# Pop Culture Stuff Everyone Seems to Misunderstand **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2021, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564 "2021-04-22T19:51:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/402 "2021-04-28T00:12:42Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > > But the point of a literary essay is to discuss the work and what is actually in the work. It’s pointless to draw conclusions that don’t exist in the work. It’s only teaching students to bullshit. > > That’s the point according to whom? Certainly not most teachers. Well, it was the point when I was in school: to write a coherent essay about something you believed it. Not to write bullshit. Maybe that’s changed. > [@](#): > > > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > > So your argument is basically that you’re not ever interpreting the work itself, but just your reaction to it. Which means any reaction to it is valid. Which also means none are. > > “If every reaction is valid, then no reaction is valid” is not a logically coherent position. But it’s yours. If everyone one can assign their own meaning to a work, then the work has no inherent meaning. And with no inherent meaning, then the assigned meaning by the reader has no validity. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > No, you’re not necessarily hiding it at all (See _Giles Goat Boy_ , for instance). But the real point is that if an author is including allegory and symbolism in a story, _they know it._ The author has the final say, not the reader otherwise you get Charles Manson’s intepretation. > [@](#): > > Symbolism and allegory are, pretty much by definition, hiding your meaning. Absolutely not. Symbolism and allegory are revealing, not hiding. Maybe the reader doesn’t get them on first glance, but they are there to provide themes develop depth. If you have something to say, why hide it? > [@](#): > > An author certainly has the authority to say that a black hat doesn’t have any intentional symbolic meaning, and we can treat that as objective fact for the most part. But is that the most useful way to approach the text? Is “A Good Man is Hard to Find?” a more entertaining read if you treat the hat as a symbol? If a reader’s enjoyment of the text hinges on a specific reading, and the author invalidates that reading, is the reader no longer allowed to enjoy the text? > [@](#): > > > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > > OK. that’s reasonable. But it is about the reader, not the text. The point of what you’re outlining is the reader’s reactions, but not what is actually in the story. > > No foolin’! You figure that might be why it’s called “reader response theory?” So, basically, the text is unimportant. The words are meaningless. Readers can just make up whatever they want and give a justification. So it shows, as I pointed out, that it doesn’t matter what’s in the text and any analysis as a good as any other (provided there’s a justification). That means any analysis is worhtless. I won’t call this “reader response theory” the stupidest concept I’ve ever heard, but it’s in the top ten. > [@](#): > > > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > > That’s pretty condescending. > > More or less condescending than “I’m curious - do you write fiction?” That wasn’t my intention. I have observed that people who champion this sort of analysis do not write fiction and I wanted another datapoint. I was not mocking you; I just wanted to see if the pattern held. But your comment “I’ve read enough bad fiction to recognize that this is a fallacy” is clearly condescending. First of all, what’s bad fiction? Second, just because it isn’t high literary fiction, it doesn’t mean the author doesn’t know how to write fiction (I’m not talking about self-publishing, BTW). It means they write a type of fiction that doesn’t appeal to you – and know how to write that type of fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/403 "2021-04-28T00:22:33Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The one where, knowing that there’s a killer alien aboard the ship, he just ignores the possibility it might be around him? And what the hell is he doing taking a shower? Any actual human in this situation would be on the alert and wary of everying and would have his weapon at the ready. Man… Spoiler for @Odesio At this point he thinks the alien is the size of a cat. Parker (Yaphet Kotto, RIP) tried to kill it with a steak knife a few minutes ago. He’s wrong, but he doesn’t know that yet, and there’s no reason for him to know or suspect.As far as they’re concerned, at that point in the movie, it’s basically a venomous extraterrestrial bobcat. Yes, YOU know the movie is called Alien, and it’s really a badass lion/ninja killing machine, THEY don’t know this. It is realistic that they’re treating it more like a serious case of pest control than all out war against a superior foe. You think they should abandon a spaceship and 20 million tons of ore in deep space because of a pest the size of a shoebox. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/404 "2021-04-28T00:29:49Z")
I have seen _Alien_ multiple times and it’s one of my favorite movies. No need to put spoiler warnings in there for me! