Everything about the Birthday Party scene in the Lord of the Rings movie. (I should clarify here that I think the three films are actually just one, in the same way as the book is one book, not three.) It's wonderful - Merry and Pippin! ProudFEET! Bilbo's wonderfully, wonderfully acted leaving speech! Frodo Hobbit dancing in the silliest way ever! -and while the rest of the film has many more fantastic moments that show how great it is, this was the point at which I realised I was watching something that was honestly going to do justice to the story I love.
7. My current favourite Stargate: SG-1 episode, Wormhole X-Treme. The number of geeky injokes alone would make me love this, but ohh the idea of having an episode based on the idea that someone's making a TV show of the Stargate project is quite simply inspired, and thus pushes this episode in front of every squee worthy character moment in the show. (And there are a lot. Including Jack welcoming Daniel back with "SPACEMONKEY!") In particular, I vote for the bit where the fake plastic rocks fall on the guy who plays the character based on Daniel, which has the power to make me do a little geeky dance.
8. Gundam Wing makes me actively squee less than many of the other things I'm geeky about, but the scene where Relena turns up in her huge pink car to talk to Heero (hence completely blowing his cover), only for Duo to then be all "ok, we're LEAVING NOW, RELENA" made me happy because she totally deserved the smackdown.
9. The bit in Ed Wood where they actually show clips from Plan 9 From Outer Space. Johnny Depp is brilliant in it, and oh he breaks my heart every time he tries to get anyone to buy his films and give them the budget he's so sure they deserve, but eeeeee, the clips are just ultimate proof that this film is made by GEEKS, and that deserves a geeky dance if nothing else does.
10. The other Sorkin show, Sports Night, also has too many to list. I want to say Danny's speech about his brother in The Appology, because WAH, but I don't think that's quite squee-y enough. I'd say I'm going to go for What Kind of Day Has It Been?, with Dana blowing up about the fact that everything, everything has gone terribly wrong... only for Isaac to turn up. Dan and Casey's little "a real strawberry parfait, Isaac" speech is just wonderful, and aww, the hug... only then I remembered the one scene that tops this for "everything's going to be all right"-ness, which would be the end of April Is The Cruelest Month. Danny appologising for everything, and believing that Casey will never forgive him, is so sad, but then Casey turns up at the seder and does the "I wouldn't change the last ten years working with you for anything, Danny, not for anything, I swear to God" thing, and then they have a real honest-to-goodness hug while I start crying and grinning like an idiot because it is the cutest thing in the world, and the fact that anyone can make such goodness makes me happier than I can say.
This is all by way of saying that these are among the things that lets me read about how people are often stupid and scary but still get up in the morning. That's something worth celebrating, I think. Stuff that lets us still fight is good.
Which brings me to the other reason for this post. Two of the people who make it worth getting up in the morning are having birthdays today, and I hope you'll all join in me in going "yay!" Happy birthday, angua9 and cabari. May your days be as awesome as you are.
1. The "Vince and Stuart do lunch" scene in Queer as Folk. Everything about it is unutterably perfect - Vince admitting that he doesn't get why Cameron loves him ("Me, though? I can't be the best shag he's ever had - he's Australian!"); Stuart reeling off the list of Dr Whos, only for Vince to ask "what about Paul McGann?" and them both going "Paul McGann doesn't count!" at the same time; Stuart's speech in which he details every single thing that Vince considers pathetic about himself - "what's so impressive about that? What is there to love?", followed by this wonderfully quiet "It was good enough for me". Dude.
(I'd also like to say at this point that I almost picked the scene in which Stuart drives a jeep through the car showroom window, right up to the Evil Homophobic Car Salesman's desk, then gets out, grins, and says "Where do I sign?" It was a tough choice. The whole show is wonderful.)
2. Pretty much everything in Spaced as well, but special mention here goes to the bit in Ends where Tim does the dance down the street (complete with hugging strangers and headding a random football perfectly) because he thinks Sarah'll get back with him, then he and Mike do the same dance to celebrate Mike getting back into the TA, and then Brian does the same dance, grinning like an idiot because Twist's agreed to go out with him... only gets it all wrong, falls on his arse and gets pelted with footballs. Hee hee.
3. The X-Files episode Small Potatoes, but especially the scene with not!Mulder in front of the mirror. The dancing and the "Stop! FBI! F! B! I!" just made me fall over laughing (I like things which make me laugh, incidentally). It sort of epitomises for me the stuff that made me love the X Files in the first place; it's able to mock itself and have fun while using that to illustrate cool points about, in this case, character. I'd also add the entirety of Bad Blood here, because the different versions of events (including Scully's version being interrupted by Mulder remembering the Sherrif as having enormous buck teeth) are awesome, and Jose Chung's "From Outer Space", but this scene made me squee more in and of itself. :) Plus, y'know, any episode which can give the world this image has to be good.
