# Has anyone not heard of Adam Sandler? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 28, 2014, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320 "2014-12-28T02:36:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320/81 "2014-12-29T22:06:38Z")
I’ve heard the name in the Sony leaks. I have no idea who he is, other than, I assume, an actor or director. You mustn’t assume everyone in the world is American and glued to CNN. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320/82 "2014-12-29T23:24:07Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Yesterday somebody posted on the SDMB that they [didn’t know](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18006433#post18006433) who Benedict Cumberbatch was. I found this hard to believe, but then I think on how many actors or pop stars who people suddenly seem to be talking about a lot, as though we’re all supposed to know who they are, where I can’t bring them to mind at all. > > I still don’t think I’ve seen Allison Janney in anything, or Jared Leto, but loads of other people talk about them quite a lot these days. By pure chance, the things they’ve done haven’t been in my wheelhouse and they passed me by, until I started to see their names so often they began to register as people who it’s broadly assumed everyone is familiar with. > > Funny how that works. I’d heard his name, but before I saw Star Trek Into Darkness last year, I doubt I would have been able to pick him out of a line-up. > [@Athena](#): > > Someone in their late 50s now would have been in their 30s when Adam Sandler was on SNL. People in their 30s back then, like now, watched SNL. In fact, I’d venture to say there were part of the prime audience for Sandler’s run. I know plenty of people in that age group who absolutely know who he is. You youngsters misjudge the oldsters 😃 But the movies he was making in the 90s weren’t really marketed to older adults. Their primary audience was teens and college-aged folks. So I can easily see how someone who was in their mid-30s then and wasn’t up on pop culture trends, might not be familiar to him. People who are in their 30s now might be a big part of his fanbase, but that’s mainly because they were teens when his first run of movies came out. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320/83 "2014-12-29T23:33:39Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > But the movies he was making in the 90s weren’t really marketed to older adults. Their primary audience was teens and college-aged folks. So I can easily see how someone who was in their mid-30s then and wasn’t up on pop culture trends, **might not be familiar to him.** D’Oh. Meant to say “might not be familiar \*\*with \*\*him.” ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320/84 "2014-12-29T23:38:53Z")
Buncha dabblers. I’d never heard of him before it was cool to have never heard of him. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320/85 "2014-12-30T00:11:10Z")
I would be surprised if someone into internet movie culture hadn’t heard of him simply because for a very long time he was a go to example of shitty Hollywood movies and people would constantly complain about him. I would put Tyler Perry into that box as well. Never seen a Tyler Perry movie, seen some of the dumb looking trailers/commercials, but it’d be hard to avoid people complaining or making fun of him with off hand references. Now that I think about it I’m wondering how many people and things I only know of because other people complain about them. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2014, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320/86 "2014-12-30T00:13:38Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I’d heard his name, but before I saw Star Trek Into Darkness last year, I doubt I would have been able to pick him out of a line-up. That’s understandable, he’s done a lot of voice acting too, most notably as Smaug in the Hobbit and Martin in the Radio 4 sitcom Cabin Pressure. Then again, Cumberbatch has a very distinctive appearance\*, so people remember his face wherever they see him, so he’ll appear disproportionately prominent when looking back. \*at least amongst humans, he’s nothing special by [otter standards](http://blogs.independent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Otters-Who-Look-Like-Benedict-Cumberbatch1.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![diggerwam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/919ad9/32.png) [@diggerwam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggerwam)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2014, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320/87 "2014-12-30T12:14:19Z")
My mother had never heard of the Simpsons. And she watched NFL football on FOX every Sunday. I understand not watching it, but not being aware of it’s 20+ year existence. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320/88 "2014-12-30T15:26:55Z")
