Things Younger Americans Should Know

The above post from the Scott Baio thread got me thinking: How pathetic is it that some kids just don't know what they should?

Bad parenting, perhaps?

A former co-worker of mine, her husband worked as a PM drive DJ at the local rock station. So one day a few months back, he plays "Smells Like Teen Spirit." A young kid calls in and asks, "Who sang that?" She apparently thought it was from some cool new band.

I mean, how can you NOT know Nirvana's work?

 

Thanks Zeke, thanks a lot. You aren't that much older than me, if at all. For a man that doesn't own a foreman grill, I expected more out of you.

Oh well.

 

Everybody has something they don't know until they know it.

That said, this thread will be fun.

Sincerely,

Old guy who'd never heard of Chris Benoit until he died.

 

Neither had I. But Benoit was not a friggin' rock legend.

 

True, but I was an adult through Benoit's entire career. The kid who didn't know who sang the song possibly wasn't born when it came out and probably wasn't old enough to read when Cobain died. It's not like he's been in the news a lot in the last 10 years.

I'd never heard of Otis Redding until I heard of Otis Redding.

 

Scott Baio is? It better not be me being called out for not knowing a rock legend.

 

Nevermind, I am an idiot. Wicked, I assumed you were referring to the first post in the thread?

 

I usually give the young kids on the beat a lot of grief about what they don't know. Because I'm on vacation, I'm being the kinder, gentler me.

 

I have a teenage cousin who has never heard of Beverly Hills 90210... The kid grew some sideburns and I said, "Hey, look at Brandon Walsh over here..." everybody else laughed and he looked at me like I was crazy...

About an hour later he came up to me and said, "Who is Brandon Walsh?"

Christ, you would've thought I made a 1960s reference...

 

And to him, it was.

I was in a roomful of newsroom people the other day, none of whom knew what a "composing room" was. "Is anybody in here 30??" I asked. The answer: No.

 

To be honest, I pride myself on the fact that I never ever saw an episode of 90210, so unless I'd heard someone watercooler talk about Brandon Walsh an hour before, I probably wouldn't have known to whom you were referring either.

 

Perfect example.

There are plenty of pop culture references to 90210. I really watched the show just once -- when I was in eighth grade, because I thought it was the "cool" thing to do; then I realized that I had a manhood still left to conquer -- and I knew who Brandon Walsh was.