# Things that are considered "classics" but which you think are highly overrated **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2007, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276 "2007-11-05T10:51:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![TripleTee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@TripleTee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TripleTee)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/81 "2007-11-06T08:42:19Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Alright fair enough. But like I asked before - who do YOU like to listen to? [/QUOTE] I think it’s better if we just talk about what is NOT great art, rather than what IS great art. At least that way we are in keeping with the spirit of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/82 "2007-11-06T09:46:25Z")
Who cares if lyrics suck technically as long as they mesh synergistically with the rest of the song. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/83 "2007-11-06T09:49:43Z")
[QUOTE=TripleTee] I think it’s better if we just talk about what is NOT great art, rather than what IS great art. At least that way we are in keeping with the spirit of the OP. [/QUOTE] Aw, come on, don’t be shy. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/84 "2007-11-06T11:08:38Z")
[QUOTE=MGibson] Some of these answers seem more in the vein of “things I don’t like” rather than “things that are considered ‘classics’ but which you think are highly overrated”. [/QUOTE] That coffee shop down on Third Street. Okay, their patty melt is pretty good, but their meatloaf is a load of crap. Jeez. I can’t believe why so many people eat there. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/85 "2007-11-06T12:03:16Z")
Elvis Charles Dickens Robin Williams Picasso Lear Dahl ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/86 "2007-11-06T13:11:21Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] It’s almost like modern-day classical music. In fact, the Abbey Road medley is basically a symphony, with different movements, [/QUOTE] 🆒 Thanks, I needed a good laugh. Oh wait, you were serious? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! [QUOTE=fetus] Like “Graceland” by Christopher Abani. Also depressing, but chock full of awesome. [/QUOTE] I actually mentioned it at first, but I edited it out for more TFA bashing. I love that book. LOVE. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/87 "2007-11-06T13:33:08Z")
“Casa Bonita” is a\* real \* place? :eek: I better start paying more attention to _South Park_! I’ll add that John Lennon was completely overrated. In fact, I think he was a total wanker. ---
**Author:** ![ArizonaTeach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/88 "2007-11-06T13:35:03Z")
There is no doubt in my mind that _Firefly_ is one of the most overrated pieces of art in existence. I’m not saying it’s bad, but I am constantly floored how it is brought up like some holy grail of perfection on this board **all the time**. What show should never have been cancelled? _Firefly_ What proves television executives are idiots? _Cancelling Firefly_ If you were President what would you do first? _Bring back Firefly_ What cures cancer? _Watching Firefly_ Proof of God’s existence? _The pilot for Firefly._ ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/89 "2007-11-06T13:48:41Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Sigur Ros did this, to widespread acclaim. I’m not a huge fan of their music but why _not_ create your own language, if that’s what you want to do? [/QUOTE] I was very disappointed when I first heard Sigur Ros. I had heard about how they had made up their own language and everything like that, so I was interested in hearing what it sounded like. Well, let’s just say that it’s easy to make up your own language when it primarily consists of two syllables repeated over and over again. I only heard one album, but that’s the way it seemed to me. Dead Can Dance are far more convincing with their made-up languages. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/90 "2007-11-06T14:07:28Z")
I forgot about Shakespeare - I can barely understand what’s being said most of the time reading, let alone consider it good. Even Cecil in his article on Shakespeare alluded to its incomprehensibility. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/91 "2007-11-06T14:29:40Z")
[QUOTE=VarlosZ] …And don’t get me started on _The Canterbury Tales_. . . ``` "Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour. . ." ``` [/QUOTE] I’m reminded of a bit of doggerel that dates from the time of the Model T Ford: Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote I drove a motor through Aprille’s bliz Some forty mile; and damn near like to friz. 😃 Oh, and I thought of another overrated classic car: The '57 Chevy. Overweight, sloppy handling, glitzy overdone styling. My friend’s Triumph-driving wife thought at one time she’d like a '57; they went out and looked at one. Her verdict, after driving it: “What a barge!” ---
**Author:** ![TripleTee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@TripleTee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TripleTee)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/92 "2007-11-06T14:35:49Z")
[QUOTE=Gatopescado] “Casa Bonita” is a\* real \* place? :eek: I better start paying more attention to _South Park_! [/QUOTE] Yep I used to love going there when I was a kid. It’s basically a more expensive version of Pancho’s Mexican Buffet. With cliff divers and mariachis and arcade games. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/93 "2007-11-06T15:44:56Z")
