You've never heard of Romper Room?!??!1
At first I thought they were talking about some political talking heads show.
A quarter of entering freshmen have some hearing loss already? Wow.
I've never heard of it either.
1,2: An aunt of mine was a Miss Whatever on Romper Room. In Wisconsin*.
*Like Beloit, in case heebie had never heard of it. And Beloit's about 10 miles from Janesville.
Heebie and teraz are apparently incoming freshmen.
"There has always been football in Jacksonville but never in Los Angeles."
Funnily enough, that's the one that stopped me short.
7: I did, but I never called them that. I thought they were called tin-can stilts or somesuch.
Well we do have our one beloved semi-pro team.
Who else had Romper Stompers?
I had homemade tin-can stilts.
Christ, my parents were cheapskates.
"Billy Graham is as familiar to them as Otto Graham was to their parents."
The fuck? Billy Graham has been famous since long before most of the parents of the class of 2016 were born! Idiots.
"There have always been web pages that other people were talking about but are now overloaded."
15: Maybe they meant Heather Graham?
A milestone I point out frequently: people who were born after the Berlin Wall fell voted in 2008.
I like the general idea of the list. It's a fun, eclectic collection of trivia, and probably genuinely useful sometimes to people who work with kids. However, I'd nitpick a lot of entries on it.
Number 55, for example: "Mr. Burns has replaced J.R.Ewing as the most shot-at man on American television." The problem is, those episodes of The Simpsons aired in 1995. Anyone could have watched them in reruns, of course, but they were already several years old by the time the Class of 2016 was old enough to remember them. Forget about those particular episodes; The Simpsons themselves is older than kids in the Class of 2016. If they're just adding that item to the list now, they're a bit late.
But then, I went back to see the first one, the 2002 list, and there's a lot of redundancy, so I think this list is more of an in-joke or an institution of its own than a genuine resource.
"For the class of 2016, there have always been rocks."
"No member of the class of 2016 has seen a human being with more than three noses."
"Jennifer Anniston is as well known to them as Amenhotep III was to those born in the reign of Akhenaten."
As far as I can remember, the Romper Stompers and a stuffed Oscar the Grouch were the only marketing tie-in toys we had, and I'm not sure that the latter even counts. Because, you know, it's Oscar.
15: Maybe the point was that Billy Graham isn't really that well known any more. Otto Graham stopped playing football in 1955 and his last year coaching at the pro level was 1968.
The 2005 list makes them seem old, cranky, and stupid.
"For as long as the class of 2016 has been alive, idiots have been making lists."
A few of these would also be true of people in the class of 1996, but in general this list does its stated mission well.
Not sure about "Breaking Bad" being an iconic TV series. I would guess that is watched by a massively greater fraction of professors than by students.
Also ... Selena? I'm in the class of 2000 and I only know her as a subject of a Jennifer Lopez movie. "Selena's fans" are the fans of Selena Gomez.
Also the constant use of "always" makes some of them really confusing.
"The Sistine Chapel ceiling has always been brighter and cleaner." How about this: "They are not aware that the Sistine Chapel ceiling used to be dark and dingy."
"History has always had its own channel." As opposed to what? And thinking the History channel still has programs about history will make you out of touch anyway.
"Little Caesar has always been proclaiming "Pizza Pizza."" I had no idea what this meant - was there some time when Little Caesar's had a different iconic slogan? Eventually I realized it means Little Caesar's pizza is more famous than the Edward G. Robinson movie. Which was also true 25 years ago, for fuck's sake.
In conclusion, I have now changed my mind about this list as it seems to be mostly a comedy routine.
From the 2005 list: "When they were born, Madonna was still a radiant woman holding a beatific child."
Isn't this like the opposite of the point of the list? Also, when I was born, Madonna had already released three albums.
"There has always been football in Jacksonville but never in Los Angeles."
What are they talking about? LA has a football team. David Beckham plays for it.
21 has to be right. I'm old enough to be the parent of entering college frosh, and I have only the vaguest notion who Otto Graham is.
I didn't realize the Lambeau Leap was only invented in 1993. Not sure why it's on this year's list instead of the Class of 2005, but that's something.
"Martin Lawrence has always been banned from hosting Saturday Night Live."
That is ... wow, an incident from 1994 that I had never heard of. And again, as opposed to what? And why would you be talking about Martin Lawrence anyway? If you must talk about him, shouldn't it be "The Class of 2016 only knows Martin Lawrence, and Steve Martin for that matter, as a star of family-friendly crappy comedy movies"?
