Pop Culture Mondays/7.15.24
The “ARE WE DOOMED?” Edition
Happy Monday, my darling pop culture junkies.
It has been a week. As the world implodes, my personal world has imploded, as well as I spent last week navigating a dire health diagnosis for my dog. But this is life, and I look to PCM as an escape, so I am trying to give it a go this week. ALBEIT, VERY slowly. I didn’t do a podcast last week and am not sure I will this week, but I am just taking it day by day. But this week’s newsletter is also a bit tricky because of the political news this past weekend, which has consumed all of us…and while there are a lot of memes (tasteless perhaps), they are worth noting…but we have always PROMISED to be Trump-Free. So this is a conundrum. A REAL one.
So, I have decided just to show a few of the memes that have come out from the attempted assassination attempt on the former President. Everyone has some pretty complicated feelings and opinions regardless of what side they are on, and it is very disorienting, so I find HUMOR can help. So let’s just take a look at some of those:
X has become a cesspool even before this moment. And this creator tried to make fun of what the platform has become with this post:
And Black Twitter has been having fun:
There continues to be talk from people that this was contrived and set up in some way. While I hold my thoughts on this, this post is comparing Donald Trump to Jussie Smollett, the actor who was found guilty of making up a story he was racially attacked.
And a few more that are too real:
So, I shall leave it there. There are so many more that are more tasteless than these, so this is a good place to call it.
Let’s grab some candy (I am halfway through a pint of Black & White cookie ice cream, to be perfectly honest, as it is 10 AM) and take a break from this madness for a minute.
GEN X HAS BEEN HIT HARD:
Do we just stay in bed under the covers and watch feel-good TV for the foreseeable future? I am not going to lie…that’s basically what I have been doing all week. But we had a trifecta of loss this weekend from Dr. Ruth. Richard Simmons and Shannon Doherty.
Dr. Ruth was an ICON to us Gen X kids. She died at 96 after an extraordinary life. She survived the Holocaust, which took her parents as she was sent to a school in Switzerland while her parents stayed behind and lost their lives in a concentration camp. She came on the scene on the ’80s radio with a radio show on SEX, which then turned into a TV talk show long before these were the norm. I learned more about sex from Dr. Ruth than I did from sex ed, my own awkward conversations with my parents OR the “Joy of Sex,” the scandalous book my mom had hidden in the back of her closet which my friends and I would sneak into and pour through the pages. Dr. Ruth was our Jewish grandmother telling us about sex, and I ate every word up. She shaped me in many ways, more than most of my teachers.
This story from the archives sums her up perfectly:
Richard Simmons was a constant to us ’80s kids: his Reeboks, his tube socks, his utterly hairless legs and tanned body, and his energy. Our relationship with the gay community was SO different back then. Adults likely assumed certain people were gay, but it was never discussed. And I am not sure I understood any of it as a kid. I mean, my neighbor Phyllis used to fantasize about marrying Liberace and would tell me he was THE dream guy, so really, who is to say? Simmons was part of that generation that was eccentric and over the top but never disclosed his sexual orientation. But Simmons rose to fame during a time when our country was going through a fitness revolution. Aerobics, Jane Fonda, bodybuilding, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, Crystal Light. He had been an obese kid and struggled with his weight until he got interested in fitness in LA at the time fitness studios popped up. And he lost weight and, with his personality, was a natural-born star. He opened his own studios, had his own show, and became a pop culture icon. And then he disappeared. And there has been a lot of interest in him since he has disappeared from the public eye and Pauly Shore has been trying to make a biopic on him, much to Simmons’s dismay.
Couldn’t be more perfect.
He died one day after his 76th birthday and only hours after his last social post:
OMG…wait… remember DEAL-A-MEAL???
ICON….
And speaking of icons…this one was rough:
OH Brenda. But really, Shannon has been in many of my gen’s life since we were little kids glued to the TV for Little House on the Prairie. I think she was on the final season or two as Jenny Wilder. Her Uncle was Almanzo who was married to our Half Pint all grown up, Laura Inglass Wilder. Jenny also had a lot of drama in her short time, which was a good pre-cursor for her role in our teenage years.
Brenda Walsh was an icon. She was vulnerable, impressionable, bratty, vindictive, sassy, reactive and had a hell of an eye roll. Not so different from her role on Heathers TBH. When Dylan cheated on Brenda with Kelly, I was a mess. I think this is where I developed trust issues to be perfectly honest.
A little round-up:
And with us losing Luke PErry a few years ago, it just is baffling how young they are and how short their lies were. We need to hold every single day as a gift, you guys. It just makes no sense. I had ONE Shannon story that will always amuse me as it definitely played into her mean-girl vibes. I think we were BOTH leaving the W Hotel in San Francisco at dawn, after us both having had QUITE the party after a U2 show. We had been at an after-party, and then clearly, she and I had paired off with different people from that party, and we ended up in the elevator at the same time in our walks of shame. She was coming from a higher floor, so the elevator stopped for me to get on it. She thought it was the Lobby, and BOY was annoyed I was getting on the elevator. She was like, GET me out of here. I was like BRENDA BRENDA BRENDA.
Some memes honoring here really touched me:
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT:
It’s late, and I need to crawl back into my bed and watch cheesy TV that does NOT include the convention. So, let’s look at some other things quickly:
BOOTS AND A SLICK BACK BUN TREND
This is a fun one on TikTok that started here:
And it grew:
AND…the most iconic….can you spot the guest star?
ENGLAND DID NOT BRING IT HOME…BUT:
It was a heartbreaker for my English friends, but we had some good moments.
Like THIS one from the band during the Killers concert:
Not all celebs handled this correctly. Pop star Katy Perry used the wrong flag in her Tweet and got obliterated for it:
As of publishing time, the Tweet was still up.
Speaking of Katy Perry, her new album has come out and she has not gotten the feedback she was probably hoping for:
THAT IS IT, my darlings…
I have skipped some things for the sake of time (and my bed calls.) I have also skipped over POOP GATE, which involves Gwyneth Paltrow and a former friend of hers that made all the rounds in the Hamps when I was there… it's been out there for a few weeks now. I cannot bring myself to write about it. But here is the deal:
IF you have an accident and you are a guest in someone’s home or a hotel. Whether this is a poop issue, a period issue, or whatever. The right thing to do is to clean it up as best you can. DO WHAT YOU CAN. And then let the owner/hotel know and offer to pay for cleaning…as embarrassing as it is.
DO NOT put the sheets in a pile in the corner of the floor, throw $100 on it, and skulk out into the night without saying a word. Don’t do that.
OK, MOVING on. We are switching off of Medium SOON….so expect an update there. NOT SUBSTACK, so do NOT worry. IT IS COMING…
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Xx,
Brooke
