{"id":3135,"date":"2017-02-18T15:08:18","date_gmt":"2017-02-18T20:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2017-09-30T10:22:35","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T14:22:35","slug":"avuncular-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/avuncular-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Avuncular Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

avuncular\u00a0<\/strong>(adj.); of or relating to an uncle.<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s right. There’s a word for that.<\/p>\n

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Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan)<\/p><\/div>\n

That means there’s a behavior paradigm necessitating\u00a0a descriptive adjective. A better term than “uncle-like”, which is hard to say.<\/p>\n

Avuncular.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Long ago, when I discovered “avuncular”, I created the elder god Avunculus; a cross-dimensional villain\u00a0who still, somehow, evoked an uncle. He appears as the\u00a0deus ex machina\u00a0<\/em>in my movie,\u00a0John’s Arm: Armageddon<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>to confront The Nadir, who had temporarily appropriated his avuncular powers. I’d place a “spoiler warning” here, but to be honest, even the few that have actually seen the movie couldn’t tell what was going on.<\/p>\n

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Unpublished, from 2001. There used to be these “Who’s Who” books. The entire “MegaloManiaCon” subplot of JA:A<\/i> is based on this unused script. Doomstorm appears (then dies) in the movie, and Awful Murray was in the original shorts. “The A-Teens” was once a “band”.<\/p><\/div>\n

I listen to a lot of podcasts, but from a small pool of people. Coincidentally, they’re all guys known for polemics and honest opinion. Having lost a dad, an uncle, and two close guy friends in the past handful of years, I wondered if I was subconsciously trying to fill a void. I mentioned previously<\/a> that I disdain the practice of using comedians as prejudice barometers, and I wanted to ensure I wasn’t doing that unintentionally, either.<\/p>\n

Then it dawned on me that I was trying to recreate an\u00a0avuncular atmosphere\u00a0<\/em>from my youth. Good times, when you were allowed to sit in with dad and\u00a0the uncles.\u00a0<\/em>Maybe even fetch beers. But one thing was certain; you got to observe a den of family guys\u00a0being themselves.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe an uncle would say something and “go too far”. His place in this group is not based on connection to the child, but to\u00a0his own brother,\u00a0<\/em>whom he more than likely still seeks approval from. This is unique and as precious as the bond between father and son. It’s crucial to\u00a0the socialization of a young man, disagreements and all.<\/p>\n

So an uncle will balance what he\u00a0wants\u00a0<\/em>to say with how much he wants to stay in the good graces of the home. Uncles apologize without resentment. They know it doesn’t threaten their opinions or status. Uncles\u00a0move on.\u00a0<\/em>Uncles\u00a0bide their time.\u00a0<\/em>They glance at a wristwatch, mutter “I gotta thing,” and with a gust of cologne and pomade they are exeunt. Leaving you all the poorer, and longing for the next time you’ll be\u00a0lucky enough to “hang with the guys”.<\/p>\n

When you’re a boy, uncles are like characters in a classic sitcom, because in general, part of how they earn their spiritual keep is\u00a0entertaining you.\u00a0<\/em>The show starts as soon as they arrive. A guy could be the most gigantic bag of shit to the rest of the world, and be a superstar uncle to a kid. This is the inherent power of avuncularity.<\/p>\n

One of the best examples from modern comedy is Jim Florentine. Jim struck gold making prank calls, which later became the TV puppet show\u00a0Crank Yankers.\u00a0<\/em>If you think I’m a hateful cynic, you’ve never heard Florentine go off on Facebook posts, or hashtags. In one of the lowest\u00a0bassos<\/em> I’ve ever heard, Jim goes apoplectic on “man buns”, righteously acknowledging that guys are saying the words “man buns”. MAN BUNS! That’s the sort of real talk that only an uncle can deliver. They typically hail from the same generation as the father, but can view the current world without the rose-colored glasses of parenthood. Even if they themselves become fathers.<\/p>\n