Is this supposed to be a note to update your "banned from Saturday Night Live" reference from Charles Rocket to Martin Lawrence? How about updating it to Ashlee Simpson instead?
Jeez, this is infuriating.
FFS! The whole "always" construction just ruins the whole thing.
"The folks have always been able to grab an Aleve when the kids started giving them a migraine." How about this: "Nuprin or Bufferin no longer exists. Aleve is the headache drug now."
"Simba has always had trouble waiting to be King." How about this: "Make Lion King references, not Dumbo references."
WHO WILL PAY ME $100 TO WRITE A FIVE THOUSAND WORD BLOG PIECE ABOUT THIS?
I hate the Beloit list SO MUCH. It is so inane, so puerile, so based on absolutely nothing, and yet so wildly popular with college administrators and others.
Interestingly, Beloit is also the sound of a rock being thrown into a toilet.
It's almost like HGBG and RFTS aren't charmed when this press release comes out every year to tell everybody how comical it is that the typical college professor is so old and tenured and out of touch and unable to communicate with students.
30: I dunno, I'm enjoying the effect it is apparently having on Ned. All caps under his own name!
"The Class of 2016 is, on average, way more attractive than you are."
Martin Lawrence has always been banned from hosting Saturday Night Live.
Yeah, I'm doubtful that resonates for much of anybody at any age. Especially when they could have gone with something like "Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia have always been former countries."
I'd like Ned's version a lot better!
I'd like to see the Oxford version.
"Women have always been able to vote."
"Ruffs have always been out of fashion."
"The source of the Nile has always been known."
"Phlogiston has always been a discredited scientific concept."
The class of 2016 have never known a time when arranged marriages were the norm. Err. except for the ones who have come here from India.
The class of 2016 have never known a time when grown adults would not appear in public wearing shoes made of brightly colored plastic.
I'd like to see the Oxford version.
"M.K. Gandhi has always been considered a symbol of peace and religious freedom, not a megalomaniacal demagogue and traitor in breach of His Majesty's peace".
I still think of blue M&Ms as the "new" ones. They'll never catch on.
The two that particularly annoyed me:
Good music programmers are rock stars to the women of this generation, just as guitar players were for their mothers.
"Music programmers"? Do they mean DJs?
The Metropolitan Opera House in New York has always translated operas on seatback screens.
Well! This will certainly be pertinent to many, many Wisconsin residents.
This will certainly be pertinent to many, many Wisconsin residents.
And 99% of NYC residents.
and yet so wildly popular with college administrators and others.
This surprises the hell out of me. To me, it's just fodder for 90 seconds of morning show banter or the odd FB post, but it would never occur to me to take it seriously.
Of course, I don't interact with 18-y.o.s on a regular basis (except as sales clerks, I guess).
40 is awfully good.
Personally, I haven't gone to the Opera since they dumbed it down for the proles.
Not before, either, but still.
Today's incoming freshman are completely unfamiliar with the plot of Krull.
The entire list should just be replaced with this link.
47 - Don't say that! The plot of Krull is evergreen. Today's incoming freshman, however, will be unfamiliar with the transformative power of "Rubik, the Amazing Cube".
Huh. I've seen this list before, but don't remember it being so insipid. What does this mean:
Point-and-shoot cameras are soooooo last millennium.
Everyone is using SLRs now? Or is this a reference to cell phones? They sell all those cameras to grownups? What?
The class of 2016 has never walked down Forbes Avenue without blocking my path with a giant cart.
The class of 2016 has never been in my kitchen.
Paul McCartney -- the guy that sang on the lamest song on Thriller.
Michael Jackson is like their John Lennon, right?
Isn't Michael Jackson a guy who never really had a hit song since they were born and so his death was oddly traumatic for their high school teachers but let's go skip class?
Robert De Niro is thought of as Greg Focker's long-suffering father-in-law, not as Vito Corleone or Jimmy Conway.
I know there were sequels, but I would bet more 18-year-olds have seen The Godfather II and Goodfellas and have seen a Ben Stiller comedy that came out when they were 6.
The class of 2016 has never been more than 20 seconds away from being able to view of picture of a squirrel with overly large testicles.
The class of 2016 is thinking about experimenting with this new lesbian fad.
The class of 2016 wants to reinvent themself now that they've shaken off all the people who knew them since they were five.
I'd like to see the Oxford version.
"Oxford United have never won a trophy."
The class of 2016 thinks cafeteria food is gro-oss!
Isn't Michael Jackson a guy who never really had a hit song since they were born and so his death was oddly traumatic for their high school teachers but let's go skip class?
