Thank you for posting this - I've been looking for this episode for a very long time! It left a huge impression on me as a kid, especially the last scene.
Ok so what if one of these "invisibles" decided to rob a bank or kill someone? I mean, if as far as the government is concerned, someone doesn't exist, then you couldn't possibly charge that someone with a crime.
Here's the thing, this guy gets pretty depressed after 1 day, I'd go to amusement parks or the movies or something. I could go onto a plain a see the world. This guy isnt using that marks power to its full potential
This video sums up what it is like to be homeless. As the worst thing about being homeless is not having to sleep rough but being treated as a social outcast. At first it seems easy as you get lots of free food from soup kitchens and on street handouts. But everywhere you go you get treated either as you are not there or with indifference. The only people who will be your friends are other homeless people. The badge when homeless though is your big bag of belongings you carry around.
Isn't a flaw in this story that even if a person could be made invisible, they could still be seen in reality unless any clothes they put on also became invisible. In the HG Wells story, Griffin can be seen as long as he has the bandages
@setunle In this story they do not actually become invisible they have to be treated as if they are invisible by other people that is the rule. They are marked as social outcasts by a mark put on their forehead. See my post about about being homeless. As the homeless face the same problem as they are treated like social outcasts and their badge is their big bag of belonging they carry around.
Trust me, it's punishment. There are alot of invisible people in the world. They aren't the right size. They're the wrong color, the wrong economic strata, the wrong educational level. The kids that have zits, or special education They're the invisible ones. I've seen them. I've been one. It's a good episode.
Thanks for posting this. Saw this when I was younger. It was chilling and memorable to me but I just couldn't remember the name of it or what series it was part of. After some sleuthing I found it here. Yay!
@emuholic: as long as you're concerned with such trivial things like doing whatever the hell you want (which I think is a bit immature) you won't see the things that matter. you're probably way too materialistic and selfish.
Who knows what true loneliness is -- not the conventional word, but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion. Now and then a fatal conjunction of events may lift the veil for an instant. For an instant only. No human being could bear a steady view of moral solitude without going mad. - Joseph Conrad
After searching for a while I managed to find the source of that quote. It's from Conrad's novel 'Under Western Eyes' published in 1911. It's refers to the moral dilemmas experienced by its protagonist Razumov. Conrad happens to be my favorite author and 'Heart of Darkness' my favorite short story.
Yes, I've gotta read that one. 'Under Western Eyes' is supposedly Conrad's great response to 'Crime and Punishment'. Does he outdo Dostoevsky? - quite probably. The only Russian author I like more than Polish Conrad, is Turgenev. But then I haven't read enough of either to make than statement very meaningful.
If I could only pick one favorite author - I couldn't - and Conrad's tough to beat, just about the finest ever in the English language.
Wow I think that the "invisibility" is unique but it doesn't convince me thats it a bad thing, the benefits outwiegh the downsides too much. Also way are the 2 invisible men afraid to talk to each other. How can they get punished if they are already punished. Also the government also believes that the men are invisble, so it's not like they can give them another punishment.
They are just ignored by everyone in society the government still monitors them like everyone else. If you listened to the episode you would see that the punishment for talking to another invisible person is more time added to invisibility or worse.
i'll have to finish watching, but so far it looks as if having this mark kicks ass!! you can do anything and no one can stop you. Can we say 'all the free food/alcohol/naked girls one can handle for a year'..
emuholic - have you ever been on the receiving end of this kind of behavior? Putting the weaknesses of the story aside, those who have been shunned know that this IS punishment. Joining certain religious organizations will put you at risk of being shunned by even family members if you do something counter to the dictates of that organization. The Bible is often used as justification for that behavior - pretty twisted, but it keeps people in line through fear.
deary me.. take your mind off the message of this episode and put it on what i made my point about.. the piss poor execution of the practical issues involved to put forward that message..
if you were ignored like that AND given ultimate freedom to do as you please, what would you do? It would provide more of a benefit to yourself and a liability to the general public and the people who are trying to punish you..
in reality, people need to be seen and acknowledged to get anywhere in life, so to be ignored and treated like shit wouldn't be beneficial to you... but to that person in that episode, IT WAS because of the FREEDOM he now has because of it. It's not just about the freedom to do immoral things either, complete freedom like that is something I would do a lot with.
I don't know what more I have to say - I ACKNOWLEDGED that the execution was bad. As I said before, I now think LESS of this episode. I put forward about a million ideas that could make it better. Either you're not reading my comment all the way through, or you're reading an entirely different comment.
the one not reading things properly here is you, because I was talking to 19justme!
maybe if you opened up the comments properly and saw the threads you'd realise this, instead of lazily reading the front page and assuming they're to you
I mean, we've been trading back and forth for a couple days now, and your comment was located nowhere near 19justme's comment. You didn't even MENTION 19justme, either. What else was I supposed to think. I'm not a goddamned psychic.
