Zombies Ruin Everything

Who don’t love ghost busting? It makes you feel good. I’ve always seen it as the nerdy older brother to The Frighteners. While everybody waits for a third film that’s never going to happen and since you have nothing better to do for the next six minutes, check it out.

Also, I just want to throw out there how badly I would want to be a Ghostbuster if I could be one. Of all the fictional jobs or universes to live in, I think I would enjoy that one the most. Unless of course, I could be an X-man or a Jedi or something. Then again, the Ghostbusters get paid, so…

Ray Stantz- INFP

“Personally, I liked working for the university! They gave us money and facilities. We didn’t have to produce anything. You’ve never been out of college. You don’t know what it’s like out there! I’ve worked in the private sector… they expect results!”

Extravert seemed obvious at first for the described “heart” the team but INFPs are known to be friendly enough that they can be confused for one. Ray’s enthusiasm for his profession(s) doesn’t seem to get lost or waver no matter what he deals with throughout the films, though most of his time is spent in his bookstore, in a lab, by himself or with very few others, keeping to himself and his projects and that’s up it until the Ghostbusters are actually formed.

As intelligent as he is, he’s also got a naivete about him that INFPs often do about the world. Highly involved in their own thoughts and activities, INFP’s get disappointed when they come into contact with the uber-negative real world. It seems that this outlook can depress and strengthen them as their refusal to acknowledge “the way things are” in many case is what has them ignoring rules to achieve their own goals.

Case in point, in the face of Venkman’s criticism, valid or not, Stantz is the most positive member of the team by far and if not for his unfaltering optimism (for the most part), we wouldn’t have even had a movie; just about everything is his brainchild.

Totally unrelated to the article, I was just searching clips relevant to Ray and forgot that Aykroyd had a cameo in 1995’s Casper. Though I refuse to believe Casper’s uncles would be the ghosts to send him running.

Peter Venkman- ESTP

Venkman: No, no. Just asking. Are you, Alice, menstruating right now?
Library Administrator: What has that got to do with it?
Venkman: Back off, man. I’m a scientist.

Probably the most well-known and definitely the most quotable character, Venkman is the cynic and the comedian at the same time. Some have confused him for an ENTP for this but his devil’s advocate role for Egon and Stantz isn’t due to seeing a different side of it as ENTPs often do; he just really doesn’t believe because he’s a realist- or a pessimist, same thing. His salesmen-like attitude and affinity for the ladies (specifically those he just met) make it that much easier to place in a variant of the Artisan Variety.

ESTPs are often stereotyped as people pleasers that are really attempting to get what they want while making you think that you’re getting what you want. Venkman’s introduction of performing an experiment that involves him shocking a male test subject and hitting on the female subject, forgoing whatever results the test could have yielded in favor of a good-looking woman’s attention.

It’s one of the funniest scenes in the movie while giving a great example of Venkman’s place in the world- a grounded scientist that did what he was doing for a job, not for love of science; the opposite of Egon

Egon Spengler- INTP

“Sorry, Venkman, I’m terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.”

Probably the most obvious of the four, Egon is a nerd by definition and is likable without actually having any people skills to speak of. An example you ask? NO PROBLEM. On the team’s first real job, Egon makes his way around the hotel looking for Slimer to rid him of the building. Egon, using the PKE meter makes his way to a guest and, in his focused stare, looks to the old man and pokes them as if to make sure they’re not a phantom. INTP’s specialty isn’t people to say the least.

What their specialty is however, consists of things, concepts and theory. If it weren’t for Ray, there would be no one to push the idea of the team. If not for Venkman, there would be no one to sell the team and if not for Egon there would be no team, period, because he’s the co-creator of the majority of the devices in the first place.

INTP’s love of analysis often leaves them prone to unintentional debate due to their ability to see the things that don’t normally concern others. They don’t get what your problem is and logic is everything. You can hear it in his voice as he tells the only toy he ever had was part of Slinky that he straightened out.

Winston Zeddemore- ISTJ

“If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.”

Just a man looking for a job, hired by guys who couldn’t carry all of their workload- sounds like the perfect void for an ISTJ to fill. Originally offered to Eddie Murphy but turned it down in favor of Beverly Hills Cop, Winston’s role in the story probably would have been a much bigger part. So Ernie Hudson’s part is probably the most practical of the group- more so than even than Venkman, who’s weirdness still has him in a comfortable place with Egon and Ray.

Him and Ray seem to get along the best and his role in the group serves as a translator for Ray’s long-winded psycho-jargon, and doesn’t show much of an interest in the work past the fact that if his team members aren’t allowed to continue whatever investigation they’ve been working on, the whole world could be overrun by death and demons.

ISTJs are traditionalists by nature and Winston’s background as a former Marine, an implied Christian, and only willing to really believe once he sees ghosts for himself, Winston adds the “everyman” leverage to the team that Venkman, Egon and Ray weren’t ever going to play up to.

This entry was posted on 10/21/2013 at 1:08 am and is filed under MBTI Artisans, MBTI Guardians, MBTI Idealists, MBTI Rationals, MBTI Stuff with tags bill murray, ESTP, ghostbusters, infp, intp, istj, mbti in fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.