The influence of Star Wars in our culture

Yeah I know. It has become so ingrained in our culture, when we hear someone use a phrase like "Jedi instinct" we hardly even think twice about it. I hear the words "Jedi" and "darkside" used all the time in the real world far outside the context of Star Wars. 

The other day one of my more crass co-workers was talking about a girl and said, "She has a cute face, but a body like Jabba."

Back when I was in university, a kid was giving a presentation on an ancient Greek city that was historically known for being a very corrupt and bad place, when he was explaining what a awful place it was, he used the phrase, "I guess you could say you'd never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy". Most of us in the class room, including the professor had a little chuckle and the presentation went on.

I cannot think of another movie that has had such a severe cultural impact. Casablanca and Monty Python and the Holy Grail are about the only two films I hear referenced anywhere near as much as Star Wars in everyday speech. The Wizard of Oz might fit in there too though, I hear it referenced quite often, and I think every now and then we all catch somebody whistling "If I only had a brain".

The term "bunny boiler" - used regularly in popular culture to describe a mad/psycho/mentally unstable woman - is a direct reference to Fatal Attraction.

Was that Star Trek inspired though? The world has had navel vessels named "Enterprise" way back in the 1700s (maybe even early, I don't know), from the French vessel L'Enterprise, to about a million British gunships named HMS Enterprise, to an additional million or so US navy vessels.

However, a quick look at the uber-scholarly wikipedia ;) informs me that it was originally named the Constitution until a write in campaign convinced them to name it in honor of the sci-fi vessel. Huh, crazy stuff. I have no doubt though, that even without the existence of Star Trek, there would have eventually been space shuttle named The Enterprise.

When I was still living at home, every Christmas my mom and I would get into this bargaining session about what to put on top of the tree.  I liked the classic star, she has this "ball skewered on an icicle" thing that she likes.  Back and forth, this one this year, that one next year, on and on.

By the time I moved out, my sister had already had two kids.  Christmas comes around and mom is thrilled because now that I'm out, there's no one to have the tree top debate with and she can do what she wants (Dad never really cared which tree top was used.)  Dad does mention though that Geoffrey, the younger grandson, said that he likes the star top on the Christmas tree.  Mom gives me a suspicious look, as if I had something to do with it (which, coincidentally, I didn't, but....)

I just smile and tell her "The Force can have a strong influence on the weak mind."

Even people who have never seen star trek no who Kirk and Spock are.  Or have heard the words "beam me up scotty".

I believe Star Trek has had an effect on our culture in the past, all the way up to the next generation era and then sort of became lame and died off.

While Star Wars has remained popular.  Too bad the average person thinks star wars and automatically thinks of those three video games passed off as movies 1999-2005 and not the trilogy 1977-1983.

Star Wars Legacy is forever tarnished by the special editions, the prequels and the gout.

It still is not to late to salvage it but Lucas is still busy destroying star wars and has no intention of restoring what he considers to be inferior versions.

He has done everything in his power to prevent the original trilogy as it was to be seen the way it should be seen.  Not just for the people like me who grew up on the films, he is also denying the current generations who were born into this world and future generations from seeing the movies the way they should be seen.

I want to be able to show the films to my Nephew in the best quality possible and all i have is the gout.  Thanks a million George Lucas or should i call him greedo.

My nephew is also a fan of the droids cartoon and i can only show him a bootleg of the episodes because of Luca$h.