There are many things that I don’t understand the appeal of, but I will offer the five celebrities whose public appeal cannot be explained in a way that allows me to understand it.
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Tom Green
Courtney Love
Barbra Streisand
Jerri from Survivor II (a Playboy layout…WTF???)
Bill O’Reilly
I hate goatees without mustaches, especially when said goatee is grown to a ridiculous length. In my humble opinion, it just looks stupid. Too many bad lead singers of too many bad bands have adopted this style, and I forever associate it with mindless trend-riding combined with conspicuous, chest-thumping poserdom. If one can grow a goatee, one can grow a mustache, and when the two are combined, it can actually look pretty nifty.
Flat-top haircuts - Really, what sort of mental disorder does it require to want one’s hair to have the ability to double as a coffee table?
Music videos - Much of this has to do with my burning hatred of MTV and it’s evil hell-spawn, MTV2, but I have hatred for VH1, MuchMusic, and any other network that spawns these attempts by bad bands to be ‘artistic’. Why not be artistic by paying more attention to the music, not some chest-thumping ego-video.
Sports - I used to jog in the afternoons, and somehow, people seemed to think that I was training for a marathon. During the school year, the cross-country coach constantly bugged me to join the team, and I always seemed to find a way to weasel out of it. I took a three-month hiatus from jogging, and told people that I quit for good. Now I jog in the mornings, in a somewhat discreet area, and hope to god that the cross-country coach is not a morning person.
I just don’t understand athletic competition. I jog to keep my unfavorable genes from attacking my wasteline. I jog to wake up, at least since I gave up coffee. I jog because I’m a morning person, not because I’m training to pump my ego in some senseless contest.
There’s more where that came from. Sorry about the bitterness, but I’m feeling pretty bitter now; my only pair of headphones are broken, so I can’t play my favorite music. There’s a feeling that only results from playing Einstürzende Neubauten’s “Letztes Biest”, followed by Beethoven’s “Für Elise”, and I just love it.
Smoking is relaxing. I enjoy the occasional cigarette
Rock Climbing is an adrenaline rush, helps me to keep fit, is very satisfying.
Skateboarding: see rock climbing.
Drugs: I only do cannabis, I don’t see the appeal of hardcore drugs, but the occasional spliff helps me relax, makes things fun and is damn enjoyable.
Drinking: see drugs
Golf: I don’t play, but it seems like a good way to have some fun and get out in the fresh air for a day.
Tekken 3 was and is genius. Especially if your drunk. 
Piercing: I have my eyebrow peirced. I think it looks cool.
Sports: see rock climbing
But this is just my opinion. If it don’t ‘float your boat’ then that’s cool.
HERETIC! Licorice rocks.
OK, I’ll probably get creamed for this, but…tattoos! Most of the ones I see look pretty cheesy, at least to me. I’ve seen a few very subtle ones that are ok, it seems the simpler, the better, but I just don’t get having them ALL OVER everywhere, and calling it body art. Maybe I’m just old…
- The goofed up Japanese translations on the 1989 video game Zero Wing: All your base are belong to us and Somebody set us up the bomb. What is the big deal?! Sure, it’s slightly amusing. I smiled when I saw it. But now there’s merchandise, and oh-so clever rebellious college kids are yelling/writing it wherever they go. Why?
- The Dancing Baby from Ally McBeal (or wherever it came from). I think it died, though, with the arrival of AYBABTU craze (see above).
- Dragon Ball Z.
Don’t suppose I can sell you a shirt opposing it, then?
Old Navy and The Gap - Hey, let’s all dress alike in these crappy cheap looking clothes made by 4-year old Malaysians!!
Prop Comics - You know, like Carrot Top. Has never made me laugh ONCE.
MTV - Road Rules, The Real World, Johnny Knoxville, TRL, that stupid soap opera that they are showing now…whatever happened to the MUSIC part of MTV?? I can’t even believe that teenyboppers want to watch the crap they show now.
Jackie Chan - Just don’t get it at all.
Sean “Puffy” Combs - Why is he a millionaire?? He has no talent whatsoever that I can see. My grandmother can rap better than he can, and she’s dead!!
That’s pretty neat. It’d sure piss off the group of friends I have that are into anime, and know of this dumb fad.
Ever read the comic strip Boondocks? Here’s today’s comic. Huey hates Puffy, too.
PUT 'EM UUUUUP! PUT 'EM UUUUUP!
I watched one entire show and 5 minutes of another and paid attention. I had no desire to waste any more time on it. I heard not one single thing worth laughing at. The bad movies (just as movies, not as so-bad-they’re-funny) were more entertaining.
We’re just gonna have to agree to disagree on this one, Guin.
Pro sports I also don’t get.
Quiet music. What’s the problem, can’t stand a little silence? Got a problem making conversation?
If you’re going to play music, turn it up so I can hear it, for crying out loud. It’s usually canned crap anyway, so turn it off. Please.
