Was the "that guy" line original to PCU or was it stolen from somewhere else?

Cafe Society
1

I posted this to General Questions a week ago hoping for a factual answer, but it sank like a stone. Cafe Society is obviously a better place so here goes:

Everyone that has seen the movie knows all about the “that guy” phenomenon. But if not, this line of dialogue sums it up pretty well:

So anyway, spotting "that guy"s at concerts has become a fun activity for my friends and I and I’ve even met people that have never heard of the movie but know someone that would rail against the evils of being “that guy.”

So did the writers of PCU make up the “that guy” theory or did they steal it from somewhere else.

2

I’ve only ever quoted it from PCU. I think people generally had that concept, but the movie just popularized it by making it quotable.

3

Well, I know they used “Don’t be that guy” in Say Anything and it came out about five years or so before PCU.

Still, I’m sure it was used before Say Anything as well.

4

As far as the theory itself goes, I used it in 1991 when I saw Living Colour and did not want to wear the Cult of Personality t-shirt. Although, if I saw them today, I would think that wearing a Cult of Personality (circa 1989) t-shirt would make me cool rather than uncool.

5

For what it’s worth, Jeremy Piven was in both movies.

6

[off topic]Some PCU trivia for you, the building referred to as the Freshman Dorms in one scene is actually the Ontario Provincial Legislature.[/off topic]

7

I say it’s OK to be “That Guy” if you bought the shirt at the concert.

8

I disagree.

Now, is one “that guy” if one wears the shirt of a band closely related the performing act? For instance, a Smashing Pumpkins shirt to a Zwan concert, or a Nirvana shirt to a Foo Fighters show?

9

I say it’s perfectly fine to wear the shirt I’ll wear whatever I want goddammit.

10

I’m not familiar with this “that guy” concept. Why do people buy the t-shirts if it is considered, uh, nerdy(?) to actually wear it? You just keep it in a box?

11

We discussed this in another thread recently. My feelings are that the “that guy” you don’t want to be is the one who sits around worrying that he’ll show up at a rock concert in the wrong shirt (the horror!), or worse still the “that guy” who looks down his nose at people who make this so-called “mistake”.

12

No, no. If you’re going to a Metallica concert, you don’t wear your Metallica T-shirt. You wear your Mega-Death T-shirt, or your Tool T-shirt, or your Burl Ives T-shirt. If you’re going to a Tool concert, you can wear your Metallica T-shirt, but not your Tool T-shirt. And so forth.

Sadly, I myself did not learn this rule until far, far too late.

13

The line I remember was, “Don’t be a guy, Lloyd, be a man.”

14

I’d just like to say I’d give anything for a Burl Ives t-shirt.

15

So when in the hell do you wear your BLS shirt?

When going to an Oakridge Boys concert?