Yes, but they know him primarily as a child molester. Not, like, personally, though.
The Class of 2016 has always, minute by minute, been moving closer to death.
For their profs wasn't Michael Jackson the guy who had a bunch of hit songs when they were young and then went completely nuts, and so his death was oddly traumatic for lots of people, but let's switch the channel?
The Class of 2016 has always believed that the cold war was fought between Swaziland and Manitoba for control of a borax mine.
OT bleg: My sister needs a new router and wants to know if she needs IPv6. Advice?
The class of 2016 has always known how to buy the right router.
The Class of 2016 has always already purchased the right router and has always already ignored your question while fondling itself.
Since the beginning of time, the Class of 2016 has yearned to destroy the sun.
The class of 2016 has always been pwnd by some jokester stats guy in Pittsburgh.
55 surprised me with how long ago Meet the Parents was released. So the Beloit list has made me feel old, sort of, indirectly, and all it took was 55+ comments criticizing it.
The Class of 2016 has never experienced a significant change in fashion.
The Class of 2016 has always been at war with Unfogged.
The Biblical sources of terms such as "Forbidden Fruit," "The writing on the wall," "Good Samaritan," and "The Promised Land" are unknown to most of them.
Incidentallly, what's up with this one? Is it just a "kids today" thing, or is it about what translation of the Bible is most popular now?
The class of 2016 will never be able to get across a street without fucking around with some goddamned bit of electronic shit in the middle of their vacant-eyed amble to nowhere. (Can you tell I had to drive somewhere this morning?)
66: I'd go with a DeWalt myself.
The Class of 2016 has always considered the guava to be the forbidden fruit as set forth in the writings of Hermes Trismegistus.
The Class of 2016 has always known that birds are dinosaurs.
74: I assumed those were all now the titles of reality TV shows on minor cable channels that I've never heard of.
74: I've mentioned this lots before I think but it's pretty impossible for secular school books to use any sort of Biblical literature because one gets slammed by both sides. The secularists complain that you're trying to indoctrinate their children and the Godly complain that religious meaning/context has been stripped out.
Inside the Class of 2016 there are 13 chambers, one of which is filled with whipped cream.
I'd like to see the Oxford version.
The water closet has always been a standard article of household furnishing.
Their parents have never had more than three servants.
Their older brothers fear being accused of adultery, not buggery.
"The Hun" means Attila, not Wilhelm.
The Class of 2016 already sexed Mutombo.
Stacy's mom, who's got it going on, has a grandkid in the Class of 2016.
: I've mentioned this lots before I think but it's pretty impossible for secular school books to use any sort of Biblical literature because one gets slammed by both sides. The secularists complain that you're trying to indoctrinate their children and the Godly complain that religious meaning/context has been stripped out.
Even if that's the case, won't "most" Americans born in 2000 pick up at a minimum the Genesis story and the parable of the Good Samaritan through their family's worship, or indeed the general omnipresent religiosity (by UK standards) of American culture outside government contexts?
The class of 2016 will be insulted by 40-ish people who don't even know them.
The class of 2016 will always be perplexed when they hear their parents refer to Mr. Wahlberg, the tragedian, as "Marky Mark".
The Class of 2016 has always served this nation with honor, courage, and professionalism.
The Class of 2016 has always believed that dogs do not exist.
||
The Classes of 2009-2012 are making every possible excuse to come to my office today and ogle the new hot girl grad student! They are super obvious and annoying.
|>
8: 1,2: An aunt of mine was a Miss Whatever on Romper Room. In Wisconsin.
Comity - my kindergarten teacher had been a Miss Whatever on the Pittsburgh Romper Room. A celebrity! Although the most amazing thing about her was that she would tell us stories about her mother and father. My best friend and I thought they had to be ancient because she was so old - how could they even be alive? She must have been all of 25 at the time.
One of the Romper Room ladies was involved in a famous early-ish abortion rights case. She'd taken thalidomide during her pregnancy before knowing the effects, I think. She sued for the right to terminate her pregnancy in the states, even though she could afford to fly elsewhere for the procedure (which she ultimately did, since she lost the case).
66: I know nothing about routers, but the wirecutter folks have a "best router" recommendation of some sort.
Unless they got held back at some point or are nontraditional students, the Class of 2016 has never been alive when the Pittsburgh Pirates had a winning season.
I always think of "Romper Room" together with "Doctor Dentons", as two mysterious unknown concepts frequently found in the children's books and young adult books and family-oriented humor books I got from the library. "Go get your Doctor Dentons!" the sister would say to the brother. "Please explain what 'Doctor Dentons' are!" I always wanted him to respond, but he never did.