When I reply to a comment a few pages back, I always preface my reply with "In response to (insert name here)," which you did not do.
Of course there are no deadlines, but I don't know what else you expected me to think here. You hadn't been talking to 19justme previously. You didn't MENTION 19justme. So to strike up conversation with him now just comes out of left field. If you want to avoid assumptions, you can try not being lazy.
Including the name of the person you're replying to is just common sense when you're talking about a comment that's three pages back.
you're so petty, I don't have to mention their name for it to be a response to them. My responses would show up in his inbox, not yours...
"If you want to avoid assumptions, you can try not being lazy."
the irony here makes me laugh.. you're the one who was too idle to open up the comments and see they weren't a part of our thread. Click 'VIEW ALL'. use your "common sense"
be more careful in future or you end up looking stupid
Why SHOULD I have to check? The fact is, you were talking to me previously before switching and talking to someone else. Someone casually browsing through the thread would think that this was, indeed, a reply to me. And since that is what most people tend to do (not that it's a good practice or anything), it's best to prepare for the worst. I don't ordinarily have to open up EVERY comment in order to tell who a person is talking to, and neither do most people.
So if you continue to do this in the future, expect more problems - especially from people who are dumber than I am and don't KNOW about opening all the comments.
In any case, I'm done with this conversation. I've said everything that was relevant to this video already, and I'm not posting any more comments in here.
continue to believe I'm dumber than you, but common sense tells me you're a stubborn ignorant thick bastard, everything that I'm not, and that's good enough for me as evidence that I'm the one with the brains here.
"So if you continue to do this in the future, expect more problems"
Don't worry about me, I will continue to do it in future, but 'most people' tend to realise that a comment that isn't registered by YouTube as a reply to them isn't a reply to them.
sigh, you should have to check because "the fact is" it might not be intended for you. And it wasn't! Was it in your inbox? No! You came over and saw the comment on this board on the front page and assumed it was for you, didn't you? Yes! It's Your laziness, your IGNORANCE, your lack of common sense and incompetence with the youtube forum system at fault.
you should man-up and accept responsibility for making a mistake, and put a stop to your bickering like a senseless old lady.
"Okay, fine. I made a mistake. In my defense, you shifted gears pretty damn fast, but I'll accept the blame if it ends this conversation."
And so you should! You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about, you're not a man of your word either.. you clearly say you've done with the conversation but you can't help yourself.. you just have to ramble some more moments later
To clarify before I leave, the thing I take the most blame for is the degeneration of this discussion into namecalling. I escalated it and it's my fault for this happening. This is a far greater problem than anything related to the nature of YouTube posts.
this is a brilliant adaption of robert silverberg's wonderful short story.i grew up in a religion that practices a form of social shunning for ex-members,and this episode always highlight the true heartlessness that they practice in the name of love.
@PandawdyBob No, I was raised a Jehovah's Witness. They practice a form of social shunning known as disfellowshipment upon those baptized into the religion.
I never was baptized,but have managed to earn an honorary one by being to much of a pain in the ass of my family by pointing out that they were wasting the time they had left with my disfellowshipped uncle for the sake of religious bullshit.he is now dead.
my father was also baptized,and suffers social exclusion also.
@NemoUtopian Sorry to hear that. I do consider myself Christian but I'm not a jehova witness. I used to have a friend that was involved in Scientology, and the social shunning you describe sounds a lot like them.
@PandawdyBob At the time Harlan Ellison was an executive producer on the show, and often either he or the original short story writers,or at least someone skilled in both modes of writing would do the adaptions.
That said this is my favorite episode of the 80's Twilight Zone. And is indeed very faithful to the original. There is something to be said for reading Silverberg's skilled prose though.
@NemoUtopian On a happier note, I found a book on Ebay that contains the short story this episode is based on. I think it was called The Collected Works of Robert Silverberg or something to that effect. It will be interesting to read the original story.
I remember watching this back in the 1980s on CBS. What I got out of this was how isolation/alieanatnion is perhaps one of the wrose punishments possible, having people ignore you because you have been labled invisible.
Watching the whole thing doesn't change the fact it's not real punishment and that it is putting people in danger if he can dive over counters and slap people around and all they can do is ignore him. It's common sense.
You smug and pompous low quality in thought always missing the point dickheads. I spotted flaws in the logic of the story in this episode. So fucking what? The flaws remain regardless of 'appreciating art' and 'suspending belief' and 'watching the whole thing'. Is it really so complicated for you? When there are such obvious flaws in this make-believe legal system when I happen to notice them say 5 minutes into the episode, watching the whole thing doesn't make the flaws suddenly disappear.
