Steven Johnson vs. Bugs Bunny

Is popular culture (games, tv, film) just a method to "sophisticatedly deliver stupidity" (paraphrasing George Will)? Was it ever? I generally agree with Johnson that there is something to be said for engagement with media and the resulting skill sets that can be developed. I guess my problem is that I think this has been the case all along, and that we, as both consumers and producers, are simply adapting to more sophisticated and interactive media.

Johnson doesn't spend a lot of time talking about ubiquitous modern media and our unprecedented access to it. When I was a kid, there were about 8 channels to choose from (3 networks and 5 UHF/VHF channels). I listened to records or whatever was on the radio and was pretty jealous of my friend's mom's awesome 8-track in the car. My dad was the video gamer who played Time Pilot late into the night...



A big problem I have with Part 1 is that I feel as though Johnson glosses over the importance of technological advances and how they have contributed to the complexity of the games/shows/movies, etc. that he is discussing. More sophisticated graphics, special effects, and programming capabilities allow for more sophisticated storytelling. System portability allows users/viewers to access modern media when it's convenient for them. If they don't "get" a Seinfeld or Simpsons reference, they can pause the show and Google it. As he describes the highbrow(?) Simpsons as a model for a show that "contains a joke that makes sense only if the viewer fills in the proper supplementary information" (p. 85), I think he must have missed out on Bugs Bunny as Rabbit Hood:



Some other classic Bugs that you may enjoy (if only for the trip down memory lane):
What's Opera, Doc? and Rabbit of Seville

So far, Johnson isn't saying anything to me that's really new. We'll see if that changes in Part 2.