1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Justin Bieber references: Just don't do it

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Versatile, Nov 5, 2010.

  1. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    Anybody else think of this when they saw the thread title?

    "And don't go home. And don't go to eat. And don't play with yourself; it wouldn't look nice on my highway. Oh, you can think about it......but don't do it."

    [​IMG]
     
  2. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I remember in 2000, whatever the first year Survivor came out and I was talking to a copy editor at my paper who said, "I'm happy to tell you you're not on the list."

    I said, "What the hell are you talking about?"

    He told me they were keeping tabs on how many people used a "got voted off the island" or some Survivor reference in copy during the time the show was on. To be fair, this was when the show was the most popular show on TV. But we had one sports writer who made five references to it during a two month span and seven other writers had used it at least once.

    I've used pop culture references before. Hell, I've used a Zeppelin lyric as a lede that made it past a very strict desk.
     
  3. TrooperBari

    TrooperBari Well-Known Member

    It wasn't "Stairway to Heaven," was it?
     
  4. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    It was Dazed and Confused.
     
  5. TrooperBari

    TrooperBari Well-Known Member

    Ah. I try to stay away from pop culture references, though I do recall working in "Dancing in the Dark" when the gym lights failed in the middle of a volleyball match.
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    My lede was (this was a story about Steve Young's concussion issue) where he was disputing that it would prevent him from playing again (it did) and there were all these reports that the Niners were going to cut him.

    Steve Young has been dazed and confused for so long it's not true.
     
  7. Point of Order

    Point of Order Active Member

    You ARE the weakest link. Goodbye.
     
  8. kingcreole

    kingcreole Active Member

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  9. holy bull

    holy bull Active Member

    I thought the Wright Thompson piece was brilliant, but the Justin Bieber line was a tiny subconscious speed bump, not because I'm adamantly opposed to pop culture references in general, but because the premise of this 62-year-old Viet Nam vet who trains horses at 5 a.m. every day going falsetto over Justin Bieber under any circumstances is just way too contrived to have any impact on the statement he was trying to make.

    Maybe that's being nit-picky. Anyway, I'm 47, and the fact that I "get" a Justin Bieber reference is deeply, deeply depressing.
     
  10. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Ninety-nine point nine percent of gratuitous pop culture references, both in journalism and in contemporary fiction, should be dropped. This one included.
     
  11. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    Actually, the thing that tripped me up as unnecessary and jarring was the phrase "My point being, ..." Why do you feel the need to insert yourself into the story there? What follows works just as well -- and flows better -- on its own. We know that's your point. You don't have to hit us over the head with it. It just reads like he's pointing out his own brilliance, which gets on my nerves.
     
  12. reformedhack

    reformedhack Well-Known Member

    A quick side trip down the pop-culture pathway:

    In the early 1990s, I once had a writer cover a prep football game where the quarterback (who wore jersey number 9) connected with a receiver (who wore jersey number 5) all night long, to the tune of something like four touchdowns and 250 yards passing. And though I'm not a fan of gimmick or throwaway ledes, I smiled when I saw this one:

    "Working 9 to 5 ... what a way to make a living for Podunk High."

    He did a tidy job of explaining things in the second graf, so I let it run that way. I think every writer's entitled to one of these pop-culture ledes, the ones that teeter on the edge of clever and groaner, every five years or so. :)
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page