Re-Emergence Day

masterbirder wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 5:24 pm I never liked Kids in the Hall's take on it though - it's never been about fighting trolls in a cave or some kind of "hero's journey" narrative and their portrayal of it as a kind of grand, fluffy adventure really missed the mark

I reached out to Kevin McDonald of Kids in the Hall and he gave some backstory on the writing of the Re-Emergence Day sketch!
https://www.cameo.com/recipient/63b502c ... 681ab34544
(Apparently he was sunburnt, lost at sea and came across New York City)

onthecontinent wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 2:34 pm I can confirm that none of my colleagues over here in the EU have heard of RE Day, which seems odd since I'm sure it was a side-plot in some big-budget action movie or another not so long ago.

Was that the flick with Canada’s sweetheart Ryan Reynolds in it? I think it went straight to Netflix, probably explains why they hadn’t seen it.

My family didn't celebrate it (northern NJ)... I think I learned about it first through cliche jokes, like folks grumbling in early January about "... don't bother me until Re-Emergence Day" or "This can wait until after RED"

I remember being annoyed that public schools opened early in January while it felt like private schools were closed until re-emergence day - not fair!

randylubin wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:05 pm "This can wait until after RED"

AMEN!! Like it's new years day, dont bother me haha

not_dustin_freeman wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 4:14 pm

onthecontinent wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 2:34 pm I can confirm that none of my colleagues over here in the EU have heard of RE Day, which seems odd since I'm sure it was a side-plot in some big-budget action movie or another not so long ago.

Was that the flick with Canada’s sweetheart Ryan Reynolds in it? I think it went straight to Netflix, probably explains why they hadn’t seen it.

oh YEAH it totally was that one. I think that was also set in NYC; seems like there was some kind of confluence with Kevin McDonald's comments about Kids in the Hall? RE Day is giving me Anne of Green Gables vibes, like it has to get re-represented on-screen every so often.

My parents were big Re-emergence Day literalists, which was a big thing on the island, but once I moved to the mainland I've hardly heard of other kids who had to deal with this stuff. Pre-internet and all that. So it was interwoven into my earliest memories:

- Taped sheets over every doorway
- Bright lights in every other room, to maximize re-emergences
- the chanting

To this day, I can't go to the supermarket this time of year without doing the ReD stoop as I pass through the automatic doors. You know the one I mean? Where you dip your face down like a mole, squint your eyes, and act as though you're coming out of a deep, dark cave... It's weird how these habits form.

I thought I was such a smart fake yeshiva boy as a kid, arguing with people about how it shouldn't be called "re-emergence day" because we didn't have an "emergence day" to be repeating.

Which in college somehow turned into a party I threw the weekend *before* re-emergence day that became known as "emergency day" where everyone dressed like sexy blooded up doctors and attempted to get as drunk as possible - as in, to get yourself so drunk you might need to go the emergency room.

It was really really dumb.