This thread, eavesdropping on some younger students conversations (GHOST is NOT an “old classic movie”!), and a conversation where a 22 year old had to have a couple of the references below explained, has me curious as to which pop cultural references for my generation (cusp of baby boomer/Gen X) and before are still commonly recognized by those under 30.
If you’re in these demographics, how many of the following catch-phrases or references do you catch?
If you’re in my demographics (I’ll just say 30s and over), feel free to add some (or see how many you catch). Some I’m pretty sure are almost universal due to videos and repeats, but others I’m really curious about.
[Old man in a thick southern accent]Oh Belvedere! Come heah boy!
[Very gay male accent]Excuse me while I slip into something a little more spectacular!
[Old woman]Where’s the beef?!
Just a swangin’…
Don’t worry, be happy…
[Drunk suave accent]How’d all these people get in my room? (This one a lot of people over 30 probably won’t get.)
And that’s the way it was… two hundred years ago today
Gag me with a spoon!
It’s time to put on make-up/It’s time to light the lights…
[Southern female- really drawled]Mel, kiss my grits!
Bueller… Bueller…
PING PONG BALLS!
Don’t be embarassed to admit you don’t recognize some of these, it’s strictly a generational thing. But I’m curious what does and doesn’t “last”. (Bueller I think everybody knows.)
1.) no clue…unless it’s a line from a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon.
2.) still no clue
3.) Yeah, I remember this commercial.
4.) John Anderson is one of the very, very few country singers I like so I know this one well.
5.) I don’t remember when it came out but it’s hard NOT to have heard this sometime in your life.
6.) nope
7.) I never heard anyone that wasn’t on TV say this.
9.) Wasn’t that at the start of the Looney Tunes show?
10.) I used to love that show. I remember it well.
11.) One of the first movies I ever remember watching on a VCR.
12.) No clue.
I am a bit older than you are and some of these mean nothing to me. I get: 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11 and maybe 12 - “maybe” in that it means something to me, but not as definitively as the others I recognize. It may not be what I think of.
Actually, now that’s bugging me, so I’ll spoiler it:
I may be partly culturally inept re: the 80s, because we never had cable (only the 3 networks and PBS) and I only saw a few movies before 1989 (when we got cable). My fiance has taken umbrage at my lack of cultural education, so he’s been loading up our netflix queue over the past two years to catch me up to speed on things like Fraggle Rock and The Last Starfighter.
[Old man in a thick southern accent]Oh Belvedere! Come heah boy!
{{*Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show}} Southern colonel (Belvedere was his bulldog)
[Very gay male accent]Excuse me while I slip into something a little more spectacular!
{{Liberace to his audiences before changing into an even more flamboyant fur/jewelled outfit}}
[Old woman]Where’s the beef?!
{{Wendy’s commercial from the 1980s}}
Just a swangin’…
{{from a very twangy early '80s country song}}
Don’t worry, be happy…
{{Bobby McFerrin song/super popular video with Robin Williams/Bill Irwin/McFerrin}}
[Drunk suave accent]How’d all these people get in my room? (This one a lot of people over 30 probably won’t get.)
{{Dean Martin line upon walking onstage}}
And that’s the way it was… two hundred years ago today
{{BICENTENNIAL MINUTES- a series of 1 minute history lessons that aired in 75 & 76 and told what happened 200 years ago on that particular date}}
Gag me with a spoon!
{{SQUARE PEGS, a Sarah Jessica Parker sit-com with Valley Girl speak}}
It’s time to put on make-up/It’s time to light the lights…
{{The Muppet Show Theme}}
[Southern female- really drawled]Mel, kiss my grits!
{{Flo’s catchphrase from the sitcom ALICE}}
Bueller… Bueller…
{{Ben Stein’s boring monotone homeroom teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off}}
PING PONG BALLS!
{{running gag on Captain Kangaroo- Mr. Moose {a hand puppet- his best friend was the non-speaking Bunny Rabbit} would make a shower of ping pong balls fall on the Captain’s head}}[/spoiler]
I thought “Kiss my grits” was just some standard phrase that ever southern caricature said. Not that I’m being judgmental, I actually heard someone here say “Aw, horsefeathers!” a couple of weeks ago.
1. [Old man in a thick southern accent]Oh Belvedere! Come heah boy! No clue.
2. [Very gay male accent]Excuse me while I slip into something a little more spectacular! No clue.
3. [Old woman]Where’s the beef?! That Wendy’s commercial – little old ladies asking why the burgers were so small. Later picked up in one of the presidential campaigns (Mondale…?).
4. Just a swangin’… Nope.
5. Don’t worry, be happy… Bobby McFerrin song. “Here’s a little song I wrote…”
6. [Drunk suave accent]How’d all these people get in my room? (This one a lot of people over 30 probably won’t get.) Uh-uh.
7. And that’s the way it was… two hundred years ago today No.
8. Gag me with a spoon! Generic valley girl statement, right? I’m not aware that it comes from a particular source.
9. It’s time to put on make-up/It’s time to light the lights… “It’s time to get things started, for the Muppet Show tonight!”
10. [Southern female- really drawled]Mel, kiss my grits! Alice’s Diner? I don’t recognize the quote, but I’m vaguely aware that there was a character named Mel on a show of that name, and it sounds appopriate.
11. Bueller… Bueller… Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Everyone knows that one, I think.
12. PING PONG BALLS! Well, I’m thinking of the Winona Ryder scene in the South Park Movie, but I don’t think that’s what you’re referring to.
As I’ve mentioned before, my wife is 10 years younger than I am.
The other evening we were watching a show on Discovery Health about mystery illnesses. The subject was becoming terribly ill, and they finally dignosed his problem as Whipple’s Disease.
“Obviously, the guy shouldn’t have spent so much time squeezing the Charmin”, I quipped.
I’m 53. I didn’t recognize 2, 4, & 6, and after reading the answers, I still don’t know 4. Obviously I know both people in 2 & 6, but I wasn’t familiar with the specific quotes.
I’m 42 and only got 3,5,8,9,10,11 and after checking the spoiler box, 12. This spoiler is for 12. I didn’t remember 12 specifically but I can hear his voice in my head saying it now. I’ve probably watched more hours of Captain 'Aroo in my life than anything except maybe MASH..
I knew it was a commercial. The quote lived on, as a euphemism, after the ad was gone.
Easy.
I thought of Heathers, which is a cult classic, and not the actual source. Come to think of it, it also could have reminded me of Frank Zappa’s Valley Girl. And I don’t know if those exact words appear in Heathers, or if they just used distortions of it like “fuck me gently with a chainsaw.”
One of the primary influences on my life, for better or worse.
Heard it, can’t think of the name of the show.
Among the most enduring pieces of pop culture from the 1980s. My 14-year-old brother loves this movie.