A biggie for me;
Classical music. Especially quiet classical music. It wasn’t written to be played quietly. I mean it’s nice and all (if you can hear it 
), and I’ll occasionally go to a “Concert In The Park”, but why folks will get all dressed up and pay tons of cash to go to the symphony is beyond me. Sounds better on a quality sound system, if played loudly enough.
Women do wear make up mostly for other women, don’t they?
Peace,
mangeorge
It’s called background music. It’s helpful for setting the mood. You can have music and conversation at the same time; they’re not mutually exclusive.
You’re just wrong here. A lot of classical music is meant to be played softly.
Fair enough. The symphony isn’t for everyone.
Have you actually been to a live performance of a good symphony orchestra? If not, you have no basis for a comparison. Having both a good quality sound system, and having been to live symphonies in concert halls (concerts in the park aren’t good for the symphony; poor acoustics) my opinion is that a merely decent live performance blows away the best recording. But then, I’d say the same for jazz, rock, and country, so maybe I’m biased towards live performance.
Classical music. I listen to music for pleasure. I like songs that have something to say, and that I can understand without having to stop and research some long dead composer.
I mean, really. “Concerto 23 in D flat” was written by (some dead composer with whom I have absolutely nothing in common) in the spring to celebrate the rennovation of (some church/other fancy building) at the request of (some influential dude way back then) and thus includes elements reminiscent of the blossoming of (some damn flower that grew around said building) as well as a hammering bass evocative of the work done in rescuing (said building) from total collapse, all composed in the lilting style preferred by (said influential dude.)
Give me Everclear (the group) and “Wonderful,” or “AM Radio,” or maybe Creedence Clearwater Revival with "
It cam out of the Sky." Hell, Chuck Berry and “Memphis Tennessee” for that fact. Music to dance to and that underscores and reenforces the feelings and ideas expressed by the words.
Yeah! and how about all those pretentious authors who claim to write “literature”. All those big words in long complicated sentences trying to act so smart. Why don’t they just say what they mean? All you so called “intellectuals” can have your Dostoyevsky something-or-other, or Kafka whozeewhatsit, or that George Orwell geek, but put an Archie comic in my lap and now you’re speakin’ my language.
Hey, Moe.
I’ve got nothing against good authors, and some good authors do use - Horrors! - big words and complicated sentences. Of course there are just scads of pretentious authors out there writing crap that they imagine to be impressive. Yes, it usually is the self proclaimed “intellectual” who goes in for pretentious literature and music.
I have the feeling that you are intentionally drawing a comparison between Archie comics and the songs that I mentioned in my last post. Have you heard those songs? have you listened to them? Actually listened to exactly what the words were saying? Take “Wonderful.” That is a song expressing the feelings of a child whose parents got divorced, and his resolution not to put his children through the same thing. “Memphis Tennessee” is about a family getting back together after the parents had a falling out. “It came out of the Sky” is a pretty biting social commentary on the people and attitudes prevalent at the time the song was written. Kick ass good music, too. Popular culture does not mean inferior, as the “intellectuals” would have you believe.
GOLF- this has to be the stupidist, most boring sport on the planet. Way to many pointless rules(i.e. collared shirts must be worn at all times-nobody wants to wear a collared shirt when it is like 102 degrees outside!!)Plus, it’s so damn quiet!! I can’t stay awake for five minutes of golf on tv due to the fact that the announcer’s dialogue never rises above a whisper. W.T.F??!
Hot food: Regarding steaming hot food or drinks. I don’t see how burning the inside of one’s mouth makes for a tasty meal.
PIck-up trucks: Most people on the road don’t carry a lot of things in the back of their trucks so I see it as a waste of space. I understand the people who work at places that require carrying small payloads but for the rest of the people out there, it’s simply ludicrous.
Rap: It’s some guy talking with a synthesizer (sp?) playing in the background.
Real World/Road Rules: Nothing of interest in either of these shows.
Sitcoms: I used to watch them as a kid and had a laugh. Nowadays, they show utter crap.
SUVs: (see Pick-up trucks)
Televised baseball: It’s so boring. Watch something interesting such as basketball or football.
Video games: Specifically sports games. Play the friggin game in real life rather than sit there.
Gilbert Gottfried - Has this guy ever been funny?
Just a little clarification, Number Six, on what I mean by ‘quiet’. ‘Softly’ means not as loud as the rest of the piece, usually done for effect. ‘Quiet’, as I used it, means not quite audible.
I’ve been to a few symphonies (matinees, they let anybody in), and have never heard any passage that I had to strain my ears for.
And I do prefer live pop music over recorded. Simply a matter of taste, I think.
A couple more related things I don’t understand the appeal of;
Opera. I really like some arias, but the ‘whole nine yards’ leaves me cold. And bored.
Ballet. I do like the short skirts, but most of the women are way too skinny.
Yes, I’ve been to both. Some of the things one’s gotta do to get laid. 
Peace,
mangeorge (Oh yeah, musicals)
Well, I don’t like tripe (the lining of a cow’s stomach), but I have known people who ate it and liked it.
I’ve tried to keep an open mind, but I still don’t understand…