# Have you met someone who didn't know a really well-known pop or historical reference?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 22, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658 "2013-03-22T17:57:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@Phila444](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phila444)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/141 "2013-03-25T22:11:02Z")
Have a co-worker who is 26 and until last year had never heard of P. Diddy or Madonna. He’d heard of Michael Jackson, but had never heard any of his music prior to that point.
---
### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/142 "2013-03-25T23:06:57Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> 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.”
Not entirely sure I believe this really happened and wasn’t someone putting someone on, but if it did happen, I think it wins the thread.
Five years ago or so I was playing a party game of some sort with a very very intelligent guy, grew up in the US, college graduate, mid 20s at the time, worked as a programmer at Google, who:
(a) had never heard of Rush Limbaugh
(b) didn’t know what country Gorbachev was from
---
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/143 "2013-03-25T23:43:29Z")
> [@Phila444](#):
>
> had never heard of P. Diddy
What about Puff Daddy? Or Sean Puffy Combs? Or whatever the hell he calls himself now, which I suspect is even stupider. He and Snoop Lion who used to be Snoop Dogg who used to be Snoop Doggy Dog who presumably also has a birth name, should sort their shit out.
---
### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/144 "2013-03-26T12:02:02Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> 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.
When I was a camp counselor back in the late 80s, there was a 13-year-old kid whose last name was “Kennedy.” I lightheartedly asked him if he were related to John Kennedy. He replied, “Who’s that?”.
Granted, though American, he had spent his middle school years in Hong Kong. But still!
---
### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/145 "2013-03-26T12:09:23Z")
> [@Shakes](#):
>
> 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.
No worries – that’s what the SDMB is for (among other things).
While we’re at it, it’s “laughing at _anybody_” and “_defense_” (you’re not in England).
---
### Author:  [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/146 "2013-03-26T12:39:19Z")
I know someone who’s never seen the Star Wars movies. [She wrote a poem about it](http://angelastic.com/2012/05/05/i-have-not-seen-star-wars-so-i-wrote-some-poetry-about-it/), and it’s great.
She performed it at open mic night on the nerd cruise I was on in February. Takes guts to admit ignorance of Star Wars in front of 600 geeks!
---
### Author:  [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/147 "2013-03-26T12:53:52Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#):
>
> I think some of you have a different idea of “really well-known references” than I do.
I’m still not past the idea that someone closely follows this Ke$ha person.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/148 "2013-03-26T12:59:53Z")
> [@Antigen](#):
>
> I know someone who’s never seen the Star Wars movies. [She wrote a poem about it](http://angelastic.com/2012/05/05/i-have-not-seen-star-wars-so-i-wrote-some-poetry-about-it/), and it’s great.
>
> She performed it at open mic night on the nerd cruise I was on in February. Takes guts to admit ignorance of Star Wars in front of 600 geeks!
While I’m not a pop-culture junkie, exactly, I do like to have some idea of what’s going on in the world around me, since I like to feel well-informed, clued-in, and I like to get jokes and follow conversation, no matter how inane it may seem to be. That said, I’ve had holes like this in pop culture. A lot of Star Wars I absorbed through other references to it in TV shows, playing with the toys, and conversation with friends, but I didn’t sit down to watch the trilogy until 1998, when I was 23 years old. It happens. I may have seen bits and pieces of it on TV when I was a child, but never actually watched the movie all the way through. I don’t know why it happened but it did. Same with the Indiana Jones series. I think I’ve seens bits and pieces of it, but, today, I couldn’t tell you the plot of any of the movies beyond Nazis and the Ark of the Covenant.
Everybody has some big, gaping hole in their pop culture knowledge, I would think. This isn’t quite the same thing, but my high school girlfriend, who was quite smart and grew up in a normal, American family, when we were eating dessert at senior prom looked up at me and asked “what is this?” I looked down to make sure I understood what she was asking about: “You mean the apple pie?” “Oh, is that what it is. I’ve never had apple pie before.” “You’ve never had apple pie? As in ‘American as…’?” “No.” Huh.
I also didn’t get the LotR reference or the Francis reference in this thread. I had no idea there was another talking equine out there besides Mr. Ed, and even Mr. Ed is almost skirting the edge of what I’d expect someone in my generation to know.
---
### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/149 "2013-03-26T13:27:00Z")
> [@Koxinga](#):
>
> I think I’ve mentioned somewhere that I was having lunch with a middle aged, ostensibly graduate-level educated dude, and I mentioned that I had just finished reading Slaughterhouse Five. (Blank look.) OK, you know, Kurt Vonnegut? (Continued blank look, with a tinge of increasing suspicion.) Not having read Vonnegut I can understand, but having never heard of him at all? Strange. And the guy now thinks I’m into some kind of gory slaughterhouse themed fiction, to boot.
