The Generation Xer with an embarassing question about Generation Y culture thread

[Dan]

I'm starting this thread as a 39 year old guy who grew up with Atari 2600 game machines, rotary telephones, cable television with only 36 channels, and an MTV that actually played music 24 hours a day (with short commercial breaks for cheesy compilation LPs and 1-800-HOT-ROCK = "Buy three ZZ Top albums and get a free ZZ Top keychain! We'll deliver your albums within in a week!"). I have a question about an element of pop culture today that may seem obvious to someone who is in their 20s, but it's a complete -- and probably embarassing -- mystery to me.

My question: hipsters everwhere around here are wearing 1970s-looking "Vote for Pedro" t-shirts. Hipster stores have tons of "Vote for Pedro" shirts on the racks. Googling around for "Vote for Pedro" just gets me links to sites selling "Vote for Pedro" t-shirts for hipsters. What the hell does the phrase mean? Where does it come from? Is it some catchy movie quote, like "Anyone? Bueller?" from my day?

There's probably others in my boat, so I'm encouraging them to contribute to this thread. What all-pervasive element of pop culture are you completely clueless about?

[Repo Man]

Its from Napoleon Dynamite, which is a great movie. I would highly recommend renting the DVD. There is a character in the movie who is Napoleon's best friend. He runs for class president. Hence the "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt fad.

[michaelskis]

Napoleon Dynamite

Worst Movie EVER!

[Tide]

My question: hipsters everwhere around here are wearing 1970s-looking "Vote for Pedro" t-shirts. Hipster stores have tons of "Vote for Pedro" shirts on the racks. Googling around for "Vote for Pedro" just gets me links to sites selling "Vote for Pedro" t-shirts for hipsters. What the hell does the phrase mean? Where does it come from? Is it some catchy movie quote, like "Anyone? Bueller?" from my day?

There's probably others in my boat, so I'm encouraging them to contribute to this thread. What all-pervasive element of pop culture are you completely clueless about?

Heck Yes I can help you...

Gonna eat those tots?

Do the chickens have large talons?


Did you see Napoleon Dynamite???? If not go, and all will be revealed.

[mendelman]

Its from Napoleon Dynamite, which is a great movie.

That's right. It must be. The movie was OK, in the see-it-once quirky way, but it is completely telling that the producers of ND are selling this to unoriginal pseudo-hipsters. It just shows that every "generation's" originality is always contrived and derivative and the product of some millionaire's marketing.

I want to bomb every Urban Outfitters off the face of the Earth....meh.....

[Budgie]

This picture explains it all.

Picture

Even an uninformed Gen X stick in the mud such as myself can figure it out with this picture.

[Jaxspra]

My son LOVED the movie...I liked it myself...silly, stupid, mindless movie watching, funny nonetheless...my son has a shirt that says something about "tots" he's 8, I imagine this is who the stuff should be appealing to.

[Suburb Repairman]

I got nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, Cyburbia slacking skills...

That's a nice code compliance Ford Taurus... You take it off sweet jumps?

[Dan]

Even an uninformed Gen X stick in the mud such as myself can figure it out with this picture.

Ahh. I guess the movie was extremely popular among the ironic hipster/emo crowd, because those are the people I see wearing the shirts.

Another one: what's a "hollaback girl?" All I know is that Gwen Stefani ain't one.

[GISgal]

Ahh. I guess the movie was extremely popular among the ironic hipster/emo crowd, because those are the people I see wearing the shirts.

Another one: what's a "hollaback girl?" All I know is that Gwen Stefani ain't one.

According to wikipedia: In the song Hollaback Girl Gwen is apparently the captain of the cheerleader squad; she is the girl who 'hollas' the chants, not one of the girls who simply 'hollas' them back."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollaback_Girl

[Jaxspra]

Holla back girl -

A girl that is willing to be treated like a doormat or booty call. She is a girl that will allow guys to do whatever they want with her and will just wait for them to 'holla back' at them.

google the term and you will find a few other definitions but this seems to be the most popular definition, a few others a re more directly related to the lyrics of the song

(boy you are getting some lessons today!! )

[jordanb]

Ahh. I guess the movie was extremely popular among the ironic hipster/emo crowd, because those are the people I see wearing the shirts.

They would like it.

I enjoyed Napoleon Dynamite from the standpoint of it being a cult classic. The scene where the guy slams him against the locker and he kicks at the air impassivly is already a peice of our cultural lexicon, so from that standpoint it's a must-see. However, Roger Ebert's comments about the film and its audience are spot on:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...406180306/1023

We can laugh at comedies like this for two reasons: Because we feel superior to the characters, or because we pity or like them. I do not much like laughing down at people, which is why the comedies of Adam Sandler make me squirmy (most people, I know, laugh because they like him). In the case of Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), I certainly don't like him, but then the movie makes no attempt to make him likable. Truth is, it doesn't even try to be a comedy. It tells his story and we are supposed to laugh because we find humor the movie pretends it doesn't know about.

[...]

Napoleon seems to passively invite ridicule, and his attempts to succeed have a studied indifference, as if he is mocking his own efforts.

I'm told the movie was greeted at Sundance with lots of laughter, but then Sundance audiences are concerned with being cool, and to sit through this film in depressed silence would not be cool, however urgently it might be appropriate.