@emuholic Lol, retard. Just say, "I don't like this too much," and be done with it. Are you writing a thesis on how much you hate this episode or something?
dude, his not really invisible, just marked (scarlet letter reference?). If you dont want to watch the whole episode , at least watch more then 2 mins ;)
For you peoples' information, I watched the whole damn episode ages ago, and I still agree with my comments here. It's not like watching the whole thing would've made me any less right. Entertainment and suspension of disbelief aside, the flaws in this episode as far as making sense goes are undeniable.
Well, if the government is watching you 24/7, I imagine that's incentive enough not to do anything illegal. Even if they weren't allowed to do anything during the one-year period, I imagine they'd do something after your time was up.
Of fucking course it does. When did I say I DIDN'T accept it? The fact that I acknowledge there may be some unknown explanation doesn't mean that I don't think there are any goddamned faults in the story.
If it doesn't detract from the point of the story, then it's not a problem and I'm willing to forgive and ignore it. And it doesn't detract.
"The Empire Strikes Back" has plot holes (Luke couldn't have been with Yoda more than a few days given the speed with which everything else happens).
(continued) The fact is, you have to REALLY nitpick in order to notice it. And I think the episode explores the thought experiment on which it is based sufficiently. The "do whatever you want" angle WOULD get boring after a while. You can't possibly deny that it would. Humans are social animals and, for the most part, crave interaction with other people. So it IS, ultimately a punishment.
This premise was never built on being realistic or implementable. It's a goddamned fable set in the future.
(continued) If you're criticizing it based on the grounds of plausibility, you're missing the entire point. This is "The Twilight Zone." Not "2001: A Space Odyssey." For God's sake, one episode of this show ended up with a guy shrinking to three feet tall and shouting "I'm the God! I'm the God!"
The point of the show is to present an unusual situation (be it fantasy, horror, or sci-fi) that provides insight on the human condition, and this episode did exactly that.
Calm down already.. it's a poorly written and executed story
"it's not real punishment - people are in danger if he can dive over counters and slap people around and all they can do is ignore him.". This whole episode is faulty! It's not just a particular scene that doesn't add up or fit like in Star Wars, it's the whole damn thing.
To repeat with emphasis, it's not just a particular scene that doesn't add up or fit in like the one you mentioned in that crappy overrated film empire strikes back, it's the whole damn thing.
Defend it all you like, I've watched all outer limits, twilight zone and tons more sci-fi episodes and movies, I know a bad concept, bad execution and poor writing when I see it regardless of what some selfrighteous waffler on the internet thinks. Good writing results in very few or ZERO holes.
I would steal things, I would beat people up for ignoring me, I would take a woman's kid and put a gun to its head to get a reaction. I would take things without paying. Smash windows, steal cars. Anything I wanted because I. don't. exist.
This episode. doesn't. work.
Don't. be. so. condescending. It's ignorant and rude.
I'm not being condescending. I'm explaining my argument completely, just like you're doing.
I never said the episode was great - merely fairly solid/decent. I can remember many episodes that were much better than this one. One thing I would've changed would be to add a scene where he tries to do exactly what you descibed (holds someone up at gunpoint), and stops because it's not in his nature as a character. They should've explained more about the nature of the punishment; how it can be abused
(cont) how abuse is deterred, and to what sort of people it is assigned. The execution is slipshod in many ways, but I maintain that it is, at its heart, a workable and serviceable premise for a short story about isolation and abandonment by society.
Perhaps they could have even avoided this altogether by making the man's shunning by society entirely unexplained. It sort of smacks of a Diabolus ex Machina, but it might have that creepiness effect going for it. It's not so much the how as the what that's important.
The more believable it is, the more captivating it is and the more you will care about the characters. If what is happening at the start is absurd and unbelievable then you will expect the rest of the show to be absurd.. which means youre not going to take what happens to those characters seriously, you won't care. It's best not to insult the viewer's intelligence by having the characters conveniently behave a certain way to avoid exposing the gaping holes in an episode that is watchable at best
Indeed, reading your comments, I now think less of this episode. But not for the same reason you do. What you view as a fundamental flaw in the premise, I view as an element of said premise that went unexplored. If the main character had indeed turned to violent crime as a means of getting attention, it would have been more memorable. Perhaps, instead of being hit by a car, he could have been shot in the back by someone who didn't see his mark.
Ultimately, it would have served as a way to better illustrate the plight of the marginalized and ignored (i.e. the poor). To explicitly have the character be an egotistical CEO would have made it even better. At first he steals things like Maseratis, money, and expensive suits, but is disappointed because these things no longer have the benefit of being social symbols because he is invisible. Then the episode continues as it did before until...
