Comments

1
Is watching Tron with a Tourette's sufferer nearby really that much worse than watching Tron in any other setting? This man's problem is obviously his ascribing his inability to enjoy the film to the girl when in reality it was due to the intrinsic unenjoyability of the film itself.
2
I once yelled at a woman who wouldn't shut up during the first five minutes of X-Men. She threatened to stab me in the face.
3
But seeing a movie with a Tourette's sufferer has got to suck big time. When does their inability to zip it infringe on my right to watch a movie in peace?
4
While I don't have much patience for douches who wail on the mentally ill or disabled (the guy could have left and demanded a refund), I also don't support people prone to uncontrollable outbursts going to the movies.
5
You don't have a "right" to watch a movie in peace. Not in a theater. At home, yes, but out in public you take your chances: disabled people, children (gasp!), drunks, loud talkers, cell phones. Other human beings have a lot of flaws, and you either mingle amongst them, warts and all, or you stay home.

Some of these behaviors can be curbed, but none of them are a violation of your "rights". You do realize that the Beastie Boys were being a little tongue in cheek when they sang that you have a "right" to a good time, no?

You can ask management for you money back if you think they did not deliver the services they said they would, but nobody guarantees a fairy tale evening any time you go to a public event.
6
Tourette's manifests in so many ways, it'd be fun to know what sounds she was making too.
7
Eh. Anyone who paid to watch Tron was wasting their money anyway. But I don't believe someone with Tourette's has any business being in a movie theater. I do believe he could have handled it just a wee bit better, though.
8
You don't have a "right" to watch a movie in peace. Not in a theater.

A lot of people think it does, since that's what they're paying for, and a lot of theaters seem to agree since they are willing to comp tickets for people whose enjoyment of a movie was disrupted. Symphony halls ban small children and my local art house theater provides special "crybaby matinee" shows presumably for the same reason.
9
I would like to think that I would never stoop so low as to berate a girl with Tourette's in a movie theater- but I can also see how someone in a foul mood who has waited 30 minutes in shitty weather and paid $18 for the movie could snap. It's not acceptable, just understandable.
10
A facetious analogy, but if I had a condition where I would projectile vomit the moment I saw pasta sauce, you'd think that I would think twice before going to a crowded Italian restaurant, no? Most customers may expect a few loud talkers, perhaps even a peevish child to be in that restaurant, but someone constantly projectile vomiting every time a waiter brought out a dish? That would cross the line between what is commonly expected in that setting and what would seriously impact everyone's ability to eat their meals.
From the story it sounds more like the Tourettes sufferer wasn't so extreme as to ruin the experience for everyone, but still was enough of a distraction that everyone noted it and one turd over reacted. I'm not going to say that someone with Tourettes shouldn't be allowed out of the house, but they should at least be cognizant of others in certain situations like cinemas and live theater. So how does someone with Tourettes go out and live a full life while not ruining it for everyone else? Should they be encouraged to go to the cinema as a teaching moment for the other patrons who plunked down their money to see the movie? I think it's kind of odd that someone with tourettes would put themselves in this kind of confrontational position. Was this a young girl with her parents trying to make her believe that she was just like everyone else?
Taken to the extreme, we'd be issuing drivers licenses to the blind or shutting in anyone who wasn't exactly "normal". But hey, this is real life and you need to be realistic here. If you're going to ruin it for everyone, either by having loud uncontrollable tourettes or by being an angry douchebag, maybe you need to think a little bit more about your entertainment plans.
11
Wow, you just sat there and said nothing. Then went home and wrote a letter to I, Anonymous? You are a fucking pathetic sheep.
12
@5 Wrong, for 15 bucks I have a reasonable expectation that the movie will not be interrupted by someone making noise, tourettes or not.
13
There are plenty of theaters with sound-proof rooms, for like babies with moms, etc. In HS we used to have sex in the Metro theater in those booths.

I hate it when I am near another Seattlite in NYC, their passive-aggressive nature forces me back into mine.

There was this guy in the subway that was pushed up way too close to be, but it was crowded so it didn't matter, then when the train had less people he stayed next to me to annoy me (We had made eye contact that supported this over sexy-sex), but the way he was doing it was soooo Seattle. Just teasing you with a problem so that you are the one who blows up and makes a scene, the "bad guy".

