Oh, it’ll be “JOOOOOO!!!”-y, alright.
This one will annoy everybody.
(And I couldn’t find the relevant clip on YouTube for that My Beautiful Launderette quote above, unfortunately…)
And yet: Do (normal) people really mean it when they valorize family? Or, as is so often the case in surveys, do they give what they think is the “right” answer?
Because I can’t help but notice how many folks arrange their lives so as to spend as little time with their own relatives as possible. When forced to do so – on family vacations or holiday get togethers — all they seem to do is bitch, moan and roll their eyes, or else passive-aggressively stare at their gadgets, trying to virtually escape.
Few parents I observed growing up considered their children as anything more than annoying encumbrances.
How else to explain the evidently universal and lasting appeal of this perennial Staples “back to school” commercial, which has run in heavy rotation every August for close to 20 years?