For older fans. Getting made fun of for liking Star Wars in the 70s/80s.

Author: ObiWanKennerobi
Date: 26-Jul-2014, 3:54 PM

Author: ObiWanKennerobi
Time: 26-Jul-2014 3:54 PM
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Anyone else remember this? In the 80s, you could like Van Halen, Michael Jackson, pretty much anything but Star Wars without getting ridiculed by the preps, jocks, popular kids, etc. It seems to me that people are retconning culture to say that the Star Wars movies were always universally beloved until the Special Edition and the prequels. I remember people saying "YOU LIKE STAR WARRRRS!!!!????" And let's not forget all the "never been with a girl" and "living in your mother's basement" jokes directed at Star Wars fans in the media, PRE-Special Edition.

Original, Special Edition, and Prequel trilogy gusher. Not a fan of any Disney era Star Wars.

Author: TheBoost
Time: 26-Jul-2014 4:47 PM
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I don't recall this. Star Wars was something it was always ok to like.

I'm actually shocked that a real person uses words like preps and jocks.

Author: TV's Frink
Time: 26-Jul-2014 5:10 PM
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I remember it wasn't ok to like Depeche Mode, does that count?

Author: TM2YC
Time: 26-Jul-2014 7:15 PM
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'Star Trek' was never cool (Maybe JJ Trek a bit) but I don't recall anybody hating on 'Star Wars' pre-97... even Jocks and Preps... whatever they are?

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Author: doubleKO
Time: 26-Jul-2014 7:28 PM
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Nope, at least until the mid 80s Star Wars was liked by almost everyone. You were more likely to be called a weirdo if you hadn't seen it. It was part of growing up, like learning to ride a bike. Mother's basement type jokes were generally reserved for the Star Trek fans.

Author: Baronlando
Time: 26-Jul-2014 7:40 PM (Edited)
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Since it was the most broadly popular movie ever made (in terms of demographics), I don't think anyone was getting hassled for just for liking it.

Author: TV's Frink
Time: 26-Jul-2014 9:12 PM
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Ryan McAvoy said:

... even Jocks and Preps... whatever they are?

Jocks played sports and made fun of those who didn't, Preps wore popped collars and made fun of those who didn't.

Author: Neglify
Time: 26-Jul-2014 10:08 PM
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Homer Simpson said:

Marge, try to understand. There are two kinds of college students: jocks and nerds. As a jock, it is my duty to give nerds a hard time.

[A "jock" walks by.]

Hey pal! Did you get a load of that nerd?

Don’t do drugs, unless you’re with me.

Author: DuracellEnergizer
Time: 26-Jul-2014 10:39 PM
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I used to get teased for being a Batman fan, and this was back in the early '90s before the Schumacher films came out.

Author: ObiWanKennerobi
Time: 27-Jul-2014 12:16 PM (Edited)
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I have a pretty good memory, and I know this was the general culture around Star Wars. At the time of each release, it was more cool, but then you'd get made fun of if you still liked it after it was trending. In the 80's you had to keep up with the latest trends or you would be mercilessly mocked. Kevin Smith himself just said he gave Star Wars up for girls when he was a teenager, because Star Wars geeks could not get girls back then like they can now. Star Wars/Star Trek geeks were very low on the social order in public schools. Total outcasts. In fact, you may remember that "geek" was once an insult. Now, the word means something different. Not derogatory. It used to be something bullies would say. I can't be the only one who remembers.

Original, Special Edition, and Prequel trilogy gusher. Not a fan of any Disney era Star Wars.

Author: ObiWanKennerobi
Time: 27-Jul-2014 12:50 PM (Edited)
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DuracellEnergizer said:

I used to get teased for being a Batman fan, and this was back in the early '90s before the Schumacher films came out.

Thank you! I was a fan of Burton Batman and the comics around that time too (semi obsessed), but never let it be known, because after the treatment I got for being a Star Wars fan, I knew to keep my geek passions under wraps to acquaintances. That's why conventions were popular. A place where people would be accepted in likeminded geek company, unlike in greater society. Comic books were definitely not "cool", and neither were fantasy or sci-fi. As an armchair social anthropologist, I'm really interested in seeing what happens to geek culture and geek movies now that they've been embraced by mainstream culture. Will we get more and more Star Trek (2009)s until every geek franchise is "saved" by mass appeal?

Original, Special Edition, and Prequel trilogy gusher. Not a fan of any Disney era Star Wars.

