# The strange double-dipped nostalgia of "Back to the Future" (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314 "2015-03-30T02:01:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/41 "2015-03-31T10:26:38Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > I don’t think the fun of McFly going back from 1985 to 1955 is really based on technological change. It’s based on social and aesthetic change. There’s a wonderful little (2 or 3 seconds) glimpse of the social change : the camera makes a quick pan around a gas station, where a car pulls into the station and 4 uniformed employees _run_ up to pump the gas,check the oil, wash the windshield, and check the tires. To me, that scene defines the nostalgia for the 1950’s. And of course, the opposite: the scene with the black guy who wants to be mayor being told to sweep the floor–defines why nobody really wants to go back there. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/42 "2015-03-31T16:50:31Z")
I have to say - 1985 was not before cell phones. Basic cell phone tech goes back to 1973, but even in the 80s you could get [the Brick](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_DynaTAC). Plus cellular car phones were somewhat common. But of course they weren’t up to modern standards. They were analog, and even in 1987 [not always small](http://www.cellularforless.com/product_images/uploaded_images/danny-glover-mobile-phone1.jpg). Yes, the thing in his left hand is the phone and battery! ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/43 "2015-03-31T19:36:23Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > But nostalgia for that time period isn’t dead. Look at _Mad Men_, for example, which set off an early 60s fashion tidal wave. Although MM takes pains of course to show what was shitty about the period as well. But neither is it for the 1980s. Look at _The Goldbergs_, _The Americans_, etc. I think claiming that there isn’t nostalgia for the 1980s aside from “pop culture” misses a lot. Even in _Mad Men_ the nostalgia is more about look at how these people dressed (the constant drinking isn’t necessarily shown in a good light, but the smoking may be) - which is more ‘pop culture’ than a ‘way of life’. And of course, people are really excited for the changes in society in the 1960s. > [@](#): > > It was a time when America was proud and prosperous, political acrimony was much less, crime was low, belief in the purpose and direction of the country in the world was more solid, and life was much, much simpler than it is today You mean like some folks look at Reagan’s America in 1988? Note, it wasn’t just about idolizing Reagan as a leader, anymore than looking back at the early 1960s were about idolizing JFK as a leader. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/44 "2015-03-31T20:53:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Aeschines** : > > This is laughably wrong, but the person believes that the technological Singularity is coming soon, so… But the interesting question is, “Why is it wrong?” I think there are two reasons: That’s not quite the reason why the 80s are so different today, but it’s close: The 80s are fundamentally different from today because the Singularity has _already come_, just like it’s always coming in every generation. Every year is vastly different from the year three decades previous because, in every case, the Singularity has come in the meanwhile. It’s really a horizon, not a singularity: The viewer is always the same distance from it, but relative to a fixed point in history, it’s trivial to cross it. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/45 "2015-03-31T22:20:18Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > What’s funny is Happy Days was created as 1950s nostalgia but today it feels more like 1970s nostalgia. The 50s-ish of it really disappeared after the first couple seasons. Just as MASH was about Korea, but it was always really about Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/46 "2015-03-31T22:46:39Z")
I wish they hadn’t included the sexual assault scene with Lea Thompson. That was a bit too serious for a comedy. Otherwise the movie holds up really well. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/47 "2015-04-01T02:24:26Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Huh. The way some Young Republicans fantasize about Saint Ronnie, He Who Brought Down the Evil Empire ™, I’m not so sure. Mind you, they gloss over AIDS, rampant homelessness, drug war fascism, Iran-Contra, HUD, downsizing-for-profit and other side effects of the go-fer-it-Bud plutocracy of the Gimme Decade… 30 posts in before a left winger jumps in with his intolerant hate speech. Now tell us about the massive debts, 48 million people on food stamps, Russian aggression, declining middle class incomes, failure to prosecute bank criminal, demonizing dissent as racism and fascism, using the IRS to harass political opponents, 2.5 million homeless children, public unions bankrupting states and cities and shredding of thousands of emails over the last 6 years by the moron who doesn’t know how many states there are. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/48 "2015-04-01T02:29:44Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > 30 posts in before a left winger jumps in with his intolerant hate speech. > > Now tell us about the massive debts, 48 million people on food stamps, Russian aggression, declining middle class incomes, failure to prosecute bank criminal, demonizing dissent as racism and fascism, using the IRS to harass political opponents, 2.5 million homeless children, public unions bankrupting states and cities and shredding of thousands of emails over the last 6 years by the moron who doesn’t know how many states there are. Reagan lost emails?! ---