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/405 "2021-04-28T00:54:06Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Well, it was the point when I was in school: to write a coherent essay about something you believed it. Not to write bullshit. The fact that your high school teacher gave you an A for that essay suggests otherwise. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > But it’s yours. If everyone one can assign their own meaning to a work, then the work has no inherent meaning. And with no inherent meaning, then the assigned meaning by the reader has no validity. That’s not my argument. That’s part of one of my premises, plus your own absurd conclusion. Everyone has a different reaction to art. The validity of that reaction is not dictated by how close their reaction matches the reaction the artist intended to invoke. Whether that reaction is interesting to anyone else depends on that person’s ability to articulate their reaction, and tie that reaction to specific things found in the text. Rarely, it turns out the author is available to comment on a specific reaction, and confirm or deny if it matches the reaction they intended to evoke. While this information can be valuable, it doesn’t change the fact that the person originally had a different reaction. And in some cases, a person may find that the artist’s expressed intent is less interesting or entertaining that the interpretation intended by the artist. In such situations, that person may decide to continue to engage with the work using their original assumptions, and disregard the artist’s explicit intent, because they find the work more enjoyable that way. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Absolutely not. Symbolism and allegory are revealing, not hiding. Maybe the reader doesn’t get them on first glance, but they are there to provide themes develop depth. If you have something to say, why hide it? Because things are more meaningful if you have to work for them. A reader who has to think his way through a story to find the meaning is going to carry that experience with them much longer, than they would if the themes were state up front and clearly explained. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > I won’t call this “reader response theory” the stupidest concept I’ve ever heard, but it’s in the top ten. You literally just described it as “reasonable.” > [@RealityChuck](#): > > That wasn’t my intention. I have observed that people who champion this sort of analysis do not write fiction and I wanted another datapoint. I was not mocking you; I just wanted to see if the pattern held. I’m sure. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > But your comment “I’ve read enough bad fiction to recognize that this is a fallacy” is clearly condescending. First of all, what’s bad fiction? Second, just because it isn’t high literary fiction, it doesn’t mean the author doesn’t know how to write fiction (I’m not talking about self-publishing, BTW). It means they write a type of fiction that doesn’t appeal to you – and know how to write that type of fiction. Are you seriously copping this in the same thread where you’re crapping on Alien for having an “idiot plot?” Yeah, I’ve read a lot of books that I think were bad. And by “bad,” I mean I didn’t like them. Some of them were popular and bad. Most of them were bad and sold poorly. Pretty much all of them were genre fiction of one sort or another. I’ve got no idea where you got the idea that I’m prejudicing “literary” fiction over popular fiction, but it definitely gives me the impression that you’re having half this argument with someone in your head, and not me. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/406 "2021-04-28T00:59:27Z")
This thread is all over the place so I hope nobody minds me continuing the _Alien_ hijack. Does anybody know if killing off the characters in the same order as the relative fame of the actors playing them was intentional? I tried to Google up an answer but only came across an intriguing claim that the actors in real life are dying in the same order as in the film. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/407 "2021-04-28T01:29:30Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > Oh shit, thousands Over 40 years of reading? If not, then close. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/408 "2021-04-28T01:36:00Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Authors know what they’re doing and what they’re trying to achieve. The difficulty is learning how to actually achieve it. Yeah, maybe this is true, for the good ones. My current angst is about knowing what to do, but not how. But there is a ton of bad stuff out there and there are definitely people writing who have no idea what they are doing. But they’re not like Irving, you know. I still maintain that not everyone knows what their work means. I think at a certain point it stops being about the writer and becomes about the reader. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/409 "2021-04-28T01:38:42Z")
