Things I don't Understand - Part 2,763

I don't understand a lot of things. And I'm a curious person by nature, so when I come across an idea, thought, person that I don't quite get, I want to know more. My problem, on occasion, is that I usually just come right out and ask somebody about what they just did/said/dated. And I don't really just leave it at one question, especially if they say something that makes more questions pop up in my head. I think one of the main reasons why people who think I am an asshole actually think that I'm an asshole is because I keep asking questions and make them uncomfortable. But that's just me, and I'm not too up on changing just yet.

Today's thing I don't understand going to a bar to watch a tv show. I write a lot of reviews on yelp and often read the conversation threads when I'm bored at home/work. It seems like every couple of days recently, especially because we were finishing up the TV season, somebody was posting a thread asking if anyone knew a bar where they could watch (insert show I couldn't give a crap about here).

Maybe I'm weird, but who watches TV shows in bars? I get it for sporting events. Live sporting events are cool because they have sports and people and noise and beer. Bars also have people and noise and beer, so they work well together. But why would someone want to go to a bar to watch Gossip Girl? Don't you kind of need to listen to what people are saying? Can't you just grab a six pack on the way home and invite a couple people over who know enough not to talk during the show?

I think this started during the presidential debates last fall. That I also didn't get: if you're going to watch the two people who want to run the free world, maybe it's a good idea to be able to listen to them. But I was thinking about this some more while deciding whether or not to write this and I realized that most people going to those parties didn't actually want to watch the debates. Either they didn't care about politics but wanted others to think they did, they definitely knew who they were voting for but wanted to pretend they were still watching political stuff or they just needed an excuse to drink in public on a Tuesday night. Maybe these other viewing parties are just an extension of that same thing. Maybe people just watch the shows so they can talk about them with their friends, and they go to bars to talk with their friends, so why not combine the two?

There are already a lot of questions in this post, so I'm not going to really go any further. Plus, I just set my alarm for 6am tomorrow to go to the gym before work and my food coma from tonight's ridiculously good dinner is approaching at an unstoppable rate. Who wants to get bloody mary's and watch Meet the Press next Sunday?