[zman]

May I file the term "Hollaback Girl' in my old thread about Culture Pollution?

[chasqui]

Napoleon Dinamite was a dumb, dumb movie. The kind that you are left dumber after having seen. That said, I must admit that after watching it I realized that I had laughed quite a bit. Yes, I enjoyed it! I don't think I'll be wearing a 'vote for pedro' t-shirt anytime soon though. If you have not seen it, rent it - but don't say you haven't been warned about being dumber after the experience!

[Gedunker]

I'm wondering at what point do people become divorced from current culture. Age, marriage, parenthood, what? I read the names of bands/albums/songs posted by many Cyburbian Whippersnappers here and I have absolutely no clue.

[zman]

I'm wondering at what point do people become divorced from current culture. Age, marriage, parenthood, what? I read the names of bands/albums/songs posted by many Cyburbian Whippersnappers here and I have absolutely no clue.

I am 24 and I have been divorced and/or disconnected with popular culture probably since...oh... 1996? Somewhere around then... really helped my social life in a very superficial and clicky High School

[geobandito]

(boy you are getting some lessons today!! )

Y'all are providing an invaluable service here. I'm 38 and it's not until the last few years that I can feel myself really slipping on my pop culture references. Most of the time I don't care and it's a good thing (not knowing the names of The Real World casts anymore is somewhat liberating). However, I don't want to feel middle-aged yet.

[Wannaplan?]

We can laugh at comedies like this for two reasons: Because we feel superior to the characters, or because we pity or like them.

Too bad Ebert can't count. That's three reasons, not two: 1) Because we feel superior to the characters, 2) because we pity them, and 3) becasue we like them. I know he thinks there are only two reasons, but clearly, he is dismissive to those who may in fact like the character. To me, the movie was a delight. I could certainly empathize with Napolean's awkardness, not only with his classmates, but also to his weird family members. And that's not empathy based out of pity. I like the character because I can identify with him and his family.

[BeansandCod]

I'm wondering at what point do people become divorced from current culture. Age, marriage, parenthood, what? I read the names of bands/albums/songs posted by many Cyburbian Whippersnappers here and I have absolutely no clue.

Probably once your age has exceeded the demographic that marketing dorks are appealing to..... or you just wake up one day and realize you have a life - and it's pretty good, thank you very much....

I dunno - I lost touch with anything after about 1988......

[luckless pedestrian]

Y'all are providing an invaluable service here. I'm 38 and it's not until the last few years that I can feel myself really slipping on my pop culture references. Most of the time I don't care and it's a good thing (not knowing the names of The Real World casts anymore is somewhat liberating). However, I don't want to feel middle-aged yet.

i got disconnected when i moved from boston to an island off the coast of Maine, and not necessarily becasue i am 41, though i know that factors in...

duh...

but the internet at least keeps me up to date as to how out of it i really am - lol

[noottamevas]

I'm wondering at what point do people become divorced from current culture. Age, marriage, parenthood, what? I read the names of bands/albums/songs posted by many Cyburbian Whippersnappers here and I have absolutely no clue.

I realized I was out of touch when my teen aged daughter came down stairs in an outfit that left little to the imagination and I said "Your not leaving this house in that young lady"
Before the words were out of my mouth, I was thinking "Good Lord I've become my parents"

[michiganplanner]

Cyburbanites notwithstanding and very informally, I have found those who liked the movie could usually point to a character and say "There was a kid just like that in high school....John Smith or (insert name here)...." Therefore, I extrapolated that those who did not like the movie were probably "kids just like that."

Repeat, I have no scientific evidence of this and cyburbanites nothwithstanding.

[jordanb]

^-- So you're saying that people who like the movie enjoy sophomoric ridicule, while those who don't have empathy?

To be honest I don't think there has ever been a kid just like him. He's a caricature of a hopeless nerd.

[Maister]

I'm wondering at what point do people become divorced from current culture. Age, marriage, parenthood, what? I read the names of bands/albums/songs posted by many Cyburbian Whippersnappers here and I have absolutely no clue.

I don't know what you're talking about! I am as hep at 41 as any cat out there, baby! Why, I listen to that crazy rock n roll music (she loves you yeah yeah yeah...), look at stuff on the internets (that weather channel is really something!) and wear rebellious clothing (shoot, my jeans have patches on them!), and talk like any teen you'd happen to meet (Those are some groovy threads, man. Let's go to your pad and chill!), and I play all those popular computer games (Pac Man and Donkey Kong rule!)
Nope, I've got a gen Y soul....

[Jaxspra]

Y'all are providing an invaluable service here. I'm 38 and it's not until the last few years that I can feel myself really slipping on my pop culture references. Most of the time I don't care and it's a good thing (not knowing the names of The Real World casts anymore is somewhat liberating). However, I don't want to feel middle-aged yet.

hold on, hold on, hold on...as much as I would love to be one of the "y'all" I am 32 and way out of touch with much pop culture, especially music. Some of the band names and such that I see around here I start wondering when I lost touch, I was married to a "rockstar" for gawd sake's. I have two little one's and the 8 year old is very "into" whats going on around him , I think thats the only reason I keep abreast of current trends...