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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Syfy Channel: Dumbing Down and Crapping Up

An article on the Cracked website explains why the Sci Fi channel changed their name from Sci Fi to the far sillier Syfy. Which, as one commenter said, should be pronounced Siffy. The most informative section reads thus:

In 2009, Sci-fi renamed itself as Syfy. The following quotes were made by Syfy channel owners about it (bold type added for emphasis):
"We'll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we'll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand."- Dave Howe, President of Syfy
"The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular...We spent a lot of time in the '90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it's called Sci Fi."- Tim Brooks, founder of Sci-Fi
So, between the President and founder, we learn a few things:
1. They are happy that people are watching and that they are successful
2. They do not consider the people who watch their channel human
3. They made a science fiction channel in an effort to separate themselves from science fiction, as science fiction fans are antisocial boys in their basements with video games and 'stuff'. Perhaps this explains music television?
4. They're willing to rewrite their own history.

So, from what yours truly can gather, they had to dumb down their content and Hipsterize their name to appeal to "humans" because nerds aren't human. Also, nerds are all emotionally disturbed adolescent male virgins living in their mom's basement.
As a 45 year old female nerd who has my own basement, who was married for 11 years, and who has a child (the logical conclusion being that I did procreate at some point) I beg to differ. No one has yet proved that I'm not human, and I preferred the old Sci Fi format. And I find the name "Syfy" to be not charming but annoying. Just like most hipster stuff. Admissibly I do find some of their originally bad content good for an amusing waste of time occasionally, but I'd prefer something of at least questionably redeeming value during an average viewing day.

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