We’ve all worked with her — the clueless exec who feels compelled to point out the trivially, irrelevantly obvious, or who loves to exercise her talent by changing things unnecessarily (usually by introducing mistakes) just to put her fingerprints on them. We encounter him at the movies all the time — the guy who asks (out loud) “Why is she doing that?” or wants everyone to acknowledge that he noticed the color of the sky just changed from one shot to another (as if none of us had ever seen a movie before, or knew how they’re filmed and assembled). And, of course, they’re all over the Internet and the media and politics — staying focused on the inconsequential, the mundane, the superficial at all cost.

Here’s a tribute to the geniuses behind the dumbing down of practically everything.

(tip: Ken Levine)

Jim Emerson

Jim Emerson is the founding editor of RogerEbert.com and has written lots of things in lots of places over lots of years. Mostly involving movies.

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