...he freaks out. He starts smashing windows and starting fires, running down the street, screaming for someone to stop him. And THEN, he takes a gun, goes to a store, or a school, or something, and fires into the air, pointing guns at children and stuff. He is shot and nearly bleeds to death because nobody will give him medical assistance (well, now he knows what it feels like to be poor and uninsured).
The episode would have gone from decent to memorable if they hadn't shied away from that.
In the end, it would have been better if they embraced this and, indeed, made it part of the point of the episode. What happens when people are ignored and generally treated like shit? We get things like gang violence and kids shooting up their schools.
@emuholic he's being punished for being cold and aloof, not for a violent crime. if he had harmed others than the punishment would make less sense. but, its the TZ. Its another universe anyways ;)
@Qaddosh You are fucking thick. Ratings, ie popularity is equal to good quality all of a sudden in some "dumb" Qaddosh reality, right? It's just like how everyone buys the latest crappy music album so therefore the music must be good even though it's crap. :-) Hehehe.
well i wouldn't mind having free food!
purpleTqueen 1 month ago
Love it that the invisible man had more empathy then those who labeled him
TheSleepykitten 2 months ago
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TheSleepykitten 2 months ago
I wonder if any crimes commented while invisible would be prosecuted.
NickMueh 3 months ago
Thank you for posting this - I've been looking for this episode for a very long time! It left a huge impression on me as a kid, especially the last scene.
durtygrrrl 3 months ago
Ok so what if one of these "invisibles" decided to rob a bank or kill someone? I mean, if as far as the government is concerned, someone doesn't exist, then you couldn't possibly charge that someone with a crime.
Gmooreisawesome 5 months ago
@Gmooreisawesome The shows kind of suggests that an invisible is very vulnerable. It's more likely that an invisible would get robbed or killed.
PandawdyBob 5 months ago
I'd just grow bangs... xD Or I'd simply do whatever I wanted...
ShoutingParalized 5 months ago
if he is invisible cant he do what ever he wants
TheRokkiephantomlove 5 months ago
Here's the thing, this guy gets pretty depressed after 1 day, I'd go to amusement parks or the movies or something. I could go onto a plain a see the world. This guy isnt using that marks power to its full potential
DarkcIoud1111 5 months ago
Has anyone been able to find the original short story that this episode is based on? I would really like to read it some time.
PandawdyBob 6 months ago
@PandawdyBob it is by Robert Silverberg,a classic sf writer. I have it in a collection,but i forget the title of the collection.
I think the short story shares the same name.
NemoUtopian 6 months ago
3:57 that is the customer service you can expect at Jimmy Love's in the Gas Lamp District in San Diego!!
irenaprude2010 7 months ago
This video sums up what it is like to be homeless. As the worst thing about being homeless is not having to sleep rough but being treated as a social outcast. At first it seems easy as you get lots of free food from soup kitchens and on street handouts. But everywhere you go you get treated either as you are not there or with indifference. The only people who will be your friends are other homeless people. The badge when homeless though is your big bag of belongings you carry around.
ParagramTree 8 months ago 3
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ParagramTree 8 months ago
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ParagramTree 8 months ago
Should be called "The Invisible Jerk."
Delmarvellous 8 months ago
Isn't a flaw in this story that even if a person could be made invisible, they could still be seen in reality unless any clothes they put on also became invisible. In the HG Wells story, Griffin can be seen as long as he has the bandages
setunle 8 months ago
@setunle In this story they do not actually become invisible they have to be treated as if they are invisible by other people that is the rule. They are marked as social outcasts by a mark put on their forehead. See my post about about being homeless. As the homeless face the same problem as they are treated like social outcasts and their badge is their big bag of belonging they carry around.
ParagramTree 8 months ago
i havent watched any of this, but fuck the tyrant government bastards and all those that support them
longfootbuddy 9 months ago
@longfootbuddy Lol
tarwater01 8 months ago
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whataawesomenut 1 year ago
Seeing this, I recalled some of Philip Larkin's poetry:
"I lie and wait for morning, and the birds,
The first steps going down the unswept street,
Voices of girls with scarves around their heads....
Only hurrying and troubled faces,
The walking of girls' vulnerable feet,
The heart in its own endless silence kneeling."
FungusMossGnosis 1 year ago
Trust me, it's punishment. There are alot of invisible people in the world. They aren't the right size. They're the wrong color, the wrong economic strata, the wrong educational level. The kids that have zits, or special education They're the invisible ones. I've seen them. I've been one. It's a good episode.
1niftyjay 1 year ago
Thanks for posting this. Saw this when I was younger. It was chilling and memorable to me but I just couldn't remember the name of it or what series it was part of. After some sleuthing I found it here. Yay!
