Beauty of the Beastly Controversy

“No!  Don’t order that!”  “What?  Why?”  “It’s really bad.  It tastes like a sweaty sock and it has the same texture as well.”  “It’s that bad, huh?”  “Yes, trust me.  It’s really, really bad.  You should avoid it at all costs!”  “At all costs?  Wait, how do you know what a sweaty sock tastes like?”

In that scenario above, you have two people.  One person was the messenger and the other was the receiver.  What do you think the receiver will do next?  Well, if he trusts the messenger with all his heart, then there is no problem.  However, if he does the opposite, it doesn’t mean he hates the messenger.  I mean it could still be the case but it’s not necessarily the case.  But why would he do that?  Why order the dish after that scathing review?

There’s an important quality possessed by most humans, which is curiosity.  We are curious and indifferent about various things but most of us have the quality itself.  And so, the listener of that review is merely curious.  “Could it be that bad?  Let me try…”

And when a product gets strong word of mouth, whether good or bad, the curiosity reaches an immeasurable level.  Take the recent Beauty and the Beast remake.  There was a huge uproar when the movie was indefinitely postponed (a.k.a. nice way to say banned).  Why?  Political and religious reasons that I believe aren’t worth getting into here and now because you need more than 1000 words for that.  However, there was that curiosity now.  What was in this movie that warranted such a response?  I have to see it now.

According to The Star2 article titled “Beauty and the Beast, Power Rangers make lots of money in Malaysian box office”, the 2017 remake made RM 10.9mil opening weekend.  It now holds the record for largest live-action opening weekend for a Disney movie in Malaysia.  Oh, the article talks about Power Rangers too because that movie also had the same sort of controversy.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, curiosity inarguably brought people in.  Granted, a remake of a 1991 classic Disney movie was always going to bring in a nostalgic crowd but since it became a big political and religious issue, people from all sides came together.  Obviously, the people not bothered by the controversy went to see it.  At the same time, people against the issue went to watch it out of spite.  Yeah, weird people like that exist.  However, the biggest draw the movie had were people who weren’t interested beforehand.  They are now interested because the outside factor has pushed this movie onto their radar.

Curiosity stretches back as far as Adam and Eve if you want to see it that way.  Why should I avoid the Tree of Knowledge?  Oh…  Hmmm, maybe just a bite…  Just one bite…  In the movie, Belle expresses curiosity in the forbidden West Wing too.  Note the irony, huh?

Businesses don’t really care where the money comes from as long as it’s not blood or dirty money.  And even then, some businesses don’t care, secretly.  And by the time you suffer through your sweaty sock of a fish fillet, your money is already in the hawker’s pouch.