Anything Slim

 

In Season 8, Episode 15 (production code 4F11) of The Simpsons, Homer's worried Bart is gay, so he sits him in front of a billboard portraying a sexy lady pillowfight for a few hours to straighten him out. The billboard is advertising Laramie Slims, a cigarette marketed towards women, but Homer's just hoping Bart becomes attracted to the women. When he returns, they share this exchange:

Homer: "How do you feel?"
Bart: "I dunno, kinda want a cigarette."
H: "That's a good start. Let's get you a pack. What's your brand?"
B: "Anything slim!"
H: *Annoyed groan* "Okay, that didn't work."

How did Homer know it didn't work? At first he just accepted that his 10 year old son wanted a cigarette, so was it the word 'slim' that brought the connection to the billboard to his mind? Is that what made him realise Bart missed the point? That's one theory, that Bart accepted the cigarettes into his mind instead of the ladies, but let's consider some other explanations.

For most of my life, from my initial understanding of the scene, I held the belief that Homer was parsing Bart's phrasing as some kind of reference to gay culture, or something similar. Drawing on the stereotype that gay men are slim, maybe Homer thought Bart was using a double entendre to allude to his sexuality. Nowadays I don't think this makes much sense, but it's still possible as a solution.

Another theory I find plausible but that I think gives Homer too much credit is that Bart's remark that he'll accept "anything slim" makes Homer realise that the billboard hasn't had any effect at all. In asking "What's your brand?", Homer's hoping Bart will ask for Laramie cigarettes; if Bart took on board the marketing, maybe he'll have been subliminally implanted with Homer's intended message, too. This makes sense, since he finds it promising that Bart brings up wanting a cigarette, but Homer's plan is defeated when Bart doesn't mention the targeted brand at all.

Finally, there's the idea that since Laramie Slims are marketed towards women, Bart wanting one, or any slim brand at all, means he's effeminate and therefore gay.

If there's an official answer to this question, I can't find it, and any summaries or references to the scene don't give any explanation at all, at best just mentioning that Homer figured out it didn't work from what Bart said. Maybe it's obvious, but I've come up with so many good explanations that I'm not sure which the obvious one would be. Maybe you can tell me.

ASMR, The Uncanny Valley and The Apocalypse

Since the pandemic has forced people to cease most interpersonal interaction, ASMR roleplay videos have been created in a new context. Where ASMRtists were once acting out normal interactions to be enjoyed on demand, these interactions have come to exist as remnants of the before times. It now feels less like mimicry of a real thing and increasingly more like playing pretend, acting out a memory of lost society.

The classic example is a haircut. This is a great scenario for ASMR as it caters to a variety of triggers for the audience; the personal attention of someone undividedly working on their appearance and talking close to the microphone(s), the sound of snipping scissors and the obligatory 3D audio experience of the hairdresser working from different angles around the head. A safe haircut amidst the pandemic is a very different experience, if it can be found at all. This results in ASMR haircut roleplays feeling like a recreation of an interaction that no longer exists. That we're just playing pretend and acting out something which is now implausible or impossible.

It brings to mind the image of children playing in the post-apocalypse. They might have images and recordings of what life was like before the world ended and maybe they'll play dress up and give each other pretend medical exams or take turns being each other's server at a make-believe restaurant. But these things don't exist anymore. They're just roleplaying a fantasy scenario which can't actually happen.

That's not to say that ASMR roleplays have traditionally been rooted in reality. Historical roleplays about world events, celebrity roleplays and sci-fi and fantasy scenarios have long been a part of the art form. You might even say a lot of romantic roleplays offer up unrealistic fantasies. The difference between those roleplays and the subject of this post is that as many mundane activities have become impossible in most people's lives, the definition of 'realistic' has shifted. Getting a haircut, especially as portrayed in ASMR videos, is, for now, largely a thing of the past. This gives these videos an eerie feeling they didn't have before. The context in which they are being created has changed the tone from sharing an everyday activity to essentially being period pieces, being set in a time before close, personal interaction became dangerous. Maybe they're even set in an alternate reality where the virus never existed.

Self-awareness is a common tool of ASMR videos. There's often a need to prioritize the triggering of ASMR over maintaining verisimilitude in the roleplay. A salesperson character who is showing the viewer a product might tap on it for extended periods, something which could come across as awkward and unsettling in real life. Fictional roleplays (as opposed to roleplays where the ASMRtist is, for example, performing real massage on a model/friend) are rarely expected to be fully accepted as real by the audience, but for better immersion, they should be able to employ some level of suspension of disbelief. When this gap between realism and suspension of disbelief becomes too wide, we reach an uncanny valley.

There are three main categories for ASMR roleplays based on the level to which they co-exist with reality:

- Roleplays which are possible and are presented as such. These include normal activities which are portrayed as existing in real life and are reasonably accessible to the audience. Things like talking to a receptionist, seeing a doctor or booking a flight.

- Roleplays which are not possible but are not presented as such. These include historical or fantastical scenarios which the viewer would never find themselves in, but the subject matter is treated as fictional. Things like living in Ancient Rome, talking to an AI supercomputer on a spaceship or being kidnapped by pirates.

- Roleplays which are not possible, but are presented as such. I think this will come down a lot to audience perspective and the extent to which they're able to suspend disbelief. Most ASMR videos are sufficiently self-aware to avoid falling into this category, but as things that were once part of regular life have become impossible, their treatment in ASMR roleplays largely haven't changed. Haircuts are still portrayed as unremarkable occurrences. Characters still meet up at parties and hug and do each other's makeup; they still live in a world which is safe, unchanged by a deadly virus spreading throughout the population. Another place to see this category is in unfiction, where stories are told as if they take place in the real world.

There is also the fourth quadrant wherein plausible scenarios are treated as if they aren't real, but I think this would largely be less serious roleplays that are mostly focused on the ASMR, with breaks in character and long periods of tapping and other triggers.

This phenomenon will subside as vaccines roll out and people return back to their daily lives, but in this very brief period, we can feel what it's like to be those post-apocalyptic children reaching back through time and trying to appreciate the mundanities of a civilization both familiar and intangible.