If I set out to build a garden shed, but people decide to use it as an outhouse, well, damn, guess what! I built an outhouse. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/410 "2021-04-28T01:40:40Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I’m sure that, if you thought about it for a second, you can also think of works where the author’s intended meaning was rejected by the audience. But interpretation is not (to me) the same thing as meaning. You can look at the dregs in a teacup or the guts of a bird or a deck of cards and interpret a message. But that doesn’t mean that the meaning is actually there. Holding up a book as a mirror on yourself is all well and good if you enjoy it, but I still don’t think it is any more real than a clump of wet caffeiney leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/411 "2021-04-28T01:44:31Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > This thread is all over the place so I hope nobody minds me continuing the _Alien_ hijack. > > Does anybody know if killing off the characters in the same order as the relative fame of the actors playing them was intentional? I tried to Google up an answer but only came across an intriguing claim that the actors in real life are dying in the same order as in the film. No, because Tom Skerritt is still alive, and Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto died after him in the film. Though Holm played an android, so he was deactivated, he didn’t die. Also, the actor who played the alien, Bolaji Badejo, died before any of the crew members. And the cat that played Jones, who survived with Ripley, is likely long since dead. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/412 "2021-04-28T01:48:04Z")
This argument was over when The Interpretation of Dreams was published. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/413 "2021-04-28T02:06:17Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Some of the books on her list are awesome, though. And I begin to doubt her as a credible authority if she thinks there is any shortage of magic, epic adventures, murder, sex, violence, slapstick toilet humor, etc. I wonder if she bothered cracking any of them open? Makes one tend to dismiss her rather than pay attention to any valid points she may have concerning what books are appropriate for children. That’s just one example I googled up, but it is far a novel (sorry) idea that the way books are taught makes people hate books. ([Here](https://www.cracked.com/blog/4-ways-high-school-makes-you-hate-reading/) is an article from _Cracked_, for example.) Really, could you expect any different, making kids slog through the antiquated styles of things like _Silas Marner_ and _Ethan Frome_? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/414 "2021-04-28T06:17:19Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Does anybody know if killing off the characters in the same order as the relative fame of the actors playing them was intentional? Bear in mind that the fame ranking of the actors _at the time the movie was released_ was very different compared to now. Skerritt and Stanton would have been much better known than Weaver in 1979. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/415 "2021-04-28T06:24:54Z")
Two pop culture things I see people bring up constantly despite being untrue **Empire Strikes Back and Mark Hamill’s Face** - There’s been a consistent rumor ever since the film _The Empire Strikes Back_ (1980) came out that the reason there’s a scene at the beginning where Luke is attacked by a Wampa and given surgery is to cover for a car accident that happened to Mark prior to filming and to explain “why he looked different” from _A New Hope_ (1977). However this [rumor isn’t true at all](https://www.ranker.com/list/the-story-behind-mark-hamills-face/zack-howe), as not only did Mark do _Corvette Summer_ (1978) right after his accident and looks basically the same as he did in A New Hope, directly comparing his appearances in both Star Wars movies he doesn’t look THAT different. **John Wayne and Nuclear Fallout** - Another popular rumor is the idea that during the filming of legendary bomb _The Conqueror_ 1956 starring John Wayne most of it was shot in an place of Utah that was near an area of Nevada where multiple nuclear weapons were tested, and that they even later trucked in large amounts of sand from that same radioactive area to use for scenes shot at studio lots which lead to over half the cast and crew getting some form of cancer, and half of that number to die of it. All of this comes from a speculative People magazine article that didn’t do any actual scientific research on it, [but according to Skeptoids Brian Dunning](https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4238) the rate of cancer among the cast and crew was actually the average amount for people of the time and place. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/416 "2021-04-28T06:50:14Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > My question is, who invented transparent aluminum? Scotty remembers the formula because the stuff is ubiquitous as all get out in his day, hell, his middle school lunchbox was probably made of it. He brings the formula back in time and gives it to the engineers of the past and presto, transparent aluminum shows up. This Grandfather Paradox also appears in another spot in the movie: Needing some local money, Kirk and McCoy pawn McCoy’s spectacles (which doesn’t actually get them a small fraction of the money they are likely to need). McCoy is sad to part with them, saying “These were my grandfather’s glasses” to which Kirk remarks “They will be again.” ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/417 "2021-04-28T12:42:01Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Here’s what I’m seeing from “reader response” classes: > > Teacher: “What does the hat symbolize?” > > Student 1: “My feelings tell me it symbolizes the Dark Side of the Force.” > > Teacher: “Excellent! You get an A for having feelings!” Just a helpful reminder: Darren’s the guy who accused me of a dishonest/disingenuous representation of other folks’ views. Let’s rewrite this dialogue: Teacher: “What does the hat symbolize?” Student 1: “ **I think** it symbolizes the Dark Side of the Force.” Teacher: “Why?” Student 1: “It’s black.” Teacher: “Does everything black symbolize the Dark Side of the Force? What differentiates between this hat and all other hats? How does that symbolism help you understand the story?” Student 2: “Maybe not the dark side of the force, but I’m wondering if it’s part of the tradition of using black hats to identify evil characters; it’s a quick symbol that the character you’re meeting is a villain.” Teacher: “Are there other texts you’re thinking of that use hats in this fashion?” and so on. Expressing your opinion is only the first part of the process. Backing it up with evidence and reasoning is the bulk of the process. Seriously, this is stuff I teach to third graders. It’s astonishing that adults don’t realize it. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/418 "2021-04-28T14:01:22Z")
All of the actors were better known than Weaver and that’s apparently why she was the last survivor. The more famous the actor the quicker they die in the film. Same expectation-defying trick Hitchcock used with Janet Leigh in _Psycho_ on a larger scale. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/419 "2021-04-28T14:38:39Z")
Oh, I see, I misunderstood your previous post. I thought you were asking about their _current_ level of celebrity and forgetting that it was Alien that made Weaver a huge star where she wasn’t before. My apologies. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/420 "2021-04-28T16:13:58Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > Similarly … I wonder how many grade-school music teachers led their classes in “This Land Is Your Land” without having a clue about what Guthrie truly intended. I know mine did. Are you sure? How many grade-school kids really know the political leanings of their teachers? How many adults can truly think back and come to a true understanding? Maybe your grade-school music teacher really was Communist, and was trying to indoctrinate the kids - you know, part of the Liberal Cabal. 😉 Yeah, not many people know the sarcastic last verse about food lines, and most people disagree with the “no trespassing being a bad thing” verse. > [@Miller](#): > > Okay, but again - what do you do when you don’t have access to the author to confirm or deny a meaning? Also, how does your “only the author’s intent matters” approach handle the concept of an author _failing_ to communicate his ideas? heh-heh-heh. This reminded me of the Rodney Dangerfield movie, _Back to School_, where he gets Kurt Vonnegut to write an essay on a Vonnegut novel, and gets an F with the teacher saying something along the lines of “You know nothing of Vonnegut!” > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I’m not interested in them telling me what 37+42 is 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything; 37 is the age of the peasant in Holy Grail who wasn’t old. Therefor the answer to 37+42 is that you can find enlightenment while young, but not if you’re old. > [@Jophiel](#): > > In my college intro poetry course, I was once hurting for a poem (we had to write five a week) and so, in a flash of “inspiration”, just copied the ingredient list on my shampoo bottle and called it Modern Alchemy. The teacher gave me good marks on it but, in retrospect, I’m pretty sure that was more approving of my moxie and the tongue-in-cheek nature of how I reached five poems rather than thinking “This is brilliant poetry”. Another interpretation - the brilliance of noting that what we call “science” would have been called “magic” or “alchemy” 500 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564/421 "2021-04-28T16:20:03Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Are you sure? How many grade-school kids really know the political leanings of their teachers? How many adults can truly think back and come to a true understanding? Maybe your grade-school music teacher really was Communist, and was trying to indoctrinate the kids - you know, part of the Liberal Cabal. Maybe she was. After all, we had a day camp counselor who – hand to God – taught us the chorus of Country Joe and the Fish’s “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die-Rag”: _And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for?_ _Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, next stop is Viet Nam_ _And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates_ _Ain’t no time to wonder why, whoopee we’re all gonna die_ It was 1972. I was 7. My parents were not amused. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-stuff-everyone-seems-to-misunderstand/940564.md?page=22)