I watch football but I don’t follow it closely, and was surprised to learn that Chad Ochocinco wasn’t born with that last name. I thought it was cool that his name matched the number on his jersey (85, for those of you who are as clueless as I am).
They probably have heard songs by some of the singers, it’s just that they don’t recognize the faces (especially since they’re on the screen for five seconds at a time and like half the singers are bunching their faces into unrecognizableness) and aren’t familiar enough with the voices to realize that they have heard them before. Also, it’s doubtful that they’d know names. I’m really not even surprised about Ray Charles, unless they saw his biopic. I recognized about 8 of the people by their faces and probably wouldn’t have recognized Willie Nelson if I hadn’t lived in Austin where he’s a minor deity.
Who’s the constipated guy? Is he the guy who now sings on the Real Men of Genius commercials?
I also had to have the typewriter explained to me when I had to use it at a previous job. I’m 23, there’s has always been a computer in my house, and there’s certainly always been a computer at my job. Good to know that the woman showing me how to use it thought I was a total mouthbreather.
As to what shocked me? A few years ago I was building something with my dad and I decided to put some music on before he turned to the country station. I asked him if Pink Floyd was okay. He said it was fine as long as this “Pink Floyd” guy wasn’t a rapper.
Okay, so lots of people don’t know band names so I told him it was the band who played “Another Brick in the Wall”.
Okay, so lots of people don’t know song names so I told him I’d put on The Wall.
Okay, so lots of people don’t recognize songs right away so I told him “This is the song. This song right here.”
Okay, so lots of people are oblivious to any pop culture that happened after they turned 25. Especially if they were doing the Jesus freak thing at the time. But. Come. On. Completely missing that song in the over 25 years that it’s been out?
I’m always surprised when I find someone who thinks the ocean is blue because it reflects the sky.
This doesn’t shock me. If a We Are the World-type album were released today, using today’s hottest pop stars, I doubt I would recognize anyone but Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears on sight. And, frankly, I have no idea whether the former is still considered an A-list pop star (though I certainly hope so). It’s a generational thing.
I posted this once before I think: In the 90s, I went into a Sears store to buy a package of Velcro. Couldn’t find it, so I collared the 20-something clerk and asked if they carried it.
Clerk: Some what?
Me: Velcro
Clerk (blank look): what’s that?
Me (thinking she’s kidding): right. . .
Clerk: What is it?
Me: you know. . .Vel-cro
Clerk: I don’t know what that is.
Me: Are you kidding? It’s that stuff with hooks and loops that sticks things together.
Clerk: I never heard of it.
Me: Get serious. It’s on wallets, shoes, purses, jackets…? Makes that “tearrrring” sound when you pull it apart…?
Clerk: Sorry, I never heard of it.
Me: Have you been living in a cave?
At this point, my wife grabs my arm and steers me away from the idiot.
In conversations with a Boomer male, I was surprised to have to explain: 1) Pez and 2) (separate conversation!) S&M (not just the abbreviation, but the entire concept).
About 15 years ago, I was listening to a radio show where someone said most people under the age of 20 cannot name all four Beatles.
That night, I went to a nightclub and tested this out on a girl I perceived to be in her early twenties. I asked her to name the Beatles and after mulling it over in her head for too long she answered, “John, Paul, Bongo and the other guy.”
The only reason I know anything about Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Oasis, Green Day, Moby, Kanye West, P. Poopy-Diddy-Doo, or any of the Jennifers/Kates (Alba, Hewitt/Bosworth/Beckinsale - there are more), is because I get Entertainment Weekly and read, occasionally, about their exploits here and on gossip sites. So I guess I would shock some 20 year olds. Yes, I have officially turned into my own mother. (“Mick Jogger? The Dave Clark - who? Turn that noise down!”)
I’m going to have to go with “The French Revolution” which, unlike the other two, largely delivered on its promises.
But they built that Chunnel!
I have trouble with people who think their dog’s manhood will be lost if he’s neutered. I have trouble explaining to them that their dog is not a man and therefore has no manhood to lose. That is apparently not logical, or too logical, for the numbnutzes to comprehend.
Oh, also, I am perennially amazed by people who think arse rhymes with the General American pronunciation of farce.
It doesn’t? I’m sure I’ve heard Brits say it that way!
Stop gherkin us around!
Actually I’m sort of shocked that some people don’t realize that a lot of other people really don’t care about pop culture at all.
My first job out of business school actually demonstrated something like this in a “diversity awareness” class. As we signed in, we were shown two names and told to check off the ones we knew who they were. One was the CEO of the company and the other was rap artist Marshall Mathers (AKA Eminem AKA Slim Shady).
Couple of rather horrid experiences…
I was having a conversation with a friend of a friend – this was like a decade ago so I no longer remember what it was about. Anyway, I mentioned something about France. She immediately asked me, “Where’s France?”
Now, she was older than me by a number of years, and I was mid-college at that point, so it didn’t even occur to me to think anything other than that she was joking. So I laughed.
Ooooh, did she get pissed at me. She told me she didn’t appreciate being mocked. Whereupon I realized that her question had been serious.
Our acquaintanceship didn’t last much longer after that.
The second one was just last night, actually, although thankfully I managed to not blurt out anything this time. We were in her car and the radio was tuned to NPR. She started discussing Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion, and asked me if I’d ever heard of it. I said of course, he’s from Minnesota (where I grew up), plus PHC has been in syndication across the country for ages.
She says blankly, “Syndication?” She’s in her mid-twenties or so.
I managed to keep my astonishment to myself, and just said, “Yeah, they broadcast this on all the NPR stations nationwide.”
“Oh. Wow! You’re like my boyfriend – he has such a huge vocabulary, I’m learning a new word every day!”
I died a little inside. I like this girl, she’s a real sweetheart, but it was… unexpected. (Actually I’m hoping/telling myself that this was a minor language barrier glitch – she speaks English very well, with only a trace of an accent, but I assume she grew up in a bilingual home and that English was her second language. It wouldn’t surprise me if her parents and grandparents spoke to her mostly or entirely in Spanish.)
What is the General American pronunciation of farce? Because arse and farce rhyme in British English. (Unless I’m completely missing your point, in which case, don’t mind me, do carry on…)
Most of the others, I can more or less understand - generational differences in pop culture references and the like, but this… surprises me. Is there a regional term for Velcro or something? Because I’m having trouble believing that there are people who have never, ever seen or heard of velcro in the Western world.
That might be it for some, but I know I’ve gotten the impression from some people that they actually don’t realize that they have both a urethra and a vaginal canal. The whole “we have three holes” concept just passed them by, and they apparently assume that the vagina is a multi-purpose hole both for sex/birth and for peeing.
Ask them how they can pee with a tampon in, and it stops them cold. 
I’m 29, and I’ve used typewriters in the distant past – but, as I think about it, I’m not sure if I could do it perfectly if you set one down. You have to manually do carriage-returns, don’t you? Then, I know some “new-ish” typewriters were able to erase/patch, but I seem to recall using Wite-Out for corrections.
So: I don’t find this particularly unusual. Typewriters were totally dead by 2000.
Many people don’t know that local services like Hulu may not be visible outside the United States.
I think that one goes beyond “things some people don’t know” to “bizarre bits of misinformation.”
Just speculating here, but maybe someone told her the bit about birds being reptiles, and she later misremembered it as being about amphibians.