Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, April 24, 2018


Space Dandy is a show about a Dandy guy in space. Being a bounty hunter Dandy and his crew go on adventures to try and grab unregistered aliens. But it isn’t as simple as that, other than Dandy’s love for the booty and his favorite fast food restaurant Boobies ( A floating boob in space) he is special in a way that only the narrator knows. In the episode “Nobody Knows the Chameleon Alien, Baby” Dandy and his crew are on the hunt for a Chameleonian. Which is an alien that can change its appearance to look like someone else. While they are on the hunt for the rare Chameleonian they start to find duplicates of themselves and when the Chameleonian turns into Dandy the crew is torn in two as to which Dandy is the real Dandy.

      They then host a quiz bowl to determine who the real Dandy is by asking questions only the real Dandy would know. One such question is “Finish this thought. ‘I am a slave to?’” Dandy number one then answers, “The booty”. The quiz continues with both Dandys answering the questions correctly leading both Dandys to question if they themselves are the real Dandy. The Chameleonian can copy someone well enough to trick itself into believing that it is indeed that person, so both Dandys contemplate if they are the real Dandy or just a Chameleonian. Just as both Dandys were on the brink of going crazy one of them found the answer.
   
From the narrator’s perspective he says, “Drowning in the introspection he couldn’t even spell he grasped at answers, and then as it all went black he found one.” Dandy then proclaims, “Who cares, baby?” and proceeded to talk about how awesome he is and that he is glad that he is Dandy. They find the real dandy by the end of the episode and the show goes on. But I had to stop and think “What if I’m not who I think I am.” Would I care and if not should I? How can I know if I am me or the me I think I am. Could I just arrive at the conclusion that if I were not me would I be happy that at least I am an imitation of someone amazing? What if one day you found out you weren’t who you thought you were for your whole life and found out that you were just a Chameleonian? It’s funny to think about and while I don’t have any identity issues I do believe I could agree with Dandy and say that I am awesome enough to not care. 

2 comments:

  1. Space Dandy plays well into questions of Hedonism. Should people chase after what is most pleasurable at all times or act more rationally and sacrifice pleasure?

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  2. So, the main philosophical relevance of the Space Dandy is the issue of personal identity? John Locke was concerned about that. What would HE say, to the SD's "don't care" attitude? Why is it awesome not to care, as opposed to not being perturbed because you're confident of your own continuous identity through all changes? We're all chameleons to an extent, after all. And if you were a literal chameleon, well, wouldn't that still be a solid and continuous identity?

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