**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:** [April 1, 2015, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/49 "2015-04-01T04:52:22Z")
I guess thirty years changes the definition of “hate speech.” ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/50 "2015-04-01T05:17:10Z")
It’s always bugged me that the diner owner didn’t get pissed when Marty, looking for Doc, ripped the page out of the phone book. Ok, it’s a small thing, but it wouldn’t have been tolerated back then, imho. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/51 "2015-04-01T06:01:37Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Reagan lost emails?! Oh yeah. Don’t you remember Fawn Hall smuggling those emails out in her panties. Probably using 8 inch floppies. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/52 "2015-04-01T07:11:31Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > You have a strange idea of teenagers I think. > > You think teenagers don’t know how cell phones work? You think they don’t see their phone constantly picking up different wi-fi signals and still don’t know how signals work? A teenager would immediately know why their phone isn’t working, and if they wanted to know the date they would of course pick up a newspaper, its crazy to think otherwise. Yeah. When I was a kid, we had no problem figuring out how old party line phones worked. Nor did the telegraph stump us. I suspect kids of today could figure out newspapers etc. Everyone always underestimates today’s kids. Whether it was “today’s kids” of 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago or today. I think today’s kids are as great, or better, than previous generations. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/53 "2015-04-01T07:31:56Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > Oh yeah. Don’t you remember Fawn Hall smuggling those emails out in her panties. Probably using 8 inch floppies. Vaguely remembering that, yeah… ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/54 "2015-04-02T01:52:40Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Yeah. When I was a kid, we had no problem figuring out how old party line phones worked. Nor did the telegraph stump us. I suspect kids of today could figure out newspapers etc. Right, especially since newspapers still exist and are on sale at Starbucks, etc… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/55 "2015-04-02T04:59:30Z")
The main reason that nostalgia for the 80s seems unpopular is that we’ve already made it to nostalgia for the 90s. It’s actually kinda interesting that nostalgia for the 50s has lasted so long, when the cycle is usually at about 20 years. I think the 1950s introduced a concept of “cool” that is still a part of society today, and even moreso in the past. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/56 "2015-04-02T06:28:24Z")
I never thought there was too much foreshadowing it wasn’t foreshadowing it was exposition it was cool how much seemingly meaningless details in the beginning became important later ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/57 "2015-04-07T07:44:29Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Alot of us around age 20 in 1985 had grown up watching “Happy Days” which was based on the 50’s so we knew alot about that era. > > And the 50’s, its never explored but it would suck to be black since in reality, if McFly had been black he might not have been allowed into that 1950’s restaurant. I’m not too sure that the movie was meant to be a polemic against non-PC thought. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/58 "2015-04-07T17:42:02Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > 1. Disagree. It was a pretty small town with the streets having typical names: Main, Ash, Poplar, Maple, etc. If someone came to your small town and was looking for Marvin C. Hammersmith Drive, you might very well ask “Who the hell is Marvin C. Hammersmith?” Agreed. Two things make the line work. First, we can easily picture Lorraine’s father as the kind of guy who says, “What the hell is…?” and “Who the hell is…?” with regularity. And while “A block past Maple… that’s Kennedy Drive,” wouldn’t necessarily get that response, “…John F. Kennedy Drive,” makes it ultra clear that the drive is named after a person. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/59 "2015-04-08T13:28:41Z")
While there’s plenty of intentional nostalgia in there from director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale, the whole impetus for the movie and plot wasn’t nostalgia based, but rather “What would it be like if you could go back in time at the same age as when your parents were in high school?” Marty himself was never nostalgic for the 50s, and was plenty confused by it. That’s where most of the comedy comes from, especially the Chuck Barry gag. It wasn’t some racial thing at all, just another way to introduce Marty fulfilling his dream of playing at the School Dance and introducing another time paradox. To watch it now and be nostalgic for the 80s is beside the point and after the fact. That was just present day when the movie(s) were made. Although “Cafe 80s” in BTTF 2 was a 80s nostalgia gag. “Hahaha, look, she talking about a dust buster as if it were ancient history.” And behold, it is! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314/60 "2015-04-08T14:27:34Z")
Nitpick: \*\*\*American Graffiti \*\*\*was set in 1962, not in the '50s. I never cared for _ **Happy Days** _, but from the episodes I did see, I think that “I learned a lot about the '50s watching it” is roughly equivalent to “I learned a lot about the Stone Age watching _ **The Flintstones** _.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-strange-double-dipped-nostalgia-of-back-to-the-future-open-spoilers/716314.md?page=4)