I must say, it’s surprising and enlightening to learn what different pop culture worlds some people live in. I’m amazed at a lot of the stuff I’m reading ITT. Especially given that it’s in the “Cafe Society” section! Not sure how people are not learning some of this simply through osmosis. > [@BigT](#): > > Can you give the text where they claimed they didn’t know who Adam Sandler was, and the text of the post they were responding to? I suspect a troll, but more context might provide a smoking gun. Sure. My OP included the following paragraph, about the Henry Fonda film _The Lady Eve_: > [@](#): > > Even though I was slightly nonplussed by the ending, I did still give it four out of five stars on Netflix. And please spare me the high-hat invitations to go back to Adam Sandler comedies. I once owned a foreign/independent/classic video rental shop, and if anything this movie is more mainstream than a lot of the films I like (for instance, two of my all time faves are the foreign silent films \*Earth \*and _The Passion of Joan of Arc_). Further down in the thread, my interlocutor sneered that I was: > [@](#): > > A **self-proclaimed** cinephile. Hard to say how much that is worth. I am beginning to wonder how much you understand about the films that you seem to like the most. I responded: > [@](#): > > So I’m “self proclaimed”–true enough. But what about you? I suppose you’re independently certified by the International Cinephile Administration? (“ICA: the worldwide home for cinephile registration since 1931!”) Could I see those credentials? 😉 And this was when s/he came out with the assertion that I found risible, and which inspired this thread: > [@](#): > > I’m coming to understand why someone would tell you to go back to Adam Sandler comedies. (I don’t actually know who Adam Sandler is, but I think I understand the implications of the remark.) ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320/89 "2014-12-30T15:38:10Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > He was NOT on SNL during its heyday as **foolsguinea** suggests. I see that as more of the Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman years. 😕 Both of them were on the show when Adam Sandler joined the cast, and stayed throughout most of the time he was on, except maybe the last year or so. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, he’s pretty much well-known for fairly sophomoric humor (with the exception, off the top of my head, of _Punch Drunk Love_, which is more of a quirky romantic dramedy, where he plays a much deeper and more serious character than he is known for.) That’s really good; I like two others, both also “dramedies”: _Funny People_, in which he plays a version of himself (the fake movie posters in that for his alter ego’s ridiculous films are priceless); and best of all IMO _Spanglish_, in which he plays a low-key chef, totally different from his usual spastic persona. I’ve also heard from people on IMDB, when I’ve made versions of the above recommendations, that I should try _Reign Over Me_, which \*\*cochrane \*\*recommended upthread. > [@enipla](#): > > ESPN was mentioned earlier. Sports channel. Never seen it. Don’t know what the letters stand for. No one does. 😉 (Fine, I’m sure \*someone \*does; but I’ve watched who knows how many thousands of hours of that channel, and I don’t.) > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I wonder how many pages it _would_ take to print it all out. Surprisingly, this was something someone was [legitimately trying to do](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/20/wikipedia-1000-volume-print-edition-crowdfunding), and it was going to fit in 1,000 volumes on a ten-metre long bookshelf, which really isn’t that huge, considering. > [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > I could see someone young disliking Sandler because his movies are stupid, or thinking he’s old and out of touch, but I’d be skeptical if I heard someone say they had no idea who he was. This is what I felt was going on (as you say, trying to act superior). If they are putting on airs, though, it seems to me that it would make more sense to say something like “the few seconds of him I’ve seen in trailers were more than enough to know I would never see any of his movies”. But then hearing from people ITT, I don’t know any more. > [@marshmallow](#): > > I would be surprised if someone into internet movie culture hadn’t heard of him simply because for a very long time he was a go to example of shitty Hollywood movies and people would constantly complain about him. I would put Tyler Perry into that box as well. Never seen a Tyler Perry movie, seen some of the dumb looking trailers/commercials, but it’d be hard to avoid people complaining or making fun of him with off hand references. Now that I think about it I’m wondering how many people and things I only know of because other people complain about them. Right, exactly; and this was in the context of a board where people were sniffing “if you don’t get this classic comedy, you should just go back to your Adam Sandler comedies”. > [@Penfeather](#): > > Buncha dabblers. I’d never heard of him before it was cool to have never heard of him. Hahaha, this FTW. Well played. 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-not-heard-of-adam-sandler/708320.md?page=4)