# Things you're suprised people haven't heard of **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 10, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707 "2011-12-10T05:07:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/61 "2011-12-12T09:12:33Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I know what a a bieber is now but he was really famous before I bothered to look it up…Pop culture isn’t really my thing. I alternate between living in the 1990’s, the 1890’s, and the 1930’s for my pop culture awareness. Exactly - Having graduated in 1989 most of my musical knowledge is based on that decade, (Viva Pet Shop Boys!). BUT in meeting various people on assorted messageboards/Twiitter/Tumblr/Facebook, etc I’ve come into really good music contact with people much younger with knowledge of Justin Bieber (mostly derogatory) which led me to seek him out. (Because I was curious.) In a nutshell I can’t believe there’s anyone with access to the internet who hasn’t heard at least that he’s the second most-popular person on Twitter (15 million plus - barely out-shined by Gaga) or he’s going to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most viewed video of all time? I’m not talking gossipy sites (OMG Justin touched his girlfriend’s butt! - today’s top Google story, no shit :rolleyes:), I’m talking major news network sites and crap. Seriously There is Bieber all over everything when I log on regardless of whether I want it or not. Or at least seen a merciless parody of him on late-night TV or something?? ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/62 "2011-12-12T17:40:09Z")
Several years ago my friends and I were at Summerfest in Milwaukee. One of my friends (a life-long south-central Wisconsin resident) asked, “What lake is that over there, anyway?” A couple of years later a different friend asked the same question. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/63 "2011-12-12T18:01:39Z")
> [@Silver\_Tyger](#): > > whether people in general, or in a specific circumstance. > > Brought to mind because of an article recommending comics with female protagonists. The writer mentioned Girl Genius, but not Digger. How could you miss Digger?! She’d never heard of it. How can a comic fan who spends time online not have heard of Ursula Vernon and Digger?! (Please don’t point out logic here…) It’s possible the author means “female human” when they mean “female”? Digger is a furry comic, by a well-known furry artist (incl. erotic fur), after all, which does taint it in a lot of people’s eyes. So the writer may have heard of Ursula and just not written about her? ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/64 "2011-12-12T18:21:34Z")
Fairly recently, my mother had not heard of **ESPN**. A few years ago, I was playing a game of celebrities with a co-worker, a very very intelligent person in his late 20s or so who had grown up in the USA, and not Amish or in some weird cult or something. He had not heard of either **Rush Limbaugh** or **Gorbachev**. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/65 "2011-12-12T18:30:02Z")
> [@AllShookDown](#): > > Several years ago my friends and I were at Summerfest in Milwaukee. One of my friends (a life-long south-central Wisconsin resident) asked, “What lake is that over there, anyway?” A couple of years later a different friend asked the same question. A couple of years ago I was takling to my seat mates on an airplane. Every now and then I’d point out a lake, river, or canyon. At one point one of them asked “Ooh, what’s that pretty lake?” Uh, the Pacific? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/66 "2011-12-12T20:08:06Z")
A friend of mine was studying for his US citizenship test and his wife and I were taking turns asking him questions from the study guide. His wife, who is from the US, couldn’t pronounce Delano, as in Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and had clearly never heard the name before. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/67 "2011-12-12T23:27:09Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > A friend of mine was studying for his US citizenship test and his wife and I were taking turns asking him questions from the study guide. His wife, who is from the US, couldn’t pronounce Delano, as in Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and had clearly never heard the name before. I’ve heard it pronounced two totally different ways with at least some frequency… “duh-LANE-oh” and “DELL-uh-no”. I think it’s very understandable to be confused on something like that which you’ll see written a thousand times more often than you hear it pronounced, particularly given that the person pronouncing it might be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/68 "2011-12-13T05:41:58Z")
Recently I was with a group of mid- to late-twentysomethings, none of whom were familiar with the TV show _Cheers_. Granted they’d all _heard_ of it and maybe knew it was set in a bar, but Sam, Diane, Cliff, Norm, etc. were foreign to them. To _all_ of them. That surprised me a bit. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/69 "2011-12-13T07:01:38Z")
> [@AllShookDown](#): > > Several years ago my friends and I were at Summerfest in Milwaukee. One of my friends (a life-long south-central Wisconsin resident) asked, “What lake is that over there, anyway?” A couple of years later a different friend asked the same question. So what lake was it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/70 "2011-12-13T09:31:33Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Recently I was with a group of mid- to late-twentysomethings, none of whom were familiar with the TV show _Cheers_. Granted they’d all _heard_ of it and maybe knew it was set in a bar, but Sam, Diane, Cliff, Norm, etc. were foreign to them. To _all_ of them. That surprised me a bit. What on earth? I’m MERELY (:rolleyes:) forty but yet I know “The Honeymooners, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters, and good Og: MY MOTHER THE CAR!!!” How can people be so WILLFULLY clueless? ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/71 "2011-12-13T11:39:02Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > His name always cracks me up because of the time Homer Simpson lost his TV remote and “The Boring World of Niels Bohr” came on - D’OH! > > I can’t conceive of someone not knowing who Justin Bieber is. Even my mom knows who he is and she’s 60. There’s a difference between never hearing of him and not knowing of his existence. I have never heard any music by him nor read anything about him, until the thread on here about his being a daddy, which wasn’t true. I’ve heard of Lady Gaga, but I’ve never listened to a song of hers. At least I don’t think so, I could’ve heard it and I wouldn’t know either way. I wonder how many of the Lady Gaga/Justin Bieber crowd would know Olivia Newton-John or John Denver? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/72 "2011-12-13T14:50:19Z")
