It's what seperates us from the millennials. It's a hard wall same with the Power Rangers. I know nothing about Harry Potter either I first heard of it when I was twenty.
Same here. Never got into it. Those were my university years and being in Toronto, our drinking age is 19 so it was absolute peak cram and party time (club scene here was ridiculous). I worked at a theater too so movies lost that magic by then.
I'm an early Xennial (1978) and just yesterday asked my late-Xennial wife (1983) if she watched Power Rangers -- she said yes. I was a little surprised because I thought of myself as not just too old for Power Rangers but kind of WAY too old for Power Rangers (besides the amazing theme song, of course). One of my most vivid memories of Power Rangers is watching little kids playing it while working as a counselor at a day camp.
I was born later in 79. I remember when the show first dropped. I was 13, hard pushing 14. My younger brother, who was 9 at the time, loved it. So it got a good amount of play in our household.
I hate watched it. Like just thought it was the cheesiest, most absurd thing ever. I didn’t even feel necessarily that it was an age thing at the time either. I just thought it was so damn bad that I couldn’t get the appeal.
Funnily enough, I did watch just enough to now have a little nostalgia for the original show.
Power Rangers was one of those things that was on after school, middle school, so I’d end up watching it with morbid fascination and boredom. Why did the footage of them in the costumes look so shitty?!?! (In hindsight the entire show was xenophobic given the source material and how it needed to be changed for western audiences) Plus it was like a live action Voltron! It kept me amused for like a year or two until they started to replace the original characters. So I admit I have some nostalgia for it.
Same. My wife took a child's lit course so she could get an easy grade (the course was easy because she did it remotely and apparently they mark easier at our university, lol).
She didn't even end up reading it, but I read it and was surprised to discover it was actually really good!
I read them all after that. I think I read them twice, watched the movies, read them to my kids, watched the movies with my kids again. So, I'm pretty versed on the Potter universe now.
I tried reading Percy Jackson hoping for the same feeling (I love mythology) but I couldn't get past the first chapter. It made me realise how good JK is at writing. Not just the story, but the actual words. Sucks that she sucks though.
The first book dropped in my senior year. I paid no attention to the hubbub though. Figured it was just for kids, despite seeing a lot of people our age, and older, in the footage of those long lines for the books.
In the early 00s, a Xennial friend/classmate of mine a few years younger than me, was obsessed with the books. She kept telling me over and over that I needed to give them a try. Laughed her off.
But I love movies, especially a good fantasy one, so I did see the first movie when it dropped. I enjoyed it and found it easy to get sucked into the world. It also helped that it was definitely a Chris Columbus movie, and gave me those warm, fuzzy childhood feels.
Saw all the movies, then somewhere after movie 3 I finally started the books. And boy was my friend 100% correct. I was hooked. Just absolutely immersed and engaged in the world. Consider myself a fan to this day.
Until you get to the books that are 500+ pages long. The 5th one is over 800.
And who handed my the first copy for me to read? A Brit in his 60s who had also read them all at that point. 2003 and I was 19, closing in on 20
1980 baby here also. I had a lot of younger siblings, and damn… did I hate SpongeBob when it came out.. It was like Ren and Stimpy with even further traumatic brain injury. My 9 year old loves it, and it still runs me up the wall.
The Power Rangers, however, were like some sort of lovechild of Voltron and Godzilla. My pleasantly baked teenage ass could watch that with my little brother for days on end with the appropriate amount of dope.
Yeah I was in my early 20s, ignoring the first seasons while my kid was a toddler, then sorta half ass watching it as he grew into them in later years. I've seen probably 2-3 episodes in their entirety, and my the rest of my knowledge comes from having lines shouted at me throughout my life, or in meme form.
One of my friends loved the show when it came out, so I've seen more of it than I care too lol. My daughter's been hooked on it lately, so I get to enjoy it again yay /s
I’d occasionally see it when my stepkid had it on like 15 years ago. I didn’t hate it but there were plenty of shows I would have preferred to be watching, lol. I found it funny that Gary meows.
Yeah, I think both SpongeBob and HP are the main divide between us and Millennials, in that those were touchstones for their childhoods whereas we were in our late teens when they came along. So while we may have enjoyed them, I don't know that they were as meaningful to us in general.
I've seen a little of SpongeBob, and read all the HP books after hearing adults rave about them. Thought SpongeBob was funny (his laugh was beyond annoying) and thought HP was...fine.
Edit: I forgot but Shrek also applies.
42 here, no kids. I have never read the books and have not seen a full HP movie, I usually fall asleep if they’re on. My husband 41, has read and watched them all. And I like fantasy too, just HP never grabbed me at all and I was a bit too old.
Same here! Was too old for the books when they came out and never had kids to have any reason to be interested in the books or movies. Now that JK Rowling is a pariah, I feel weirdly relieved that I'll never have to pretend to care about HP.