Dalwhinnie15 1 year ago
the pervert's dream
fossilvivo 1 year ago
thanks for the post, bud.
septip123 1 year ago
@emuholic: as long as you're concerned with such trivial things like doing whatever the hell you want (which I think is a bit immature) you won't see the things that matter. you're probably way too materialistic and selfish.
vanfanel150 1 year ago
Who knows what true loneliness is -- not the conventional word, but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion. Now and then a fatal conjunction of events may lift the veil for an instant. For an instant only. No human being could bear a steady view of moral solitude without going mad. - Joseph Conrad
SongsofInnocence 1 year ago 6
@SongsofInnocence
I've read half of Conrad but never that quote. Where's that from? Excellent quote.
FungusMossGnosis 1 year ago
After searching for a while I managed to find the source of that quote. It's from Conrad's novel 'Under Western Eyes' published in 1911. It's refers to the moral dilemmas experienced by its protagonist Razumov. Conrad happens to be my favorite author and 'Heart of Darkness' my favorite short story.
SongsofInnocence 1 year ago
@SongsofInnocence
Yes, I've gotta read that one. 'Under Western Eyes' is supposedly Conrad's great response to 'Crime and Punishment'. Does he outdo Dostoevsky? - quite probably. The only Russian author I like more than Polish Conrad, is Turgenev. But then I haven't read enough of either to make than statement very meaningful.
If I could only pick one favorite author - I couldn't - and Conrad's tough to beat, just about the finest ever in the English language.
FungusMossGnosis 1 year ago
shit if i could be invisible i could steal shit and nobody would know it.... damn that would be awesome!!!!! also i would have sex with hot girls!!!
fezzard 1 year ago
They should have spray-painted him green. What if he's wearing a big hat or grows bangs or something??
agentchuck2 2 years ago
@agentchuck2 If you watch other parts, you can see that's ineffective. The mark burns right through it.
vanfanel150 7 months ago
I loved this episode when it first aired!
thanks for posting this
hairypolack 2 years ago
Wow I think that the "invisibility" is unique but it doesn't convince me thats it a bad thing, the benefits outwiegh the downsides too much. Also way are the 2 invisible men afraid to talk to each other. How can they get punished if they are already punished. Also the government also believes that the men are invisble, so it's not like they can give them another punishment.
freeofgreed 2 years ago
@freeofgreed
They are just ignored by everyone in society the government still monitors them like everyone else. If you listened to the episode you would see that the punishment for talking to another invisible person is more time added to invisibility or worse.
Videogamehistorian00 1 year ago
Hey emuholic, Take it easy man...!
karlaminaya 2 years ago
the ladies in the jacuzzi cannot talk to him invisible, but they can't act like he doesn't exist. interesting
petershen1984 2 years ago
5:00 HEY IT'S JACOB THE DREAMCHILD CREEPY LOOKIN ASS....Whitby Hertford....
MrDohLo 3 years ago
lol i would love that
satanisteileen 3 years ago
i'll have to finish watching, but so far it looks as if having this mark kicks ass!! you can do anything and no one can stop you. Can we say 'all the free food/alcohol/naked girls one can handle for a year'..
ididcramsmom 3 years ago
he did put a hat on and grow his hair and it ident work
kjmmss 3 years ago
Why didn't he just put a hat, or grow his hair longer to hide the mark.
chyna98 3 years ago
emuholic - have you ever been on the receiving end of this kind of behavior? Putting the weaknesses of the story aside, those who have been shunned know that this IS punishment. Joining certain religious organizations will put you at risk of being shunned by even family members if you do something counter to the dictates of that organization. The Bible is often used as justification for that behavior - pretty twisted, but it keeps people in line through fear.
19justme51 3 years ago
deary me.. take your mind off the message of this episode and put it on what i made my point about.. the piss poor execution of the practical issues involved to put forward that message..
if you were ignored like that AND given ultimate freedom to do as you please, what would you do? It would provide more of a benefit to yourself and a liability to the general public and the people who are trying to punish you..
emuholic 3 years ago
in reality, people need to be seen and acknowledged to get anywhere in life, so to be ignored and treated like shit wouldn't be beneficial to you... but to that person in that episode, IT WAS because of the FREEDOM he now has because of it. It's not just about the freedom to do immoral things either, complete freedom like that is something I would do a lot with.
emuholic 3 years ago
a lot of you on this board haven't really thought about this very clearly
emuholic 3 years ago
I don't know what more I have to say - I ACKNOWLEDGED that the execution was bad. As I said before, I now think LESS of this episode. I put forward about a million ideas that could make it better. Either you're not reading my comment all the way through, or you're reading an entirely different comment.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
the one not reading things properly here is you, because I was talking to 19justme!
maybe if you opened up the comments properly and saw the threads you'd realise this, instead of lazily reading the front page and assuming they're to you
don't be dumb
emuholic 3 years ago
Excuse me for thinking you were replying to someone you had already been replying to rather than someone whose last comment was about a month ago.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
I mean, we've been trading back and forth for a couple days now, and your comment was located nowhere near 19justme's comment. You didn't even MENTION 19justme, either. What else was I supposed to think. I'm not a goddamned psychic.