[QUOTE=interface2x] I was very disappointed when I first heard Sigur Ros. I had heard about how they had made up their own language and everything like that, so I was interested in hearing what it sounded like. Well, let’s just say that it’s easy to make up your own language when it primarily consists of two syllables repeated over and over again. I only heard one album, but that’s the way it seemed to me. Dead Can Dance are far more convincing with their made-up languages. [/QUOTE] Forgive me if I’m wrong on this count, a quick scan of a wikipedia doesn’t mention this idea that Sigur Ros invented their own language… That language “they invented” is Icelandic. Given they are in fact, Icelandic. The album name: Hoppípolla, is in fact (and I will stress this again) Icelandic for Jumping in Puddles… Or is it from the Homer Simpson quote about things being made up like, Goblins, Elves and Eskimos? ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/94 "2007-11-06T15:52:41Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] Star Wars. The whole thing. The first two movies are fun, at least, but the whole thing is _nowhere near_ as good as everyone and their mother thinks it is. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if the American moviegoing public had any sense in them, Logan’s Run would’ve outshadowed Star Wars from Day 1. [/QUOTE] I’d go as far as saying that even the first two movies aren’t anything but mediocre fairy stories in space, and they got no better than those… I tried to watch one on the TV the other week there. Bad Jazz and rubber creatures talking wiiblish. Kessel run in four parsecs? I had to switch the TV off at that point… I do wonder how such things often provide a keyhole to unlock peoples childhood self again… Doesn’t stop it from being bad though… ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/95 "2007-11-06T15:56:46Z")
[QUOTE=Ro Carter] _The Stranger_ and _Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man_. I thought both were horrible, and ended up on curriculums because people were afraid to say they thought it was crap for fear of looking stupid. [/QUOTE] Yes! Yes! L’Etragner doesn’t get any better in the original French, either. People complaining about The Old Man and the Sea, because nothing happens in it, should really read L’Etranger. Stuff happens, but it’s all passive happening to a lump of salt dough\*. (Half-baked salt dough, at that.) I am inclined to agree with the poster who mentioned Kurt Vonnegut, but I’ve only read one of his books, so I can’t make a blanket claim. Certainly I had the distinct impression that the reviewers read a very different book than the copy I got. (Hocus Pocus, if it matters.) And Dickens is another one whom I think is over-rated. I recognize the contributions he made to the field of literature and fantasy. I am grateful for them. I am also grateful that I can no longer be forced to read another word by Dickens for the rest of my life. \*inedible, a waste of space, and food: Good only for letting children torment into new shapes. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/96 "2007-11-06T15:56:59Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] You know, I simply cannot imagine anyone liking Seinfeld without living in the US for a long time first. [/QUOTE] I love it. You had to “find it” in the UK, because the BBC continued its long traditions of burying good US TV is horrible timeslots, but once found… Sure some jokes don’t work so well, like the baseball ones, but Costanza is a classic sitcom character… Seinfeld: “You’re going to convert to Latvian Orthodox” Costanza: “What do I care?” ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/97 "2007-11-06T15:57:06Z")
[QUOTE=Smid] Forgive me if I’m wrong on this count, a quick scan of a wikipedia doesn’t mention this idea that Sigur Ros invented their own language… [/QUOTE] In English it’s called [Hopelandic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vonlenska). The band who best pulled off made-up language are the Cocteau Twins, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/98 "2007-11-06T16:02:33Z")
All these posts and not a single mention of _West Side Story_? Yuck, yuck, and even more yuck. :vomit: ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/99 "2007-11-06T16:11:01Z")
Is _The Awakening_ considered a classic? If so, I nominate it. It’s the only book I’ve ever thrown across the room in anger. Gah. ---
**Author:** ![Cemetery\_Savior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Cemetery\_Savior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cemetery_Savior)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/100 "2007-11-06T16:13:57Z")
[QUOTE=Paladud] Jimi Hendrix should have been a classical musician (preferably a cellist). Gravity’s Rainbow is best used to demonstrate gravity to a high school physics class. [/QUOTE] I’m cracking up, picturing Jimi lighting his cello on fire at Carnegie Hall. Purple scarf optional. And you couldn’t be more wrong on _Gravity’s Rainbow_, and you couldn’t be more entitled to say so. 🙂 -Cem [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276.md?page=6)