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ToxicSlurpee posted:Political jokes just kind of write themselves. It's true of basically every era. Every hack had a "Bob Dole likes Bob Bole Bob Dole" joke, and I seriously still see Lewinsky jokes out there.
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Oct 31, 2015 07:40
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twistedmentat posted:Every hack had a "Bob Dole likes Bob Bole Bob Dole" joke, and I seriously still see Lewinsky jokes out there. It's still a staple of an afternoon drive talk show host here in my area. It's kinda pathetic that he's still relevant... The 90's were almost the peak for political "humor". The 70's had Nixon and Ford, but it was still somewhat taboo. The 80's had everyone doing Reagan impressions, and the 2000's had the same for Bush, but the 90's had EVERYONE turning into a political "satirist". Bush Sr, Quayle, Perot, Dole, Lewinsky... SNL ran that stuff into the ground, but so did every hack comedian and talk show.
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Nov 1, 2015 12:06
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In Britain, the most memorable political satire was "Tony Blair as the Messiah" from about 1997 through to 2001. For example. Then Iraq happened, and it became "Tony B. Liar as a poodle sitting in Bush's lap".  Before that, Spitting Image did John Major as a literal grey man, but I don't think it was as effective. Political satire is only as strong as the personalities who are being satirised. So in the UK context, there was a lot of entertaining stuff in the Thatcher and Blair years, but it was less effective when Major, Brown and now Cameron were prime minister.
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Nov 1, 2015 17:10
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twistedmentat posted:Every hack had a "Bob Dole likes Bob Bole Bob Dole" joke, and I seriously still see Lewinsky jokes out there. Bob Dole doesn't like this!
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Nov 1, 2015 17:28
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Wheat Loaf posted:In Britain, the most memorable political satire was "Tony Blair as the Messiah" from about 1997 through to 2001. For example. Then Iraq happened, and it became "Tony B. Liar as a poodle sitting in Bush's lap". Mid 80's to mid 90's Australia had a similar program called "Rubbery figures" that satirized our government and the opposition. These were the years we had Bob Hawke as Prime Minister and Paul Keating in power and they both were some of the strongest politicians you could ever find. Absolute gold of a show even 25+ years later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWlC2V-ZMOM
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Nov 1, 2015 18:13
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GPTribefan posted:It's still a staple of an afternoon drive talk show host here in my area. It's kinda pathetic that he's still relevant... Well the biggest issue is that, at this point, one of America's two political parties has become an insane parody of themselves. Any joke you can make isn't funny because the reality is significantly worse. You can't really make fun of the Democrats because this batch is actually pretty boring. You can get a few laughs portraying Bernie as a wild-haired, crazy old man ranting at everybody but that's about as far as you can go. To make matters worse if you do make fun of a Democrat you start looking like a right wing nutcase. Once again the reality is that the right already made the joke but in the meanest, least funny way possible. In the 90's it was easier to make jokes because of the media circus going on. Doesn't help that politics are so goddamned depressing right now that nobody wants to think about them.
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Nov 1, 2015 22:01
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It kind of reminds me how the 90s was when conspiracy culture really took off. It had always existed, in self published books, and poorly photocopied stuff crazy people who try to hand you on the street. Suddenly you have black helicopters, men in black, cattle mutilations and other stuff being talked about as if it was a serious thing. The X-files was early in tapping into this, and there were a few shows that tried to get in on it, plus movies and books. Everyone knew what Area 51 was, and suddenly it wasn't the Government secretly spying on citizens or knocking over foreign governments, they were now hiding the existence of Aliens and flying UFOs. You think there are lots of shows about this stuff now? There was a new one every day practically spouting off some new theory, or showing off new photos and videos. The main difference between then and now is it wasn't so whiney as it is today. Its all "why won't people believe my crazy theory?" and "scientists are mean because we won't take my story at face value with no evidence" then it was "look at this crazy thing!". Making fun of Obama and Hillary are basically "he's black!' and "she's a woman!" because right wing comedians are lazy. More serious comedians focus on the Right because there's so much more material to be found there.