When I reply to a comment a few pages back, I always preface my reply with "In response to (insert name here)," which you did not do.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
there's no deadlines for replies, stop assuming things, and don't be ignorant.
emuholic 3 years ago
Of course there are no deadlines, but I don't know what else you expected me to think here. You hadn't been talking to 19justme previously. You didn't MENTION 19justme. So to strike up conversation with him now just comes out of left field. If you want to avoid assumptions, you can try not being lazy.
Including the name of the person you're replying to is just common sense when you're talking about a comment that's three pages back.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
you're so petty, I don't have to mention their name for it to be a response to them. My responses would show up in his inbox, not yours...
"If you want to avoid assumptions, you can try not being lazy."
the irony here makes me laugh.. you're the one who was too idle to open up the comments and see they weren't a part of our thread. Click 'VIEW ALL'. use your "common sense"
be more careful in future or you end up looking stupid
emuholic 3 years ago
Why SHOULD I have to check? The fact is, you were talking to me previously before switching and talking to someone else. Someone casually browsing through the thread would think that this was, indeed, a reply to me. And since that is what most people tend to do (not that it's a good practice or anything), it's best to prepare for the worst. I don't ordinarily have to open up EVERY comment in order to tell who a person is talking to, and neither do most people.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
So if you continue to do this in the future, expect more problems - especially from people who are dumber than I am and don't KNOW about opening all the comments.
In any case, I'm done with this conversation. I've said everything that was relevant to this video already, and I'm not posting any more comments in here.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
Yes, you are done here.
continue to believe I'm dumber than you, but common sense tells me you're a stubborn ignorant thick bastard, everything that I'm not, and that's good enough for me as evidence that I'm the one with the brains here.
"So if you continue to do this in the future, expect more problems"
Don't worry about me, I will continue to do it in future, but 'most people' tend to realise that a comment that isn't registered by YouTube as a reply to them isn't a reply to them.
emuholic 3 years ago
sigh, you should have to check because "the fact is" it might not be intended for you. And it wasn't! Was it in your inbox? No! You came over and saw the comment on this board on the front page and assumed it was for you, didn't you? Yes! It's Your laziness, your IGNORANCE, your lack of common sense and incompetence with the youtube forum system at fault.
you should man-up and accept responsibility for making a mistake, and put a stop to your bickering like a senseless old lady.
emuholic 3 years ago
Okay, fine. I made a mistake. In my defense, you shifted gears pretty damn fast, but I'll accept the blame if it ends this conversation.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
"Okay, fine. I made a mistake. In my defense, you shifted gears pretty damn fast, but I'll accept the blame if it ends this conversation."
And so you should! You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about, you're not a man of your word either.. you clearly say you've done with the conversation but you can't help yourself.. you just have to ramble some more moments later
emuholic 3 years ago
here's some advice...
it won't kill you and people like you to accept being in the wrong ONCE on some internet page.. for fuck's sake
emuholic 3 years ago
To clarify before I leave, the thing I take the most blame for is the degeneration of this discussion into namecalling. I escalated it and it's my fault for this happening. This is a far greater problem than anything related to the nature of YouTube posts.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
But I take the blame for the other stuff too. (Shit, forgot to add that).
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
bear in mind that some of us don't make immediate responses ALL THE TIME to people like you do.. some of us do other things with our time
emuholic 3 years ago
this is a brilliant adaption of robert silverberg's wonderful short story.i grew up in a religion that practices a form of social shunning for ex-members,and this episode always highlight the true heartlessness that they practice in the name of love.
NemoUtopian 3 years ago
@NemoUtopian You grew up as a member of Scientology?
PandawdyBob 6 months ago
@PandawdyBob No, I was raised a Jehovah's Witness. They practice a form of social shunning known as disfellowshipment upon those baptized into the religion.
I never was baptized,but have managed to earn an honorary one by being to much of a pain in the ass of my family by pointing out that they were wasting the time they had left with my disfellowshipped uncle for the sake of religious bullshit.he is now dead.
my father was also baptized,and suffers social exclusion also.
NemoUtopian 6 months ago
@NemoUtopian Sorry to hear that. I do consider myself Christian but I'm not a jehova witness. I used to have a friend that was involved in Scientology, and the social shunning you describe sounds a lot like them.
PandawdyBob 6 months ago
@PandawdyBob I have heard of Mormons doing something similar also, it is a fairly common control mechanism among cults and high control groups.
The important message here is about a fear based imitative empathy as opposed to authentic human compassion.
A person can be beat into acting good,but true good sometimes demands standing up even if it means a beating.
