This text was published in Polish some time ago, but because of the recent release of the “Star Wars: The Force Awakes” teaser, I dusted it off and translated to English – ed.
- They are everywhere!
I must confess, that for a long time in my life, I have never watched the original trilogy of “Star Wars”. And something interesting happened when I finally did it few years ago: despite the fact that it was my first screening of George Lucas’s masterpiece in my life, I had a uneasy feeling that I had already did it before, and everything related to these movies was very familiar to me. After short deliberation, I realised that I have this peculiar feeling because popular culture of today is oversaturated with shout-outs, homages and blatant ripoffs of the “Star Wars”.
It doesn’t matter, if we are talking about “South park”, “Asterix and Obelix” feature film, “Family Guy” (the worst offender, when it comes to references) and many other films and TV-series, “Robot Chicken”, some obscure C-grade kid’s movies from my country (that were tormenting whole generation of kids in the 1980’s), parodies (like Mel Brooks’s “Spaceballs”) or advertisements, what really matter is than in these cases we always see some part of original “Star Wars” to the point that we are familiar with them without actually watching them…
I am not safe even in the supermarket: the “Star Was”-related toys, lunch boxes, rucksacks, notepads and so on are assaulting me with familiar images of Master Yoda or Darth Vader. Personally I am fed up with this all, It feels like being in companion with a buddy, who keeps telling all the time the same jokes that are no longer funny.
For sure, over the time that hype is fading away over the decades since the original release, but hell no, even serious journalists are making references to “Star Wars” when writing about civil war in Syria. God, have mercy! 😮
