Thursday, October 8, 2009 » Last summer I created one of those obnoxious �How Well Do You Know Lauren Deidra Sawyer?� Facebook quizzes � the kind that notifies you every single time someone takes it. �Samantha answered 60 percent correctly.� And my response: �Wow, my own sister should know me better that that.�
But I put a lot of thought into this quiz because I wanted to stump my test-takers. I mimicked that one college professor who makes impossibly hard quizzes that stresses out his students to the point of crying. Or dropping the class.
I threw in a few easy questions like, �What color is my hair?� (orange), and �Where do I want to live when I grow up?� (Portland). But the majority of the questions were tough like, �What�s my favorite McConn beverage?� (Cuban latte with a shot of hazelnut), and the question that led me to write this column: �Who is my favorite character on the show �How I Met Your Mother�?� (Barney).
Barney Stinson is legen � wait for it � dary.
Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris (from the just-as-legendary �Dr. Horrible�s Sing-Along Blog�), is the comedic drive of the show. He has the best lines. He is the best dressed.
But he is also the very antithesis of everything I believe in as a woman. Barney treats women like meat. He prides himself of having sex 200 times with 200 different women and celebrates �Not a Father Day� with his other proud-to-be-promiscuous buddies.
But � I love him.
Despite our opposite values � even if he is a fictitious character � I watch �How I Met Your Mother� for Barney.
But why? I want to believe that there�s a bigger answer than �he makes me laugh.� Because though Barney is a hilarious character, this doesn�t explain my gravitation toward the �bad guys� in movies and TV shows. Barney isn�t my only �bad guy� favorite; he�s one on a list of many.
So let�s think this through:
1. We love the �bad guys� because of their dramatic and mysterious nature. You�ve heard that people �fear the unknown,� but sometimes I think we like the unknown � a lot. It keeps us stirred and on our toes. Why do high school students love drama so much? It�s because nothing exciting is actually going on in their lives. When it comes to characters on TV or in the movies, we tend to like to those who aren�t like the everyday people we know.
2. We love the �bad guys� because Hollywood casts hot actors to play them � to be blunt. My favorite character on NBC�s �Heroes� is Sylar, played by the oh-so-good-looking Zachary Quinto. Minus those caterpillar eyebrows, I know that part of my fascination with this villain is because of his looks. This is shallow, I know. But honestly, I think most of us would agree.
3. We love the �bad guys� because we believe in redemption. I found this true after watching �Blood Diamond� for Globe Fest last year. Leonardo DiCaprio�s character, Danny Archer, was throughout the entire movie nothing less than a jerk. He used people; he lied to get his way. But in the end, when he�s dying on that mountain (spoiler alert!), I can�t help but bawl. Finally he learned that people have value. There�s nothing more satisfying than a bad guy turning good.
I�m not trying to over-spiritualize this, but I did promise in my first column to seek the truth in the media. In this case, I would say as humans it�s not that hard to sympathize with the �bad guys.� Sometimes, we act just like them. Maybe we mistreat the opposite sex like Barney Stinson, or stir drama like Regina George.
I also think that for most of us, we desire to see the Hollywood thieves, whores, murderers and drug dealers redeemed, for the same reason we want to see our non-Christian neighbors redeemed. I hope this doesn�t seem like too hyperbolic, because I don�t think it is. I believe it is engrained in us as Christians to want to see lives transformed. Even in fictional characters. Even in Hollywood.
Continue the conversation online at my blog: http://broken-downpoetry.blogspot.com.