The words "He will wear his invisibility as a badge of honor"(if i recall right) still bring a tear to my eye.
NemoUtopian 6 months ago
@NemoUtopian Got the book and read the story. The story really isn't much different than the show. Just some minor differences.
PandawdyBob 5 months ago
@PandawdyBob At the time Harlan Ellison was an executive producer on the show, and often either he or the original short story writers,or at least someone skilled in both modes of writing would do the adaptions.
That said this is my favorite episode of the 80's Twilight Zone. And is indeed very faithful to the original. There is something to be said for reading Silverberg's skilled prose though.
NemoUtopian 5 months ago
@NemoUtopian On a happier note, I found a book on Ebay that contains the short story this episode is based on. I think it was called The Collected Works of Robert Silverberg or something to that effect. It will be interesting to read the original story.
PandawdyBob 6 months ago
@PandawdyBob I think that may be the one I have.
NemoUtopian 6 months ago
I remember watching this back in the 1980s on CBS. What I got out of this was how isolation/alieanatnion is perhaps one of the wrose punishments possible, having people ignore you because you have been labled invisible.
DiminishedPiper 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
that's not punishment.. that's putting people in danger if they can't stop him from stealing and going to restricted places.. this episode is dumb
emuholic 3 years ago
Ummmm, watch the whole thing.
tarwater01 3 years ago
Watching the whole thing doesn't change the fact it's not real punishment and that it is putting people in danger if he can dive over counters and slap people around and all they can do is ignore him. It's common sense.
emuholic 3 years ago
Phew, you should learn to supend your disbelief some. I feel you may miss out on a lot of things artistic if you can't.
tarwater01 3 years ago 6
lol, whatever you say
emuholic 3 years ago
Comment removed
emuholic 11 months ago
Comment removed
emuholic 11 months ago
You smug and pompous low quality in thought always missing the point dickheads. I spotted flaws in the logic of the story in this episode. So fucking what? The flaws remain regardless of 'appreciating art' and 'suspending belief' and 'watching the whole thing'. Is it really so complicated for you? When there are such obvious flaws in this make-believe legal system when I happen to notice them say 5 minutes into the episode, watching the whole thing doesn't make the flaws suddenly disappear.
emuholic 11 months ago
@emuholic Your passion for this episode knows no bounds. Love conquers all.
Qaddosh 11 months ago
@Qaddosh Fuck you.
emuholic 11 months ago
@emuholic I immortalized you in the tags for this video because I think I love you and want to make you mine ;D
tarwater01 8 months ago
@emuholic Lol, retard. Just say, "I don't like this too much," and be done with it. Are you writing a thesis on how much you hate this episode or something?
tarwater01 8 months ago
I think you right on that point. But I like the end of the story. This story told me about true love and care. :)
If you have time, you may try to watch them all. You may like them.
winyook 3 years ago 2
dude, his not really invisible, just marked (scarlet letter reference?). If you dont want to watch the whole episode , at least watch more then 2 mins ;)
theidiotfactor 3 years ago 4
For you peoples' information, I watched the whole damn episode ages ago, and I still agree with my comments here. It's not like watching the whole thing would've made me any less right. Entertainment and suspension of disbelief aside, the flaws in this episode as far as making sense goes are undeniable.
emuholic 3 years ago
Well, if the government is watching you 24/7, I imagine that's incentive enough not to do anything illegal. Even if they weren't allowed to do anything during the one-year period, I imagine they'd do something after your time was up.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
the episode has holes in it! accept it!
emuholic 3 years ago
Of fucking course it does. When did I say I DIDN'T accept it? The fact that I acknowledge there may be some unknown explanation doesn't mean that I don't think there are any goddamned faults in the story.
If it doesn't detract from the point of the story, then it's not a problem and I'm willing to forgive and ignore it. And it doesn't detract.
"The Empire Strikes Back" has plot holes (Luke couldn't have been with Yoda more than a few days given the speed with which everything else happens).
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
(continued) The fact is, you have to REALLY nitpick in order to notice it. And I think the episode explores the thought experiment on which it is based sufficiently. The "do whatever you want" angle WOULD get boring after a while. You can't possibly deny that it would. Humans are social animals and, for the most part, crave interaction with other people. So it IS, ultimately a punishment.
This premise was never built on being realistic or implementable. It's a goddamned fable set in the future.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
(continued) If you're criticizing it based on the grounds of plausibility, you're missing the entire point. This is "The Twilight Zone." Not "2001: A Space Odyssey." For God's sake, one episode of this show ended up with a guy shrinking to three feet tall and shouting "I'm the God! I'm the God!"
