Before consumer virtual reality reaches any sort of widespread adoption, it must first begin to work its way into the public consciousness. To that end, we’ve spotted the Oculus Rift, one of the leading VR headsets destined for the consumer market, on NBC’s popular comedy series Parks and Recreation. Its portrayal is brief, but raises interesting questions about how the public will at first perceive virtual reality.
Parks and Recreation, now on its 7th and final season, is an acclaimed NBC comedy with a viewership counted in the millions. The 7th season’s setting of the year 2017 gives writers an opportunity to integrate (current) bleeding edge tech into the daily lives of the show’s characters. Already we’ve seen holographic phones and tablets and drone deliveries, and now the latest episode touches on virtual reality.
In ‘Save J.J.’s’ (season 7, episode 6), Dennis Feinstein, an unsavory businessman who runs a fragrance empire, is seen wearing the first development kit from Oculus, the Rift DK1. The headset bares the symbol of Gryzzl, a fictional company and parody of high tech startups. True to his character, Feinstein is using the headset inappropriately by watching virtual reality pornography at work (to answer a question I’ve fielded many times, yes, it already exists). He’s soon interrupted by another character entering the scene and removes the headset. You can catch the clip here:
See Also: 3 Must-see Anime about Virtual Reality That You Can Watch for Free
And while the script was certainly written for the nature of character, it does raise the question: what public preconceptions will virtual reality face when as it works to penetrate the consumer market? This brief cameo evokes themes of escapism and hedonism. It’s incredibly unlikely that the show’s writers used this for any reason other than a laugh, but for those who have never tried virtual reality before, their preconceptions are derived from references to the subject seen elsewhere (which will now include this one).
Another thing to note is that the creators of the show presumably felt that the DK1, a VR headset released in 2013, felt ‘futuristic enough’ to not seem anachronistic in the show’s 2017 setting. This is a good reminder that even though VR is here by many metrics, the concept itself is still representative of the future in the minds of many.