Class of 2016 doesn't even know me as a 10th grader.
Excuse me, has never known me as a 10th grader.
The Class of 2016 does NOT excuse you. The Class of 2016 says NO EXCUSES.
The Class of 2016 is feeling woozy.
93: Ended up in Sweden. "Miss Sherri" from Phoenix, there was TV movie made about her with Sissy Spacek. She is mentioned on the Romper Room Wikipedia page.
The list does strike me as stupid as usual, now that I can get to it. "Kurt Cobain has always been dead" stings a bit
, though. For many of the items, though, I'm never sure if it's them or me being out of touch.
Though though though. Writing tics, represent!
93: Sherri Finkbine? She's is in my old bioethics text, but the didn't mention she was on Romper Room, but I guess she was.
94: Thanks. I'd forgotten about Wirecutter.
The class of 2016 thinks Leslie Neilson is a woman.
95: THAT MAY BE CHANGING MY FRIEND
For the class of 2016, it has always been perfectly acceptable for dudes to make movies of their bros banging chicks at parties and post them to youface or whatever.
In which years should authority figures have stopped referring to The Goonies, Jurassic Park, or the works of Michael J. Fox? New Doctor Who vs. the original series? Given a list of celebrities, which are musicians, which are reality TV stars, and which are actors? Looking forward, in which year will people think of Chris Pine as the captain of the Enterprise? (I assume it's not yet, but maybe that's just because I'm old.)
It's possible to imagine a useful, and/or funny, list of cultural references by generation. Beloit's needs work.
The Class of 2016 cannot understand an episode of Happy Days without translation.
The class of 2016 thinks Leslie Neilson is a woman.
The class of 2016 thinks of Liam Neilson the way we old fart professors think of Clint Eastwood.
The class of 2016 can't understand why every one has to exit the bus from the front door but nobody understands that.
111: quit calling me that lady from that show nobody watches.
The class of 2016 is not capable of laughter.
The class of 2016 have never seen a violin.
The list does strike me as stupid as usual, now that I can get to it. "Kurt Cobain has always been dead" stings a bit
, though.
Thing is, with lists like these, 99% of the sting just comes from "These ostensible adults were born in 199x". The specific reference doesn't matter , except for a handful of genuine cultural shifts (eg omnipresence of social media).
The class of 2016 can't understand why every one has to exit the bus from the front door but nobody understands that.
Again, I'm going to have to, dangerously, ask for an explanation. In the UK, exiting the bus from the front door is strongly deprecated. At least by bus drivers.
Every damned year I wonder when the Beloit faculty will get tired of making an annual public display of their fear of death.
In the UK, exiting the bus from the front door is strongly deprecated. At least by bus drivers.
NYC too.
For the class of 2024, the Beloit Mindset list has always been a major cultural touchstone, eagerly anticipated by adults everywhere.
118-120: There seems to be a strong correlation with city size here. In Omaha, people always exited from the front, and here you get kind of a mix. Maybe once in a hundred drivers you get one who will yell at you for not using the back exit. Also, infuriatingly, the drivers here will often pull into the stop such that there is some kind of obstruction (bus shelter, mailbox, sign post, etc) in front of the back door, so that you have to squeeeeeeeze by it on your way out.
Oh, also, the teenage clerk at the supermarket last night claimed never to have heard of kale.
Beloit Mindset List, Class of 1918.
118.last: On "outbound" trips (i.e. those starting from downtown), you pay as you exit meaning you can't exit from the back. They do this because of Pittsburgh's stubborn refusal to rethink anything somebody once got irked at having to wait for a bus to load downtown.
Lamo.
But, having lived with a member of the class of 2016 since 1994 -- and for 3 more days yet -- one does find the need to add details to stories to account for changes in communications technology, etc.
In the UK, exiting the bus from the front door is strongly deprecated. At least by bus drivers.
It has gotten a lot better here, but when I first lived in the Boston area, I missed my stop on many occasions because the driver didn't think to open the back door. Yelling only sometimes helped.
Here the drivers are breaking a rule if they open the back door on some trips.
SF and East Bay buses play recorded instructions to exit from the rear.
Doubtless pwned but BAUDS? Really? I am pretty sure someone born in 1994 has never encountered that word.
130: I noticed that one too and had the same reaction.
The class of 2016 have never seen a violin.
Jokes like this will never fail to make me laugh.
The Class of 2016 has always been at war with Eastasia. Oh, wait. That one's true. (Pwned by 73, sort of, but not really.)
