# In your eyes, what kind of stuff is pretentious? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 6, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625 "2008-10-06T02:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/81 "2008-10-07T19:47:25Z")
Rebellious, stick-it-to-the-man, doesn’t give a shit what anybody things fashion trends that require an hour each morning to make it look like you just woke up. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/82 "2008-10-07T20:19:48Z")
-the use of “shall” instead of 'will"-sounds snobby to me -wearing clothing with little labels (or animals) on them, this trend seems to be pushed by designers like “Ralph Lauren” (didja notice the USA olympic team outfits?-they had those enormous polo ponies on them). ---
**Author:** ![Atomicflea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@Atomicflea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomicflea)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/83 "2008-10-07T21:46:11Z")
I hate it when people that are atheists make a huge deal out of their non-belief or openly disrespect religion. I happen to be religious, but I don’t make a big deal about it or preach to anyone. That said, if I’m at a church and I happen to mention it to someone who’s an atheist, all of a sudden I have to explain myself, deal with open disdain, pretend to laugh at your insensitive jokes, etc. If you don’t want to mock religion, please at least don’t pretend it somehow makes you higher class or more wordly. It just makes you a pretentious ass. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/84 "2008-10-07T22:11:39Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > -wearing clothing with little labels (or animals) on them, this trend seems to be pushed by designers like “Ralph Lauren” (didja notice the USA olympic team outfits?-they had those enormous polo ponies on them). The 80s called. They want their pretentiousness back. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/85 "2008-10-08T05:52:34Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I thought of another one: when people say they are from a city, when actually they are from a suburb which is on the outskirts of the city, it just screams poser. Or who say \ is their hometown, when the truth is that they were born there two years before their parents moved elsewhere, never to return. ---
**Author:** ![SomeBodyUK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@SomeBodyUK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeBodyUK)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/86 "2008-10-08T06:32:58Z")
Cuntish art and film students who think that their work is deep and has great meaning. Vegetarian hippy Californian white bastards who are disappointed when I tell them I love eating meat. Just cos I’m of Indian origin, it doesn’t mean I’m fucking vegetarian. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/87 "2008-10-08T08:45:08Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Or who say \ is their hometown, when the truth is that they were born there two years before their parents moved elsewhere, never to return. What if I never lived there? My mom grew up in a small town in Western MA and I used to spend a week of my summer vacation with my (favorite) grandparents there. I later found out both branches of my family had been there in the nineteenth century and many of them were deeply rooted in the town history. I don’t go around saying I’m from there (usually it’s “DC by way of New Hampshire”) but it’s always been my favorite place and therefore I consider it my hometown. Is that pretentious? ---
**Author:** ![Sky\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Sky\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sky_King)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/88 "2008-10-08T12:17:39Z")
People of refined tastes who aren’t content to say that something is better, but that anything less is vile…as in “Hershey’s chocolate tastes like dog shit”, or “Applebee’s food is inedible” or “My friend offered me a beer in a green bottle, what should I have done?” Along that same line, sports fans who feel that anyone but the champion is a “loser”. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/89 "2008-10-08T16:04:53Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I was going to say “people who hate Hummers / sports cars / SUVs”. Ooooo! Look how politically correct I am! I hate big cars rich people drive! You’re absolutely right - that’s one of the reasons I’m tamping down on that urge. I have no way of knowing why a person has the type of car they do. For what it’s worth, though, it has nothing to do with how PC I am. For the larger cars, it’s often resentment because I can’t see around them at a stoplight or if they’re driving up my ass, all I’ll see is this giant grill in my rearview mirror. With the little cars, I’ve got no excuse - probably jealousy more than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/90 "2008-10-08T17:43:36Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Art snobs. I used to live near a small art gallery, and every six weeks or so they’d open a new showing, most of which were completely not to my taste (one of them just had red painted shop mannequins stuck to the wall like they were emerging out of it - ho hum). > > But what bothered me the most, watching as I passed by, was how they’d all hobnob with each other, dressed in deliberately chic clothing, white wine in hand in their smarmy pretentious clique way, just acting like complete nobheads… I generally go for the red wine. But those truly in the know seek out galleries that offer Open Bars. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/91 "2008-10-08T18:19:02Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I find that pretentious. 😃 I probably am. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/92 "2008-10-08T19:28:13Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > - > > -wearing clothing with little labels on them like “Ralph Lauren” (and those) those enormous polo ponies on them). Back in the 80’s, the joke in Germany was that the really, truly exclusive shirts had the Ralph Lauren emblem of the polo player on his pony, but if you looked really, really closely, the polo player was wearing a Lacoste shirt with the little alligator on it… ---
