When you ask somebody to try their own hand at something before criticizing your efforts, you have violated Ebert's Law and lost the argument. Roger Ebert is not a filmmaker, but he knows what he likes and doesn't, and has every right to say so. Similarly, people don't need to be chefs to recognize a good restaurant, or musicians to appreciate a symphony.
Person 1: Your story is rubbish!
Person 2: I bet you couldn't do better!
Person 2 has violated Ebert's Law
Person 2: I bet you couldn't do better!
Person 2 has violated Ebert's Law
by Sairin December 30, 2005
by JB October 2, 2003
Film critic Roger Ebert's philosophy to criticizing works: "It's not what it's about, it's HOW it's about it."
This applies to any type of work, be it films, TV shows, music, books, etc.
This applies to any type of work, be it films, TV shows, music, books, etc.
Occasionally an unsuspecting innocent will stumble into a movie like this and send me an anguished postcard, asking how I could possibly give a favorable review to such trash. My stock response is Ebert's Law, which reads: A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it. -- Roger Ebert
by Judas Zala July 10, 2011
When hooking up with a girl, you insert one thumb in her anus and the other in her vagina. (Two thumbs up!)
by Krishelz Mendoza December 14, 2007
by bigtones January 21, 2005
To call someone a Roger Ebert is to say that they are a naive pompous asshat with no credibility. It is most often used to describe people who spout their opinion on subjects they know little to nothing about.
This slang term became increasingly popular when the Pulitzer prize winning film critic declared that "video games can never be art," all while stubbornly refusing to play any of the great games of the medium. He found it unnecessary to experience an art form before denouncing its entire artistic merit.
This slang term became increasingly popular when the Pulitzer prize winning film critic declared that "video games can never be art," all while stubbornly refusing to play any of the great games of the medium. He found it unnecessary to experience an art form before denouncing its entire artistic merit.
by Sander_Cohen April 22, 2010
The greatest film critic. Although we can all disagree with some of his reviews, he remains the best.
The skies are always dark with airborne filth in this Los Angeles of the future. It usually rains. The infrastructure looks a lot like now, except older and more crowded, and with the addition of vast floating zeppelins, individual flying cars, and towering buildings of unimaginable size. When I first saw the film I was impressed by the giant billboards with moving, speaking faces on them, touting Coca-Cola and other products. Now I walk over to Millennium Park and see giant faces looming above me, smiling, winking, and periodically spitting (but not Coke). As for the flying cars, these have been a staple of sci-fi magazine covers for decades, but remain wildly impractical and dangerous, unless locked into a control grid. - Roger Ebert on Blade Runner
by Hey Arnold July 15, 2008