# Is there any cultural reference that every American knows?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 18, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147 "2011-08-18T12:51:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/61 "2011-08-19T01:01:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The OP said over 20. So that would be people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. FWIW, I know 20 year olds who are familiar with “We don’t need no steenkin’ badges” and “You talkin’ to me?”, so they’re sure as hell gonna know who Rocky is.
I’m 34, and what I know about Rocky is that he’s a fictional boxer played by Slyvester Stallone and that he had way too many sequels. Oh, and I know the tune to “Eye of the Tiger”, but that’s mostly from Weird Al and being in college band. I wouldn’t recognize any particular quote from him.
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### Author:  [@Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_N.Cheese)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/62 "2011-08-19T01:09:21Z")
“Marco”
“Polo”
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### Author:  [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/63 "2011-08-19T01:09:40Z")
I doubt if my 90 yr old father (or his 88 yr old wife) would know anything about Star Wars, or generally any pop culture references. And he is as sharp as a tack.
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### Author:  [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/64 "2011-08-19T01:33:26Z")
Superman, Mickeymouse, baseball, hamburgers, etc. aren’t cultural references. They are icons or characters or whatever. They are things that you refer to, but the cultural reference is the quote, action, or whatever.
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### Author:  [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/65 "2011-08-19T01:42:17Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> A while ago I recall reading that the two most famous American icons worldwide were Superman and Mickey Mouse.
Nah. It’s Gilligan and Casey Anthony
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/66 "2011-08-19T01:47:50Z")
“Every American” would have to include newly sworn-in citizens, and many movie references and ad slogans might be lost on them. I’d have to go with something like MacDonald’s.
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### Author:  [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/67 "2011-08-19T02:22:47Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> but I don’t think if I shouted “M-I-C! K-E-Y!” they’d know how to respond.
Try it. See what happens. Report back.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/68 "2011-08-19T02:55:11Z")
Would every American recognise Mt Rushmore? If not, then I think there’s no chance the OP’s question can be answered.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/69 "2011-08-19T03:14:29Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> I believe Susan Sontag coined the term “Semiotics” to refer to Things Everyone Knows.
>
> The reference I use in class is that with globalization, I could refer to _“A three hour cruise…”_ (esp. using the Gilligan’s Island tune) and people in France or Fiji would get it.
I don’t get it.
By the way semiotics is the study of signs, maybe Sontag used it in some limited context to mean what you say but I’ve never come across that definition before.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/70 "2011-08-19T03:43:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I’m 34, and what I know about Rocky is that he’s a fictional boxer played by Slyvester Stallone and that he had way too many sequels. Oh, and I know the tune to “Eye of the Tiger”, but that’s mostly from Weird Al and being in college band. I wouldn’t recognize any particular quote from him.
You’re an exception, then, IME. “Yo, Adrian” seems to be one of those quotes indelibly attached to Sylvester Stallone.
I have another one. Arnold Scharzenegger delivering “I’ll be back” in the Terminator.
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### Author:  [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/71 "2011-08-19T03:44:36Z")
> [@planetcory](#):
>
> Came to say maybe Superman and possibly Santa Claus.
I think Santa wins easily if he counts under the OP’s definition of “Cultural Reference”.
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### Author:  [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/72 "2011-08-19T04:09:37Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#):
>
> I don’t get it.
I think **digs** meant to quote the Gilligan’s Island theme song. Only, they got it wrong: the lyrics are actually “a three hour _tour_”, not “a three hour cruise”.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/73 "2011-08-19T04:26:38Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#):
>
> I think **digs** meant to quote the Gilligan’s Island theme song. Only, they got it wrong: the lyrics are actually “a three hour _tour_”, not “a three hour cruise”.
I still wouldn’t have got it. I dunno if that ever aired here but it was before my time if it did. Gilligan is one of those secondhand American references that is common though, from Bloom County, The Simpsons etc. I still encounter American cultural tropes regularly where I was ignorant of the original but recall the Simpsons lampooning them.
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### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/74 "2011-08-19T04:55:55Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> This is actually a really important concept. I’ve been in advertising for decades, and now teach it, and if you make a reference that you’re SURE everyone’ll get and they don’t, an ad campaign can fall flat (and a lot of money is wasted).
>
> I believe Susan Sontag coined the term “Semiotics” to refer to Things Everyone Knows.
>
> The reference I use in class is that with globalization, I could refer to _“A three hour cruise…”_ (esp. using the Gilligan’s Island tune) and people in France or Fiji would get it.
>
> Heck, even aliens from Thermia would (Galaxy Quest reference, which I pointed out because I know NOT everyone would pick up on that).
I really hope you’re not telling your students Gilligan’s Island is well-known around the world, because it’s really not in the UK and frankly, if we don’t get an American cultural reference then it’s unlikely many other countries (except Canada) will do either.
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### Author:  [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/75 "2011-08-19T06:08:50Z")
For that matter, I can easily believe it’s quickly ceasing to be well-known even to American kids… I have no evidence for this assumption, but I imagine most of its relevance to American kids of, say, my generation comes through it being the sort of old show that was ubiquitously rerun on television in the middle of the day when you had school off, the kind of crap you’d watch because there was nothing better on. In a world of exploding availability of viewing choices, I doubt many kids are going to spend that much time on half-century old kitsch.
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/76 "2011-08-19T06:23:43Z")
I vaguely know the theme song because you can sing it to the tune of Amazing Grace, but I’ve never seen an episode.
Although a certain segment of the american youth may be slightly familiar as Veggie Tales did a skit parodying Gilligan’s Island.
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### Author:  [@gatorslap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gatorslap)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/77 "2011-08-19T08:38:33Z")
How about the Macarena? You might not remember how to do the dance, but I’m sure you’ll recognize it when you see it.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/78 "2011-08-19T11:27:00Z")
> [@treis](#):
>
> Superman, Mickeymouse, baseball, hamburgers, etc. aren’t cultural references. They are icons or characters or whatever. They are **things that you refer to** , but the cultural reference is the quote, action, or whatever.
The word for “thing that you refer to” is “referent.” But that’s not what people have been saying. We’re not saying that baseball itself _is_ the reference, but that the reference _to_ baseball would be widely recognized. An image of baseball, or a mention of baseball, is a _reference_ to the cultural fact and role of the referent baseball. Every single thing mentioned in the thread is a cultural reference at some level.
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/79 "2011-08-19T15:37:30Z")
What about the Bald Eagle as a symbol for the USA? Surely even South Americans would recognize that?
I guess that’s also part of what we’re hung up on. By Americans do we mean both continents, or does the OP really just mean the USA?
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### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-cultural-reference-that-every-american-knows/593147/80 "2011-08-19T16:26:19Z")
“Star spangled banner”.
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