this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online 129 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is not that they died for their love; it's that they're too young to realize that their love wasn't worth dying for. It's a cautionary tale about the follies and passion of youth, not a love story.

Edit: alright, it's about a lot of things.

[–] NABDad@lemmy.world 74 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

I thought it was a cautionary tale about parents who overreact to their children's relationships without realizing that if they just let them be they'll break up on their own.

[–] reev@sh.itjust.works 35 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I thought it was about the political intricacies of two gnome families that didn't like each other

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 28 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I thought it was about the political intricacies of two gnome families that didn't like each other

I’ve heard of two KDE families that didn’t like each other….

[–] elvith@feddit.org 22 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)
~$apt install libkromeo
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libkromeo : Breaks: libkjulia(< 4.4.6-4)
E: Broken packages
[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's also a story about how feuds are largely arbitrary, and holding grudges against entire families/bloodlines is just tragically pointless eye-for-an-eye behavior that eventually leads to your children being so blind that they commit suicide for basically no reason.

It's a bunch of themes in a trench coat!

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

It could also be interpreted as a George Bluth-esque extreme "always leave a note" lesson.

If you're going to fake your suicide to get your crazy family off your back so you can be with your lover, always leave your lover a note explaining what you're doing or you'll both end up dead.

[–] Comment105@lemm.ee 31 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Isn't it about how hostile families ruin shit for their kids?

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It's been ages since I've actually gone through it but what I remember of it, it goes like this:

  • Roseline, the chick Romeo has the hots for, has just come out as asexual. He's not taking this well.
  • To cheer him up, his buddies suggest crashing a big party at the Capulet house tonight. Romeo tags along.
  • While moping at the party, he encounters Juliet. The two of them hit it off HARD, they both like Blink 182 AND Evanescence, what are the odds?
  • Problem: They're respective fathers have some unspecified feud, so when it comes out just who each other are, it's a problem.
  • We get a scene where Romeo is in the back yard and Juliet is in her bedroom looking out the window, two back to back speeches about "(s)he's hot, it's a shame our dads hate each other.
  • They decide to run off to Vegas and get hitched anyway.
  • The parties get separated, and then there is a compounding series of "a thing has happened!" "I know! I'll make it look like I've done something drastic for some damn reason, and I'll send a messenger to tell the other party that I haven't really done that." "A thing has happened, and the messenger carrying a message that would completely inform your decision hasn't arrived yet." "I know, I'll do something drastic for some damn reason!"
  • This ends in the two fathers standing over an almost literal pile of corpses to include the titular teenagers, trying to remember what they were even fighting about in the first place.
  • Roseline is unscathed.

Moral of the story: Latency is just as important as bandwidth.

[–] Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

That seems like it still counts as a love story then, or at least "romance" given that that's primarily what it's plot and themes revolve around. What qualifies something to be a love story if not that?

[–] atlien51@lemm.ee 2 points 5 days ago

Def not worth dying for

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 47 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well of course. It's a tragedy. Not a romance. That's stated upfront even.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's a tragicomedy. The joke is that love is stupid.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

I don't think that's the joke, beyond a bit of "kids are fucking stupid." There's a lot of commentary out there about it possibly being a satire but it's definitely more tragedy than comedy. Midsummer Night's Dream is the comedy about whirlwind romance.

[–] xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 days ago

with the right soundtrack it’s a comedy

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

There's a lot of comedy in R&J. It's not specified explicitly in the text, but there's a lot of subtext to work with, and a ton of room for interpretation.

Nowhere in the play does it state that the friar uses a Bible to block the kids from kissing, but in the version I was in, that was a directorial decision, and it always got a laugh. And it was apropos to the scene.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 31 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

I only take issue with "read it". Shakespeare wrote plays. They were meant to be performed and seen, not read. "Do you bite your thumb at me?" makes a lot more sense when it's done by a good actor.

If their first introduction to Star Wars was reading the script, kids would hate that, too. Having a script can be useful for analyzing and referencing things--I do have a book of the OG Star Wars trilogy scripts--but it shouldn't be the default way we enjoy it.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

I never thought of it like that. You've made me reconsider my positions on Shakespeare.

[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I think this depends on your level of imagination. When I read books there is definitely a play going on in my head of the events as they unfold.

[–] MinervasOwl@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 days ago

IMO even a film adaptation is missing something compared to the experience of a live play, let alone just reading the script.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 26 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I was constantly asking why everyone just believed the kids and never assumed they were lying the whole way through The Crucible.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

I feel it was made quite clear that the kids testimony was the excuse not the reason.

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, and Lady Montague.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 23 points 6 days ago
[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Literally don't remember half those deaths. I gotta re read that again. Or watch the DiCaprio flick...

[–] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The Baz Luhrmann movie is definitely worth a rewatch.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

Nice I'll have to check it out!

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Depends on the production. We didn't even have Paris in the play – that I recall – when we did it at college. And Lady Montague didn't have a death, she was just sad at the funeral.

A play that encompasses the entirety of the original would likely take 3 hours to perform. There's a lot of fat to trim for individual presentation and interpretation (even once saw a Gaza / Israel variant one of my costars was in, that was interesting).

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 16 points 5 days ago (3 children)

I know it’s a book shop, but it’s still weird to me putting primacy on reading the script of the play rather than watching it in a theatre. It’s like saying “anyone who’s read the Die Hard novelisation knows how hectic the Christmas holidays can be”.

Thing with Shakespeare plays is there's no one alive today who has met anyone who was alive to see a play at The Globe. The scripts we have are just people's lines and the bare minimum stage direction. There's a lot of information missing, and you can interpret it in many ways.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone interpret Hamlet's To Be Or Not To Be speech as a mentally disturbed 20 year old stomping down a hallway muttering to himself under his breath; it's always either this huge proclamation or a weirdly wistful thing. And then, immediately after, two interpretations of the Blasting Ophelia section simultaneously: with and without Hamlet noticing the king and company watching.

[–] Klear@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Especially since Die Hard is based on a novel.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 days ago

You're right. But somehow, you've also composed this bookshop's next sign...

[–] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago

Any historian worth his salt will tell you that romantic love wasn't invented until the 1800s so Romeo and Juliet can't have been a love story /s

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Thanks for the spoilers.

[–] wanderwisley@lemm.ee 6 points 6 days ago

If they were related it would be a sweet home Alabama love story.

[–] 60d@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 days ago

So, basically a school shooting. Gotcha.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

But I heard the songs are good!

[–] derry@midwest.social 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

"Hey Romeo, you nearly gave me a heart attack" lyric makes sense now

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

The tv comedy Upstart Crow brilliantly skewers Romeo & Juliet along with Shakespeare. I forget which episode, but it's only 3 seasons and they're all fantastic.

[–] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago

Oh yes, the clever young woman points out a few things, eg the plot is VERY similar to a much earlier story, where the girl is 17, not 13. And Romeo's age is never mentioned. "Bit weird isn't it, Mr Shakespeare?"

[–] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago

Oh yes, the clever young woman points out a few things, eg the plot is VERY similar to a much earlier story, where the girl is 17, not 13. And Romeo's age is never mentioned. "Bit weird isn't it, Mr Shakespeare?"

ThatsTheWholePoint.jpg

(This was largely Shakespeare's criticism of young love)