Refried Screens

Someone finally pulled a John Hinckley analysis, AKA “Blame the Movie/Book/Videogame for creating the psycho“, on Cho Seung-Hui for the Virginia Tech massacre. The movie of choice, for today at least, is Oldboy.

Look at the photo: Cho has a hammer and so does Dae-Su Oh, the protagonist of Oldboy. Cho was violent and so was Dae-Su.

Forget the fact that Cho used 9mm and .22-caliber pistols, not a hammer.

Forget the fact that Oldboy took place in Korea and Dae-Su fought to defend himself from thugs who kidnapped him and a criminal mastermind who tricked him into committing incest.

Yes, you read that right: Dae-Su slept with his daughter. At the end of the movie, once he finds out, he cuts out his tongue.

Forget that Dae-Su doesn’t commit suicide. He, like George Michael suggested, Chooses Life. Unlike George Michael, Dae-Su decides to continue his monogamous relationship with his daughter. Unlike Dae-Su, Cho was childless and kept his tongue intact. Unlike Dae-Sue’s mop-top hairstyle, Cho shaved his head.

What is the parallel between Dae-Su and Cho? Oh yeah, I forgot.

He took a photo with a hammer.

Since Cho was an English major, wouldn’t it make more sense to blame John Henry?

Maybe Cho took a Norse Myths class. We can blame Thor…

Sorry, he probably read comics, so I got the wrong Thor…

Nope, throw all that out the window. It’s Oldboy to blame.

If out of touch critics want to blame something. Why not blame a videogame? That’s the “hip” thing to do these days. Don’t worry, if you’re not up on videogames. I’ll give you a character who, like Cho, has a hammer…and even better yet…he’s Asian!:

That’s right. The Hammer Brother from Super Mario.

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