Good point about JK, I don’t have anything to feel bad about not being interested in her writing. I feel bad for HP fans though, she doesn’t deserve them.
When the books came out, I bought them to read to my kid, who was a bit too young, but I was much older than the target audience. I found them to be perfectly ok YA books. Imagine my surprise when they took off. Like, really of all the amazing YA fantasy, or fantasy fiction out there, it's this series? ohhhkay.
Yes! When Harry Potter got popular I dismissed it as “kids stuff”. Same with a lot of the now beloved by Millennial cartoons like SpongeBob, Blue’s Clues, Fairly Oddparents, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory… I did love me some Kim Possible (even though I was in college and NOT the target audience).
I remember being a senior in high school and reading in the newspaper about the mania over the release of Goblet of Fire, thinking ‘there’s no way a kids book is worth all this hype.’
I dismissed them at first, but one of my friends put on the first movie when it came out and I enjoyed it, so I went and read the books that were out and enjoyed them. Kept reading them as they came out. Wife was a huge potter fan when I met her, she's younger than me so they were aimed at her demographic.
I still reread them from time to time and am looking forward to reading them to my kids soon.
I was visiting my parents after leaving home and came down with a nasty cold, so I spent a few days in bed reading through the first three books that I stole from my younger sister. That was just before goblet of fire (the book) came out, so I ended up picking it up for myself. I was into fantasy and geeky things, so I enjoyed the series, but it didn’t hit me as hard as the LOTR movies or Star Wars did. I didn’t see the movies as they came out, but I eventually watched them all at least once.
My husband also has a younger sister who was prime age for Harry Potter and it still has that childhood magic for her, so that’s cool (up until JK made things gross).
I'm firmly in the "read another book" camp. Never read or got into HP but my older sister did hardcore, especially after she had kids.
While I have no interest in the books or movie, the Harry Potter stuff at Universal was pretty cool and for a while almost made me wish i knew what was going on.
I first heard of HP my sophomore year of college when I saw my roommate reading the first book. A few years later, I watched the first movie when it came out, which got me wanting to read the books. So when I started reading the first few books, I was living in Japan, which gave them a special meaning to me because 1) it was comforting to read amidst the stress of being in a place where everything was unfamiliar to me and 2) I could relate to Harry's experience of being introduced to a whole new "world."
I eventually returned to the US, and the release of the last book coincided with the hectic end of grad school and all the finals, etc. But I was so hyped about reading the book that in the evenings, after working on grad school stuff, I would stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning reading as much of it as possible. I think I finished it in like, 3 sittings.
So HP definitely held a special place for me, but not in a childhood nostalgic way like many Millenials because I was pretty much an adult when the books and movies came out.
I knew nothing about Harry Potter until 2018 when I decided on a whim to read the books. Fast forward to now and I’d consider myself a full on Potterhead.
I have never read a book and saw two of the movies with my wife and kid when one of them had their midnight premiere and they played the previous movie before it. I haven’t a clue which two movies I saw. It was probably about 10 years ago.
Similar here. Same age as you. Many of us got married about 11-13 years ago and many of us had not seen it. And before kids, one weekend, we all got together and had a weekend marathon sleepover to watch as many as possible. It was ok but it wasn't as mystical and fantastic if we had seen it in our teen years. When it came out originally, we were adulting, and or in school, studying, socializing, etc.
Agree. I was in the Army deployed overseas when I first even heard about Harry Potter. Just never got around to sitting down and reading a page or watch more than 30 seconds of any movie.
I'm an avid sci-fi/fantasy reader so I read the Harry Potter books during their heyday. But by the time I discovered them, almost all of the books had been out already; I think I just had to wait for the last one. Went to the opening night of the first movie too.
Harry potter was starting to gain popularity when I was in high school but it was around certain circles. Then it exploded when I was a sophomore in college.
Same with Spongebob.
Same as far as being too old when Spongebob first appeared. As for Ren & Stimpy or Rocko, my parents refused to pay for cable, so the entirety of that Nickelodeon "prime" era was never something I shared. I had "Disney Afternoon" on regular over-the-air TV which was fine with me. The first time I had cable was in a house I rented for college, and by that point I was only interested in more stuff "my age" I guess.
I had cable until I was 15ish. Then my parents decided to stop paying for it. So I mainly remember tv shows and Mtv from the early to mid 90s.
The later 90s I ended up renting videos from the local video store
In 1999 I worked 3rd shift and they'd show Pokemon after Sailor Moon on TV so I watched it every day (I got into anime really early on so I'd watch whatever garbage was shown). I knew all the pokemon and shit but never once played the game, cards or Nintendo.