I’m still looking for Slaughterhouse One through Four.
---
### Author:  [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/150 "2013-03-26T13:38:31Z")
I love threads like this!
---
### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/151 "2013-03-26T14:32:43Z")
My girlfriend and I were driving in the car with my 54 year old cousin last summer and was listening to music on my iPod when he asked me what that thing was. We just looked at each other in slack jawed awe that anyone these days wouldn’t know what an iPod was.My 82 old mom knows what an iPod is for Christ sake.
---
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/152 "2013-03-26T16:38:19Z")
Put me down as yet someone else who knew nothing about Mary Higgins Clark except she’s a writer of some repute. But I’d have no idea if she’s a gazillionaire or a bag lady in the park.
---
### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/153 "2013-03-26T17:20:31Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Put me down as yet someone else who knew nothing about Mary Higgins Clark except she’s a writer of some repute. But I’d have no idea if she’s a gazillionaire or a bag lady in the park.
Me too. I would have guessed that she was wealthy since I had heard of her but I couldn’t tell you anything else other than that she is a novelist.
---
### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/154 "2013-03-26T17:24:06Z")
I would assume that she’s quite successful, because I used to see people reading her books all the time. I don’t see it any more, because people don’t read books any more.
---
### Author:  [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/155 "2013-03-26T17:27:22Z")
Last week I changed my FB status to:
"Know what Adolf Hitler’s favorite video game is?
Mein Kraft"
I know a 30 y/o who didn’t get it…never heard of Mein Kampf. A little bit astounded, because she’s plenty smart and has a technical job.
---
### Author:  [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/156 "2013-03-26T17:48:52Z")
> [@Antigen](#):
>
> I know someone who’s never seen the Star Wars movies. [She wrote a poem about it](http://angelastic.com/2012/05/05/i-have-not-seen-star-wars-so-i-wrote-some-poetry-about-it/), and it’s great.
>
> She performed it at open mic night on the nerd cruise I was on in February. Takes guts to admit ignorance of Star Wars in front of 600 geeks!
I loved the poem. My knowledge of anything Star-Wars-related has always been small. The whole thing strikes me, frankly, as lame and feeble, aside from the highly-spectacular effects. I saw maybe the first three films – largely, to try to gain points with a girl I was keen on – and after that, just relinquished paying any attention to Star-Wars-y stuff.
A few years ago, on a message board for devotees of altogether another sci-fi / fantasy scene, an SW matter came up. I asked “who’s Palpatine?” and was greeted with total incredulity. Folk sometimes forget that people are “into” pop culture – even the pop culture of their own era – with greatly varying degrees of depth / breadth.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/157 "2013-03-26T18:38:57Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Put me down as yet someone else who knew nothing about Mary Higgins Clark except she’s a writer of some repute. But I’d have no idea if she’s a gazillionaire or a bag lady in the park.
Yeah, missed that one, too. I couldn’t even have told you she’s a writer.
While it seems every other person I know has a variant of the being in a record store and overhearing someone say “Oh, Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings” type story, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I didn’t realize “Live and Let Die” was a Wings song until about two weeks ago. :smack: I always thought it was solo McCartney. OK, maybe that’s not _that_ ignorant, but I sure felt a bit stupid for not knowing that.
---
### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/158 "2013-03-26T18:44:30Z")
> [@vontsira](#):
>
> A few years ago, on a message board for devotees of altogether another sci-fi / fantasy scene, an SW matter came up. I asked “who’s Palpatine?” and was greeted with total incredulity. Folk sometimes forget that people are “into” pop culture – even the pop culture of their own era – with greatly varying degrees of depth / breadth.
I’m no Star Wars fan, but I believe that Palpatine is some disgusting Australian substance that you spread on toast.
---
### Author:  [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/159 "2013-03-26T19:37:03Z")
A married couple who are friends of ours invited us over, and their son answered the door in a Darth Vader costume. I’m a huge fan so I mentioned to him something about his fatherhood of a certain couple of people. Blank stare. Dad: “He hasn’t seen the original trilogy.” :eek: Not only did I just spoil the entire thing for a 7 year old kid, but he was wearing a Darth Vader costume based on 3 seconds of footage in Part III? WTF?
Also, my brother is married to someone who was very (religiously) sheltered growing up. One day they are flipping channels and Terminator pops up. She says, “Terminator? What’s that about?” She does that a LOT at gatherings. Mostly, she stares with a blank smile until someone comes right out and says, “You have no idea what we’re talking about, do you?” To which she finally admits it.
---
### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658/160 "2013-03-26T19:40:40Z")
You would not believe the number of movies, classics and _part of the damn culture_, my GF has not seen.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658.md?page=7)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-met-someone-who-didnt-know-a-really-well-known-pop-or-historical-reference/653658.md?page=9)