When I’m not blogging about anime or selling hentai products on the Internet, you can usually find me relaxing in front of YouTube, watching cat videos, or following a few investment channels. Sometimes I watch the content of RedLetterMedia, a group of nerdy video creators in Wisconsin who make irreverent but often very interesting videos commenting on various subjects, usually science fiction films.
RLM exploded in popularity when the ridiculously long 7-part review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was uploaded to YouTube in 2012. In the review, a fictional character named Mr. Plinkett, played by Mike Stoklasa, makes some very interesting observations on Star Wars in the digital age…in between jarring off-color jokes about his dead ex-wife.
William Shatner vs. RedLetterMedia
In a video I caught the other day, it seems there was a bit of a kerfuffle when RedLetterMedia’s fans started petitioning William Shatner to appear on RLM’s show as a guest, as seen in the video embedded below. The staff of RLM never asked William Shatner to be on their show, but their fans did, and when Mr. Shatner checked out the channel, he happened to find some of the lesser-quality videos the group had done, rather than some of their more celebrated works, such as Plinkett’s detailed review of Star Wars Episode III or of the 2016 Ghostbusters film, which (once you get past Plinkett’s slurring speech and dark humor) are outstanding.
In the end, Shatner dismissed the RLM guys as “shills” because they happened to be pretending to advertise Federation Beer in one of the episodes he saw and blocked them on Twitter. Thus ended the Great Boomer Fight.
William Shatner vs. J-List
I was amused to see an online blow-up between one of my favorite YouTube channels and Captain Kirk, because the same thing happened to J-List back in 2017. A follower asked Mr. Shatner’s Twitter account who his favorite girl from the Love Live idol anime was, and to everyone’s surprise, he replied that he loved Umi. Whether this was a shitpost to troll some of his followers or the actor actually outing himself as an anime fan, it drove everyone wild on Twitter for a few days.
I got involved, too, writing a blog post and generally having fun with everyone. Then I made the mistake of sending a comment someone else had made, to the effect that since Mr. Shatner didn’t like the same Love Live idol as this fan, he was going to block him. Mr. Shatner didn’t realize that it wasn’t me making the implied threat of blocking, but someone else whose screenshots I was sharing, and blocked the J-List account.
Rule #5 of Twitter Fight Club. Never threaten to do something you don’t have any intention of carrying out. 👋🏻 https://t.co/PDkp9x0vqo
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 21, 2017
My Special Relationship with “Bill” Shatner
Although only his friends are allowed to call him Bill (a reference to the 1999 film Free Enterprise), I’ve always felt a strong connection to William Shatner. I’ve enjoyed the many creative works he’s been involved with, both inside and outside Star Trek, and the many times he’s re-invented himself professionally. One of the last physical CDs I remember purchasing was his indie album Has Been. In fact, William Shatner is looking down on me right now, as I type these words.
I was born in 1968 and grew up watching Star Trek TOS re-runs as part of my childhood. As my mother had divorced my father while I was two years old, Captain Kirk was pretty much my primary male role model growing up, and the character has shaped my personality more than anyone else I can think of. To this day, whenever I’m faced with a crisis like a terrible earthquake and tsunami, an economic crash or COVID-19, I pull out an apple, take a bite and say, Kirk-style, “I don’t believe in the no-win scenario.”
So being blocked by my childhood hero was painful, but all part of the weirdness of social media, I guess. I got to meet him at Phoenix Fan Fusion in 2018, where I got the above-signed photo. He promised to unblock my account but was perhaps got busy. Or maybe he’s nervous about having a major Twitter account whose followers might start obsessing over which Love Live girl he likes again.
The Agony of Social Media Blocking
I happen to currently be reading a book called The Brain and the Meaning of Life by Paul Thagard, which discusses various aspects of the brain and how we perceive reality. The book defines happiness in simple terms as “love, work and play” — which means all the interpersonal connections we share with other humans including the close people we love, everything related to the satisfaction we do or don’t derive from our jobs, and the enjoyment we experience from whatever recreational activities we’re drawn to. I’m convinced that, decades in the future, psychologists will study the current age of social media and the special pain we seem to experience whenever we’re cut off from a certain relationship, whether it’s a buddy who breaks off friendship with us for some reason, a romantic breakup, or a respected person blocking us on social media.
Personally, I’ve decided to never block anyone in my own social media life, going forward, because of the real negative feelings it can cause in the affected individuals. If someone is posting something inappropriate or being annoying to me, I will instead mute them so that they’re unable to negatively affect me or bring me down, but haven’t received the actual social censure of being blocked by me. In the interests of managing the happiness of people we interact with, this feels like a kinder way to remove a negative from my environment than permanently blocking them.
Conclusion
I remain a huge fan of William Shatner. He’s had an amazing career and is hip enough to hang out with the kids on Reddit and even 4chan sometimes. I hope to be 1/10 as cool as him when I’m 89 years old.
Bill, if you happen to read this, thanks very much for your contribution to my life!
Peter Payne
President/Owner of J-List
If you need some stress relief during these stressful times, we’ve got lots of awesome life-sized oppai mousepads in stock for you to drool over. These are all available as pre-orders, and the window to order is usually very short, so don’t delay! Browse all the mousepads here!