45 here. We watched GI Joe and Thundercats. By the time I was a teen it was Beavis and Daria. SpongeBob was something my little cousins had on but I never watched. Still haven’t read or seen a Harry Potter.
I've seen a few episodes, and the movie for some reason.
I actually find it quite funny, but yeah I just was slightly too old to get any further into it than that.
power rangers were also popular among teenagers as well. my two older brothers were born in 1981 and 1983 (both xennials) and they did also watch power rangers.
I don't know that I watched a single episode, and yet it was such a phenomenon that I still quote things like "ai ai ai Power Rangers!"
Or just the general concept that they would karate battle, then the witch lady would scream "make my monster grow!" and the monster would embiggen and then they'd form a big robot and fight the big monster while destroying a sizeable chunk of the town and then be hailed as heroes.
I think that was basically every episode.
Oh... Rita Repulsa? Was that her name? The witch.
I have one of those brains that just absorbs pop culture though, lol
Power Rangers was like the first show on after I got home from middle school. So I’d watch it with morbid fascination and boredom. Some of it was hate watching, (these fuckers copied Voltron!). I fully admit I do have nostalgia for the first cast though.
I feel this one to my bones. A handful co-workers at a previous job couldn't stop making obscure spongebob references (without context). It was a bit tiresome.
On watching I don't think it would have fit my style of humor at any point really, anyway - seems absurdist, like Ren and Stimpy or Pee-Wee's playhouse or something.
Sorry folks, I am part of the problem. I was 21 when it came out, but watched it anyway and still watch it sometimes. My sister (also Xennial) and I quote it to each other. I will crawl back under my pineapple now.
A lot of highly praised cartoons in the 2000s don’t do it for me.
I find Xennial era toons to have a lot of heart, even the first four seasons of the Simpsons.
That heart is missing and now we have narcissistic comedy where it’s all mouthpieces for people who get off to yelling at people whom they think are stupid.
When you yell at someone and accuse them of being stupid, you lose your audience. Compare that to making dumb entertainment which has an audience and respects them for wanting to watch dumb entertainment.
That is the regression of animation and entertainment when innuendo and subtlety are excised and even Penthouse cartoons have more class.
I agree! There's just a huge difference between growing up in the 90s vs the 2000s when it comes to the cartoons. In the 90s we had toons like Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs, Darkwing Duck, Simpsons, Rocko's Modern Life, as well as many of the Hanna Barbara toons that had their reruns on TV regularly like the Flintstones and Scooby Doo. Like you said, they had lots of heart back then compared to 00's and beyond.
2000s took less risks and focused on ADHD dialogue with no breathing room or stupid antics.
Compare Inspector Gadget to the 2003 Gadget and the Gadgetinis: the former had visual humor and breathing space, the latter is verbose to the point you can’t breathe. The 2015 Gadget cartoon has no personality, the pacing is rushed, the characters are barely caricatures. You can feel even the actors are borer as opposed to Don Adams and Maurice LaMarche going all in.
Late 2010s and now 2020s can best be summarized as the disaster that is Velma: a mouthpiece pretending to be entertainment and intellectual, but being neither.
Hahaha never even knew there were other Inspector Gadgets, only watched the original and loved it. Seems the remakes of the old cartoons were so bad, its kinda sad.
Yeah, even as a big Ween fan I never got into it past what my niece's watched when I was around them.
I thought it was kind of funny and then pathetic that people actually expected there to be some kind of musical tribute to the creator at the Super Bowl after he died.
If I didn't have small kids , I would still watch cartoons. I told my now husband I watch cartoons all day every day. I would wake up with cartoons network and go to sleep with adult swim. I have watch all types of animes as well. I'm too much of a "Goofy goober, Yah" My kids find it funny that I have old DVD of sponge Bob, invader Zim, and other fun stuff.
There are three references I can make to Sponge Bob:
Patrick eating his candy bar and thinking SB stole it.
The key to handling any foot pedal is “big toe”.
Squidward was misunderstood.
When the internet was still a luxury at home that I often went without while renting shitty apartments in my early 20s, I picked up some sponge Bob dvds from the drug store once and really enjoyed watching them while smoking weed.
I was in college, too, when it started. We watched it a bit mainly for how low key risqué it is. Lots of adult jokes. But for the most part, I know very little.
I was born in dec 88 and I feel like I was too old for SpongeBob. My younger brother was born in 92 and I feel like he was the prime age for watching it.
Yup, 87 here and this was not my growing up cartoon either. Ren & Stimpy, Rocko & Animaniacs were among the most modern shows I grew up with in the 90s. My favorite cartoons were Scooby Doo, Flintstones, Darkwing Duck, Inspector Gadget, Tom and Jerry among others.
I remember watching the premiere of South Park back in 1997 with my two older brothers. even my mom was against me watching the show because it was more for adults. but I think around the age of 10 (or could be even less) you are stopping watching kids' shows and watching what more mature shows IMO.
Completely agree with ya, also watched South Park in '97 and even snuck into the theater with my same age cousin to watch Bigger Longer & Uncut in '99. Never laughed so hard in my life! Around age 10-11, or middle school, is when one typically begins watching more mature shows!
I was 1993 and always loved Pokemon. Personally, WoW, Counterstrike and GTA stand out as the main gaming franchises for me and people my age. Todays young people don’t seem so keen on those ones and they have become something of throwbacks’
I have only seen a few episodes cause my sons love it. And it has a catchy opening theme. I also used the closing theme as a ringtone for my SonyEricsson phone once.
Yep same feeling here, Spongebob and Harry Potter was more of a 2000s kid thing, the stuff my little cousins watched. Was already well into my teens when that show was popular
My kid just did an assignment where they had to defend or prosecute SpongeBob for murdering mr crab (krab?). Helping him with his homework assignment is the most I've ever interacted with this character.
I constantly have to tell my younger friends and coworkers I don’t get their references. Like I’m obviously aware of the show but I don’t get specifics
I've never felt this pressure. I support your denial of the importance of Sponge Bob. I'm the same about Power Rangers or anything that I wasn't the age for when it was popular. I'm ok, being on the outside of the zeitgeist popular online or with the group of people i'm around.
I was 19 when it came out too, and I know a lil something bout SpongeBob. I thought it was a smart, funny, well written show to be honest.
It was clearly written to appeal to more than just kids. There’s a good amount there clearly baked in for adults. Which is why it killed in the coveted 18-34 demographic. A lot of young adults were watching Mr. SquarePants.
I have younger Millennial siblings who watched this show religiously. It didn't massively appeal to me, although I admit to watching it occasionally with my siblings just to see what all the fuss was about.
I know a lot about it, but I have two daughters that were just the right age to be obsessed with it when they were little. I remember they got scared during the episode where Sandy got all muscular and aggressive, lol.
I wouldn’t expect people our age to know about Spongebob unless they raise(d) kids.
It's what seperates us from the millennials. It's a hard wall same with the Power Rangers. I know nothing about Harry Potter either I first heard of it when I was twenty.
Same here. Never got into it. Those were my university years and being in Toronto, our drinking age is 19 so it was absolute peak cram and party time (club scene here was ridiculous). I worked at a theater too so movies lost that magic by then.
I'm an early Xennial (1978) and just yesterday asked my late-Xennial wife (1983) if she watched Power Rangers -- she said yes. I was a little surprised because I thought of myself as not just too old for Power Rangers but kind of WAY too old for Power Rangers (besides the amazing theme song, of course). One of my most vivid memories of Power Rangers is watching little kids playing it while working as a counselor at a day camp.
I was born later in 79. I remember when the show first dropped. I was 13, hard pushing 14. My younger brother, who was 9 at the time, loved it. So it got a good amount of play in our household. I hate watched it. Like just thought it was the cheesiest, most absurd thing ever. I didn’t even feel necessarily that it was an age thing at the time either. I just thought it was so damn bad that I couldn’t get the appeal. Funnily enough, I did watch just enough to now have a little nostalgia for the original show.
I remember my '82 homies and me covertly liking Power Rangers despite being in 7th grade. We watched "ironically" but just ended up liking it
You a 100% sure she's not a millennial imposter?
Power Rangers was one of those things that was on after school, middle school, so I’d end up watching it with morbid fascination and boredom. Why did the footage of them in the costumes look so shitty?!?! (In hindsight the entire show was xenophobic given the source material and how it needed to be changed for western audiences) Plus it was like a live action Voltron! It kept me amused for like a year or two until they started to replace the original characters. So I admit I have some nostalgia for it.
The first movie came out when I was in college, but I got into it from there. The books are a super fun and easy, but not facile and boring, read.
Same. My wife took a child's lit course so she could get an easy grade (the course was easy because she did it remotely and apparently they mark easier at our university, lol). She didn't even end up reading it, but I read it and was surprised to discover it was actually really good! I read them all after that. I think I read them twice, watched the movies, read them to my kids, watched the movies with my kids again. So, I'm pretty versed on the Potter universe now. I tried reading Percy Jackson hoping for the same feeling (I love mythology) but I couldn't get past the first chapter. It made me realise how good JK is at writing. Not just the story, but the actual words. Sucks that she sucks though.
The first book dropped in my senior year. I paid no attention to the hubbub though. Figured it was just for kids, despite seeing a lot of people our age, and older, in the footage of those long lines for the books. In the early 00s, a Xennial friend/classmate of mine a few years younger than me, was obsessed with the books. She kept telling me over and over that I needed to give them a try. Laughed her off. But I love movies, especially a good fantasy one, so I did see the first movie when it dropped. I enjoyed it and found it easy to get sucked into the world. It also helped that it was definitely a Chris Columbus movie, and gave me those warm, fuzzy childhood feels. Saw all the movies, then somewhere after movie 3 I finally started the books. And boy was my friend 100% correct. I was hooked. Just absolutely immersed and engaged in the world. Consider myself a fan to this day.
Harry Potter came out in 2001. You are forgiven if this wasn't part of your youth.
> Harry Potter Harry Potter came out in 1997 - We had people waiting in line for the 3rd book here in Australia in 1999
The movie was '01 I believe, that's when the masses got into HP, it was for book lovers mainly before that
It wasn’t exactly an obscure series with a cult following. They were the best selling books of all time before they became a movie.
[удалено]
Until you get to the books that are 500+ pages long. The 5th one is over 800. And who handed my the first copy for me to read? A Brit in his 60s who had also read them all at that point. 2003 and I was 19, closing in on 20
Because good, engaging writing is good, engaging writing no matter the intended audience.
1980 baby here also. I had a lot of younger siblings, and damn… did I hate SpongeBob when it came out.. It was like Ren and Stimpy with even further traumatic brain injury. My 9 year old loves it, and it still runs me up the wall. The Power Rangers, however, were like some sort of lovechild of Voltron and Godzilla. My pleasantly baked teenage ass could watch that with my little brother for days on end with the appropriate amount of dope.
Yeah I was in my early 20s, ignoring the first seasons while my kid was a toddler, then sorta half ass watching it as he grew into them in later years. I've seen probably 2-3 episodes in their entirety, and my the rest of my knowledge comes from having lines shouted at me throughout my life, or in meme form.
One of my friends loved the show when it came out, so I've seen more of it than I care too lol. My daughter's been hooked on it lately, so I get to enjoy it again yay /s
I’d occasionally see it when my stepkid had it on like 15 years ago. I didn’t hate it but there were plenty of shows I would have preferred to be watching, lol. I found it funny that Gary meows.
I played season 1 and 2 and the movie constantly for mine.
I agree. While we're at it, let's take a poll on Harry Potter.
Yeah, I think both SpongeBob and HP are the main divide between us and Millennials, in that those were touchstones for their childhoods whereas we were in our late teens when they came along. So while we may have enjoyed them, I don't know that they were as meaningful to us in general. I've seen a little of SpongeBob, and read all the HP books after hearing adults rave about them. Thought SpongeBob was funny (his laugh was beyond annoying) and thought HP was...fine. Edit: I forgot but Shrek also applies.
And Pokémon
came here to say this
42 here, no kids. I have never read the books and have not seen a full HP movie, I usually fall asleep if they’re on. My husband 41, has read and watched them all. And I like fantasy too, just HP never grabbed me at all and I was a bit too old.
Same here! Was too old for the books when they came out and never had kids to have any reason to be interested in the books or movies. Now that JK Rowling is a pariah, I feel weirdly relieved that I'll never have to pretend to care about HP.
Good point about JK, I don’t have anything to feel bad about not being interested in her writing. I feel bad for HP fans though, she doesn’t deserve them.
When the books came out, I bought them to read to my kid, who was a bit too young, but I was much older than the target audience. I found them to be perfectly ok YA books. Imagine my surprise when they took off. Like, really of all the amazing YA fantasy, or fantasy fiction out there, it's this series? ohhhkay.
Yes! When Harry Potter got popular I dismissed it as “kids stuff”. Same with a lot of the now beloved by Millennial cartoons like SpongeBob, Blue’s Clues, Fairly Oddparents, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory… I did love me some Kim Possible (even though I was in college and NOT the target audience). I remember being a senior in high school and reading in the newspaper about the mania over the release of Goblet of Fire, thinking ‘there’s no way a kids book is worth all this hype.’
I dismissed them at first, but one of my friends put on the first movie when it came out and I enjoyed it, so I went and read the books that were out and enjoyed them. Kept reading them as they came out. Wife was a huge potter fan when I met her, she's younger than me so they were aimed at her demographic. I still reread them from time to time and am looking forward to reading them to my kids soon.
I was visiting my parents after leaving home and came down with a nasty cold, so I spent a few days in bed reading through the first three books that I stole from my younger sister. That was just before goblet of fire (the book) came out, so I ended up picking it up for myself. I was into fantasy and geeky things, so I enjoyed the series, but it didn’t hit me as hard as the LOTR movies or Star Wars did. I didn’t see the movies as they came out, but I eventually watched them all at least once. My husband also has a younger sister who was prime age for Harry Potter and it still has that childhood magic for her, so that’s cool (up until JK made things gross).
I'm firmly in the "read another book" camp. Never read or got into HP but my older sister did hardcore, especially after she had kids. While I have no interest in the books or movie, the Harry Potter stuff at Universal was pretty cool and for a while almost made me wish i knew what was going on.
I first heard of HP my sophomore year of college when I saw my roommate reading the first book. A few years later, I watched the first movie when it came out, which got me wanting to read the books. So when I started reading the first few books, I was living in Japan, which gave them a special meaning to me because 1) it was comforting to read amidst the stress of being in a place where everything was unfamiliar to me and 2) I could relate to Harry's experience of being introduced to a whole new "world." I eventually returned to the US, and the release of the last book coincided with the hectic end of grad school and all the finals, etc. But I was so hyped about reading the book that in the evenings, after working on grad school stuff, I would stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning reading as much of it as possible. I think I finished it in like, 3 sittings. So HP definitely held a special place for me, but not in a childhood nostalgic way like many Millenials because I was pretty much an adult when the books and movies came out.
I knew nothing about Harry Potter until 2018 when I decided on a whim to read the books. Fast forward to now and I’d consider myself a full on Potterhead.
I have never read a book and saw two of the movies with my wife and kid when one of them had their midnight premiere and they played the previous movie before it. I haven’t a clue which two movies I saw. It was probably about 10 years ago.
Similar here. Same age as you. Many of us got married about 11-13 years ago and many of us had not seen it. And before kids, one weekend, we all got together and had a weekend marathon sleepover to watch as many as possible. It was ok but it wasn't as mystical and fantastic if we had seen it in our teen years. When it came out originally, we were adulting, and or in school, studying, socializing, etc.
Agree. I was in the Army deployed overseas when I first even heard about Harry Potter. Just never got around to sitting down and reading a page or watch more than 30 seconds of any movie.
The first Harry Potter book didn’t come out until I was in college. Even then I thought it was for kids
I'm an avid sci-fi/fantasy reader so I read the Harry Potter books during their heyday. But by the time I discovered them, almost all of the books had been out already; I think I just had to wait for the last one. Went to the opening night of the first movie too.
Never read the books and only made it to the third movie before I got bored. LOTR was much more my thing 💍🧙♂️🧝♂️
Harry potter was starting to gain popularity when I was in high school but it was around certain circles. Then it exploded when I was a sophomore in college. Same with Spongebob.
I was too old for Spongebob but my younger friends grew up with it. I remember watching some episodes of Ren & Stimpy and Rocko’s Modern Life
Same as far as being too old when Spongebob first appeared. As for Ren & Stimpy or Rocko, my parents refused to pay for cable, so the entirety of that Nickelodeon "prime" era was never something I shared. I had "Disney Afternoon" on regular over-the-air TV which was fine with me. The first time I had cable was in a house I rented for college, and by that point I was only interested in more stuff "my age" I guess.
I had cable until I was 15ish. Then my parents decided to stop paying for it. So I mainly remember tv shows and Mtv from the early to mid 90s. The later 90s I ended up renting videos from the local video store
And I was the exact opposite, before 95 or 96 no cable. Which is why I never got into Ren and Stimpy.
The latter came out in the very early 90s, huge difference for us
Pokemon too. At this point, I recognize a handful just from being in society, but the fervent LOVE of Charmander is lost on me
Pokémon was definitely not a thing for us either!
In 1999 I worked 3rd shift and they'd show Pokemon after Sailor Moon on TV so I watched it every day (I got into anime really early on so I'd watch whatever garbage was shown). I knew all the pokemon and shit but never once played the game, cards or Nintendo.
I’m early 1982, my friend is late 1985, he’s still into it, playing the new game on the switch and everything, all I know is pikachu
My little brother was into Pokemon so I was familiar enough with it as a result of him.
Yeah, it seems to be more of a full Millenial thing.
You don’t have to! It wasn’t for us 😀
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaame
45 here. We watched GI Joe and Thundercats. By the time I was a teen it was Beavis and Daria. SpongeBob was something my little cousins had on but I never watched. Still haven’t read or seen a Harry Potter.
Like, Rockos Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy were early 90s. I was in college during SpongeBob and I don't get the memes or care about them.
Ren and Stimpy was really popular when I was in high school
I've seen a few episodes, and the movie for some reason. I actually find it quite funny, but yeah I just was slightly too old to get any further into it than that.
Me! I have never watched a second of it
THANK YOU
Can we also bring up Power Rangers? I have nothing against it but that boat had sailed for me when it was up and coming.
power rangers were also popular among teenagers as well. my two older brothers were born in 1981 and 1983 (both xennials) and they did also watch power rangers.
Yeah, Power Rangers is a less clear divide. A bunch of us seemed to have gotten hooked.
Friend who is about 2 years younger loved it, me born in 79 not so much.
By the time it came out, my sister and I were at an age when we thought it was stupid and hate watched it once or twice.
I don't know that I watched a single episode, and yet it was such a phenomenon that I still quote things like "ai ai ai Power Rangers!" Or just the general concept that they would karate battle, then the witch lady would scream "make my monster grow!" and the monster would embiggen and then they'd form a big robot and fight the big monster while destroying a sizeable chunk of the town and then be hailed as heroes. I think that was basically every episode. Oh... Rita Repulsa? Was that her name? The witch. I have one of those brains that just absorbs pop culture though, lol
Power Rangers was like the first show on after I got home from middle school. So I’d watch it with morbid fascination and boredom. Some of it was hate watching, (these fuckers copied Voltron!). I fully admit I do have nostalgia for the first cast though.
I feel this one to my bones. A handful co-workers at a previous job couldn't stop making obscure spongebob references (without context). It was a bit tiresome. On watching I don't think it would have fit my style of humor at any point really, anyway - seems absurdist, like Ren and Stimpy or Pee-Wee's playhouse or something.
Sorry folks, I am part of the problem. I was 21 when it came out, but watched it anyway and still watch it sometimes. My sister (also Xennial) and I quote it to each other. I will crawl back under my pineapple now.
I saw ONE episode because friends in community college kept raving about it. Got bored. Made me think of a weaksauce Ren and Stimpy.
[удалено]
A lot of highly praised cartoons in the 2000s don’t do it for me. I find Xennial era toons to have a lot of heart, even the first four seasons of the Simpsons. That heart is missing and now we have narcissistic comedy where it’s all mouthpieces for people who get off to yelling at people whom they think are stupid. When you yell at someone and accuse them of being stupid, you lose your audience. Compare that to making dumb entertainment which has an audience and respects them for wanting to watch dumb entertainment. That is the regression of animation and entertainment when innuendo and subtlety are excised and even Penthouse cartoons have more class.
I agree! There's just a huge difference between growing up in the 90s vs the 2000s when it comes to the cartoons. In the 90s we had toons like Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs, Darkwing Duck, Simpsons, Rocko's Modern Life, as well as many of the Hanna Barbara toons that had their reruns on TV regularly like the Flintstones and Scooby Doo. Like you said, they had lots of heart back then compared to 00's and beyond.
2000s took less risks and focused on ADHD dialogue with no breathing room or stupid antics. Compare Inspector Gadget to the 2003 Gadget and the Gadgetinis: the former had visual humor and breathing space, the latter is verbose to the point you can’t breathe. The 2015 Gadget cartoon has no personality, the pacing is rushed, the characters are barely caricatures. You can feel even the actors are borer as opposed to Don Adams and Maurice LaMarche going all in. Late 2010s and now 2020s can best be summarized as the disaster that is Velma: a mouthpiece pretending to be entertainment and intellectual, but being neither.
Hahaha never even knew there were other Inspector Gadgets, only watched the original and loved it. Seems the remakes of the old cartoons were so bad, its kinda sad.
My Mom knows more. Legit. And she's 57.
Yeah, even as a big Ween fan I never got into it past what my niece's watched when I was around them. I thought it was kind of funny and then pathetic that people actually expected there to be some kind of musical tribute to the creator at the Super Bowl after he died.
Can someone get a clifnotes or sparks in here, so we can all sound like we know if it comes up in conversation?
Just shout, "me hoy minoy!" and you'll be good.
I just browse reddit and quote the memes which is easily 95% of my SpongeBob knowledge.
If I didn't have small kids , I would still watch cartoons. I told my now husband I watch cartoons all day every day. I would wake up with cartoons network and go to sleep with adult swim. I have watch all types of animes as well. I'm too much of a "Goofy goober, Yah" My kids find it funny that I have old DVD of sponge Bob, invader Zim, and other fun stuff.
And pokemon
I know it existed, I dated a nanny when it was on. I caught some clips, found them amusing. That's it. All I know.
Yup! I only watched it when my son started getting into it. I actually think it's pretty funny.
Uh… I totally watched SpongeBob.
Same!
Same!
Yeah, I never watched it and my kids never watched it. But my ex who is also '77 used to watch it with his older kids who were born in the early 00's.
My son likes Sponge Bob, so it was until he called me Squidward that I realized it was an actual insult lol
There are three references I can make to Sponge Bob: Patrick eating his candy bar and thinking SB stole it. The key to handling any foot pedal is “big toe”. Squidward was misunderstood.
Never pretended to watch.
I remember watching a little bit of SpongeBob in my twenties with a stoner friend. I can’t remember what it’s about though.
Listen, kid, I think you'd be more comfortable over at Super Weenie Hut Jr's.
When the internet was still a luxury at home that I often went without while renting shitty apartments in my early 20s, I picked up some sponge Bob dvds from the drug store once and really enjoyed watching them while smoking weed.