Here in DC, I'm pretty sure you're allowed to exit the bus in the back or front. Sometimes it's hard to get them to open the back doors, in fact.
Every damned year I wonder when the Beloit faculty will get tired of making an annual public display of their fear of death.
Presumably at some point they will in fact die.
The class of 2016 doesn't understand their own mortality.
"Always" is continuing to drive me insane.
My daughter brought home this drawing from kindergarten today. The caption is THE MONSTR IS THROING UP BLD.
All of the pictures I ever got back from kindergarten had "Redrum, Redrum, Redrum" as the caption.
The class of 2016 has always driven AWB insane.
You shouldn't screen Begotten for your children until they turn 10, Apo.
Adding "in bed" here provides surprisingly little humor value.
This entire thread is extremely delightful but 137 made me laugh so hard I thought I was going to thro up bld.
p.s. I will have you know I do not light a candle every year to commemorate the day we trudged out of the dark ages and finally had translations of Die Frau Ohne Schatten on the back of the seat in front of us and no longer had to crane our necks or rely on the singers' good diction or our own knowledge of Hoffmansthal. If anyone here is down with the gente, it is certainly I.
The class of 2016 will never understand the slang term "furburger."
The class of 2016 never got to masturbate to Rudolf Nureyev or Audrey Hepburn. Or is it OK if they were dead before you were born? (I'm asking for a friend.)
144: I believe you've made this joke before, and I responded by explaining that a really crucial hairy-pussy joke in a novel I was teaching gave my students the fits. What is Dr. Bear laughing about?
127: There's a certain tone and cadence to the utterance of the phrase "BACK DO'!" that is essential for the discerning urbanite to cultivate.
143: eh I mean you can pretty much pick that one up from context or no?
140: I would have guessed Caché myself.
Perhaps "furbuger" will come to refer, simply, to a genetically engineered meat-adjacent burger that has not been shorn of its incidental downy fur before preparation? Ahoy, utopia. Ahoy.
137: totally metal. Cryptic Ned can tell us what kind.
But seriously, if you want to feel old, ride in the back of the bus with three wise-ass jr. highschoolers talking shit and then commenting on the fact that all of their moms are 32 or 33.
151: Utopia Ahoy! The diet cookie where Moore is less!
147: The Pudendron, aka the Hairy Alpine Rose?
128: yes; they really shouldn't be doing anal when on acid.
They still make a Romper Stomper-type product; my sister just sent some to my son for his birthday. The comments have moved way past this, but I know how important Apo thinks this sort of thing is:
This durable Stepper set is a modern take on this classic toy. The sharp edges, rust issues and stability problems of home-made "can steppers" are eliminated by molding our own design with a flared base and anti-slip top textures.
THE MONSTR IS THROING UP BLD.
New mouseover?
In fact, let's just give apo's daughter full mouseover text authority.
It's getting harder to put a well in the Ogallala.
Fortunately, my family's land is closer to the Platte and doesn't need to draw water from that deep.
The class of 2016 knows that tumblr does not refer to gymnastics or liquor.
91: quick, someone go and ogle L as well.
This member of the class of 2004 admits that he would likely join the lower orders from 2009–2012 in their unseemly pursuits.
I am not the oglee, my new officemate is.
But you can take ajay's word for it that I'm worth an ogle, because we have met IRL.
Seriously though it seems like everyone I've ever met has made up some "let me google that for you" question to come ask me while they gawk.
Ages ago when my department hired a particularly tall and comely new professor (neb knows who I mean. No, not her. DA.), all the boys from other departments ran around asking, "OMG! Who's the new art history grad student?!"
Would you have been at the place I'm thinking of when the person I'm thinking of was hired? Hmm. ("Comely professor" sort of instantly brought a certain person, with whom I've never interacted, to mind.)
She was! I think she's talking about the one with two Ph.D.s, and not the one who co-taught a class with Sean Carroll.
168: Ah, so L. gets exclusive* ogling rights.
*Discreet I'm sure.
I think she's talking about the one with two Ph.D.s
IYKWIMAITTYD
180: Fresh Salt. An atmosphere of anoglic decorum was enforced by the presence of LB, Smearcase, Jackmormon and the formerly respectable Barry Freed.
...and the formerly respectable Barry Freed
Hey now, what is said on B&T stays on B&T.
Sorry, that's a wetware macro for me now.
Let me take this opportunity to emphasise that Barry Freed, as far as any of you lot need to know, is still respectable.
Right. That's much better.
...I think.
