Monday, February 15, 2010

What's been the most annoying pop cultural fad?

Very often movies, shows and even commercials create some great comedy. It's too bad when everybody takes these ideas and run them into the ground with non-stop repetition to the point that you start to hate on the movie, show, commercial, etc. Everyone thinks they're comedians all of a sudden. There's nothing wrong with quoting your favorite movies, but when everyone else is doing the exact same thing...that's when you should stop. Otherwise, when a piece of entertainment that was actually good is now hated by many, well...you were partly responsible for that.

Here's a challenge. Come up with your own material. If people who know you start unconsciously imitating your phrases, mannerisms, etc...that's pretty cool. There's one person I know who's mannerisms have sort of caught on with other people. Kudos to you, Pellar.

Please check out these fads, let me know if I left any out, and vote in my poll at the bottom of the page for, what was the most annoying pop cultural fad?

Examples:

Pop Cultural Fad #1: The Water Boy - "You can do it!"

In highschool, there was a movie called The Water Boy. The one line of dialogue that got the biggest laugh was Rob Schneider screaming, "You can do it!" Yes it was funny, but from grade 9 to 11, everyone would find the opportunity to scream, "You can do it!" in their best Rob Schneider voice.

"I think I'm gonna fail the math test."
"No, you're gonna pass. YOU CAN DO IT!"

There was no escaping it, and you know...I cannot recall a single time where someone not named Rob Schneider screamed that, and it was actually funny. I can't believe I'm actually complimenting Rob Schneider in this blog. Moving on...

Pop Cultural Fad #2: Budweiser commercial - "Waaaazzzzzuuuuup?!"

Yep, you guys remember this one? I have to say, when this commercial came out...there was no beer commercial like it. I'll give them that. Then came the imitations...and they never fucking stopped. Imitations on the internet popped up everywhere. Kids were shooting their own version. People started dubbing their voices on cartoons, and Superman started greeting Batman with, "Waazzzzuuup?". People started answering their phones with that and even throwing in the tongue action; if only they could see how ridiculous they looked...

This was perhaps the pop cultural fad that defined the 90s. When it comes to irritating, over done cliches, I will say surprisingly...I think this comes in #2. 2000 to 2010 had an even more over-done pop cultural fad which I'll get to later.

Additional note: There was one good use of the wazzzzup and it was Milhouse saying it in The Simpsons.

Pop Cultural Fad #3: Austin Powers - A few various things from it

I don't recall exactly what it was from Austin Powers people referenced, therefore this is probably in last place when it comes to irritating fads. I'm pretty sure that for a long time, instead of telling someone to shut up, people were now going with "Shhh" with the hand motion, or "zip it". Oh right, and of course there's the pinky finger to the mouth Dr. Evil style as well.

This was a fad, but it was not quite over done and over killed like the others or the next one.


Pop Cultural Fad #4: The ultimate Pop cultural fad of the 2000s - Borat

This is my pick for by far the most irritating, over-done, contagious, annoying fad of all. I think this was bigger and lasted longer than Budweiser; correct me if I'm wrong. But yes, Borat came out a few years back and made HUGE dollars at the box office. The movie was hilarious and it deserved all the money that it made. No doubt about it.

But, my god! Everybody started to fucking talk like Borat, and horrible imitations too. People never shied away from the opportunity to say, "High 5", "Very nice!" or "I like!". I recall having beer with a bunch of people where one girl did the Borat voice atleast 5 times within the vicinity of an hour. What's unfortunate is that it's very easy to find opportunities to do this. It can be in anything:

"I'm got a new job"
"Very nice!"

"I just bought a new home"
"High 5!"

"How's your meal?"
"I like!"

Yes, Borat was a funny movie. When people were imitating him at first, it was fine. But, after a while you couldn't go anywhere without hearing that accent...I wonder how often people do it to Sacha Baron Cohen, and how annoying it must be to him. Does he fake a smile, or is he just honest and is like, "No...just...stop...please."?

What new annoying pop cultural fad will be next to plague humankind? Who knows, but I predict the next one will be in 2012. Yep, the next pop cultural fad will be the annoyingness of Borat multiplied by 1000, and that's what will end the world.

Fads I'm a little surprised didn't take off:

The 40 Year old Virgin - "Wanna know how I know you're gay?"

Remember The 40 Year old Virgin? The one thing most people remember from that movie is the whole, "Wanna know how I know you're gay?...(Fill in the blanks)" I think the one most people remember is, "Wanna know how I know you're gay? You listen to Coldplay."

I'm surprised this one didn't take off. While I'm still not condoning following any fads, this one would have been less irritating than the rest. Why? Because atleast in this one, there's the whole (Fill in the blank part). Atleast with this fad, it forces people to use their creativity and come up with their own shit.

Juno - "Honest to blog?"

I loved the movie JUNO, but I hated this one line of dialogue. Not even Olivia Thirlby could make the line work (and she's an extremely under-rated actress).

Okay, I'm really glad this fad never took off. When I saw the movie, I was a little afraid teenyboppers everywhere would start using this. On the other hand, I don't hang out with teenyboppers, so who knows if it's being said everywhere in highschool nowadays?

I'm glad I don't hear it anywhere. That might cause me to start hating Juno, which would suck. Juno is probably one of my favorite feel good movies, and it would suck to hate something that's actually awesome.

Alright, so the poll is below. Vote on what was the most annoying pop cultural fad.














What was the most annoying pop cultural fad?






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