Monday, June 2, 2008

See, it's got raisins in it...... You like raisins.

So, sometime last year, I think it might have been for Christmas, Cindy got me Trivial Pursuit. I love my trivia games, (as do most of my family) and I thought this was a great present. However, we discovered that she didn't get the current Genius edition, but the DVD Pop Culture one. This is going to be cool, we thought. Little did we know that, pop culture doesn't seem to be that popular here in Australia. Most of the things that it references, never existed Down Under, or weren't widely known. Consequently, it wasn't much fun for Cindy, (and I must admit, there were a vast number that I had no clue about, either!) and so has mostly sat on our shelf next to more used games, such as Tri-Bond, Picture This!, Scattagories, and Scene-It.

We also watch a lot of movies and tv, (mostly shows that we own or have downloaded... such as Star Trek TNG, DS9, and Voyager, MacGyver [Cindy's favourite!!], Smallville, ect...) and as such, are exposed to some pop culture there. After I got Cindy hooked on the Star Treks, which before she had always thought were unintelligent nerd trash, she started seeing a LOT of references to it in other shows, and understanding some more of the jokes and such.

One other show that we like a lot is Family Guy. There is so much mish-mash, random culture and current event references in there it's not even believable! While we were watching an episode a few months back, Peter was riding his maid as a horse, (don't ask...) and pulls up to a set of lights. Two Asian guys in gold suits pull up next to him, and one starts to announce a race in the style of
Howard Cosell. I was laughing at this, and Cindy had no clue. I was explaining to her that it was from a movie from the early 80's called Better Off Dead with John Cusack, (which one of my circle of friends really quite liked in high school), but she had never heard of it.

Just a few days ago, I got my bit torrent program working again, and have downloaded a few movies. One of which is Better Off Dead. I have just made Cindy watch it, and while I found it quite funny, I don't think she got it, (or maybe appreciated is the term....?) Evidently I now owe her "big time" for making her "put up with that mindless drivel" for an hour and a half. But you know what? We watched the Family Guy afterward, and she got the reference and laughed this time.... Maybe it's time to break out and dust off that pop culture edition again and see if we do any better now...?

11 comments:

ShazBraz said...

Oh, Better Off Dead is the best!

Sandra said...

Do you watch Stargate? Richard Dean Anderson is so much better in it- and I just crack up at all the McGyver references- and the kids just look at me funny.

tawnya said...

1. It IS unintelligent nerd trash.
Firefly, however...

2. Better Off Dead is a brilliant movie. "Gee Ricky. Sorry your mom blew up."

3. We are still mortified that you guys like Family Guy. (enter Mr. Burns shudder here!).

4. She would HATE Gilmore Girls. That show is 70% pop culture references!

Dustin said...

Yes, I think Better Off Dead is great! "You go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way; turn." hahaha

Yes, we watch Stargate. We just haven't gotten to see the last half of season 10 yet, though, and we kinda like Atlantis better, (even though we only got up to halfway on season 3...). I think we might go back and watch some of those SG-1 episodes again and see if she catches the MacGyver references now.

It is not unintelligent nerd trash. It actually is quite intelligent, thus why so many of the things we use today were invented... However, the original series is...painful. And the first season of TNG takes a bit to get going while they work out that they don't have to write episodes the way they did in the '60s....

What's wrong with Family Guy? It's funny... hehehe

We've never seen Gilmore Girls....

ShazBraz said...

Family Guy--ugh. I can't even make it through a commercial without dry heaving. Gilmore Girls is great but Tawnya is wrong; its more like 89% and you HAVE you watch it on captioning. And no TNG, no Jacob and Sharon! (and Ryker is yummy!)

Dustin said...

No TNG no Jacob and Sharon?

Dustin said...

And he looks so much better with a beard! Cindy

ShazBraz said...

Jacob and I met through a mutual friend. He would go over to her house every night to watch TNG; although I wasn't a huge fan, I would go over as well because I had just returned from my mission and didn't really know anyone else. Yada, yada, yada...now we're married AND I like TNG.

ShazBraz said...

Okay, guys...what's up with this rate of blogging?? What, are you out having a life or something???

tawnya said...

POST, POST, POST, POST, POST, POST, POST, POST, POST, POST

(are you annoyed yet??)

tawnya said...

Hey! I thought you promised an update!