The footage in that box up there comes from a CBS sitcom called How I Met Your Mother. Other than starring an older, less Hippocratic Neil Patrick Harris, it has recently become notable for revealing that Middle America finally understands gamer culture.
I hear many of you out there cocking your heads to the side, and making that “baroo” sound, the one that really only comes off as adorable when dogs do it (regardless of how often you read Cute Overload), so let me explain.
CBS, as a network, is the broadcasting equivalent of soy milk. When octogenarians whose only joy in life is being morally offended by Fig Newton boxes need the sweet opiate of television, CBS is what they tune into. Occasionally they stray over to The History Channel, but even coverage of a war they participated in often outrages their sensitive morality. With this well deserved reputation for being as palatable as a digestive cracker, anything broadcast by CBS must appeal to the lowest of all common denominators: Middle America. These are the same people who find Dennis Miller confusing, yet strangely infuriating, and who have made Jeff Foxworthy the greatest selling comedian in history. Now, when CBS deems that these people are ready for jokes about online dating, in an MMO no less — the gamer’s equivalent of jamming your penis in a hole in a tree and hoping it isn’t bitten by something angry — you have a very strong indicator that America finally gets it.
Gaming is now mainstream. We’ve lost all elitist, niche appeal. Whether you like it or not, you’re now the social equivalent of a forty-year-old father of two who spends his weekends fishing, and drinking beer. Welcome to milquetoast.