**Author:** ![Euryphaessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Euryphaessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euryphaessa)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/93 "2008-10-08T20:03:23Z")
Along the same line as people trying to pronounce foreign words with an accent in English conversation, people who refer to someone with a foreign name while using the foreign pronunciation. Now, I have no problem with a sports announcer giving “Viacheslav Trukhno” the best try he can, because that’s how that person would say it. If you’re Ben Mulroney on E-Talk Daily and you’re saying Gabriel Aubry like “Gahbree-ELLE Oh-BREE” when Gabriel himself doesn’t say it like that, that’s pretentious to me. People who claim that a cover version of a classic song can be in no way even comparable to the original without even bothering to listen to it. When Across the Universe came out I remember one of my friend’s art student buddies saying that he wouldn’t even consider seeing the movie or listening to the soundtrack because he was so certain it couldn’t be any good. It’s a song, dude. Lighten up. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/94 "2008-10-08T20:10:58Z")
People who insist on using whatever goofy phrase or term is in vogue in every conversation they have. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/95 "2008-10-08T20:40:36Z")
> [@Queen of Town](#): > > People who claim that a cover version of a classic song can be in no way even comparable to the original without even bothering to listen to it. When Across the Universe came out I remember one of my friend’s art student buddies saying that he wouldn’t even consider seeing the movie or listening to the soundtrack because he was so certain it couldn’t be any good. It’s a song, dude. Lighten up. Serious question, has any cover version of “Across the Universe” been _worse_ than the original? Because it seems to be the most popular Beatles tune to cover and to my ears the cover is always better than the original. ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/96 "2008-10-08T20:48:03Z")
> [@Belrix](#): > > Wow - 38 posts and no mention of Jazz? > > I think so much fusion, free form, etc. jazz is absolute crap but there’s a whole continent of defenders who won’t admit that the emperor has no clothes. Perhaps just a variation on the art world. > > A related subject - the “audiophile” who can’t admit that my consumer grade Sony receiver is indistinguishable to his God-owns-this-exact-model ultimate listening machine. He uses it to play his jazz fusion records which are pressed from vinyl rendered from the bones of virgins. I have many musician friends who play rock for money and jazz for fun- and I am always floored when they state that their preference is for a light, random tinkling of some foreign relative of the xylophone over ANYTHING else, including gangsta rap (which I also don’t care for much). Based on their intelligence and the breadth of their knowledge, I can’t argue with them- it must be something mathematical that I cannot understand, based on brief research… ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/97 "2008-10-08T20:54:50Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > Man after my own heart…I was asked to leave a jazz club in Tokyo once, because I laughed at some wanker saying…“But, you have to listen to the notes they DON’T play” > > Well, I say laughed, guffawed is probably the better term. They take their Jazz very seriously in Japan. Exactly! I don’t get it, but one of the musicians I was referencing said the same thing- listen to what is not there- and another’s favorite activity is looking for bootleg jazz recordings in a couple of small shops in Tokyo! Now THAT would be pretentious… if they ever talked about it except under direct questioning… ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/98 "2008-10-08T20:56:35Z")
> [@Caveat\_lector\_1](#): > > I think your waaay over thinking the view of those that have these on their cars. . . Overthinking? Moi? Of course I am. On the other hand, the story is out there and the marketing team that developed the fish sticker had to know the backstory. I’m guessing that most bumper decorators know that it’s a secret symbol. The story would spread with the sales. I’d also guess that they get a little shivver thinking about proclaiming themselves to stand with the martyrs. Just a suspicion. ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/99 "2008-10-08T20:56:45Z")
What does the FSM with the squiggles mean? Someone in my neighborhood has one- and I agree with the other sentiments stickered to the back of the minivan… ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625/100 "2008-10-08T21:09:31Z")
> [@gurujulp](#): > > What does the FSM with the squiggles mean? Someone in my neighborhood has one- and I agree with the other sentiments stickered to the back of the minivan… [Flying Spaghetti Monster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster). Make sure you pronounce it “spa-GEH-tee,” not “spuh-GETTY” like the tourists. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-eyes-what-kind-of-stuff-is-pretentious/466625.md?page=6)