I’ll have to check those out. I figured there were probably more, but that’s the only one I’ve seen. (Although I have a vague feeling that I may have seen 50 First Dates, but I can’t say for sure. A lot of movies I watch don’t get stored in my long-term memory. That is to say, I’m a watch it and forget it kind of guy.) I don’t like his “usual” comedies, but I do think he’s a decent actor after seeing him play something than his usual characters.
All of the big budget blockbusters these days are either superhero or fantasy movies, which I have zero interest in. I think it is likely that there are very famous actors who specialize in these roles who I have never heard of.
I do know of Adam Sandler, though.
It’s an interesting variation on Groundhog Day, set in Hawaii.
Wikipedia itself has a dynamically updated articleon this of course. It would be much smaller physically than I originally assumed and would fit easily in a normal sized living room if it was printed out in Encyclopedia Britannica format and stacked floor to ceiling. The current count is 2071 volumes totalling about 35,000,000 pages.
Some perspective from XKCD. Not on Sandler, per se, but on the rate at which things that “everyone” knows is learned.
I’m in my 50s and yes I do know who Adam Sandler is, well enough to avoid his movies. However my wife has no idea who he is because she prefers films with actors such as Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy etc. Osage Orange County.
On the other hand I have no idea who James Franco is until I tripped over the thread suggesting he is overexposed. I still can’t recall ever seeing him or noticing him. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=744442&highlight=james+franco
This nullity does not indicate my wife and I are drooling sub-humans. I hardly drool at all.
I’d be more alarmed if a person did not know who their Prime Minister/President was and who led the political opposition in the nation they lived in.
Several years ago, there was a girl in Harlem who didn’t know that you could look up and see the moon. Or the people I saw who didn’t know how to operate an elevator (they thought you punch the floor number you’re coming from). Or women who thought they urinated from their vagina. So it’s possible that there are some people who don’t know some pretty basic stuff . . . more basic than Adam Sandler.
My wife is very well read and intelligent, but does not watch many movies made in the Adam Sandler era. I asked her a moment ago who Adam Sandler was, and she said, “I really don’t know. Could he be one of those professional footballers?” (We were watching pro football on television at the time.)
Wait, what? You mean you don’t punch the floor number you’re coming from? Woo-hoo! No more stairs for me!
Sadly, this is very true.
About two weeks ago I was talking to a man in his early 40s whose wife was pregnant with their fourth child and he was telling us she’d just had an echocardiogram and the baby was healthy. Except he couldn’t come up with the word “echocardiogram” so described it as “when they use that thing to look at the baby in her stomach.”
On the bright side, he probably knows who Adam Sandler is.
I thought it was called an ultrasound. Echocardiogram sounds heart-centric to me.
Yeah, for real laughs, you’ve got to go with tragedies.
:smack:
Oh God, you’re right. Good thing one of us was paying attention.
Carry on.
Does this person only watch older movies? I’ve met a few people who only watch classic movies, and wouldn’t know any modern actors. Some older film lovers are like this, but some young people can be like this too, wishing they were born earlier and disdaining modern culture. So it would be plausible someone like this wouldn’t know who Adam Sandler was.
Or it could be someone bad with names. My mom is fairly bad with names, so it wouldn’t be too incredibly surprising if the name Adam Sandler drew a blank. But I would expect that she would remember “oh yeah it’s that guy” when I started listing movies like The Wedding Singer and Happy Gilmore and saying he was on Saturday Night Live.
But if they do watch and know about modern movies, and they do know other actors like Seth Rogen and Zach Galifianakis and Steve Carell, then I would very much suspect they know who Adam Sandler is, and are just trying to act superior to you.
Adam Sandler is #35 on the list of actors with the highest overall box office totals. And maybe #35 isn’t super high, but most of the higher actors are there because of whatever franchises they are in, like Stellan Skarsgard because of The Avengers and Stanley Tucci for The Hunger Games. People are paying money for his movies, including some of his recent ones.
Also, his comedies are pretty much aimed straight at the young male with sophomoric humor. And some of his earlier movies are rerun fairly regularly on TV. 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.
…we’ve had one person in this very thread (a well respected poster who’s been registered here since 1999) state he hadn’t heard of Adam Sandler, so unless you want to call him a liar you can be as skeptical as much as you like, the answer to the question asked by the OP is yes, it is totally possible to exist and not have heard of Adam Sandler.
I should have been more precise, I would be skeptical if an American who watches current movies hadn’t heard of Sandler. Comedy doesn’t always travel well between countries, and so comedians are less well known outside of their own countries than drama actors or action stars.
I recognize the name Adam Sandler as “some sort of famous person who’s made . . . movies? Books? Touchdowns? Something else?” but I couldn’t say anything beyond that. So, I guess it’s possible.
ETA: I’m also an American, so it’s not related to that. There’s probably a generational thing, though - I’m young enough that I would expect most people my age to have similar reactions.
You’ve just got to give them a little time.
I’ve never heard of Adam Sandler, and I’d never heard of Dan Rather either, until the election which prompted his departure.
Sean Astins’ character in 50 First Dates was just great. I am still a bit pissed that he didn’t get an Oscar for it.