This was inspired by an e-mail from a friend whose coworker was on the phone to a customer. He explained that the order must have fallen down that bottomless pit that Gandalf fell down. After a bit of confusion he said “So you don’t know what second breakfast is!” Really? Not everyone in the universe has seen LotR?
OK, I know some haven’t. I’m sure my parents wouldn’t get the references.
But then I remembered someone here meeting someone who had no idea who Hitler was, or that there was a World War II.
So share your stories. Tell us about the guy you met last week who has never heard of Obama or Star Wars or chocolate.
I was listening to a call-in radio show this morning and the caller was very excited because her kid got to go on a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia with her high school class.
The radio show host, who is about 60, joked that he and his colleague almost got to go on a field trip to Vietnam back when they were younger. I don’t think the caller got the reference.
First thing I could think of: long ago, when “right on” was almost de rigueur for responses that could have been “yes” or “certainly” or “absolutely” and similar variations of agreement, it was amusing to hear people from earlier generations trying to be “hep” by saying “right o” instead. That of course led to such things as “farm out” and “right arm.”
I always had an affinity for “out of sequence” or “out of shape” instead of “out of sight.”
[largely mock but entirely feckless and quite hypocritical rage]
I’m sure you meant read Lord of the Rings.
[/largely mock but entirely feckless and quite hypocritical rage]
I’m often the guy who doesn’t get pop culture references. I don’t follow sports, for instance, so references to sports figures either go over my head or completely unnoticed as a reference. Like reality show memes.
I have never seen or read Lord of the Rings. I might have pieced together what the caller was talking about based on some vague things I have heard but I still wouldn’t truly know what they were talking about. I have no idea what a 'second breakfast ’ is.
I am sure that there are tons of them that fly over my head because know next to nothing about current pop culture. I took the death of the past millennium really hard and never really acknowledged the current one. I have never seen any reality show except for some old episodes of American Pickers, Pawn Stars and a few old episodes of Jersey Shore. That is it. I couldn’t tell you the names of any popular movies in the last 5 years nor could I tell you any of the top 10 TV shows. I haven’t seen any of them. I have no idea who the most popular acts are in the past 10 years except for that little Beaver kid. I am only 39.
Way back in my junior year of high school ('85 / '86), I was in history class and we were discussing the Protestant Reformation. The teacher was talking about Martin Luther for about an hour, and one classic dumb jock asked “Martin Luther was alive back then? Didn’t he free the slaves in the south in the 60s?”
I haven’t seen the Lord of the Rings movies, but there are enough people referring to them that if someone hisses 'my precious" I know sort of why. There’s plenty of stuff that’s completely lost on me.
My closest friend’s girlfriend was raised by hippie parents in a rural area with no TV. She went to a crunchy granola boarding school with no TV so she couldn’t even go over to her friends’ houses to watch TV.
I, on the other hand watched a whole lot of TV, and pepper conversations with references to 70s and 80s sitcoms. It falls to Friend A to turn to friend B and say “that was a line from the show Welcome Back, Kotter”. It was about a high school teacher in Brooklyn with a classroom full of 28 year olds." She’s a good sport about it.
I read the books in when I was in Junior High in the late 70s and didn’t see the movies. I know who Gandalf is but I don’t have a clue about second breakfast. I’ve never really been into the fantasy genre so have no interest in the movies.
I have a friend who grew up in the Cleveland metro area, and now lives in Cleveland proper and doesn’t know who Michael Stanley is.
There are only so many famous musicians from Cleveland (well he’s famous in Cleveland) and even if you never were familiar with his music, he has been a DJ here forever. And he does commercials on TV, and you see him at any number of local events as an emcee or a special guest. If nothing else you see ads and reviews of his music whenever he plays out or puts out a new album.
She got all mad that I said it was weird that she didn’t know him, and she said I’m weird for knowing. I asked several of her friends from high school if they knew who he was and they all knew, even the girl who doesn’t know who Steve Buscemi is (another story).
At a place where I worked, there was an 18yo kid who was a messenger. His name was Carmen Miranda. I told him once that I bet a lot of people made wise cracks about his name, thinking he should have a lot of fruit on his head. What I got back was a blank stare.
Now I’m not saying everyone should know who Carmen Miranda was. But if your name is exactly like hers, there should have been comments like that over the years. Nope, nothing.
One time I had a layover in some airport (Can’t remember which) I’m sitting at a table with some lady I don’t know. Playing on the TV is Buggs Bunny and Yo Sammity Sam. This lady couldn’t stop laughing to save her life. At one point she asked me if I knew who that was. (I told her)
Granted, this lady was a foreigner of some sort but damn, where on the planet can you learn to speak good English and not ever hear of Buggs Bunny?