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Nov 2, 2015 07:05
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twistedmentat posted:It kind of reminds me how the 90s was when conspiracy culture really took off. It had always existed, in self published books, and poorly photocopied stuff crazy people who try to hand you on the street. Suddenly you have black helicopters, men in black, cattle mutilations and other stuff being talked about as if it was a serious thing. The X-files was early in tapping into this, and there were a few shows that tried to get in on it, plus movies and books. The dawn of the Internet is basically what really facilitated this culture and also why it died out pretty much immediately after the new Millennium. The internet was able to act as a way for previously disparate conspiracy theorists to connect and feed into each other's evidence while still being just the right mix of mainstream and underground to make any ol' rube feel dangerous without actually being dangerous. Other factors encouraged this feeling-- there were tech giants but it wasn't quite the Google/Apple/Microsoft/Facebook/Amazon hegemony most  citizens know the internet as today. Video was a relative rarity due to bandwidth and broadband infrastructure limitations. So in a world where grainy .jpgs, text chat, and maybe VoIP were the primary means of communication suddenly conspiracy theories can look a whole more plausible.Come the year 2000 and Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and so on were basically securing the locks on what most of the public knew the internet as, and improving video software made it so conspiracy theorists could show themselves in all their truly batfuck insane glory. Sure a lot of them have survived, but it was like we had all been playing "government conspiracy" in a dark bar and the lights just went up and we realized that for the most part it was all make-believe. Then 9/11 hit and suddenly the entire country's focus shifted to the garbage on our plate and not the potential aliens sitting in Nevada.
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Nov 2, 2015 07:15
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Well, it all ties into the End of History concept, doesn't it? Without the Soviet Union, people needed to pick out an Enemy, so they chose their government. Then, 9/11 happens, the new Enemy is Global Terrorism, and people want to be able to trust that the government isn't scheming against them, so the conspiracy theory stuff goes out of vogue for a few years. The 1990s had Mulder and Scully; the 2000s had Jack Bauer.
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Nov 2, 2015 11:56
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Very true. Even so I doubt conspiracy theories against the US gov't would have taken route if crackpots were able to jump immediately to streaming video instead of cryptic "underground"-looking geocites and angelfire pages.
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Nov 2, 2015 12:14
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Indeed. You know, it's always seemed to me like there was a preponderance of doomsday cults - which often came to sticky and self-inflicted ends - in the 1990s, both in America and elsewhere. There were groups like the Branch Davidians, the Order of the Solar Temple, Heavens Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, and probably thousands of others who never got any headlines. Even many of the far-right militias had shades of that to them (personally, I prefer the ones who thought that upon entering its perihelion, the Comet Hale-Bopp would summon the evil planet Nibiru from behind the sun to consume the world, to the ones who were paranod that a black helicopter was going to land in their back garden and cart you off to a FEMA death camp because they owned a rifle). Of course such sects and societies have always existed, but there is something about their relative prominence in the 1990s that's especially striking. I guess it's an End of History thing.
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Nov 2, 2015 13:14
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All this talk of 90s dance music and no Scatman John? A shameful thread. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6oXW_YiV6g I had this on tape (including a B side with a hilarious "stadium" version or something which had pianos and poo poo), and I am pretty sure I remember all the "words" 20 years later. I was actually talking to someone about this the other day and they said "I heard he died scatting" which is an unfortunate turn of phrase. He actually died of throat cancer.
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Nov 2, 2015 13:48
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y-8ZUQSVKg
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Nov 2, 2015 14:27
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Powerful Two-Hander posted:All this talk of 90s dance music and no Scatman John? A shameful thread. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic2Cjw7kydI
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Nov 2, 2015 15:33
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Wheat Loaf posted:Of course such sects and societies have always existed, but there is something about their relative prominence in the 1990s that's especially striking. I guess it's an End of History thing. Topping it off was the Y2K fad which governments blew billions on safeguarding systems in the event of a colossal system meltdown and much of Y2K was linked into the prepper movement where people stockpiled out of fear. "Y2K Compliant" stickers were pretty common in the late 90's - I even found them stuck on disk drives.
