Popular culture vs. niche culture

[First off: This thread isn't for debating casting choices for movies.]

The trigger for this post comes at 2:12 into this video, but you kind of have to watch the 2 (two) minutes leading up to it to get the context.

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/red-eye/blog/2014/02/04/jesse-eisenberg-good-or-bad-choice-lex-luthor

And I love the guys' reactions to her. Really, a laugh out loud moment. "Tell me you love me like a brother."

Anyway, she didn't know who Lex Luthor is. Wha? How? Yeah, Lex Luthor is a comic book character, but isn't he pretty much well into the mainstream cultural knowledge base by now?

There are many things that are originally from niche cultures that I'd think would be known to everyone in the general populace by now. Hell, I recognize the girls from Sex and the City even though I've never seen even a second of the show. I recognize ponies from My Little Pony without ever seeing the show. I know Barbie and Ken even though I don't think I've ever been in the same room with either doll. I have no idea where Nyan Cat originated, but I know what it looks like, (a cat in a Pop-Tart trailing a rainbow -- WTH?).

What are some examples you've encountered of people not knowing some cultural icon you considered obvious or surely well known?

Bullgrit

Evolution and climate change come to mind.

I knew kids who couldn't name all four Beatles. "John, Paul, Ringo, and .... Larry?"
*Sigh* Poor George.
That was back in 1987. Granted, the Beatles had broken up earlier than any of them had been born, but it was still pretty funky and I'll bet the number who don't know is wider-spread now.

I frequently see various Facebook Fail-style posts where people display their ignorance of otherwise widely-known stuff. I generally boggle that someone would go to the trouble of posting a status update or tweets their ignorance when a fast Google search will probably get them that information. What ever happened to intellectual curiosity?

For a musical example, check out some Raymond and Scum.
The Ancient One

I'd say that's unusual. My grandmother knows who he is, and she's an 85 year old woman in a country 3000 miles away.

I'd be more on board with your position if you had spelled "Luthor" right.

Bullgrit said:

Hell, I recognize the girls from Sex and the City even though I've never seen even a second of the show. I recognize ponies from My Little Pony without ever seeing the show. I know Barbie and Ken even though I don't think I've ever been in the same room with either doll.

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I think you're being a little unfair to that woman. If someone gave you a multiple choice test with the names of th SitC girls and the names of their actresses, could you match them up? Can you name 3 Little Ponies? Could you tell on sight a Barbie doll from a Stacy doll?

Just the name "Lex Luthor" isn't a lot to go on. I would bet there's a lot of people who would understand "Jesse Eisenberg is replacing Gene Hackman" or "Jesse Eisenberg is replacing Kevin Spacey" or even "Jesse Eisenberg is playing the bald guy from Smallville" than would understand "Jesse Eisenberg is Lex Luthor".

Let's also not forget that Lex Luthor is a pretty bad example of an iconic arch-nemesis. To an outsider, it would appear that the name is attached to a revolving door of unrelated characters: a rich guy with varying degrees of baldness, a weird purple robot, a long haired guy who hangs out with Supergirl, and Superman's best friend in high school. And Lex Luthor wasn't even in the last Superman reboot!

Personally, I mainly got into Superman comics during the Death and Return cycle, where Luthor is a minor footnote. I really grew up thinking of him as the nutty bad guy from Super Friends more than Superman's main villain. So, especially given the saturation of the superhero movie market these days, I can totally understand people not knowing who Lex Luthor is.

What are some examples you've encountered of people not knowing some cultural icon you considered obvious or surely well known?

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I regularly find myself amazed by people who don't know when modern movies are remakes. I recently had to tell people that "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and the Adam Sandler movie "Mr. Deeds" were remakes. I find this particularly surprising in cases like the two I just mentioned because the remakes were specifically made because the originals were huge hits in their time and considered iconic.

billd91 said:

What ever happened to intellectual curiosity?

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So, like, I Googled that and...

Deset Gled said:

I recently had to tell people that "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and the Adam Sandler movie "Mr. Deeds" were remakes.

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Oh. I didn't know there was an older Walter Mitty movie -- I only know about the short story, (having read it). I didn't know there was an older Deeds movie, either -- but I know absolutely nothing about it other than it's a Sandler movie. But those names, I'd say are far more obscure than I would have said Lex Luthor is.

I'd have thought that everyone [American, at least] knows who Superman and Lex Luthor is. Same with Batman and Joker. I thought they'd all be cultural icons, like Mario & Luigi.

Bullgrit

Bullgrit said:

I'd have thought that everyone [American, at least] knows who Superman and Lex Luthor is. Same with Batman and Joker. I thought they'd all be cultural icons, like Mario & Luigi.

Bullgrit

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Funny thing about that. Everybody knows who Superman is, but I don't think that many of his enemies are all that iconic outside of comic fandom. Lex Luthor is a megalomaniacal evil genius, but he has half (at best) the personality of the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, or even Catwoman. So he doesn't stick in the brain like Batman's nemeses. He'll never be as iconic as the Joker.