Question about what's popular in popular culture right now

[Akrazotile]

I actually don't mean to be judgmental at all here, but it's just an interesting phenomenon I'm curious about.

When I was growing up in the 90s, I remember that in TV and movies, and even kind of in life in general, adults who were still into Star Trek, and Spiderman, and these sorts of things were always caricatured as massive dorks. The pocket protector and suspenders types who had no social skills etc. Like if a TV series introduced an extremely nerdy character, he was almost invariably still into Star Trek and comic book heroes and so forth as an adult. I'm sure other people remember this.

And it seems like nowadays the pendulum has swung completely the other way, and it's 'cool' to be into these things.


I'm not saying these movies AREN'T good (theyre not, but it's not the point I'm making) or that it's a bad thing to be into them. I just find it interesting that a couple decades ago it seemed to be perceived that only dorkiest of the dorky were into them, but now everyone's into them... and I don't think anything has really CHANGED about the movies themselves.

Are they just simply more compelling films than the likes of 12 Angry Men, Glengarry Glen Ross, Murder on the Orient Express, My Dinner With Andre, etc. ? Or is it something else?

[BasedTom]

it would be awful faggy mainstream shit anyway. now they're just piggybacking off nostalgia/established settings that people already know and don't need a ton of exposition to delve into.

the stuff you mentioned at the end can still be made

[Jasi]

I actually don't mean to be judgmental at all here, but it's just an interesting phenomenon I'm curious about.

When I was growing up in the 90s, I remember that in TV and movies, and even kind of in life in general, adults who were still into Star Trek, and Spiderman, and these sorts of things were always caricatured as massive dorks. The pocket protector and suspenders types who had no social skills etc. Like if a TV series introduced an extremely nerdy character, he was almost invariably still into Star Trek and comic book heroes and so forth as an adult. I'm sure other people remember this.

And it seems like nowadays the pendulum has swung completely the other way, and it's 'cool' to be into these things.

And I'm just wondering what that's about. Is it like when a few NBA players started dressing 'nerd-chic' after the dress code was instituted, and all of society started copying it?

I guess what I'm wondering is... I mean, Hollywood pumps out a TON of these movies these days. Star Trek, Star Wars, Batman, Superman, Ironman, Wolvering, X-Men, Transformers, Aquaman, Antman, Captain Planet and so on... And it seems like most people on this site and I guess most young/ish adult males in society are still going out and seeing all of them whenever they come out.

Do you guys, like... Think these are good movies? I mean... Or is it just like... 'Yeah, this is what everyone else is wearing. This is what everyone else is doing. This is what's cool. I'll go with this.' kind of a thing.

I'm not saying they AREN'T good (theyre not, but it's not the point I'm making) or that it's a bad thing to be into them. I just find it interesting that a couple decades ago it seemed to be perceived that only dorkiest of the dorky were into them, but now everyone's into them... and I don't think anything has really CHANGED about the movies themselves.

Are they just simply more compelling films than the likes of 12 Angry Men, Glengarry Glen Ross, Murder on the Orient Express, My Dinner With Andre, etc. ? Or is it something else?

Imo, it's just that technology has brought new possibilities and new dimensions to be excited about, expanding the market of cartoon-based products beyond kids and teenageers.
In other words such stories can now be depicted in non-cartoonish fashion, making the good old Propp's elements of story-telling more visually intriguing way, and more marketable to grown-ups.

[Akrazotile]

Imo, it's just that technology has brought new possibilities and new dimensions to be excited about, expanding the market of cartoon-based products beyond kids and teenageers.
In other words such stories can now be depicted in non-cartoonish fashion, allowing the good old Propp's elements of story-telling more visually intriguing and more marketable to grown-ups.


Solid point.

[Nick Young]

Let's Plays, Minecraft, League of Legends, Star Wars and Frozen are what's popular, based off fans I see when I sell stuff at Comic Cons.

I think those movies you mentioned are cool for the most part. I am a massive nerd and fan of fantasy and magic the gathering and starwars and lord of the rings and all that awesome shit. I used to get made fun of a lot for it, now people seem more accepting of the nerdish ways of myself and others.

I don't like all the Marvel movies but usually I watch them a year after they come out on an airplane or something, and I enjoy them when I do watch them.


