My brother-in-law insisted on purchasing a huge home theatre surround sound system, and has a huge TV. He also decided that he only needed one remote control, to rule them all. Anytime I go over there, it takes me 15 minutes to figure out how to turn on the receiver, TV, and cable box. It’s confusing, requires a manual, and a freaking flow chart. You can imagine my horror when my mother called me this morning to ask me how it worked.
- Mom: I can’t get the stupid TV to turn on.
- CS: Which remote control are you using?
- Mom: What do you mean?
- CS: Out of the 4 that they have, which one are you using?
- Mom: The silver one.
- CS: You need to get the big black one with the big blue button.
- Mom: The one that says Sony on it?
- CS: I don’t know what it says, it’s just big and black with a blue button.
- Mom: Okay, I have it. Now what?
- CS: Did you turn the cable box on?
- Mom: I don’t know, there’s no picture on the TV.
- CS: Walk me through what you did.
- Mom: I pointed the silver remote control at the TV and turned on something, and they I grabbed one of the other remotes and turned something else on too.
- CS: That doesn’t help me.
- Mom: Why is there no picture on the TV? It’s just a blue screen.
- CS: I don’t know because I’m not sure what you did. I need you to walk over to the cable box and power it on.
- Mom: Which remote do I use?
- CS: No, you don’t need a remote, you need to walk to the box to turn it on.
- Mom: Oh. Okay. Where’s the button?
This lasted for 20 minutes. It was really good times.