What Really Bothers Me About Smallville

[rivkat]

This is trivial but crazy-making: Why oh why is it necessary for characters to refer to "Clark Kent" when discussing him? Is there some other "Clark" hanging around Chloe, Lana and Pete? On most regularly scheduled earth planets, "Clark" would be considered sufficient to identify him, especially when someone is speaking directly to him! I think even Lex has fallen prey to this weird disease, though I'm not sure.

Sorry. Just needed that off my chest.

Comments

[hesychasm]

Actually, it's not so uncommon. There are certain first and last names that just like to hang out together in conversation. Example: I once knew a guy named Nick Harmon, and you just sort of HAD to call him "Nick Harmon" when referring to him, or even talking to him -- it was the sound, the rhythm, a little of the personality. I hadn't thought about it before, but "Clark Kent" is like that too.

Or it could just be me, weird like that.

-T

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I'll accept that in theory, but it sounds weird to me for SV and Clark Kent. This may be a function of the fact that TV characters use each other's names much too often for normal conversation, so it's sort of a double unusualness that makes me itch. Also, it's used to signal that Clark is doing something either (a) normal for him ("That's Clark Kent for you") or (b) abnormal for him ("Clark Kent, yelling at his dad -- I never thought I'd see the day"), and that in itself annoys me.

While it's perfectly natural for Lionel to call him "Clark Kent" (I'd even accept, and adore, "Your little friend, Clark Kent"), to have his agemates calling him that just seems like a gratuitous future Superman reference, playing off of what we the watchers know about "Clark Kent," man and Superman. It seems like a cheat, in other words, deriving much of its force from future events rather than arising out of Clark's personality on Smallville or some in-joke. Lex Luthor gets a bit of the same treatment, though he's more likely to be "Luthor."

Still, as someone who answers to "RT," maybe I shouldn't be throwing weirdness stones. (Give me some plot rocks instead. Plot rocks: the Scully Rational Explanation of Smallville.)

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

Well...it's like...Jordan Catalano! Who ever just called him "Jordan?"