Goddamn Brownies

After watching some of the extra features on the new Blu-Ray release of the original Friday the 13th (finally uncut) I remember the worst part about going to conventions. It's awesome to see the stars of horror films you love and even hear them speak, well some of them, at a Q&A session. The problem comes with the idiot fans who don't pay attention or just ask/say stupid things.

One feature on the DVD is from a Friday the 13th reunion panel last year. Adrienne King is there with Tom Savini, Ari Lehman, Bestly Palmer (who looks remarkably like Jenny's mom), screenwriter Victor Miller and composer Harry Manfredini and they tell stories and answer questions. Pretty much what you would expect. Everything seems to be going smoothly until they show some schmuck in the audience who asks King if she can demonstrate her wonderful scream the producers loved so much when they cast her. Dear Lord, there is one in every group. They are not some sort of circus animal. Some con regulars will be happy to do this type of thing all the time, but they are attention whores. Cough, cough, Lehman, cough.

Even worse than the "dance monkey, dance" fan are those who don't pay attention. At a Malcolm McDowell Q&A I attended last year he was asked a question about some voice over work he did. He apologized to the young woman asking, but he, like most other actors not working solely in voice over, admitted those gigs are just an easy check. He goes in, reads what is on the page a few times and tells them to drop the check in the mail while on his way out the door. Not but maybe two questions later someone asked about the character he lends his voice to on Metalocalypse (great show by the way). The area I was sitting in seemed to collectively shake its head at the idiot who asked the question. I did feel a little better when McDowell's chastising of the fool for not paying attention was followed by applause from the rest of the room.

Another unenlightened group does so on a more personal level, at the autograph table. This can be better for everyone involved because there is not the public display for both parties when something stupid is asked or brought to the guest's attention. I have many examples of this but I'll stick with two I have seen/overheard while waiting for a chance to meet-and-greet with George A. Romero. One involves an imbecile who brought up a copy of the Resident Evil video game to be signed. It is true Romero was a heavy influence on the storyline of that game, but his ideas were never compensated. In other words he had no involvement with the project, and was a bit ripped off by it. The second instance, and the worst I've ever seen, was when this complete moron tossed a copy of Dawn of the Dead on the table to await an autograph. The only problem is it was the DVD of Zack Snyder's remake, which Romero was very much against.

Both dimwits did not get their items signed and seemed not to understand why he was a little peeved by their request (more so with the Dawn of the Dead fiasco). Why were they waiting in line if they obviously don't know anything about the man? Will these people ever learn?