# Say something that is true to a person in 1985 that will make you sound like a crazy person **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283 "2022-07-20T20:59:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/442 "2023-02-14T23:38:03Z")
This. [https://ifunny.co/tags/cosell](https://ifunny.co/tags/cosell) Most people in 1985 would be shocked to find out that Ozzy Osbourne (and for that matter Keith Richards) are still alive. ---
**Author:** ![QMatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@QMatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QMatic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/443 "2023-02-17T06:08:21Z")
I don’t think most people in 1985 would know who Ozzy Osbourne was. Apart from among genre specific music fans he wasn’t all that well known until his reality TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/444 "2023-02-17T13:46:55Z")
I’ve never been a big follower of pop/rock/whatever, but even I heard of Ozzie Osborne by 1985. He supposedly bit the head off a live chicken onstage, or something. I heard multiple reference to that. Mind you, I can’t say I’ve ever heard one of his records, AFAIK. Or maybe I have and don’t know who is singing. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/445 "2023-02-17T14:03:52Z")
> [@QMatic](#): > > I don’t think most people in 1985 would know who Ozzy Osbourne was. Not really true. Ozzy was extremely notorious already in the 80’s, and you didn’t have to be a heavy rock fan to know him and his bat-biting, bird-decapitating, drugs-infested ways. I knew exactly who he was, and I was an eight year old kid back in 1985. ---
**Author:** ![QMatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@QMatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QMatic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/446 "2023-02-17T14:22:43Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > I knew exactly who he was, and I was an eight year old kid back in 1985. This is an example of selection bias. 1985 was nearly 40 years ago. A high proportion of those still around would, like yourself, have been quite young. A large percentage of the population then are no longer around to sample. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/447 "2023-02-17T14:23:47Z")
Another data point. I was as far as you can imagine from a heavy metal / hard rock fan in the 1980s (I was a teenager in the early-mid 80s) and I knew who Ozzie Osborne was. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/448 "2023-02-17T14:27:38Z")
> [@QMatic](#): > > This is an example of selection bias. 1985 was nearly 40 years ago. A high proportion of those still around would, like yourself, have been quite young. A large percentage of the population then are no longer around to sample. The person who told me about Ozzie in the 80s is now in his 70s. He would have been in his late 20s/early 30s back then. Wasn’t Black Sabbath’s heyday more in the 70s? ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/449 "2023-02-17T14:27:51Z")
Selection bias, or the fact that everyone I knew (apart from my grandma, I guess) also knew who Ozzy was. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/450 "2023-02-17T14:52:59Z")
That’s pretty much exactly the selection bias being spoken of . Everyone I knew knew of Ozzie in the eighties - except my grandparents, their siblings , and my much younger cousins. That was a small number of the people I knew - maybe 1% but people under 10 and over say 50 were a much higher percentage of the population. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/451 "2023-02-17T19:13:36Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > > [@QMatic](#): > > > > This is an example of selection bias. 1985 was nearly 40 years ago. A high proportion of those still around would, like yourself, have been quite young. A large percentage of the population then are no longer around to sample. > > The person who told me about Ozzie in the 80s is now in his 70s. He would have been in his late 20s/early 30s back then. Wasn’t Black Sabbath’s heyday more in the 70s? Ozzie was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979 and started a long and successful solo career with the release of Blizzard of Ozz in 1981. He also gained international attention for biting the head off a bat during a concert in 1982. Sure, there are always people who don’t follow pop music and wouldn’t know who Ozzie was in 1985. But I think it’s reasonable to assume if you went back in time to 1985 and mentioned his name, people would know him as well as they know any musician of that time. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/452 "2023-02-17T20:31:38Z")
Ozzy drew the ire of the morality police in the 80s. Practically enemy #1 for the satanic panic, so yes, everybody and their mother knew who he was. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/453 "2023-02-17T20:39:53Z")
I doubt very much that my mom (or dad) had any idea or cared about Ozzy and the bat incident in 85, let alone knew who he was. If you mentioned Ozzy they would have thought about Ozzie and Harriet. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/454 "2023-02-17T23:49:38Z")
I remember people being excited when Ozzy reunited with Black Sabbath for Live Aid in 1985. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2023, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/455 "2023-02-18T02:53:45Z")
Oh, he was VERY well known in 1985, thanks in part to MTV. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2023, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/456 "2023-02-18T04:30:11Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Ozzy drew the ire of the morality police in the 80s. Practically enemy #1 for the satanic panic, so yes, everybody and their mother knew who he was. My church had anti-rock programming. That’s where I learned about all the cool music I should be listening to including Sabbath and Ozzy. Thank you Satan! 🤘 🤘 ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/457 "2023-02-19T00:53:12Z")
Yeah - people were certainly [writing](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Ozzy+Osborne&year_start=1970&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=1) a lot about him by then (and that’s probably a lagging indication) ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/458 "2023-02-19T06:49:27Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > My church had anti-rock programming. That’s where I learned about all the cool music I should be listening to including Sabbath and Ozzy. Thank you Satan! Don’t forget Kids/Knights In Satan’s Service (KISS). ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/459 "2023-02-19T12:20:24Z")
Or anti christ/ devils child, ac/dc ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/460 "2023-02-19T15:43:29Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Don’t forget Kids/Knights In Satan’s Service (KISS). > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > anti christ/ devils child, ac/dc It really was just opening our eyes to cool music. We learned about how Led Zeppelin was talking to us through backwards messages, Rush had anti-government messages, and David Bowie dressed ambiguously. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283/461 "2023-02-19T16:04:37Z")
Had forgotten that one. And our version was Anti Christ / Death Cult. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-that-is-true-to-a-person-in-1985-that-will-make-you-sound-like-a-crazy-person/968283.md?page=24)