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Nov 2, 2015 15:38
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Powerful Two-Hander posted:I had this on tape (including a B side with a hilarious "stadium" version or something which had pianos and poo poo), and I am pretty sure I remember all the "words" 20 years later. I didn't even know (or forgot) that Scatman John died, and I was convinced that The Scatman on the show Eagleheart was actually him. The guy who played him looked a lot like him.
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Nov 2, 2015 16:08
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At Wobbies World there's heaps to do. Bring your friends and mum too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RenS7Kxrmg
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Nov 2, 2015 16:18
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I'm pretty sure the kind of people who in the 90s went off to the woods to play soldier thinking they're going to be defending Michigan from a Soviet invasion from Canada are all in the Tea Party and the ones who rushed to defend Cliven Bundy against the police. Militia stuff was really weird. They all had their own ideas, but it was pretty common to believe that the UN was just about to declare Martial Law on the US and the UN troops hidden on US soil would go and take everyones guns away. Also, they could tell you about the hidden masonic and Jewish imagery in the symbols of the US for hours. It was also the first place I heard about the Gold Standard and how because money was no longer backed by gold, it wasn't actually valid, so anyone could print their own money. Mail order survivalist stores would receive vouchers printed up by militias and other fringe groups to pay for peoples orders. Slugnoid posted:At Wobbies World there's heaps to do. Bring your friends and mum too! Oh cool a Bren Gun Carrier!
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Nov 2, 2015 19:24
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twistedmentat posted:I'm pretty sure the kind of people who in the 90s went off to the woods to play soldier thinking they're going to be defending Michigan from a Soviet invasion from Canada are all in the Tea Party and the ones who rushed to defend Cliven Bundy against the police. Oh totally. I was heavily involved with a couple online survivalist groups as a teenager until about 2007 and looking back, there was a distinct attitude of "The Russians cheated me out of getting to use my nuke shelter!" and bitcoin style sunk cost fallacy with a lot of the older users, as opposed to the post-9/11 paranoia from most of the newer users. I have no doubt that a lot of them immediately latched onto the current anti-government stuff after Obama got elected. I haven't really kept up on happenings but the SPLC published a list of attempted attacks by militia groups several years ago, and IIRC even going into Bush's second term people were still getting arrested by the feds for plotting to attack US military bases to reveal the secret battalions of UN peacekeepers housed there.
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Nov 4, 2015 09:36
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San Jose Shaaaaaaaarks hype video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0mCkXjitHY
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Nov 4, 2015 13:28
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Slugnoid posted:At Wobbies World there's heaps to do. Bring your friends and mum too! loving hell that brings back memories. Heres the actual ad youre quoting though which is etched into my brain like no other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLtBUS5fUow *edit, and a drat shame the late show doesnt exist anymore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78cnkV9j-so Nutsngum has a new favorite as of 17:24 on Nov 4, 2015 |
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Nov 4, 2015 17:21
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Get felt up by an 43 year old man dressed as an ill defined cartoon character made me laugh. Growing up there were two amusement parks nearby; Atlantic Playland and Upper Clements Park, sadly only the latter has ads on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEKJ8hzIk80 Hey kids, wanna work like a 19th century craftsmen!? Atlantic playland probably sends C&D letters to youtube to prevent them from being shown because they really made the place look like a hole.
