Wanking Season

Awards season is upon us: The Golden Globes, the Oscars, the Emmys at some point, People's Choice, Teen Choice, Kids' Choice, Taster's Choice--there is no way I can name them all without Google. For the world of Twitter, there is the Shorty Awards, and I recently nominated someone.

There's a template, that says "I nominate_____ for a Shorty Award in [the category of] ________ because_____," and we just fill in the blanks. I tweeted the nomination, and it sounded fine, but when it popped up as an update, and I re-read it, it sounded kind of kiss-ass-y, though it was completely sincere. So then I got to thinking... are we SO cynical that honest praise sounds exactly like wanking? Or maybe I'm just that cynical.

An accessible example of praise that we have no way of knowing is honest--but sounds exactly like wanking either way--is the celebrity press tour. Interviews. Every movie's actors describes whatever they're promoting to be the best experience of all time, each director the most inspired, each crew the most dedicated, each script a masterpiece of which that they just had to be a part.

And there are movies which are truly that awesome... but so many people profess the same boilerplate praise every time, that statistically speaking, somebody has to be full of it. Therefore no one comes out sounding sincere (to me).

Maybe I should lay off the DVD extras for awhile.