"Whimsy"

[User09678]

Aibu to have a real aversion to the trend for "whimsy" in current films and TV series? I find it baffling, not funny, I can't suspend disbelief when I'm watching violent scenes interspersed with whatever this new thing is. It leaves me constantly having to shift mental gears to try and understand what's going on and is very unnatural. It might just me. Is it? Am I too old and grumpy now? I'm not sure how I'm meant to be taking it. I probably am being unreasonable. Maybe it always existed and I just notice it now.

Sorry, I don’t want to vote yet as I think I’m not quite understanding you, do you have an example or two of what you mean?

God, yes! Whimsy overdose is simply tedious. It’s also forced and somehow smug and twee.
I just watched The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, a film which deals with the dark subject of mental illness. It was good, but would have been excellent without the overlay of quaintness and whimsy.
Let’s leave all that stuff to Mary Poppins and her target audience.

@User09678 what is "whimsy" ?

This is what a Whimsy is to me 😂

Ha ha I immediately thought of the little animals in pp’s photo!

Loved collecting those as a kid.

It means Lord Peter to me (although different spelling)

That's why I clicked on the thread. I thought it might be a nice chat about little ornaments.
(I wish I knew what happened to my collection....)

They were my first thought too 🤣🤣

what is "whimsy" ?

Whimsy is a kind of humour that aims to be quaint, a bit odd.
Wallace and Gromit is probably a fair example of the style.

Me too! I've got loads in a couple of shoeboxes. Ah, simpler times 😁

Didn’t they used to come free inside boxes of tea?

I like a whimsical story here and there. Like Miss Potter, with Renee Zellwegger talking to the illustrations or a random musical number thrown into a film. But it veers into cutesy rather easily (side eye to Miss Potter) so can be hard to balance.

Wish I knew where my childhood Wade whimsy collection had disappeared to. Just going down an Etsy rabbit hole…

Did they ?
I think I bought mine from a gift shop at Bolton Abbey ,we used to there for picnics when I was a child.

Yes, it was Red Rose Tea, my mum bought it. We used to have loads of them. I remember being particularly fond of the lion and a dog.

There was a Cat And The Fiddle that lasted until the mid 90s but I think we got rid of the rest when we left Canada.

AAAAHHHH my grandma used to collect them, also those bog eyed Pen Delfin rabbits doing things like pushing a wheelbarrow

{Edited to add Pen Delfin after a quick google for bog eyed rabbits }

Pendelfin rabbits!

Rabbit + wheelbarrow for reference.

Sorry OP! I agree it is a bit jarring sometimes in film and TV YANBU

Haha I love all things whimsical but I think it’s become a bit of a trend which is always off putting, and I can see how people can find it annoying.

Are you talking about something like Black Doves? Which had violence and a lot of comedy in it ar the same time. Like one of the characters making a joke back to wishing she'd brought that rocket launcher she got as a present in the middle of a violent shootout and mass killing?

They were horrific , and I say that as someone who used to say proudly "they make those in Burnley" which
is where I am from!

Omg yes. Nostalgia!

Yes, I saw that. I knew of his cat drawings (though not the more psychedelic versions) and so went to the Louis Wain exhibition at the Museum of the Mind a couple of years back. Maybe I wasn't fully focussed on the film or something, but I mostly felt confused by it, and I'm not sure it was clear he was in Bethlem or anything. It wasn't till the end credits that you really see much of his art to know why he was famous.

I wondered if it would have been easier or not to follow if you knew nothing of him before watching it.

Maybe I should just stop watching biopics.

Whimsy is right up there with quirky for me: irritating. However, I’m accepting of each to own, and endeavour not to engage with either

Sure, but that’s hardly new. Pulp Fiction was doing comedy stuff interspersed with whimsy (hitmen arguing about burger names and foot massages while killing people, fleeing bent boxers forgetting to pack an heirloom watch, a dance competition at a kitsch diner before a near-fatal overdose etc) thirty years ago.