‘Percussive Maintenance’: Genius supercut of humans abusing malfunctioning technology
The act of tussling with a broken TV set can potentially contain the primary elements of drama — but in microcosm. Person has goal (to watch TV) — person is hindered in goal (fucking thing won’t work) — person takes action (thwack the thing on its side) — person achieves goal (can now watch TV)!
It’s no wonder that TV and movie directors go to that well so often. It’s used a lot because it works.
Duncan Robson put together a truly brilliant supercut of frustrated people getting mad at technology, selecting from a wide variety of movies and TV shows. Fonzie gets his own section, as is only appropriate. The video itself mimics the process — first we get a section on malfunctioning devices, then a section of people walloping their devices, ending with — glory be! — a section of people reacting with joy once the damn car/carnival attraction/spaceship finally kicks into gear — and we recognize many of the rejoicing characters from earlier in the supercut.
The slowly crescendoing music, by Joel Robson, could hardly be better, and the selections are consistently fantastic — Back to the Future, Brain Candy, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, WarGames, and Freaks and Geeks are just a few of the ones I caught — as I’m sure you will too.
Enjoy.