The point of the show is to present an unusual situation (be it fantasy, horror, or sci-fi) that provides insight on the human condition, and this episode did exactly that.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
Calm down already.. it's a poorly written and executed story
"it's not real punishment - people are in danger if he can dive over counters and slap people around and all they can do is ignore him.". This whole episode is faulty! It's not just a particular scene that doesn't add up or fit like in Star Wars, it's the whole damn thing.
emuholic 3 years ago
To repeat with emphasis, it's not just a particular scene that doesn't add up or fit in like the one you mentioned in that crappy overrated film empire strikes back, it's the whole damn thing.
Defend it all you like, I've watched all outer limits, twilight zone and tons more sci-fi episodes and movies, I know a bad concept, bad execution and poor writing when I see it regardless of what some selfrighteous waffler on the internet thinks. Good writing results in very few or ZERO holes.
emuholic 3 years ago
I would steal things, I would beat people up for ignoring me, I would take a woman's kid and put a gun to its head to get a reaction. I would take things without paying. Smash windows, steal cars. Anything I wanted because I. don't. exist.
This episode. doesn't. work.
Don't. be. so. condescending. It's ignorant and rude.
emuholic 3 years ago
I'm not being condescending. I'm explaining my argument completely, just like you're doing.
I never said the episode was great - merely fairly solid/decent. I can remember many episodes that were much better than this one. One thing I would've changed would be to add a scene where he tries to do exactly what you descibed (holds someone up at gunpoint), and stops because it's not in his nature as a character. They should've explained more about the nature of the punishment; how it can be abused
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
(cont) how abuse is deterred, and to what sort of people it is assigned. The execution is slipshod in many ways, but I maintain that it is, at its heart, a workable and serviceable premise for a short story about isolation and abandonment by society.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
Perhaps they could have even avoided this altogether by making the man's shunning by society entirely unexplained. It sort of smacks of a Diabolus ex Machina, but it might have that creepiness effect going for it. It's not so much the how as the what that's important.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
Or set it in the 20th Century and make it a superstitious annual ritual, like "The Lottery." That way it doesn't HAVE to make sense.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
The more believable it is, the more captivating it is and the more you will care about the characters. If what is happening at the start is absurd and unbelievable then you will expect the rest of the show to be absurd.. which means youre not going to take what happens to those characters seriously, you won't care. It's best not to insult the viewer's intelligence by having the characters conveniently behave a certain way to avoid exposing the gaping holes in an episode that is watchable at best
emuholic 3 years ago
Indeed, reading your comments, I now think less of this episode. But not for the same reason you do. What you view as a fundamental flaw in the premise, I view as an element of said premise that went unexplored. If the main character had indeed turned to violent crime as a means of getting attention, it would have been more memorable. Perhaps, instead of being hit by a car, he could have been shot in the back by someone who didn't see his mark.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
Ultimately, it would have served as a way to better illustrate the plight of the marginalized and ignored (i.e. the poor). To explicitly have the character be an egotistical CEO would have made it even better. At first he steals things like Maseratis, money, and expensive suits, but is disappointed because these things no longer have the benefit of being social symbols because he is invisible. Then the episode continues as it did before until...
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
...he freaks out. He starts smashing windows and starting fires, running down the street, screaming for someone to stop him. And THEN, he takes a gun, goes to a store, or a school, or something, and fires into the air, pointing guns at children and stuff. He is shot and nearly bleeds to death because nobody will give him medical assistance (well, now he knows what it feels like to be poor and uninsured).
The episode would have gone from decent to memorable if they hadn't shied away from that.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
In the end, it would have been better if they embraced this and, indeed, made it part of the point of the episode. What happens when people are ignored and generally treated like shit? We get things like gang violence and kids shooting up their schools.
bbqplatypus318 3 years ago
"What happens when people are ignored and generally treated like shit? We get things like gang violence and kids shooting up their schools."
and people who lock themselves away and have no confidence
emuholic 3 years ago
@emuholic he's being punished for being cold and aloof, not for a violent crime. if he had harmed others than the punishment would make less sense. but, its the TZ. Its another universe anyways ;)
goddessnadiya 1 year ago
@emuholic , man you seriously need to take a chill pill. Try not jumping to conclusions after the first 8 minutes. Lol
Your lack of imagination amuses me! :P
davidusk2 1 year ago
@emuholic It's consistently the top-rated episode of this incarnation of Twilight Zone. Certainly less "dumb" than your comment.
Qaddosh 11 months ago
@Qaddosh You are fucking thick. Ratings, ie popularity is equal to good quality all of a sudden in some "dumb" Qaddosh reality, right? It's just like how everyone buys the latest crappy music album so therefore the music must be good even though it's crap. :-) Hehehe.
emuholic 11 months ago
@emuholic Um, okay dude. You know you're not supposed to eat the paint, right?
Qaddosh 11 months ago
@Qaddosh :-) when you slip, make sure it's near a pond and make sure on the way down you knock yourself out and land in it.
emuholic 11 months ago