Low Culture.

First and foremost, I am not trying to make it appear as if I have coined the phrase "low culture"; rather, I have been trying to make sense of it since I first read Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, which is sub-titled "A Low Culture Manifesto", oh so many years ago. I may be off base here, but so far as I can gather, "low culture" has to do with the remains of pop culture. Basically, it's the unpopular side of pop culture stuff.

So, what the hell does this have to do with anything? Well, as much as I hate to do it, I have to make this connection to my Cultural Criticism class. We have been examining the various film adaptations of Othello. There seems to be a major conflict between the Lawrence Olivier version, and the recent version starring Lawrence Fishburne. There is a lot beyond just the fact that LF is black and LO is white (and done up in HOOOOORRIBLE blackface), it has to do with our modern tendency towards low culture. I personally think the Olivier version is rubbish, but each of the leading actors and actresses were nominated for an Oscar that year. So how is it that most everyone in the class prefers the Fishburne version? Simple: Sir Lawrence Olivier could never play Morpheus. It doesn't matter that one actor is a trained Shakespearean actor, and the other once appeared as a cowboy on Pee Wee's playhouse. Low culture shuns the classically genius and creates a new standard for judgement that incorporates just enough irony to be not only smart, but funny as well.

A few things that qualify as good signposts for low culture comparison:

- 1980s music videos (big hair and bad dance moves, what more could you ask for? Oh, right -- awful special effects)
- fast food, or even better, fast food mascots (Jack in the Box, Ronald McDonald, or more obscure folks like the Noid, Mayor McCheese, or the Hamburgler)
- Any youth or teen-oriented TV show of yesteryear: Saved by the Bell, 90210, DeGrassi High (for my Canadian readers), ABC's old "TGIF Lineup", etc, etc, etc.
- Early nineties "happy rap": back in the day before bitches and bling there were performers like The Fresh Prince, The Fat Boys, and Kris Kross. And they are still hilarious in hindsight.
- Athelete references that are more than five years old: sideburns like Carl Yastrzemski, a Mattingly moustache, or a fro like Kareem are all classic comparisons
- Gene Shalit. Enough said.
- Animal celebrities: Eddie the dog from Frasier, Mr. Ed, Beethoven the giant dog, Francis the talking mule, Free Willy, Rin Tin Tin -- drop their name along with that of any celebrity who makes you roll your eyes and you'll immediately be infinitely cooler.
- Computer geekery: What makes you sound cooler and more hip than saying something [C:\>cd\sucks]?


Arright, I have papers to write, which is probably why this post is so long at this point. I really have to [C:\>dos\run] bwahahhahaa......