Which pop culture phenomenon disturbed you most?

[SweetZombieJesus]

Titanic was the day pop culture passed me by for good.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

1. Titanic SUCKED

what a piece of crap. Reality Shows are a close second, though they appeal to the lowest common denominator in American society.

[liberalhistorian]

6. I'll take Titanic over ANY of the other things listed,

and the music and score were wonderful. BTW, I did read a funny story about Titanic a few months after it came out. Some teenage guy was tired of girls and women who'd seen the movie 5,000 times and still cried each time, so he had a T-shirt made that said, "It Sank, They Died, GET OVER IT!" Although I enjoyed Titanic, I thought that was pretty creative and funny!

[SweetZombieJesus]

7. Shit, I should have put something about the Oscars and award shows

in general. The Oscars finally teetered off the edge of respectability when Forrest Gump beat Pulp Fiction for Best Picture. Ever since then its been horrible, back slapping lovefest bullshit for whoever the pop culture phenomenon of that year is. Gladiator had NO place winning Best Picture, nor did A Beautiful Mind.

[blondeatlast]

11. That would have gotten my vote.

[SOteric]

2. Oversized jeans

and hairy butt cleavage.

[Interrobang]

20. How 'bout undersized jeans?

And thong underwear female butt cleavage? Hmm?

Hey, both bug me, but at least the boys wear long baggy shirts that don't puddle around their navels and then just...stop.

Women's fashion these days is so atrocious I can't wait to blackmail some of these girls once their kids turn into teenagers! (Me, I don't dress that way and I ain't having any kids, so I'm safe!)

[SOteric]

23. Nope. Doesn't bother me.

I don't wear the look, but it doesn't bother me.

It's seeing some big hairy dudes butt crack that if find unenchanting.

[Champion Jack]

3. one word

Rap












.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. Whaaa??? No car chase of the night on the news????

[GOPisEvil]

21. Not only the car chase du jour...

...but the FUCKING OJ CAR CHASE!! That chase ruined my damned birthday that year! x(

[Zomby Woof]

5. All of the above??

You're a fucking gene splice, I am tellin' ya.

[SweetZombieJesus]

8. How do you know you're not the gene splice, peegfucker?

YOU ARE THE DERIVATIVE ONE, I AM THE SOURCE.

Nah, just kidding.

And anyone who cites "rap": Yeah, mainstream rap sucks now, but so does the mainstream representatives of any genre. Our whole culture is based on pandering to the lowest common denominator anymore.

[catzies]

12. That's my choice right there for "other!"

"Pandering to the lowest common denominator." Oh god yes save me from the endless pandering.

[Capn Sunshine]

24. I just noticed a lack of Coyote !!

But I've been busy. Sorry ZW I didn't get the memo.

[KCDem]

9. American Idol Live tour.

Egads... people who aren't really anyone going on tour like a real band.

Flame away... I remember how many people here were so into AI. But... bleh.

[RememberJohn]

10. Punk/indie bands that can only play three chords...

[BansheeBarbie]

16. So You Don't Like The RAMONES!!!

Is that possible?

[mitchum]

13. Television...nothing comes close

[Nay]

17. Tee Vee gets my vote, too.

A mindless wasteland that lards up your butt and keeps you from doing creative and interesting things.

[baldguy]

14. Flag waving rah rah bullshit after 9-11

while the Bushista Junta rips the Constitution to shreds - and the dittoheads cheer them on.

[tjdee]

15. Kangaroo Jack---#1 at the box office.

That was a sure sign to me that culturally, Americans aren't so cultured.

[Mixxster]

18. Girls shorts with printing across the butt

I guess I can officially be labeled as an old fogie now but I am really bothered by this. I see little girls to teenagers wearing these shorts. Why are they basically asking people to check out their caboose? Plenty of guys would be looking anyway so why encourage it? Printing immediately draws the eye to that area. And why parents of little girls allow them to wear these shorts is absolutely beyond me.

[Astarho]

19. Reality TV, but where's the "All of the above" choice?

All those things disturb me, but since you're asking for the most, I guess it would be reality TV. Others like the post-911 flagwaving or the sucess of Titanic I could see coming, but Reality TV, it kinda shows us as we really are, stripping away all pretenses:

We're a bunch of idiots who'll do anything for attention and/or money.
We also like to ridicule people who'll do anything for attention and/or money.
We're too lazy and/or cheap to go for things like story, narrative, plot.

Feel free to add any other observations that you notice.

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. Man, you're way too modern - it's at least sideburns or mood rings

But then, that was about the time that I started to become conscious (mayhaps age 7?), so I am a bit biased, but even then I knew sideburns were crap, and following any fad was a sign of intellectual inability.

the frickin' yo-yo craze, the bouncy-ball craze, the pet rock craze, the mood ring craze, bell bottoms, sideburns, unwashed hair, super blow-dryed hair, f-ing medallions, chest chair showing through an unbuttoned shirt....

Saturday Night Fever was merely the epitome of the absolutel depths to which American non-culture can succumb. Not the movie - very well done movie - but the idiot pathetic culture it represented.

[FreeperSlayer]

25. all of the above

[Shanty Oilish]

26. That'd be recreational drugs

By far. :( When people started getting stoned, I started feeling alienated.