IMO Big Bang Theory + Marvel movies and Batman doing big box office+many nerds in STEM being the richest young dudes in America is what's making nerdism acceptable.


Also I think a lot of people liked nerdy things growing up but didn't talk about it with their friends to avoid getting mocked, now it's more acceptable to admit you like nerd things.


Woody Allen still makes movies. Good movies like Dinner with Andre are being made all the time, they just aren't as massively popular compared to big-budget blockbuster special effects movies. If Dinner with Andre is the kind of thing you want, there's loads of great movies being made these days similar to it.

[SugarHill]

It's the internet.

[Akrazotile]

Let's Plays, Minecraft, League of Legends, Star Wars and Frozen are what's popular, based off fans I see when I sell stuff at Comic Cons.

I think those movies you mentioned are cool for the most part. I am a massive nerd and fan of fantasy and magic the gathering and starwars and lord of the rings and all that awesome shit. I used to get made fun of a lot for it, now people seem more accepting of the nerdish ways of myself and others.

I don't like all the Marvel movies but usually I watch them a year after they come out on an airplane or something, and I enjoy them when I do watch them.


IMO Big Bang Theory + Marvel movies and Batman doing big box office+many nerds in STEM being the richest young dudes in America is what's making nerdism acceptable.


Also I think a lot of people liked nerdy things growing up but didn't talk about it with their friends to avoid getting mocked, now it's more acceptable to admit you like nerd things.


Woody Allen still makes movies. Good movies like Dinner with Andre are being made all the time, they just aren't as massively popular compared to big-budget blockbuster special effects movies. If Dinner with Andre is the kind of thing you want, there's loads of great movies being made these days similar to it.

Fair points indeed.

I just see these things being so massively popular, and I wonder why people don't spend a little more time on things that really matter. You yourself obviously keep up with the issues of the day and have more to contribute than just trendy liberal cheerleading. But a LOT of people make so much time for all these special-effects fantasy movies, and they talk about em all the time, and spend hours and hours watching them, and don't actually think about real life for a god damn second.

Shit annoys me.

Real, important discussions should be more popular than Star Wars. But they're not. :(

[Godzuki]

its generational. people in their 70's and 80's lived in a world devoid of video games as kids. they didnt even have TV's or phones. they worked all day and jerked off to black and white playboys of titty shots they had hidden in the woods.

next generation of kids barely got upgrades.

its really the 80's kids where they got shit like atari's, tv's in most households with 3 channels, etc. they got the comics of today and now they're all grown up nostalgic about it.

old school looks down on that shit. they're about hard work, raking leaves, and stupid manly chores to stay busy :rolleyes: the new generations are more about smokin weed, playing video games, watching movies, etc. lazy as fukk.

[~primetime~]

Star 'TREK' in particular, is still very nerdy stuff. Guys that know a lot about Spock and Klingons and all that are still very dorky guys.

Star 'WARS' is too mainstream...everyone is a Star Wars nerd.

[DonDadda59]

It's just the perfect storm of many factors coming together at the right time. Superheros, comics, etc are our version of mythology. Superman is the modern Hercules. Even Star Wars was originally built on Campbell's heroic journey. Even if you've never read a Batman comic, seen any cartoon or movie... You probably still know his origin story, even if vaguely.

These characters have been incubating for decades in comic books and cartoons, spanning multiple generations (Batman and Superman have been around since the late 1930s-early 40s). So when Warner Brothers and Marvel/Disney, etc snapped up these characters/properties and used their monstrous advertising apparatus to reach as many people as possible and coupled that with the rise of the internet/social media... It was bound to explode the way it has.

[Nick Young]

It's just the perfect storm of many factors coming together at the right time. Superheros, comics, etc are our version of mythology. Superman is the modern Hercules. Even Star Wars was originally built on Campbell's heroic journey. Even if you've never read a Batman comic, seen any cartoon or movie... You probably still know his origin story, even if vaguely.

These characters have been incubating for decades in comic books and cartoons, spanning multiple generations (Batman and Superman have been around since the late 1930s-early 40s). So when Warner Brothers and Marvel/Disney, etc snapped up these characters/properties and used their monstrous advertising apparatus to reach as many people as possible and coupled that with the rise of the internet/social media... It was bound to explode the way it has.
Yep. Throughout human history Humans have always invented these mythologies about super humans. How is comic book nerd worship any different from the ancient Greeks who went to orgies celebrating their gods? If you've ever been to comic con, usually the parties devolve in to nerd orgies.

