I Don't Get It

Wow, I'm surprised by all the comments I got on my last post. I thought for sure you guys were gonna leave me hangin'. I figured I'd be all, "Hello! Freak Flag! Flying!" and the internet would be all: *crickets* but no! You guys are the best.

You know what else is the best? The List gave me an idea for another post idea. Yay, blog fodder! I'm far from being a pop culture princess, but I like to think that for the most part, I'm pretty on top of what's going on in the world of entertainment and other media. For the most part. On the other hand, there are some things that I just. don't. get. Sometimes it makes me feel old. Sometimes it makes me feel stupid. Sometimes -- like right now -- it makes me want to make a list. You're welcome.

• Buffy - You know what's funny? When something becomes such a pop culture phenomenon that later, you can look back and remember exactly where you were when you first heard about it as though it's an historic event. For instance, I remember overhearing a commercial for this new show based on that movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer and thinking, "Seriously? Yeah, good luck with that." I was wandering in and out of my room getting ready for bed, and I'm pretty sure it was hot. The weather, that is, not my bed. Yeah, it was probably the end of summer, considering the fact that it was the first I'd heard of this new show. Anyway, I remember ragging on this show with my cousin Jonesy, who was living with us at the time. We agreed that it was pretty much the dumbest idea we'd ever heard of, and would probably get cancelled after two episodes, if that. Um. Yeah. So obviously we were wrong, but you know you were probably thinking the same thing back then. Anyway, my point (point? there was a point?) is that by the time I heard that the show did not suck, that the show was actually not what you'd think, that the damn show was actually good, it was too late. My geek cred means I can follow a reasonably simple conversation about Buffyverse canon, that I think it's funny to call people stupid bitcas and I know what happens if Angel gets, you know, truly happy but it's not the same. I'd catch an episode of Buffy every now and then but I was never able to catch the feeling, you know? That intangible thing that makes a viewer into a fan and a fan into a Whedonite. Which brings me to:
• Firefly - Short-lived, brilliant, amazing. Yes, I've heard it all but I've heard it all too late, literally this time. By the time I heard how great this show was, it was off the air. I now have the entire series on DVD, but I have yet to watch it. Do I really want to get attached to another rare television gem, only to watch it come to an premature end? Not really. Bah.
• Harry Potter - Another phenomenon I found out about too late. Sometimes I think about starting the series, but I've already been spoiled for so much of it I wonder if I'd be able to enjoy it. I recently found out that Jim Dale does the audio book, though, and it's pretty tempting. Hm, what to do?
• RSS feeds - What? What does this even stand for, again? I mean, I think I grasp what it is, I just can't figure out why I should care. Maybe it's the way I've heard it explained. I think I have some kind of disability that renders me unable to comprehend simple concepts unless they are explained just so. I couldn't figure out hand-over-hand parking to save my life, until I actually watched my driving instructor's hands as he was doing it, only to realize that he was simply grabbing the side of the fucking steering wheel. "You mean grip the side of the steering wheel?! That's it?! I can do that." Fuck's sake, people, maybe you don't call it "hand-over-hand" parking if I'm not literally supposed to do just that. Seriously though, I'm like Amelia Bedelia sometimes, so if someone could break all this blog tech down into CLEAR, SIMPLE CONCEPTS for me, that'd be swell.
• Text messaging - Oh, I get it. I just don't want it. I'm sorry, these keys are ... all little, and I keep hitting the wrong one, and then it keeps telling me I want to type something I don't want to type, and fuck this noise, how about I just call you and tell you what I want to say? Like, out of my mouth and stuff. And maybe you can send me an email since ur soo in luv wit typing lol. Actually, I think we had the text-messaging function disabled on our cell phone plan, so I really don't think about this anymore ... unless I accidentally hit the Messaging button. Which happens less frequently than you'd think, really.
• Hip hop - Maybe it's wrong to pan an entire genre of music, but oh look I just did. Maybe I'm too old to accept that this is what passes as entertainment, and too young to appreciate hip hop for what it was supposed to be instead of what it has become. Maybe at one point it was meaningful, important, a natural by-product of the twentieth-century black American zeitgeist, but now? Now it's this. What. The. Fuck. Maybe I'm getting old, but this just makes me want to vomit and then punch that guy in the face for looking and acting like a jackass. It also makes me sorry you had to watch that. I'm sorry, no one deserves that.
• Monty Python - Okay, before you even go there, please don't tell me that I don't understand British humor. I understand British humour humor, okay? I like Are You Being Served? and Mr. Bean and Extras (speaking of late, great shows). I like frigging Shakespeare and Swift, for that matter. I enjoy British comedy of both the broad and refined varieties, so I don't think something's getting lost in translation, however much coming across a Python sketch makes me feel like I've wandered in on kabuki theater. I figure it's one of three things turning me off: either this stuff is so dated it's not funny to me (like a lot of overestimated [IMO] early SNL), or I'm not giving it a chance to make me laugh before being driven to turn the channel, or this shit is really just not funny. Take your pick.
• Bashing Blogger - Um, hi. It's free. Now I'll admit I haven't had Blogger do anything truly heinous, like swallow my entire blog whole, but even when it's being, uh, quirky I can't complain too much. At one point, I wanted the cachet of my very own web address, but it just proved to be too much of a headache so I came crawling back to Blogger. Blogger is so easy to use even my Amelia Bedelia ass can't screw it up, it actually helped me learn some basic HTML, and also? It's free. I like free.
• Thongs - both the undergarment and the footwear. I don't like paying to be uncomfortable.

Admit it: what stuff -- popular or otherwise -- do you just not get?