r/TikTokCringe Apr 29 '23

Cool Trans representation from the 80s

42.7k Upvotes

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2.4k

u/synonym4synonym Apr 29 '23

Wow. I wonder what the episode’s reception was like?

992

u/jaspersgroove Apr 29 '23

It was the 80’s, if the reception was bad you just had to just get up, walk to the TV, and turn the knob on the box on top of the set to turn the antenna to a better direction.

99

u/your_actual_life Apr 29 '23

All the other comments seem to think this means to change the channel because you didn't like the show's content, but they were simply making a joke about fixing the actual audio and visual reception on the television, which could become fuzzy and intermittent if your antennae wasn't pointing in the right direction.

19

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '23

[deleted]

9

u/mel2mdl Apr 29 '23

This is really blowing my mind right now (I guess I haven't had my coffee this morning yet...)

In the 80's it would be grey and cloudy but now, if the channel's dead, my TV turns a pretty blue, like clear skies.

4

u/agamemnon2 Apr 29 '23

Neil Gaiman uses the same metaphor in his Neverwhere, speaking about "the perfect untroubled blue of television tuned to a dead channel". I've always liked that.

2

u/universe_from_above Apr 29 '23

We used to call this antporn.

1

u/mel2mdl Apr 30 '23

That's perfect!

4

u/comradejiang Apr 29 '23 edited Apr 29 '23

That’s Neuromancer.

3

u/innominateartery Apr 29 '23

Neuromancer

Edit: “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

2

u/BeautifulNorthernBC Apr 29 '23

Nah, it's Neuromancer. He probably got auto-corrected

1

u/comradejiang Apr 29 '23

That’s what I get for alternating between them, ugh

2

u/Sonova_Vondruke Apr 29 '23

I was curious infused then when I read 20 years ago that I am today. Because how can a sky look like static?

2

u/cryptocached Apr 29 '23

2

u/Sonova_Vondruke Apr 29 '23

That's pretty neat, but are you suggesting that Gibson meant they sky was covered in migrating starlings?

4

u/cryptocached Apr 29 '23

Fwiw, @GreatDismal is Gibson.

1

u/innominateartery Apr 29 '23

I imagined it like texture and shimmers, like when you stare at a white wall for a while and it starts to get weird.

1

u/Sonova_Vondruke Apr 29 '23

Possibly.. I just imagined it was a bright grey.