Wasn't the first epic poem ever written the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is basically a super hero story? Every culture comes up with this shit independantly. The Mayans, the vikings, the eskimos, the Greeks, the Mongols, all of them created super hero mythologies. It's not like comic book nerds are doing anything different that wasn't done back in the day.

Same shit, different time period.

[Norcaliblunt]

My Dinner With Andre doe. Classic.

[Norcaliblunt]

For real though movies suck. Waste of time.

[Nick Young]

Fair points indeed.

I just see these things being so massively popular, and I wonder why people don't spend a little more time on things that really matter. You yourself obviously keep up with the issues of the day and have more to contribute than just trendy liberal cheerleading. But a LOT of people make so much time for all these special-effects fantasy movies, and they talk about em all the time, and spend hours and hours watching them, and don't actually think about real life for a god damn second.

Shit annoys me.

Real, important discussions should be more popular than Star Wars. But they're not. :(
LOL not my job to fix the world.

These people who believe this PC shit are brainwashed. They will never change their view.

Politicians at the top do things for power. All of them. They are all self-interested. There are so many bureaucratic procedures blocking everything up so change can't happen even if the majority of the US population really want it to. Repubs and Dems are both moderate conservative parties who agree on all the things that really matter, so I don't really see a point in choosing sides and voting for either.

IMO no point wasting time trying to fix shit that can't be fixed.

I just like focusing on escapist fantasy that I love instead.:rockon:

[oarabbus]

Same with video games.

Even in the early 2000s, video games could be portrayed as nerdy and uncool. Halo and Call of Duty seem to be the ones that changed that. Today, no one bats an eye if you talk about owning an Xbox or Playstation.

[SexSymbol]

It's funny, because a lot of great stuff comes from this nerd epidemic.
Like dark knight trilogy, probably the greatest or second greatest movie trilogy of all time.
MCU movies are at worst great action movies.
Watchmen was super nerdy and a very very good movie.
I'm not into star wars, so I can't comment on the quality.
Star trek is just pure shit though, I'm just waiting for it to die completely.

[~primetime~]

Same with video games.

Even in the early 2000s, video games could be portrayed as nerdy and uncool. Halo and Call of Duty seem to be the ones that changed that. Today, no one bats an eye if you talk about owning an Xbox or Playstation.
I don't feel this way...most guys have had NES, Saga, Playstations, etc etc since they were invented...those have never been nerdy to me


now...WoW players...that is a nerdy group

[Norcaliblunt]

It's still nerdcore as hell to be a message board OG.

[Nick Young]

Not to mention the Lord of the Rings, the GOAT trilogy ever made.

[oarabbus]

I don't feel this way...most guys have had NES, Saga, Playstations, etc etc since they were invented...those have never been nerdy to me


now...WoW players...that is a nerdy group


But in the 90s, it seemed like it was more younger kids who had NES/Genesis/PS1. These days, everyone and their mother has an Xbox/Playstation/Wii.

WoW, yeah that's still nerdy :lol

[~primetime~]

But in the 90s, it seemed like it was more younger kids who had NES/Genesis/PS1. These days, everyone and their mother has an Xbox/Playstation/Wii.

WoW, yeah that's still nerdy :lol
oh you mean it is more acceptable for a full grown adult to have a console...yeah I agree with that, true true


My and the wife both use the PS4...watch Blu-Rays on that thing...Netflix, etc

[Akrazotile]

I don't feel this way...most guys have had NES, Saga, Playstations, etc etc since they were invented...those have never been nerdy to me


now...WoW players...that is a nerdy group


yeah, but in most cases that was as kids. i dont think that many 30 yr old men were buying SNES for themselves when they were coming out, bc video game culture isnt somethin they grew up with. They could kinda understand kids being into it, even if they thought kids should get outside more. Adults into video games was like... lolwut.

Same with superheroes n stuff. Comic book guy from the Simpsons is portrayed as an uber geek. That was kinda the perception back then.

Now it's totally changed.

