Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

What do you think of the saying, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”?

I happen to like the expression because I think it’s true—or at least as true as any of those “old sayings” can be. When we see a style we admire or a person we want to emulate, it’s natural to pull from that. Ideally, we gather multiple influences and blend them into something unique, rather than becoming a carbon copy.

The “Superstar” Blueprint

Take Hulk Hogan, for example. As a pop-culture-obsessed guy, it’s hard not to notice that Hogan lifted his entire visual aesthetic from “Superstar” Billy Graham. The WWE even released a DVD on Graham titled 10 Years Too Soon. The implication was clear: had Graham reached his prime a decade later, the world might never have heard of Hulk Hogan. He didn’t just find inspiration; he found a template.

The Audacity of the Archetype

As an English teacher, I’m constantly reminded of the structuralist theory that there are really only about 16 fundamental stories available to the human experience. Scholars have long argued that every narrative is simply a variation on an archetype—a new costume on an ancient skeleton. If that’s true, then the “Audacity of Potential” in storytelling isn’t about inventing a new bone; it’s about how we choose to flesh it out for our own era.

If the “bones” of our stories are fixed, then innovation has to come from the performance, the lens, or the era. We have to find new ways to dress up the same old skeletons.

The Hall of “Heavily Borrowed” Ideas

If you look closely at the things we love, you start to see the “DNA” of what came before. Sometimes it’s a tribute; other times, it’s a blatant lift:

• The Lion King vs. Hamlet: When I taught in South Carolina, I used to show the wildebeest stampede to explain Shakespeare’s plot. It’s the same story—just with more fur and a better soundtrack.

• The Flintstones vs. The Honeymooners: Jackie Gleason famously considered suing because the show was essentially his characters living in the Stone Age.

• A Fistful of Dollars vs. Yojimbo: Director Akira Kurosawa once told Sergio Leone, “It is a very fine movie, but it is my movie.”

• Star Trek vs. Star Trek: Even in the Federation, they recycle. Deep Space 9’s “Hard Time” is really just a genetic hybrid of TNG’s “The Inner Light” and Voyager’s “Ex Post Facto.”

The Safety of the Sequel

I think there’s a bit of laziness at play, but mostly, I think studios are terrified. We’re living in an era of “dusting off” 80-year-old actors for one last hit because original IP feels like a financial risk they can’t afford post-2020.

But as a film geek, I still believe in that communal experience. We don’t need another remake; we need stories that reflect the drama of now—the “cell phone dramas” or the “social media minefields” that define our modern boundaries. We can use the old skeletons of stories, but we need to put some new skin on them.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like 👍, comment, and subscribe below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media and check out my recent posts!

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The article “The Audacity of the Archetype” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob