In today’s complicated celebrity-driven culture, pulling off the perfect pop culture reference is much harder than it used to be. Carelessly firing off a Family Guy reference is the social equivalent of stabbing yourself in the squishy parts, while a successful Ghostbusters reference can make you the hit of the party. Well, perhaps not the hit of the party — but at least the most popular person who’s still going home alone at the end of the night.
The biggest (and hardest) part of crafting a great pop culture reference is knowing what to bring up and what to keep on the back burner. The rule of thumb is — with almost no exceptions — anything over half a year old is no longer acceptable. That means anything, not just everything, except The Hangover. We get it; you’re a one-man wolf pack. It’s not funny anymore; it’s just admitting you have no friends. Do everyone a favor and be silent if you can’t find something better to say.
Picking something that isn’t completely obvious is a must. Yes, everyone hates Twilight and wants to shove Robert Pattinson’s face in a blender. However, it’s not funny to ask someone if they are Team Jacob or Edward or whether they sparkle in the sun. Stop trying to be cute, people; that’s Kristen Stewart’s job.
However, while semi-recent pop culture events are off-limits, old pop culture magically becomes funny again. Case in point: any semi-decent ‘80s movie. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (and, really, anything made by John Hughes) has recently become hilarious again. Try asking someone if they really are Abe Froman, the sausage king of Chicago, and see what their response is.
As with anything popular, it’s always better when some people are excluded from the fun. The best references aren’t the ones that everyone gets. Rather, the funniest references happen when exactly half the people in the room burst out laughing, while the other people stand there trying to figure out what’s so hilarious. Bonus points if you can stump the self-named movie buff in the room with your pop culture awareness. But be careful, because if you try and go too far into the obscure stuff you’ll be the only one who gets your own joke, which is actually worse than making a tired reference.
Obviously, straight movie quotes are a little boring, so don’t forget to throw the nearest broken-down celebrity under the pop culture bus. Whether it’s comparing the nearest female to Heidi Montag’s terrible new face or simply making fun of Gary Coleman for being dead, making a horrible pop culture reference is hilarious because it’s so atrocious. If you can somehow combine multiple celebrities into one giant blend, then it simply means you’ve conquered the art of being hilariously offensive. There would be examples here but they were deemed too terrible to print; use your imaginations. Something involving Gary Busey and Steve Irwin’s death is a good place to start.
So, you drop the perfect reference and half the people who hear it think you’re hilarious. From there, just STOP. Don’t ruin the moment by trying to come up with something even more ridiculous or obscure, because chances are, you’ll just destroy everything you’ve tried to make so funny. Sit back, relax and remember that deep down you’re just a little bit more special than everyone else you know.
Really? Did you even read what you wrote? First you go off and say don’t use anything that is over half a year old is not acceptable with no exceptions. Then you go off and said stuff from the eighties are up for grabs. Right….That makes no sense. Then you also said it is okay to reference Steve Irwin who died years ago. Did you just realize that you made an exception to the rule that you said had no exceptions? Am I missing something here?
I thought this would be an interesting read but apparently you need to get your story straight if you want to do something like this again.