4. West Wing is a difficult one to do... the In The Shadow of Two Gunmen scenes with Josh and Sam would be the obvious choice, because canon slash makes me happy, but I think I'm going for A Proportional Response - Josh walking into his office, only to see CJ sitting in his chair with her feet on his desk... who then gives him this Look and says "Boy, are you stupid" in the perfect eye-roll tone of voice. Yay! One of the most eeee-y things I've seen on TV. And then there's Sam's speech about how "He's asking if you're gay, Charlie, and I wouldn't answer the damn question"... there's some lovely exploration of idealism and what exactly government should be trying to do anyway along with the lovely characteriness, and it is, quite simply, the kind of television that makes me proud to be a fan.
5. War Stories isn't my absolute favourite ep of Firefly ever, but it does have one of my top ten squee-y moments. I love the bit where Mal and Wash are being tortured and discussing how Mal should sleep with Zoe to keep their minds off it - it's a great mix of disturbing and funny, and I'm impressed they got away with it. And then you've got the moment where Zoe pulls all the stops to get her men back, then to be told she has sufficient money for only one. And just when you're thinking "oh shit", she just... picks Wash, right off. Waaaaaah.
(Plus, there's also the opportunity for Mal and Zoe to have really hilariously awkward fake flirting afterwards, when Mal says he's going to go through with the agreement he and Wash made, but that doesn't make me go "guh" as much.)
6. Everything about the Birthday Party scene in the Lord of the Rings movie. (I should clarify here that I think the three films are actually just one, in the same way as the book is one book, not three.) It's wonderful - Merry and Pippin! ProudFEET! Bilbo's wonderfully, wonderfully acted leaving speech! Frodo Hobbit dancing in the silliest way ever! -and while the rest of the film has many more fantastic moments that show how great it is, this was the point at which I realised I was watching something that was honestly going to do justice to the story I love.
7. My current favourite Stargate: SG-1 episode, Wormhole X-Treme. The number of geeky injokes alone would make me love this, but ohh the idea of having an episode based on the idea that someone's making a TV show of the Stargate project is quite simply inspired, and thus pushes this episode in front of every squee worthy character moment in the show. (And there are a lot. Including Jack welcoming Daniel back with "SPACEMONKEY!") In particular, I vote for the bit where the fake plastic rocks fall on the guy who plays the character based on Daniel, which has the power to make me do a little geeky dance.
8. Gundam Wing makes me actively squee less than many of the other things I'm geeky about, but the scene where Relena turns up in her huge pink car to talk to Heero (hence completely blowing his cover), only for Duo to then be all "ok, we're LEAVING NOW, RELENA" made me happy because she totally deserved the smackdown.
9. The bit in Ed Wood where they actually show clips from Plan 9 From Outer Space. Johnny Depp is brilliant in it, and oh he breaks my heart every time he tries to get anyone to buy his films and give them the budget he's so sure they deserve, but eeeeee, the clips are just ultimate proof that this film is made by GEEKS, and that deserves a geeky dance if nothing else does.
10. The other Sorkin show, Sports Night, also has too many to list. I want to say Danny's speech about his brother in The Appology, because WAH, but I don't think that's quite squee-y enough. I'd say I'm going to go for What Kind of Day Has It Been?, with Dana blowing up about the fact that everything, everything has gone terribly wrong... only for Isaac to turn up. Dan and Casey's little "a real strawberry parfait, Isaac" speech is just wonderful, and aww, the hug... only then I remembered the one scene that tops this for "everything's going to be all right"-ness, which would be the end of April Is The Cruelest Month. Danny appologising for everything, and believing that Casey will never forgive him, is so sad, but then Casey turns up at the seder and does the "I wouldn't change the last ten years working with you for anything, Danny, not for anything, I swear to God" thing, and then they have a real honest-to-goodness hug while I start crying and grinning like an idiot because it is the cutest thing in the world, and the fact that anyone can make such goodness makes me happier than I can say.
This is all by way of saying that these are among the things that lets me read about how people are often stupid and scary but still get up in the morning. That's something worth celebrating, I think. Stuff that lets us still fight is good.
Which brings me to the other reason for this post. Two of the people who make it worth getting up in the morning are having birthdays today, and I hope you'll all join in me in going "yay!" Happy birthday, angua9 and cabari. May your days be as awesome as you are.