Author: Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda
Time: 27-Jul-2014 9:07 PM
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I was certainly a nerd. But I don't remember getting any flak for liking SW.

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Author: TV's Frink
Time: 27-Jul-2014 10:51 PM
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I don't recall that problem during Burton Batman either.

Author: TheBoost
Time: 27-Jul-2014 11:06 PM
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Obiwankennerobi, have you considered maybe YOU were the problem?

Author: DrCrowTStarwars
Time: 28-Jul-2014 6:18 AM
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I remember Batman and Star Wars being the cool "in" things with kids in the early 90s. Batman was cool up until Batman and Robin came out. There were a few years where Star Trek was pretty cool and sold a lot of toys and such.

In fact I remember being a Star Trek and Doctor Who fan got me bullied by other kids who were Star Wars and Power Rangers fans. It was okay to be a Star Wars or Power Rangers fan but not a Doctor Who fan. I knew people who up until a few years ago wouldn't even admit they had seen Doctor Who,and most of the people who would pick on us were Star Wars fans,despite the fact that I was a Star Wars fan too!

I have never been picked on for being a Star Wars fan and even the non sci-fi fans I hang out with like Star Wars. In fact Star Wars is the only Sci-Fi I can think of that it has always been okay to like.

Author: TV's Frink
Time: 28-Jul-2014 7:50 AM
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Power Rangers was never cool.

Author: Leonardo
Time: 28-Jul-2014 7:57 AM
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ssshhhhh, twister will hear ya!

Author: DrCrowTStarwars
Time: 28-Jul-2014 8:11 AM
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Power ranger was cool when I was a kid. I know it is hard to believe but all the other kids were power rangers fans and they would pick on me for watching Doctor Who.

Author: TheBoost
Time: 28-Jul-2014 12:09 PM
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No one picked on me for watching Doctor Who because in America no one knew what it was.

I fondly remember Power Rangers as a very uncomfortable thing for 8th grade boys... we didn't know if we were too grown up to publicly like it or not, although I suspect we all watched it.

Author: DominicCobb
Time: 28-Jul-2014 12:30 PM (Edited)
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Star Wars has been mainstream my whole life it seems. Can't remember anyone being ridiculed for liking it. Can remember people being ridiculed for not having seen it.

Batman has always been cool, as far as I can remember, and especially from 2005 onwards (and especially especially from 2008 onwards).

Can't remember anyone being ridiculed for liking Star Trek. Then again, I'm the biggest Trek fan out of my friends, and I have barely/never seen/don't even like TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. And I didn't start watching Trek anyway until 2006 or 2007. But the series is pretty cool now as of 2009.

Power Rangers is, and has only ever been, cool to five year olds.

I wasn't aware of Doctor Who until a few years ago. I only knew one person who watched it, too. Yet, within the last couple years, it has suddenly become very popular, it seems.

Of course, I've never really considered myself a nerd or a geek. What do those words even mean anyway? I don't really identify with what I've seen is their "culture." I just happen to like some of the things they do.

Author: Tyrphanax
Time: 28-Jul-2014 7:00 PM
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I really enjoyed Power Rangers unashamedly from the original series up until Lightspeed Rescue (I think). I must have been around 13-14-15 or so when I finally gave up on it. But that was around when I got my N64 and TV shows became almost a non-entity in my life altogether.

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Author: Moth3r
Time: 28-Jul-2014 8:12 PM
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At some point in the early 80s (before widespread take-up of the VCR), Doctor Who was broadcast on BBC1 at the same time on Saturday evening as The A-Team on ITV.

I was somehow less cool for not watching The A-Team.

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Author: DrCrowTStarwars
Time: 28-Jul-2014 8:23 PM
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That would have been season 22,Collin's first.

My friends had a similar reaction when I started recording Doctor Who on saturdays instead of Star Trek Voyager. In hind sight I think I made the right call.

Author: Moth3r
Time: 29-Jul-2014 6:28 PM
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Pretty sure it was Season 21. I remember Peter Davison in Warriors of the Deep. (Of course Season 22 may also have been up against The A-Team.)

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Author: Darth Id
Time: 29-Jul-2014 6:38 PM
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In what universe did "kids" use "living in your mother's basement" as a "burn"?

Given that kids tend to all live in rooms in their mothers' houses, I seem to recall the kids with relatively remote and removed basement digs as being among the more envied. They usually had drum kits too.

I definitely have the feeling the OP is sniffing about things that happened far more recently than "the 80s"...