I’ve mentioned this one in similar threads. It shocked me.
Within about a week of the 2008 election we were standing around at work at the end of the day. Sarah Palin was in town for a quick campaign stop and one of the women mentioned it. This other lady, about 30-35, asked who that was. She was not joking! Absolutely no idea.
My awareness of pop culture dipped dramatically when I had children. Then about four years after that I became aware of things on Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel. About eight years after that I started becoming aware things happening in music again. Still, there’s a period of more than a decade when I didn’t know what anything was.
Fair enough, but I wasn’t laughing at nobody. And in my defence, my first Google reference for Yosemite Sam came up as Yo Sammity Sam. And the Buggs thing is completely my fault. Please, excuse my ignorance.
I have made some good money selling stuff I found lying around in the quarry.
I just have to point out, Tolkien did not invent the concept of second-breakfast. Hobbit culture was modeled on various aspects of real rural European cultures, and that’s one such.
Years ago, my friend and I were laughing about this jokey trailer of The Shining when our coworker said “That looks really good, I want to see that!”
Not only hadn’t she seen The Shining (no crime), but she hadn’t even heard of it.
The woman I sit next to at work (in her 30s) had never heard of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) until yesterday. That surprised me. But I don’t know how unusual that really is.
My housemate apparently has never heard of ‘Chicken Little’ (or the UK variant name ‘Chicken Licken’).
Yeah, my son is three, and I’m just getting into the second stage now. I know a lot of stuff on NickJr and similar channels; not much else from current pop culture.
Yo Sammity Sam? :eek:
My desire to be an educator arises from a conversation a couple years ago with my then 14 year old nephew. He had no idea what the Holocaust was. His parents are bible-thumpin’ Pentecostals, and have no interest in anything that doesn’t directly relate to Christianity or the bible. It was up to me, apparently, to fight his ignorance. That was an akward conversation.
A few years back, my dad was surprised to learn that U2 was still touring, despite their lead singer’s recent death in a skiing accident.
Didn’t they have people throwing a lot of stuff on top of them? 
I heard a lady in a record store ask, “Is this the same George Harrison who is in the Beatles?” Do you know more than one?
We were having lunch at a Red Robin in Tempe last month, and the waitress recommended one of their special milkshakes.
The specials menu listed it at $5, so my wife immediately went into Pulp Fiction mode, quoting Travolta’s line.
Blank stare, but to be fair, the girl was probably around 20. I just ended up recommending the movie to her. God knows there’s plenty of time in the PHX area to watch movies, after all. 
I’ve never seen Pulp Fiction* either and often miss those references, though have absorbed a few of them accidentally.
On an unrelated note - Coldfire! Holy crap! Don’t see you around these parts often.
*And have no interest in ever seeing it or any other Tarantino movie, thanks very much.
I wonder if anyone will get the reference to a certain Dead Kennedy’s song if I were to drop it in here.
I recently brought “The Princess Bride” to work to lend to a couple people who kept giving me blank stares when I quoted lines.
A friend told me he was going to Reno. I asked him if he was planning on shooting someone just to watch him die. A lame joke, I admit. The horrified look on his face…!
I’ve related before about the young saleswoman at Sears who had absolutely no idea what Velcro was. I thought she was trying to be funny. I even made that teaaarrring noise for her. Nothing. By the time it was over, I was nearly apoplectic and she still had no clue.
A guy in the Navy introduced me to his new girlfriend. He told her that we had been in Japan together and that we both hated earthquakes. Her response: “What’s an earthquake?” I watched in disbelief as he explained it to her. Next day I walked up to him and said “What’s an earthquake? Really?” He was a bit sheepish, but said “Yeah, she’s pretty dumb, but wild in the sack.”
Last night I saw this and laughed aloud. My other half asked what I was laughing at so I showed him. He didn’t get it. I said “‘Africa’ is by Toto”. He said “I don’t know what that is”. I put the song on. He didn’t know it.
I swear he grew up on another planet.
Also, thanks for the correction you were going to post but we all know already that the lyric is a mondegreen and it’s “bless”, not “miss”. That’s not really relevant to the story.
I don’t listen to any current music. Whatever. I miss out on ALL SORTS of current references.
But…I am catching up on my Thackeray!