[~primetime~]

yeah, but in most cases that was as kids. i dont think that many 30 yr old men were buying SNES for themselves when they were coming out, bc video game culture isnt somethin they grew up with. They could kinda understand kids being into it, even if they thought kids should get outside more. Adults into video games was like... lolwut.

Same with superheroes n stuff. Comic book guy from the Simpsons is portrayed as an uber geek. That was kinda the perception back then.

Now it's totally changed.
yep, very true


we are all a bunch of adult children now...and honestly I like it that way

I'll be fckin kids up in Madden when I'm in my 70s

[Smoke117]

But in the 90s, it seemed like it was more younger kids who had NES/Genesis/PS1. These days, everyone and their mother has an Xbox/Playstation/Wii.

WoW, yeah that's still nerdy :lol

Actually, the average gamer these days is about 29. Most of these kids growing up are gravitating towards their cell phones and their tablets...and I don't consider those real video games.

[Nick Young]

yep, very true


we are all a bunch of adult children now...and honestly I like it that way

I'll be fckin kids up in Madden when I'm in my 70s
We aren't "adult children". This is an stupid perception.

Are kids who played basketball and then grew up to play basketball until their 40s "adult children"?


This generation of kids grew up with video games and many continue to play them when they get older. It's the same shit.

[niko]

Fair points indeed.

I just see these things being so massively popular, and I wonder why people don't spend a little more time on things that really matter. You yourself obviously keep up with the issues of the day and have more to contribute than just trendy liberal cheerleading. But a LOT of people make so much time for all these special-effects fantasy movies, and they talk about em all the time, and spend hours and hours watching them, and don't actually think about real life for a god damn second.

Shit annoys me.

Real, important discussions should be more popular than Star Wars. But they're not. :(

You're an ACTOR. YOu think people spend too much time focusing on shit that doesn't affect real life and you choose ACTING as a profession. Serious?

I somewhat disagree with the notion this stuff makes you cool btw. It's acceptable. It;s not shunned. You can talk to a woman and be a star wars fan and not have it be something that should be hidden. But it's not a sought after quality, being some kind of otaku.

[KevinNYC]

Are they just simply more compelling films than the likes of 12 Angry Men, Glengarry Glen Ross, Murder on the Orient Express, My Dinner With Andre, etc. ? Or is it something else?
So growing up in the 1990s, there were good movies, 3 of which were not made in the 1990s?

12 Angry Men 1957
Murder on the Orient Express 1974...... based on a book from 1934
My Dinner with Andre 1981
Glengarry Glen Ross 1992

So your good old days of cinema is 4 random movies from a 35 year span that are wildly disparate in style and tone and you complain about the state of cinema and only one of those movies is from the time you're talking about?

In every year of your golden age, these films were also big hits
I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Earthquake, Take This Job and Shove It, and Home Alone 2.

Does this tell us anything?


You can make a pretty solid list of just great films from the previous 35 years. This is just a ridiculous post. You certainly can pick 4 great movies from this decade.

[TheMan]

Nerds and geeks went through an image makeover in the 90s.

When I was growing u in the 80s, poor nerd kids would get crucified just because they were awkward. I saw some crazy bullying that no doubt left a lasting impact on those kids, shit was turrible.

Then the Revenge of the Nerds movie came out and people started embracing their inner nerd, being a nerd or having nerd tendencies was no longer a death sentence.

Then the 90s happened and even nerds could be rock stars...
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2009/9/29/1254214754184/Weezer-001.jpg
Shiiit, I grew up when computers were totally a nerd/geek/social retard's tool of choice...now everyone has one, it's cool to hang around on the internets (like W said) and now everyone is getting their poke on meeting on dating websites...

[joe]

They just changed what being a "nerd" is. Watch a Disney show aimed at 9-15 year olds. When the nerd shows up, you'll know. He will wear glasses and the pretty girls will make fun of him. Stereotypes make the world go round (for simple people).

The truth is, most people only dislike things because they're TOLD to dislike them. If it is considered nerdy to enjoy Star Wars, they will never even take the time to look at the actual product or story.

Just like all through the SNES era, RPG's were for nerds. Suddenly Final Fantasy 7 drops and it's in frat houses. Marketing, perception... peoples "opinions" are as strong as what they're told to believe, and what their friends think. That is all.