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Ransom Riggs
Attack of the pop culture references
by Ransom Riggs - December 20, 2007 - 7:28 AM

At some point in the mid-nineties, I noticed it. In everything from TV shows to music and movies, pop culture seemed to be folding in on itself; more and more referring only to other TV shows, music and movies. Rather than a dialogue, it seemed like mass media had been busy transforming itself into an echo chamber, culminating with phenomena like I Love the 80s (literally 100% pop culture references), bands like The Darkness and Chromeo who trade on sending up the musical cliches of the past and tee-shirt based attempts at humor that consist of nothing more than a silhouette of Fat Albert. (Which isn’t to say that Chromeo doesn’t rock my booty; they do.)

I’m not immune from pop culture reference disease, of course — heck, my “Attack of the Parasites” video for mental_floss is constructed entirely of Mystery Science Theater-worthy clips from old movies — but more and more it seems like artists who are really trying to say something new and profound are being hampered by their dependence on — nay, addiction to — pop culture. Take the new Richard Kelly film Southland Tales, for instance. I won’t ruin it for you if you haven’t seen it, but it’s a story that purports to take on such heady subject matter as the breakdown of modern society and the end of the world, and yet it’s so hyper-concerned with making too-cool in-crowd pop references with everything from its casting (why else would you cast Kevin Smith, The Rock and John Larroquette?) to its soundtrack (Blur, the Pixies, Radiohead) and even its tagline (”This is the way the world ends …”) that the film never ends up making enough sense to make a point at all!

Whew. (Rant over!) For the record, I loved Kelly’s previous film, Donnie Darko — also full of pop culture references — so no harm, no foul. I suppose what I’m getting at is that pop culture references certainly have their place, but they often become a substitute for actual (or at least original) communication. It peeved me so much that a few years ago I wrote a bizarre little comedy sketch called “Pop Culture Reference,” and this is it:
What pop culture references get under your skin?

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Comments (11)

  1. Don’t know if this is what you mean, but if I hear “We need to think outside the box” one more time, I’m gonna smack someone.

    posted by Fran on 12-20-2007 at 9:05 am

  2. I noticed this pop culture trend myself some years ago. I think it’s Quentin Tarantino’s fault. He definitely made it more acceptable at least, starting with his first film, “Reservoir Dogs”, which featured rambles on about everything from Madonna to “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”. Suddenly, referencing pop culture became the “in” thing to do. And the more obscure the better.

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 12-20-2007 at 9:05 am

  3. Not so much as a pop culture reference but modern slang.

    I hat the phrases “my bad” and “tak’n it to a whole new level”

    posted by Dean on 12-20-2007 at 9:25 am

  4. The show Will and Grace had NUMEROUS pop culture references to the point where it was annoying.

    posted by Daniel on 12-20-2007 at 9:25 am

  5. Let’s be “pro-active” (and I ain’t talking about the acne med) cause I got “alot on my plate” and “think outside of the box.” Please!

    And I’m tired of people “axs-ing” me questions. (ASK me! ASK me!)

    posted by Beth on 12-20-2007 at 10:31 am

  6. I have to admit, I’m a sucker for clever and well-placed pop culture references, although they can often be overused (or abused). One thing I think is important in this trend is that it allows filmmakers to root their characters in a world familiar to their viewers. Tarantino can create a stylized gangster world where the characters become real, modern people because they watch the same TV and movies as the viewing audience.

    posted by Jessie on 12-20-2007 at 10:32 am

  7. 2 of my favorite tv shows w good pop culture references are Scrubs and The Family Guy

    posted by Dean (again) on 12-20-2007 at 12:08 pm

  8. Jessie:
    I can definitely understand that perspective and in some ways I agree with it. I know it endears me to a character when I hear them talking about their love of Star Wars or something else from my childhood.

    However, think about the Shrek movies (esp. 2) for a minute. Some of those pop culture references were out of style, overused or irrelevant by the time the films came out in theaters. While those films have made a mint in our modern times, they’ll be forgotten in the years to come because their humor relies so much on the here-and-now. Whereas the films of Pixar, on the other hand, have a much more timeless aspect to them because so very few of their gags rely on current pop culture.

    I think referencing pop culture can be a crutch for writing – sometimes it props a character up as more realistic, other times it becomes their only way of standing at all.

    I think it all depends on how you use it, what the intentions are of the writer, and how the audience wants to consume it. Seth MacFarlane of “Family Guy” fame probably doesn’t care if people get his jokes 20 years from now, as long as he gets his product out there today. And I’m ok with that because I’ve been an avid fan since Day 1 of that show. But I’m also not looking for anything more out of it than a couple of laughs and I’ll be ok to see it fade into obscurity someday.

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 12-20-2007 at 12:59 pm

  9. The one pop culture reference is the annoying “Git R Done!” quote by the chrmingly erudite Larry the Cable Guy (sarcasm not included)

    I hear it all the time on the comedy network whenever he’s mentioned (I admit I DO like the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, though.), and I hear even little kids saying it without realizing that it’s a shortening of a longer saying by Larry basically about doing a girl. Hilarious.

    posted by heather on 12-20-2007 at 9:11 pm

  10. family guy, robot hcicken, american dad (well, anything that seth mcfarlane or seth green have to do with…) and basically every other show out there references pop culture. pop culture IS pop culture anymore. when i was younger, i hated when i didn’t understand pop culture references because i didn’t get any of the jokes and i thought it was my sense of humor that was lacking.

    posted by Holly on 12-23-2007 at 2:00 pm

  11. Pop culture lingo can get stale fairly quickly. So can overused, day to day phrases like “at the end of the day…”

    Thanks for the comedy youtube video… it was kind of entertaining.

    posted by Daniel E. Friedman on 12-25-2007 at 3:31 pm

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