Would it be too reverse-snobby of me to admit that I only know about Caitlyn Jenner because I read about her right here on the Dope?
I mixed up Taylor Swift and Meghan Traynor but half an hour of fun Googling has set me straight. Unfortunately I do know who the Kardashians are, for the shame.
I don’t know any “Wilson Sisters” or “Caitlyn Jenner,” as you call them, and I don’t want to. All I need are my Sailor Moon shuriken, my Phoenician whalebone toe-puppets, my yodeling horns, my vintage carnival strongman leotard, my papier-mâché hookah, my charcoal nudes of Chuck Connors, my Bakelite velocipede, and my bootleg PAL format Betamax cassettes of The Donna Reed Show.
That’s beautiful, man.
<wipes tear from eye>
Just beautiful.
From my own perspective, as a mid-40’s UK male I now consume media and information on pretty much my own terms. I just don’t get any exposure to any of the characters mentioned in this thread unless I seek it out or, on rare occasions, on a forum like the dope.
All my TV watching is done via DVR or catch-up players such as the iPlayer. I don’t ever just stumble across reality TV, celebrity news or similar because they hold no interest for me, I’d never seek it out and would ignore it or turn it off if it appeared before me.
My news is via the BBC, Guardian, Independent and flipboard but again I’m only drawn to the articles that interest me (politics, sport, current affairs, science, history, natural world, art, film) so “gossip” passes me by. No physical papers or magazines
My wife and young children have no interest in any of the people that you mention so no familiarity by osmosis (though it works in reverse as my 8 and 9 year olds currently have cd’s of “Tommy” and “Rio” as music of choice)
My radio listening consists of BBC five live, Test Match Special and Absolute 80’s. When I get into the car after my wife has driven it there is a short period where I catch a minute or two of current music on her preferred station before I turn it over and I did come to know Katy Perry’s “Lion” song through that and thought it memorable enough to find out who sang it, but…nothing else has grabbed me. (and I couldn’t pick Katy Perry out of a line-up either)
I use Spotify, Pandora and Grooveshark (RIP) for my musical needs and their “similar artists” suggestions never take me to any of the musicians mentioned.
So it is no surprise that my knowledge of them is vanishingly small. I certainly know the names of Jay-z, Kanye West, Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian but that is pretty much where my knowledge stops. I can’t put a face to any of them. I suspect that I’ve heard some of the music but none of it has interested me enough to find out who sung it. I couldn’t name you a Kanye West, Jay-z or Taylor Swift song and if you played one to me I might say that I recognise it, but knowing it was by a specific artist? No, sorry.
That’s just how the world rolls I guess. I’m better placed to filter out all the stuff that holds no interest and I have such a choice of media to consume that does interest me that the Ms. Swifts of this world are going to have to do something very special to get my attention. I got into British Sea Power and Mogwai just by hearing some of their work as TV backing music so I am willing to do some digging and hunt out the stuff that piques my interest but you’ve got to really interest me before I’ll go to that effort.
So no superior bragging of ignorance on my part. That’s a fair representation of how the world of celebrities, gossip and popular music flies way below my radar and I suspect that many others claiming scant knowledge of these characters are in much the same situation as me.
I know that the Kardashians are plural, and female, and contrary to original misunderstanding are not a species of alien from Deep Space 9. Also rich, I think, and allegedly sexy. One of them is named “Kim”. Is there some connection to…
• Paris Hilton?
• OJ Simpson?
• Caitlyn Jenner / Bruce Jenner?
• some kind of reality show?
• somebody named Kanye, whoever the hell he may be?
As for Taylor Swift, I think she sings. Sort of. I heard something that was allegedly of her making that had words about “new york”. It was played in conjunction with Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side”; it did not come out of the comparison looking good. No, I don’t listen to her.
I assume they have the same reason for following attention whores like Paris Hilton, whatever that is. I’m more interested in talent, not spectacle. Of course I can’t help but see Kim’s ass everywhere, but I’m not curious as to why it exists. My conclusion is that she’s got a lot of money and thinks everybody wants to see her ass. That’s definitely a statement on American values, but I’m sure that wasn’t her hidden meaning, if she has any concept of such. Eventually some other attention whore will replace her and I’ll ignore them too.
I learned more about the Kardashians in this thread than I think I ever needed to know.
Before this thread:
I knew Kim was married to Kanye West because of the South Park episode.
I knew what she looked like and that she made a sex tape.
I knew she had a reality show with sisters and stuff, but had never seen it.
I just assumed she was famous because of the sex, ala Paris Hilton or whatever.
That was basically it, but I felt like that was ‘everything,’ and pretty much still do. I can’t think of any reason I’d need to know more than that. If someone asked me if I knew she was, I’d say yes.
Taylor Swift I know made the shake it off song, because I like to sing it at the urinal. I couldn’t name any other songs, but I knew she was really popular.
I had no idea who Bruce Jenner was at all before the sex change story came out and I thought they were talking about Peter Jennings at first. I had no idea that he was involved with the Kardashians until I looked her up on wikipedia after hearing about the story on ESPN.
Well then you sir, like 99% of people posting in this thread, know enough so that you cannot feign complete ignorance of the subject when your cow-orker bring it up in making small talk while you wait for the microwave to heat up your leftovers.
Which is all my OP is about.
This is curious to me. Do people really talk about these folks? Yes, we are doing it here, but I mean in every day conversation. Sure I hear their names on the news once in while, and they are everywhere on the internet. But not once have I heard a real live person talk about any of them.
Ditto, I can’t imagine ever being in a position where I’d have to hold a conversation about them. I think I move in a different cultural orbit.
It could also be that QuickSilver is missing the sarcasm when people claim they’ve never heard of Kim Kardashian.
Who?
I was witness to a conversation about KK being on NPR. Not sure how it was started but someone commented that they didn’t have any idea who KK was because they don’t watch reality TV shows, etc. Coincidentally, a poster on SDMB said something similar in a different thread, but to his/her credit coped to it in this thread.
Yeah, sure. Like you’ve never fucking heard of me. 
Cultural what?..
Do you have a job that requires you to spend extensive periods of time in an office surrounded by other people?.. any random and frequent human interaction at all?
Nope. That was Johnny Cochrane who was satirized on Seinfeld. The son of Barney from the “Mission Impossible” TV show played the lawyer who tried to get Kramer money from a coffee company after he was burned. Funny series of shows.
Sorry, Noverly Bobble. That was harsh and uncalled for. Please accept my apologies and ignore the above.
You know, like Rufus Hearnes.
Jackie Chiles I knew was a satirization of the late Johnny Cochrane, though I didn’t know the Mission Impossible connection. Just didn’t know if they picked on anyone else from that farce of a trial.
I swear to God no one has ever talked about KK in my office. I’m not saying we’re some kind of higher life force. I mean, some of us watch reality TV! American Idol was hugely popular, as was Dancing with the Stars.
Nobody in my office likes sci-fi or fantasy so we don’t talk about my stuff, and I’m not really into their stuff, so while we talk about it a little, it’s never a lot.
But no one mentioned Caitlin Jenner. No one talks about Selfish. It’s just not the kind of culture. It helps, I think, that we are a group of “older” women, but the youngest is still under 30, so we’re not dead either.