Serena Toros

repeating the same old tropes.

I actually talked to a man named Sam Summers, who lectures in animation history at Middlesex University, for a piece I'm writing for Slate about this.

And he said that Shrek just becomes repeatedly about his midlife crises.

I remember being in elementary school and going to the grocery store with my mom, and they were selling Shrek go-gurt.

Shrek's face was on everything.

The branding was insane.

And I think that's also probably why it became a meme, because you couldn't

You couldn't swing a donkey or a puss in boots without hitting a Shrek-branded go-gurt.

And so it's funny that Shrek tried so hard to kick back against the establishment and then became the establishment.

And that maybe watching Shrek in the year of our Lord 2021 makes it seem...

outdated and not so fresh and hard to figure out why it was so popular because what made Shrek different has now become the norm.

You know, it's funny.

People have kind of turned Shrek into this like Marxist communist meme in the last several years.

But re-watching Shrek 1 last night, I realized that Shrek is actually like pro-landlord.

You know, his whole dispute with Lord Farquaad is that he wants people off his land.

And Donkey's kind of questioning.

It's right before the very infamous onion monologue.

He's questioning like, whoa.

Why are you letting Lord Farquaad hand over possession of your land, which you already own?

I don't get it, Shrek.