What do you guys think? Half the things people talk about on Facebook or even on this board, I don't know anything about. I don't have any video game consoles newer than an N64 and neither do I play one at a friend's house, and I don't have live television (I have Netflix only). I feel incredibly "out of the loop" on current culture. Is it just being a TV watcher and a console gamer that I'm missing?
It's not that I necessarily think poorly of myself, I mean I'm fine with not having these things, but I wish I could take part in more of the discussions of my friends (esp. DS games, Doctor Who, Community, Parks and Recreation, etc.)
The title made me think this topic would be about anthropology or something, if only because I've had anthropology on the brain.
It's much faster to learn about pop culture second-hand than first-hand. For any given work, read the plot summary on Wikipedia, check any relevant items on Know Your Meme, and, if you want to go the extra mile, look at the TV Tropes article, and bam, you can fake your way through a whole conversation.
Not to mention that many people enjoy recapitulating fiction. Ask 'em what happened in volume such-and-such of their favorite slice-of-life manga and you're just giving them an opportunity.
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"A writer of story books!… Why, the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler!"
In fact, for many media franchises, all you really need to know is one sound bite:
Doctor Who: "Exterminate!"
My Little Pony: "20% cooler"
Monty Python: "This parrot is dead!"
Arrested Development: "I don't know what I expected."
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "I hope she has a funny aneurysm."
Dark Souls: "****, this game is hard."
Minecraft: "****ing griefers."
League of Legends: "****ing insta-lockers."
Portal: "The cake is a lie."
Team Fortress 2: "That such-and-such is a spy!"
Seinfeld: "Newman!"
Garfield: "I hate Mondays."
Paul Clifford: "It was a dark and stormy night."
The Olive Garden: "unlimited breadsticks"
Barack Obama: "change"
The Bible: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."
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"A writer of story books!… Why, the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler!"
I...don't really agree with what Kodi posted. My suggestions instead:
Kodiologist posted...
Monty Python: "She's a witch!"
Dark Souls: "You died."
League of Legends: ...just anything involving the terrible community
Team Fortress 2: "Sandwich."
The Bible: "John 3:16."
And um, dumb question, but doesn't Netflix HAVE Doctor Who, Community, and Parks & Rec?
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Well, there is a new accent of n00b language. It's called: Vet LUEser goes Foreign!-MegaSpy22
Those must be the pants of the gods!-Digitalpython
I think you're talking about a question of being "other" culturally aware. It's very easy to be culturally aware of the groups you're already a part of because you're actively generating/experiencing/reinforcing its cultural material.
For example, I've got friends who watch waaaaaay more movies than I do, so when they make jokes/references to them, I'm usually a bit slower on the uptake. So yeah, no live TV or newer video games means you miss out on those areas, but as the others suggested, that's relatively easy to catch up on second-hand if you want to.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/ukealii50/kylo.jpg - Thanks uke!
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/829/07kyloforce.png - Thanks Diyosa!
Dark Souls: "You died."
Close enough.
The Bible: "John 3:16."
I tried to resist the obvious choices, like Numbers 22:21.
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Etic or bust.
Gah, now I've looked up Numbers 22:21. Then, I noticed that there was a "view other versions" button of sorts. So, I somehow feel the need to post a few.
New International Version (I think this was this site's default):
Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials.
Okay, I'll treat this as "standard" for now.
New Revised Standard Version:
So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the officials of Moab.
A bit different, threw in a 'so' and made Moabite officials into officials of Moab. Oh, also, this one used a bonus comma (I believe it to be the Oxford comma, but I'm not enough of a grammar person to want to say so for sure).
King James Version:
And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
Okay, 12 year old me had a moment of "LOL, saddled his ass" but it passed quickly. Interesting that this older version calls them 'princes' rather than officials. Also, the X, and Y, and Z annoys me a little. I know I said I'm not really a grammar person, but my bad grammar detector is definitely going off, although perhaps the rules of grammar were different back then?
Jubilee Bible 2000 (whaaa? They actually named a Bible that?):
So Balaam rose up in the morning and saddled his female ass and went with the princes of Moab.
Hmmm... Closer to the King James version, for sure. Strange that the gender of the ass was specified.
Wycliffe Bible:
(So) Balaam rose early, and when his she ass was saddled, he went forth with them.
I guess the 'So' is optional? Also, based on this and Jubilee, I'm guessing that the original text specified a gender for the donkey. As to why the more commonly used versions haven't tried to include this, I'm wondering if the source language was such that all animals had to be assigned a gender in a "built in" fashion, so this information was not emphasized, but these more obscure translations wanted to try to preserve that information.
The Voice (I kid you not. This is the first version of the Bible I've found without "Bible" in its title.):
So when morning came, Balaam got his donkey ready. He set out with the Moabite elders.
Two sentences, rather than one. Also, these officials turned princes are now elders. I suppose at least prince and elder are not mutually exclusive, just look at prince Charles.
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition:
Balaam arose in the morning, and saddling his ass went with them.
Very different sentence structure. Makes who "they" are seem ambiguous, perhaps it is addressed earlier. Not sure if it is more or less accurate, but it has a sort of a ring to it. I kind of like this version.
Not sure why I just did this, honestly. But it was kinda fun, I guess?
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Fame is but a slow decay.
-Theodore Tilton
Kylo, I guess I'm just talking about American pop culture.
Netflix has Parks and Rec -- I'm not sure about the two others. But I'm already trying to play catch-up by finally having gotten into the Walking Dead. I mean I just watched Prison Break a year ago and then 24 I just got done with. I'm super duper far behind and the backlog just grows faster than I can take care of it.
I know it doesn't have community
I had to get Hulu+ for Community and immediately found it a worthwhile investment. It's basically made for people who grew up with/on the internet. Not in terms of making lots of pop culture references that you'll get, but in terms of tone and some of the way jokes are set up etc. (You need to watch past the first four or so eps, because they've more or less admitted to having done a bait-and-switch with NBC to get through the pilot stage. Though who knows whether that's true or just a fun story they tell later.)
But honestly like 90% of everything is terrible. If you're willing to walk away from stuff that you're not actually enjoying (which is admittedly hard). Here are prepared remarks on the subject from Slate's Gentleman Scholar:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/gentleman_scholar/2013/07/literary_advice_for_men_do_i_have_to_read_my_friend_s_novel.html
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir