I’ve read this thread through, and the only reference I didn’t get was the pro wrestling joke. Had to google it.
I don’t know whether to be proud or concerned that I’ve wasted my life.
This morning, a friend of mine who has been a guitarist in several local bands (including an 80s cover band) did not know the song “Rocket” by Def Leppard. He was probably in college when it came out. I didn’t believe he’d never heard it, so I pulled it up on Spotify. He’d legitimately never heard it.
If it makes you feel better, Episode III has the Skywalker babies get helpfully identified as “Luke” and “Leia” before the latter infant gets handed off to Organa and the former infant gets handed off to Owen and Beru – smack dab in the middle of a Tatooine desert, complete with two suns in the sky.
You googled Yosemite Sam and it came up as Sammity? Are we using the same googles?
Still rather watch that than 1 guy 1 cup. Don’t google this either.
I met a young woman a couple of years ago, perhaps 18-19 years of age, who had never heard of ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ in any context.
At the time I blamed her homeschooling. Without regular exposure to a same-age cohort, I imagine a lot of things fall through the cracks. I may well be wrong.
Yes but now when he watches Part IV, he’ll say to himself, “Luke, Leia? Two suns? Nooooooooooooooooooooo”
If he remembers.
The person I referred to earlier who had never heard of the SS also had never heard the phrase “[something]- industrial complex.”
Star Wars and alternative rock have played huge roles in my life. About the latter, I should stop being surprised when I encounter reminders that it actually is alternative. It’s not just about people not knowing of certain artists (does anyone know the origin of my username?), but more importantly ignorance of broader cultural ramifications. For instance, I’m still dismayed at those who don’t realize that a huge strain of punk rock culture is highly socio-political, and fiercely (even violently) opposed to racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and all the other manifestations of structural violence that pervade and in fact constitute the culture against which punks rebel.
From this thread:
I really didn’t know what “second breakfast” was, though on reflection I recall having heard of it from some of my Tolkien-influenced friends.
If I heard The Smiths or Morrissey playing, I couldn’t ID them, despite having multiple girlfriends and coworkers who were into them at some level. Likewise Ke$ha. I’ve seen some internet commentary about what a horrible person she is, but I wouldn’t know any of her music.
I couldn’t look at two people playing Minecraft and World of Warcraft and tell which was which.
As both a historical and a current reference, why do so many Americans know so little, and/or have the completely wrong idea, about anarchism? “Anarchist group/organization/federation etc.” is not an oxymoron. It seems to be an understood political term in Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere, but that context is so often lost on people here.
Case 1:
In the late 90s, I worked with a woman who grew up in Slovenia, and emigrated to the U.S. as an adult. She asked several of us to recommend books, movies, etc., which we felt were big touchstones for American culture. I recommended that she watch Star Wars (I even loaned her a VHS tape of it), but she refused, saying, “that just looks so stupid.”
Fast-forward to 2012. I reconnected with her via Facebook, and learned that she’s now married, with two kids. And, she’s now a big Star Wars fan, in large part because her son is hugely into it.
Case 2:
Just after getting out of college, I briefly dated a young woman who had, as far as I could determine, lived a very sheltered life. She spent some time as a teenager in a psychiatric hospital. She only attended college for a short time, lived with her parents, never got a driver’s license, etc. Some of our conversations were very odd, because there were certain basic concepts that she simply didn’t get. The example which still sticks in my mind:
Me: “It’s about 5 miles away from here.”
Her: “Ummm…how far is that?”
Me: “You mean, how far is a mile?”
Her: “Yes, exactly. I never really understood that.”
Me: “A mile is 5280 feet.”
Her: “Hmmm, that doesn’t really help me picture it.”
Me: “OK, picture this…you’re riding in a car, on the highway. A mile is about how far the car goes in a minute.”
Her: “OK, that makes sense to me!”
I wouldn’t blame homeschooling. I’m a public high school teacher, and once or twice in the past 10-15 years I’ve referred to Puff the Magic Dragon and none of my students had any idea what I was talking about.
Someone my age? Sure, I’d probably expect them to remember Puff. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, so I remember (fondly) watching the animated special on TV once a year. And of course the song is from many years prior to that. But I haven’t seen or even heard of either (on radio or TV) in many, many years.
Someone who was 19 a couple of years ago? I would honestly be surprised if very many people under 30 these days are familiar with Puff the Magic Dragon at all.
I remember Puff, the Magic Dragon. I even remember the urban myth that the song is about getting high. I totally dug that scene between Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro in Meet the Parents.
For the same reason a lot of non Americans don’t have a clue about what could be a libertarian, I guess. Not part of the local political culture.
And anyway, few Europeans would know what Anarchists stand for, either, and I’m pretty sure a lot of them would state that “Anarchist federation” is an oxymoron too. I’m affraid you’re in a small minority, regardless of your country, if you have some knowledge about anarchism.
By the way, I’m not into pop culture, and I’m probably more familiar with the names of American TV celebrities, say anchormen, (from reading those names here) than with French ones (I think I didn’t watch TV once during the last month).
I find it weird that people expect such a knowledge, in fact. I’ve read and watched Lord of the Rings many times, for instance, but I’m well aware that most of the population did not, and I wouldn’t expect anybody to know who Gandalf is, let alone to be familiar with a reference as obscure as “second breakfast”.
My mother was speaking to a classroom of middle schoolers and mentioned Peter Pan.
Nothing but blank stares from the kids. Not one of them got it.
nm
Just remembered this one: I once had a coworker who didn’t remember anything from the 60s. Now, we worked together in the mid-80s, and the guy was around 50. So during the decade of the 60s, he was 25-35. He didn’t remember any of the assassinations, hippies, Viet Nam, Beatles, or anything else from that decade.
The rest of us concluded that he had spent the 60s in a mental institution.
When I heard the Pope’s choice of a name, the first thing I thought of was “Does this guy know how many people associate that name with a mule?”
I have the same problem with weights. Americans use pounds. I don’t know how much a pound, or multiple pounds, is. We use metric, i.e. kilograms here, and I don’t know how much multiple kilos are. It’s just something I cannot picture.
Strangely it hasn’t really been a problem that’s interfered with my daily life.
Not at all the same thing, but I was in a university literature class, and mentioned “The Admirable Crichton” and nobody knew what it meant.
(James Barrie’s second most famous play!)
I later turned it into an awful pun: knowing this is an admirable criterion.
People less than 18 years old don’t know anything about anything that was before they were dumped into this suffering earth.