It seems to me that one of the difficulties that a Professor or Teacher has is the flow of popular cultural references, with each new year of students bumping a popular culture reference away from student’s point of reference.\u00c2\u00a0 There are odd variations of this — several years’ ago I read a piece about a college professor making a reference to the Risky Business scene where Tom Cruise dances in his underwear to “Old Time Rock and Roll” — the class was somewhat familiar with the reference, but they knew it from Alf.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I witnessed a college Math Professor tutoring a student, and in order to explain a mathematical concept (I don’t know what the term was, but it involves density of mass growing when you shorten perimeters) by using the example of Danny DeVito.\u00c2\u00a0 The student did not recognize Danny DeVito and the Professor was in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 So he jumped to a couple of things Danny DeVito was known for — “You know… Taxi… Throw Mama From the Train.”<\/p>\n
I look over, having to wipe a smile from my face, knowing neither reference will be gotten from the typical early 20 something, and the student stares puzzled and says, “I’m not much for pop culture references.”\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I interject, from my small distance, “The… uh… Second Batman Movie.”
\n“Oh.\u00c2\u00a0 The bad guy in that one?”
\n“Yeah, Uh… The Penguin.”
\n“Oh.\u00c2\u00a0 Okay.”
\nMe to the Professor: “Taxi… um… You can’t throw out a cultural reference from the late 70s.”
\n“The decades just sort of blend together here.”
\n“Yeah.\u00c2\u00a0 I know the feeling.”\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of.<\/p>\n
It occurs to me, of course, that my reference to the Penguin in Batman Returns was only slightly more hit and miss than the 50-something year old Professor’s reference to Taxi (a chance some will have seen reruns on Nick at Nite?)\u00c2\u00a0 But they both trump Throw Mama From the Train (Was that ever run in loops on USA Network?).\u00c2\u00a0 But now that I think about it, I don’t know what I’d give to quickly identify Danny DeVito to anyone younger than I, and certainly not a bunch of them — To that list of Taxi and Batman Returns — I would definitely exclude Throw Mama From the Train — I guess you can toss in his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and the short physical foil to one or another Arnold Schwarzenegger stupid comedy.\u00c2\u00a0 After that, I’m kind of drawing a blank.\u00c2\u00a0 The good thing is, thought, the majority will be able to spot him as a celebrity and actor, and indeed I still think there’s a better than average chance they’ll be able to picture him without identification — it’s just that the lesser than average is not an anomoly in a way it wasn’t ten years ago.<\/p>\n
Of course, skip a couple of decades, and there will be a whole host of celebrities of the “Reality TV Star and Sex Tape” variety you’ll be even more hard pressed to identify for the next generation than Danny DeVito and Throw Mama From the Train.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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