The Titanic

[Whyarethetoyseverywhere]

I have a soft spot about the titanic. I think everyone has that one disaster that gets them emotional and that is mine. I’ve done a lot of research about it and I am fed up of seeing people make jokes or referencing it in such a casual way.

The latest, a woman on TikTok who does photography with her children and poses them as Jack and Rose from the movie in water and added fake frost. Regardless of the characters being fictional, it’s still a real story and people were freezing to death and drowning and this woman thought it would make a cute photo to replicate that?!

Theres a song that says ‘going down like the titanic’ but could you imagine if someone said ‘going down like the world trade centre’ in a pop song? There’d be uproar.

AIBU to be sick of people forgetting that it wasn’t just a film and that 1500 people actually died in a horrific disaster and making jokes about it is disgusting?

After a certain length of time, probably when all the people affected are long dead, society does not care anymore about the human life lost in tragedies or wars.

No one would shed a tear today about the lives lost in 1066, or the Battle of Waterloo or Wars of the Roses etc etc. And what about the multiple plagues and the Black Death which killed many.

The Titanic was a tragedy but a very long time ago. If they did not make the film on the 90s, I doubt many people today would have even heard of it tbh.

A lot of people think it’s just a film, they have no idea it really happened. I’m not saying who but it’s not the UK!

The only joke I can recall hearing about 9/11 was on The Hangover. Alan's response to being told he can't masterbate on a plane and his response is "Thanks a lot Bin laden."
Years ago a friend took me to see Frankie Boyle and I had to walk out half way through.He was joking about Madeline McCann and Harvey Price.
I read a comment on a Gavin and Stacy thread earlier that made me think. I've always found it funny that all the main characters have serial killer surnames... Not so funny if you're mum was murdered by Fred West or Peter Sutcliffe though.

but could you imagine if someone said ‘going down like the world trade centre’ in a pop song? There’d be uproar.

”Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade”

OK, it references the earlier bombing but it still gets played and there’s no uproar. It’s an absolute banger.

“This beat is a disaster, 9/11 this track” Childish Gambino

Current actual horrific disaster overtook your fave Titanic in death toll (as did many others before)...

So what makea diaaster interesting? Is it the death toll or who died or what is it? Titanic, at the wnd of the day was simply just one of many ship accidents, some had bigger death toll. Does the draw to it come from the "unsinkable" claim? From the sparkliness inside? Lately from the movie popularity?

I would say it is more comparable to 'Grenfall' than an 'accident'. There were a lot of fatal flaws that shouldn't have happened so I wouldn't call it just an accident....

I cannot see Grenfall ever being mentioned so flippantly, so I see OPs point.

Ive seen that woman's TikTok posts and find them really odd. YANBU

I don't think this will ever happen

The references to Allo Allo - I actually read a book about life in occupied France in WW2 with lots of interviews etc and Rene's stance to life is actually pretty accurate, of course he hates what has happened and wants to do his best to help the resistance, but also life goes on and he has to keep his business going and his family safe etc.

Eventually it will fall into "just one of the incidents". There will be something bigger, people who saw it broadcasted live will die off and so on.
I do think that there are 3 things which made it THAT significant event at the time. The fact ww never saw such thing life on TV all over the world, the second is the aftermath, third so far the highest number of deaths at one event. Oh and 4th, as Rammstein pointed out, we're all living in America. If same happened in lets say India or Brazil or Romania, it would be totally different interest....
All that will eventually mellow to "just one of the incidents". As all events do over time.

Iirc the series was actually vety popular in France. And many other European (and beyond) countries. That would explain why

I agree. Having a pet disaster for which you have a ‘soft spot’ is quite strange.

@Whyarethetoyseverywhere have you been to Southampton's Sea City Museum? Their Titanic section really focuses on the working-class people of the city who crewed the ship, and on the massive impact of its loss on the city. There were primary schools where 50% of the children lost one or both parents. There's no mawkish fiction in a city where the forgotten victims left so many orphans and widows.