On Repeat: Why People Watch Movies and Shows Over and Over

The millisecond that Dumb and Dumber clicks into focus on the television screen, something magical happens to me. It can be a terrible day, a stressful day, or a sick day, but within seconds of seeing Jim Carrey's bowl cut, I'm 10 years old again. The number of movies I have once memorized is small (The Lion King, A Few Good Men, and, inexplicably, While You Were Sleeping), but Dumb and Dumber is perhaps the only one where I have reasonably thought, "I could perform this entire film from start to finish, on my own." On multiple occasions in college, I think I tried.

I'm a creature of repetition when it comes to entertainment: marathons drift by on lazy Saturday afternoons, episodes stream at night, and certain , particularly those sounding like they have a cold, play relentlessly in my earbuds. In all the hours I've spent re-consuming movies, shows, books, and songs, I could have learned a real skill, like playing.