Episode 17 — Pop Culture Expiration Dates (Pt. 2)

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Ever wonder why some movies and musicians hold up ten or twenty years later, while others Kevin-Costner away into obscurity? On this podcast, the Cracked gang explains why ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ is a timeless classic, but ‘Dances with Wolves’ physically hurts to watch. Jack O’Brien, Michael Swaim and Adam Ganser go head-to-head with the films and pop songs they loved as kids. No one’s childhood will emerge unscathed.

[jughead 189]

Regardless of all of the theories mentioned in this episode, I catch 'Weird Science' on TV every now and again and still laugh my ass off. Probably one of the most underrated sci-comedies of all time!

[RuizManalo 0]

It seems to me that any artist who falls into the trap of using "hot" pop-culture references or buzzwords of their day, including the latest technology/gadgets, etc -- Will likely not be remembered well or simply looked at by our ancestors like space aliens. I even suspect that the highly acclaimed "Social Network" movie will likely be forgotten just like Myspace once the hype dies out. Our generation goes through trends and memes like water so I assume whatever is hip now will be forgotten or evolved beyond recognition within 10 years.

 

On the comedy topic, I hate to make this comparison, but Anchorman's Will Ferrell and similar comedians seem to fall into the Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler trap of doing the same thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER until all their films look the same and it is only a matter of time before the charm wares off.

 

It's rare to see an actor or musician simply keep reinventing themselves or stepping out of their comfort level, but those that do seem to last longest or at least disappear into obscurity with style.

 

Hence: Tyler Perry's Madea will be timeless.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I was in the Air Force from 1996-2000, and there are things that I KNOW happened in pop culture that I completely managed to miss, because I was out of the country for three months or so.

 

Strangely enough, as well-connected as we are to every person, place, and thing now, it's still pretty easy to avoid stuff, because almost as soon as a thing becomes a thing, people are already jumping on it and doing their own version of it, and if every asshole and their brother can do it, it must not really be that great. I'm pretty sure I've never heard Gangnam Style in it's entirety, I've never seen the Harlem Shake, and I have no fucking clue what the fox says. If it's something that grandmothers are doing at weddings, I know that it's something that I don't need in my life, even if the video has 20 million hits on YouTube and 3000 parodies, half of which claim to be "official".

 

Infinitely quotable comedy that stands the test of time: "Dumb and Dumber"

[strit 29]

NO PRINCE, GUYS?

[Johnny Unusual 525]

It seems to me that any artist who falls into the trap of using "hot" pop-culture references or buzzwords of their day, including the latest technology/gadgets, etc -- Will likely not be remembered well or simply looked at by our ancestors like space aliens. I even suspect that the highly acclaimed "Social Network" movie will likely be forgotten just like Myspace once the hype dies out.

 

I actually think Social Network will last... or at least if it doesn't, it won't be because facebook is out of vogue since we actually don't spend a lot of time with facebook itself in the movie. It really isn't hung up on trying to show how "in the know" it is with facebook, since the subject is the man behind it.

 

I think if it doesn't last, it might be because something about the dialogue or storytelling that Aaron Sorkin will have aged poorly. I could see the way he rights dialogue going out of vogue, since a lot of his stuff has speechifying, although I think this one might hold up better than the West Wing due to its lack of "we can be better" speeches that are in almost all of Sorkin's stuff. In fact, for Sorkin, it's one of his more pessimistic movies, which might feed into Swaim's belief that less optimistic movies have a better chance at a longer shelf life, which I don't entirely agree with but I think there is a connection. Facebook itself might get forgotten and if the Social Network movie holds, it will do it as "that David Fincher/Aaron Sorkin" movie rather than "the facebook movie".

[Lando 2019]

Honestly, I think that The Shawshank Redemption is a pretty overrated movie. Not that it's a bad movie, but the best movie of all time? I think that is a massive overstatement of the quality of this movie. It sets emotional tee-balls and knocks them all to left field. Andy is innocent of the crime he is in jail for, all of the prison administrators and prisoners outside Andy's clique are clearly defined bad guys. It's a very black and white movie with no moral nuance. It never challenges you to sympathize with a man who killed his wife or the people tasked with keeping order in the prison. In that respect The Green Mile is a far superior movie.