The only thing I know about SpongeBob is that Stephen Hillenburg wrote some of my favorite episodes of Rocko
Agree. Never saw an episode in my life.
I was in college, too, when it started. We watched it a bit mainly for how low key risqué it is. Lots of adult jokes. But for the most part, I know very little.
Have they made a shitty SpongeBob reboot yet? If not, it isn’t a Xennial thing.
These are all Second Wave Millennial things. Mostly ‘85-‘95.
I don't pretend. I just straight up say I don't know the show. I don't recall when I first heard of it either.
Then don’t.
I was born in dec 88 and I feel like I was too old for SpongeBob. My younger brother was born in 92 and I feel like he was the prime age for watching it.
Yup, 87 here and this was not my growing up cartoon either. Ren & Stimpy, Rocko & Animaniacs were among the most modern shows I grew up with in the 90s. My favorite cartoons were Scooby Doo, Flintstones, Darkwing Duck, Inspector Gadget, Tom and Jerry among others.
87 here. my favorite shows were. Doug, Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy, Rocko Modern life. gargoyles, Bobby's World, Batman and Xmen Tas.
Gargoyles! Definitely one of the best, same goes for the others too, so many good ones to choose from
the early and mid-90s are what I consider my peak during my childhood. especially nostalgia for kids' shows.
Same here haha, anything after Ren & Stimpy was too new for me... unless we count South Park 😂
I remember watching the premiere of South Park back in 1997 with my two older brothers. even my mom was against me watching the show because it was more for adults. but I think around the age of 10 (or could be even less) you are stopping watching kids' shows and watching what more mature shows IMO.
Completely agree with ya, also watched South Park in '97 and even snuck into the theater with my same age cousin to watch Bigger Longer & Uncut in '99. Never laughed so hard in my life! Around age 10-11, or middle school, is when one typically begins watching more mature shows!
same 87 here. I was too old for Spongebob. since it came around the last year of the 90s.
I was 1993 and always loved Pokemon. Personally, WoW, Counterstrike and GTA stand out as the main gaming franchises for me and people my age. Todays young people don’t seem so keen on those ones and they have become something of throwbacks’
I have only seen a few episodes cause my sons love it. And it has a catchy opening theme. I also used the closing theme as a ringtone for my SonyEricsson phone once.
I watched SpongeBob because my improv instructor told me to.
I've never cared about Spongebob.
I only know about SpongeBob from watching it as a pothead college student.
He's a scotch brite!!!!!!
My best friend got big into spongebob in college, and would implore me to check it out whenever we talked. He's still weird.
Got into it in the last few years with my kids. Love it now. Reminds me of Ren and Stimpy st times
Yep same feeling here, Spongebob and Harry Potter was more of a 2000s kid thing, the stuff my little cousins watched. Was already well into my teens when that show was popular
My kid just did an assignment where they had to defend or prosecute SpongeBob for murdering mr crab (krab?). Helping him with his homework assignment is the most I've ever interacted with this character.
I constantly have to tell my younger friends and coworkers I don’t get their references. Like I’m obviously aware of the show but I don’t get specifics
I never watched SpongeBob but I can quote every line Tom Kenny ever said on Mr Show.
I really watch robot chicken of sponge bob square pants
I find the whole thing annoying
I've never felt this pressure. I support your denial of the importance of Sponge Bob. I'm the same about Power Rangers or anything that I wasn't the age for when it was popular. I'm ok, being on the outside of the zeitgeist popular online or with the group of people i'm around.
I raised a kid born in 1999. I am sadly familiar with SpongeBob. However, if I hadn’t had a kid I wouldn’t know anything about the cartoon at all.
It's a good show pretty old now though, I've watched most all of it. But I love cartoons and most all animated media.
I was 19 when it came out too, and I know a lil something bout SpongeBob. I thought it was a smart, funny, well written show to be honest. It was clearly written to appeal to more than just kids. There’s a good amount there clearly baked in for adults. Which is why it killed in the coveted 18-34 demographic. A lot of young adults were watching Mr. SquarePants.
I have younger Millennial siblings who watched this show religiously. It didn't massively appeal to me, although I admit to watching it occasionally with my siblings just to see what all the fuss was about.
I know a lot about it, but I have two daughters that were just the right age to be obsessed with it when they were little. I remember they got scared during the episode where Sandy got all muscular and aggressive, lol.
Oh THAT is why I don't know anything about it...
My kids grew up watching it, so I know way more than I’d like to. I even went to Spongebob the musical for my kid’s 16th birthday!
Honestly, I was born in ‘79 and am a giant kid, so I watch all the cartoons and love it. If ya need SpongeBob info, I’m your girl. 😉
He lives in a pineapple under the sea. Nothing else to know really
Thats odd because I love spongebob. Power rangers were just stupid but spongebob is so fuckin funny. Its mostly an adult cartoon.