My husband had a friend who thought velvet was a color. I knew an adviser to a Model U.N. team from a high school who were representing the Soviet Union. (This was a while ago.) I jokingly told her, “Don’t let them bang their shoes on the podium.” She had no idea what I meant, so I had to tell her about Khrushchev doing that while speaking at the actual U.N. once. But my favorite example of this was when I was substitute teaching a class of third graders. I mentioned something that my father had said. They were staggered. I had a father? Did I have a mother? (Yes.) Adults could have parents? Wow. I asked if any of them had a grandma or grandpa. All said they did. I asked who they thought those people were. “Friends of mommy and daddy!” When I told them they were their parents’ parents, not one child believed me. I told them to ask when they got home. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/73 "2011-12-13T16:16:32Z")
I was with a group of friends who are generally very interested in politics and current events. Several of them didn’t know that the Gadsden flag was a symbol used by the Tea Party (even when the flag was described to them) and had never heard of Ayn Rand. It seemed weird that people who are reading newspapers and watching television news programs (or even Jon Stewart!) could have totally missed those things. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/74 "2011-12-13T23:45:24Z")
How about “don’t know” as opposed to “haven’t heard of”? As a veterinary employee, I am no longer astonished by people who think that animals that are closely related (parent/child, sibling pairs) won’t mate because “that’s not right.” ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/75 "2011-12-14T00:10:00Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > What on earth? I’m MERELY (:rolleyes:) forty but yet I know “The Honeymooners, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters, and good Og: MY MOTHER THE CAR!!!” How can people be so WILLFULLY clueless? Not fair. Some of us just don’t watch tv much. I’ve heard of “Cheers,” but have never seen a single episode, and don’t know any of the characters. I’m not “willfully” clueless, just uninterested. I’ve heard the name Justin Bieber, but have no idea whatever what he is famous for. But, hey, c’mon, how many of you have heard of Georg Philip Telemann? There are simply too many things for anyone to know of them all! ---
**Author:** ![Madame\_Joy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@Madame\_Joy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madame_Joy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/76 "2011-12-14T01:21:37Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I don’t think that is weird. Not everyone speaks Swedish. Were you being absurd for comic effect? ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/77 "2011-12-14T01:42:05Z")
Didn’t read the mod note, please delete. ---
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/78 "2011-12-14T02:19:30Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > What on earth? I’m MERELY (:rolleyes:) forty but yet I know “The Honeymooners, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters, and good Og: MY MOTHER THE CAR!!!” How can people be so WILLFULLY clueless? Not a fair comparison. Cheers went off the air in the early 90’s. That’s almost twenty years ago… right smack dab in the middle of a huge expansion of television channels. The Honeymooners reruns back in the day didn’t have to compete with literally hundreds of television and cable channels. I’m willing to bet that when you watched honeymooners reruns, you could count the television channel alternatives on your fingers, possibly even one hand. And that’s not even accounting for the proliferation of THE INTERNET itself which pretty much happened at the same time Cheers went off the air. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/79 "2011-12-14T02:40:14Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Many more people would be familiar with the phrase ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’ but be completly unaware of the meaning. > > When buying a used horse, at least in the past before documentation, you would check a horse’s teeth in order to determine the age of the horse. > > This is also where the phrases ‘long in the tooth’ (meaning old) and ‘straight from the horses’ mouth (meaning verified) come from. > > The seller may be lying to you about the age of the horse, but the horse’s teeth tell it’s true age. > > Thus it would be considered rude to question the value of your gift by looking the horse in the mouth. Yes I know what the phrase meant. I was the one using it. I told someone “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” and they had no idea what it meant. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707/80 "2011-12-14T02:50:05Z")
I was at a Bible study yesterday with a group of very smart people and we were watching a video of a lecture from the previous week and the person presenting remarked that the particular historic period we were discussing was around the time of the foundation of Rome and made reference to the legend of Romulus and Remus. We couldn’t see the live audience in the video, but apparently only a handful had heard of Romulus and Remus. Is knowledge of that particular legend really that rare? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-people-havent-heard-of/605707.md?page=5)