The Loving Trap
Ben Woodhams15 HN recommenders · recommended in 11 months, 2012-2026
418K views · 15 years ago · comedy · evergreen
A three-minute parody of Adam Curtis's documentary style, assembled from archive footage with his typical narration and leaps of logic.
Recommended as the standard companion to any Adam Curtis film, since it lampoons the style and gives reasons to take his claims with skepticism.
7:12Adam Curtis - Oh Dearism
UKNewsMediaBlog
293K views • 17 years ago
3:54:44The Century of the Self (Full Adam Curtis Documentary)
David Lessig
3.8M views • 11 years ago
2:46:48Hypernormalisation | Full Documentary | Adam Curtis
Adam Curtis Documentaries
622K views • 3 years ago
2:46:32HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis HD Full [2016] [Subs]
L33T GUY
736K views • 9 years ago
4:19Hardly Working: Start-up Guys
Dropout
1.1M views • 15 years ago
3:37Using Social Media To Cover For Lack Of Original Thought - Onion Talks - Ep. 6
The Onion
1.5M views • 13 years ago
2:40:29HyperNormalisation 2016
crisalist
2.3M views • 10 years ago
4:45Honest Government Ad | Carbon Capture & Storage
thejuicemedia
1.5M views • 5 years ago
2:27Fauci in the Hall of the Mountain King
A Dishwasher at Google
128K views • 5 years ago
3:10New Live Poll Lets Pundits Pander To Viewers In Real Time
The Onion
2.7M views • 17 years ago
4:17Dunkey's Guide to Streaming Services
videogamedunkey
2.7M views • 2 years ago
2:05Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?
The Onion
4.8M views • 17 years ago
10:38The Daily Show - Burn Noticed
Comedy Central
6.6M views • 12 years ago
2:55Expert Wasted Entire Life Studying Anteaters
The Onion
9.4M views • 18 years ago
1:38The New Mactini - BBC
BBC
4.4M views • 17 years ago
2:03Charlie Brooker's How to Report the News - Newswipe - BBC
BBC
2.5M views • 16 years ago
4:17Happiness
Steve Cutts
60.4M views • 8 years ago
3:13Missing Teen's Friends Go On TV To Plead For Her Release, Gossip About Ugly Classmates
The Onion
8.3M views • 15 years ago
1:10:16Perhaps Ben Shapiro Shouldn't Be Taken Seriously By Anyone About Anything - SOME MORE NEWS
Some More News
5.1M views • 7 years ago
0:45Gavin Belson - Sycophants
Adam
171K views • 10 years ago
20 comments from Hacker News
A phrase also beloved of Adam Curtis, along with starting new sentences with conjunctions. "But this was a fantasy." ▶ this video
Adam Curtis? Commoditized?? You clearly haven't seen this short clip: ▶ this video encapsulating his work.
Why do you think its a joke? it seems you agree with me? Sure brits love to get drunk but their politics always seemed reasonable to me. I love the different subcultures the UK birthed and its heartbreaking how bad things are and are still going to get in the coming century. Downvote me if you must, wont change my personal (albeit uninformed) feelings. As for Adam Curtis i enjoy his work but this parody hits it on the nail: ▶ this video
▶ this video obligatry response whenever anything by Adam Curtis is offered up. Sorry, I'm largely of the opinion that it is (well made) boomer-aimed catastrophe porn designed to give the viewer a smug sense of having "esoteric knowledge".
You should always acompany this documentary with a watch of this short little video. The Loving Trap ( ▶ this video ). It mocks adam curtis style while making some very good points.
You'll enjoy this parody then ▶ this video It hits the nail on the head (but I still enjoy Curtis' work)
“...and, as a result, Thabo Mbeki was swept to power” ▶ this video Love a good Adam Curtis documentary, especially when he throws light on obscure moments in history. Probably best not to hang your understanding of the world on the scaffold he constructs though.
> Boone directed readers instead to a short online spoof of Curtis’s films by Ben Woodhams called “The Loving Trap,” which describes his work as the “televisual equivalent of a drunken late-night Wikipedia binge.” I'm glad this was mentioned, because i think it's hilarious: ▶ this video
> ▶ this video LOL! I had paused Hypernormilzation on the mid point when it got to AI and the picture of the screen was a one of these guys [0] and I just had it that way and kind of wondered why I prefer to just hear his work as as podcast as I do other stuff rather than hyper focus on the screen. This explains my latent feelings of the absurdity on screen rather well. His documentaries have so much exposition that you can kind of look up the topics on your own as you go along to try and compare and contrast the facts as they're narrated, his work is probably my first foray with interactive TV. 0: link
It's on YT: link Also if you're a fan of his work watch 'The Loving Trap' ▶ this video Enjoy.
"This is a short story about the rise of the Collageumentary, And how the medium swamped the message" The Loving Trap ▶ this video
Obligatory. If you enjoy Adam Curtis, you should have a look at 'The Loving Trap of Pandora's Nightmares' - its only 3 minutes long and rather amusing. ▶ this video
It's easy to get sucked into thinking it all makes perfect sense but there's a few pretty big implied leaps of logic. This spoof sums it up pretty well I think ▶ this video
Yes. I disagree with most of his points of view. Some of his statements are outright incorrect and a majority are at least questionable or wanting for references. In _The Trap_ he constantly uses the phrase "based on numbers" in a negative fashion, as if it were an inferior method of analysis. I find that particularly strange considering that if you just listen to his narrative without the images, there is no analysis and often no cogent argument. One argument, if I remember correctly, was that game theory should no longer be used as a tool because it was largely developed during the cold war, which is over now. And yet I'm utterly I'm fascinated by his movies. I probably (re)watch one every 2 months. Go figure. edit: You can't miss this parody: ▶ this video
And if you're interested in Adam Curtis, I recommend this parody/critique: ▶ this video Not saying that Curtis's documentaries are without merit, just lending a little context.
That's his whole thing. His films typically come in three or four 60 minute sections. He occasionally does stuff like stage live action interactive theatre versions of his documentaries in abandoned warehouses. He once did a show with Massive Attack. So when he writes articles like this, it's him being restrained. See the following brilliantly observed parody for the reasons to take him with a pinch of salt: ▶ this video That said, he is one of my intellectual idols, however much he does enjoy gimmickry.
Have you seen "The Loving Trap"? ▶ this video (spoiler: it's a parody of Curtis's methods)
Adam Curtis is one of the most important documentary film thinkers of this or any other generation. Seminal. 'The Loving Trap' (2011) is a good place to start exploring this visionaries ground breaking work... ▶ this video Why is this on hacker news?
These are not good films. These are bad films. Adam Curtis is not a good film maker. Adam Curtis is a bad film maker. This is better ▶ this video
If you're going to watch any Adam Curtis documentary, it's worth watching the parody video "The Loving Trap" ▶ this video