Finally I remembered that I am a New Yorker now so I split the difference and started hacking uncontrollably.
14
@5 This is why I no longer romanticize the theatrical experience. I can watch a movie in my home theater with friends and healthier/cheaper snacks for less than the cost of a trip to the theater and it all comes with the added bonus of not having to put up with all of the distractions you just mentioned. Maybe it's hermity "get off my lawn" kind of stuff, but I stopped going to the theater regularly when I had to sit through a 10pm showing of Grindhouse with a crying 3-year old somewhere in the audience.
15
TRUE STORY! I have tourrette's, and the electro-sounds in Tron TOTALLY activated my squeaky verbal tic, which is usually dormant. I was so embarrassed, but fortunately nobody was an asshole to me.
16
I have a condition that causes me to emit a continuous stream of loud, smelly, wet-sounding farts any time I wear 3-D glasses. And nothing offends me more than when people around me complain without understanding my medical condition! I have the right to go to 3-D movies just like anyone else. And nobody has the right to complain about it.
17
I equate going to the theater with having a chain saw shoved up my ass and then having the motor reved up all the way.

And yeah, if you have tourette's stay the fuck away from the theater.
18
When I saw it at IMAX, some douche was in a full light-up Tron 2 suit. The lights, though, didn't have an off switch, and the guy couldn't get the battery cover off. He was kicked out. I swear I saw him start crying.
19
Man, you guys are dicks.
20
Yeah .... I don't want to see a movie with someone suffering from Tourette's.

Sorry, Tourette's people, it sucks that you have that syndrome. But your particular problem prevents other people from watching a film undisturbed, and they have a right to do so.
21
It's fucking Tron you dumb fucks not Gone With The Wind!
22
@ I, Anonymous:

lol, no you won`t.
23
Another reason not to spend money at a theater. It was the bedbugs that settled that question for me.
24
I'm generally pretty liberal, but come on.

I'm sorry for the Tourette's. It sucks. I have a great deal of sympathy. But for fucks sake, don't go to movies if you can't control loud verbal outburst for a couple of hours. Your right to try to live a normal life does not give you permission to ruin a movie (even a bad movie) for a couple hundred people.
25
Does it count if you have uncontrollable inappropriate laughter through a movie everybody else seemed to enjoy? (e.g. Black Swan, Pearl Harbor, Swept Away, US Marshals, Hush)
26
Human beings who speak in a movie theater should be stone to death. No exceptions.
27
@13: That would never fly in NYC. I saw the American there and someone had a loud bag (she was hard of hearing apparently) and someone personally walked up to her to ask her to stop after almost everyone in the theatre (12-15 people) had shouted something at her.
28
@25 - that has freaking happened to me! I watched the fly and laughed hysterically throughout! Luckily i was at home watching it alone...!

If i had the Tourette's i probably wouldn't go see a movie in public. But she has every right to see a movie in public. End of story. It is PUBLIC. Yes its annoying. So is everything else half the people do in a theater (texting, answering calls, kicking seats, giggling uncontrollably, making out in the back, coughing, etc.)
29
Having to watch a movie in a theater with someone who has Tourette's may be mildly annoying, depending on the volume and frequency of the tics. I saw "The Fellowship of the Ring" in the theater with a young girl who had Tourette's, I assume. The noise she made was a quiet yelp every couple of minutes, which really wasn't that big a deal. The sound of the movie drowned her out more often than not.

Acting like a dick to someone who has Tourette's, however, is always a douche move, MUCH douchier than going to the movies as a Tourette's sufferer. It's one thing to call out someone who is using a cell phone or talking loudly; it's quite another to harass someone who has no control over the noise he or she is making.

It's just like with all issues of politeness - it may be rude to behave impolitely, but it's much ruder to attack someone for exhibiting bad manners.
30
I wish someone would have challenged that douche. That poor girl (in her late teens and already dealing with all sorts of teenage angst) ran out of the theater crying that night, never to return. She didn't deserve to be humiliated like that.

The douche was demanding that she be forcibly removed from the theater. In less polite society he would have been taken out back and "dealt with".

While you have every right to ask for a refund if you don't like the experience, you have NO right to ruin the experience for other people. If you feel that the Tourette's is bothering other people that's fine if you leave a suggestion, but let them handle their own complaints. Certainly don't take the matter into your own hands like Douchey Lord of the IMAX and "call out" a disabled teenage girl in front of 400 people.
31
I just want to say as a teenage girl with turrets sometimes I want to be able to see a movie in the theatre because its better that way but I am seriously considering never going to one again even though I really enjoy it because I get yelled at made fun of and my seat kicked because I twitch and make a squeaking sound

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