Can we get a ban the standing Ovation?

We went to see the Floyd Landis thing.

I thought it would be a train wreck, but it was a lot more fun and funny than I thought it would be, even though no one asked anything about the doping scandal, and Brendan and I got peer-pressured into a standing O.

As a side note--I hate the standing ovation. When I was in high school, the standing ovation happened all the time, but I think that's to be expected because the audience is entirely made up of your friends and family. (And also we, like, totally deserved them.)

But, now the standing ovation has become this completely awkward social exchange. And, it seems like for every sub-par professional performance I see, an eighth of the audience feels they deserve a standing ovation...and then another eighth are the easily-led. Then you're stuck with this awkward 1/4 of the audience who has to stare at the ass of the person in front of them...so they stand up. And then the rest of us...who really think the performance wasn't worthy of this kind of accolade...feel the pressure to stand...because if you don't, it's like you're making a political statement that they absolutely DO NOT deserve a standing ovation.

In the case of Floyd Landis, without the doping scandal, he absolutely served the standing ovation. But, you can't just sit there and pretend that isn't going on...and the only evidence at this point is saying he cheated. So, applause fine...but come on.

I still really want to believe that he's getting framed or some such thing. That some bitter french man poured some of his extra testorone into his pee cup while twisting his handlebar mustache, and saying, "Savoir-faire eez everywhere!"

But, come on.