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Nov 5, 2015 20:50
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ZDar Fan posted:The only thing worse than Aqua is an Aqua knock-off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbdvzoG82wo
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Nov 6, 2015 06:07
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Sounds familiar? Why would anyone cover this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StlMdNcvCJo
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Nov 6, 2015 06:42
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Celery Face posted:I just found out that the girl from Toybox was in another 90's music related thing. My god, it's beautiful. Much like the gal from Toybox. Anyway, here's my contribution to the Scatman John discussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mfg1Repy7k
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Nov 6, 2015 09:06
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Mu Zeta posted:Sounds familiar? Why would anyone cover this When this came out, MuchMusic had it in heavy rotation and always made a big deal about the fact he was in jail at that time, and the first thing he did after getting out was be interviewed. God drat that Toybox song is some lazy writing, even for bubblegum dance music of the 90s. It makes Vengaboys look like the Beatles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zbi0XmGtMw
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Nov 6, 2015 09:47
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Most Australians would recognise this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYx_xrAdisY That girl in it? She's currently my sister in law. EDIT: Wrong link. Sic Semper Goon has a new favorite as of 10:38 on Nov 6, 2015 |
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Nov 6, 2015 10:29
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Canadians will probably remember this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GIz4-KcPNo
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Nov 8, 2015 22:52
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Pussy Cartel posted:Canadians will probably remember this. Their first song had a video that featured another 90s Canadian feature, the host of terrible late night dating phone line infomercials. At least 2 people I know were in them because they'd go to a club and offer people $40 to say what they were looking for in a date. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUzqWCUcGao
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Nov 9, 2015 02:02
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re: commercialchat The one I always remember is the loving zoobooks commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8EvnM2XUTI  AND THE TIGER POSTER!
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Nov 9, 2015 03:39
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKNuBoymppk
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Nov 9, 2015 03:42
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD9i39GENWU
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Nov 9, 2015 03:46
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President Ark posted:re: commercialchat These are memorable not only because I had all of them as far as I know but also because this same commercial played for like a decade straight well into the 2000s. It has to be one of the longest run kids commercials ever which is crazy considering I don't think it was an actual monthly thing
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Nov 9, 2015 05:11
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HOLY poo poo IT'S STILL A THING http://www.zoobooks.com/
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Nov 9, 2015 05:14
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I had to go find the ads, because they are amazingly 90s, not just the fashions and the hair, but just the concept of a long rear end infomercial for what was a sex line pretending to be a dating line. Dial a Date was a fixture of late night tv in Canada as I mentioned in the earlier post, just I have a name now. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxv57k_dial-a-date_lifestyle Not on youtube, just on dailymotion I found. if you care, you can read how this made David Bronstien, the host, rich http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/03/that_time_when_the_prince_of_love_ruled_late_night_toronto_tv/ I was surprised to find out infomercials still exist, you'd think that spending money on web ads would be better money spent.
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Nov 9, 2015 05:16
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twistedmentat posted:I had to go find the ads, because they are amazingly 90s, not just the fashions and the hair, but just the concept of a long rear end infomercial for what was a sex line pretending to be a dating line. Dial a Date was a fixture of late night tv in Canada as I mentioned in the earlier post, just I have a name now. Christ Almighty it's like they couldn't afford to get the real Gilbert Gottfried as the voiceover announcer so they found some guy who sounded as close a possible
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Nov 9, 2015 05:20
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Hell, this was on constant rotation on Nickelodeon back in the 80s even.
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Nov 9, 2015 05:24
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tacodaemon posted:Christ Almighty it's like they couldn't afford to get the real Gilbert Gottfried as the voiceover announcer so they found some guy who sounded as close a possible One of the commenters on the BlogTO article i posted described him perfectly "A low rent Seinfeld by way of Gilbert Gottfried" While looking for this on youtube, I found some collections of 90s commercials, and I forgot that almost everything had a mail in offer. As I don't have kids nor watch kids shows on my own, do they still have limited time mail in offers that require proofs of purchase or a reasonable hand drawn facsimile?
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Nov 9, 2015 05:41
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Choco1980 posted:Hell, this was on constant rotation on Nickelodeon back in the 80s even. And then well into the 2000s.
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Nov 9, 2015 05:47
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Our school used Muzzy to teach us English, it was p. cool. All I remember is the bad guy was called Corvax and he was very clever. He really wanted you to know how clever he was.
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Nov 9, 2015 06:25
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