I Read It for the Articles: Difference between revisions

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[[I Read It Forfor Thethe Articles]] is the [[Stock Phrase]] people use to avoid catching any flak over liking a media product which has parts to it that are not popular or socially acceptable. It still allows them to watch or read it as a [[Guilty Pleasure]] -- after—after all, they can't say they actually ''like'' it without facing widespread ridicule. Some have actually said "I watch it ironically" unironically.

[[Trope Namer|Name comes from]] a common justification for reading ''[[Playboy]]'' magazine, which an incredible number of people claim to only read for the articles. While certainly [[Discredited Trope|discredited]] today as a ''legitimate'' excuse, this could have reasonably been [[Truth in Television]] in [[The Sixties]] and [[The Seventies]]. <ref> Playboy paid writers nearly three times as well as other publications, meaning that it drew considerable talent, such as [[Jack Kerouac]] and [[Arthur C. Clarke]].</ref> ''Playboy'' used to (and still does) have a variety of short stories, snippets, and interviews that wouldn't be out of place in ''The New Yorker''... just with naked women. <ref>This is true to the point that the Braille edition of Playboy is one of the top selling Braille magazines, even though it completely lacks [[Bow Chicka Wow Wow|its usual selling point.]]</ref>

Just to be clear, works that ''you or the fandom'' consider guilty[[Guilty pleasuresPleasure]]s are not examples of this trope.

Compare [[Or So I Heard]] and [[Came for The X Stayed For The Y]]. Contrast with [[Unconventional Learning Experience]] and [[Just Here for Godzilla]].

** Playboy actually sold compilations of all its articles. You can get the last Playboy John Lennon interview to Playboy as a book too.

* Amusingly, for a long time ''[[Playboy]]'' paid better per word than almost any other magazine; as such it attracted some serious writing talent. [[That Other Wiki]] points out that along with interviews with all sorts of famous people (Martin Luther King and [[Fidel Castro]] for example), ''Playboy'' has featured short stories by [[Arthur C. Clarke]], [[James Bond|Ian Fleming]], [[Margaret Atwood]], and even the original ''[[A Christmas Story]]''. One issue even has article written by Elliott Gould - look it up - wherein he tells of his recent trip to Disneyland...on acid.

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20150224015952/http://www.izetit.de/index_projekte.php?page=projekte/2/p2%2F2%2Fp2 I.Z.E.T.I.T.] once analyzed the contents of a Playboy:

** Playboy is also one of the few magazines which are also published in braille so that blind people can read the articles. Not only that, but that publication is government-subsidized... and when the United States Congress tried to cut off the funding in the '80s, that move was ruled unconstitutional as a First Amendment violation.

* The articles in [[wikipedia:Mayfair (magazine)|Mayfair Magazine]] (still the leading men's rag in the UK) are commonly of topics suited to [[The History Channel]] ([http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_Channel\:The History Channel|wp]]) in its prime or [[Discovery Channel|Discovery]], such as articles on the common myths surrounding Drake's defeat of the Spanish Armada or the tactics and techniques of contemporary era snipers, or the design of new-line Rolls Royce engines. It's quite common for readers to get the mag for the women, and [[Come for the X, Stay for the Y|stay to read the articles]].

* ''[[Life on Mars|Life]]'' On Mars(the 2006]] series) - Sam's excuse while hiding a tape recorder under Gene's copy of ''Jugs''.

{{quote|"Now the other day I was leafing through my copy of "The Lady Wrestlers Home Journal", which I buy for the fat stock prices..."

* [[In-Universe]] in ''[[Fallout 2]]'': when asked by Miss Kitty in New Reno why you have some CatsCat's pawPaw magazines on you, you can reply that you read them for the articles.

** She gives you a quest to find a full set of the Cat's Paw magazines, since she runs the Cat's Paw brothel. When you bring them all back, she says there's two issues of #5, and some of the pages are stuck together,. so you can keep it. She unsticks them for you, since she's an expert at handling sticky things. An article in the magazine gives you an extra 5% skill with energy weapons. "What do you know. You DO read it for the articles."

* [[Noble Demon|Mao]] of ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'' ''claims'' that his obsessive collection of comics and videogames is merely research on heroes... it's pretty obvious that he's one of [[Even Heroes Have Heroes]].

* ''[[Cyanide and& Happiness]]'' has a comic that goes like this:

{{quote|'''Wife:''' Japanese Playboy?

'''Husband:''' I, uh, read it for the articles.

'''Wife:''' ''(happy):'' Wow! I didn't know you could read Japanese!

[''Husband grins '']}}

* ''[[Questionable Content]]'' has a [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=35 comic] where [[Robot Buddy|Pintsize]] swears he is reading a Apple magazine for the benchmarks despite a suspicious can of [[A Date with Rosie Palms|WD-40 lubricant]] nearby.

[[Category:I Read It for the Articles{{PAGENAME}}]]