Disco Dan: Difference between revisions

Yet to do ''that'' with pop culture?

 

 

Usually, this is played for laughs. We get a funny character, who is a walking anachronism by simple virtue of denial. Bonus points if this character forces other people to act as though this reality is true. Curiously enough, more than a few of these characters have an affection for disco music, hence the title.

* In ''[[The Wrestler]]'', Randy "The Ram" Robinson seems to be stuck in [[The Eighties]], the time of his [[Glory Days]]. He plays Nintendo games with neighborhood kids and talks about how much he hates modern music, preferring hair metal from the eighties.

* A rather dark example in ''[[Kalifornia]]'', as it involves not outdated fashions or fads so much as outdated ''attitudes''. Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) is an "unreconstructed redneck" type (one character refers to him as an "Okie," [[Did Not Do the Research|which isn't really the same thing]]) who speaks in a slightly animalistic Southern accent. One of his more reactionary beliefs is that women should not only be inferior to men, but should be ''kept in a state of perpetual childhood''. As such, his female companion, Adele, is forced to wear baby-doll dresses at all times and doesn't smoke cigarettes because "Early broke me of it." In addition, she's often seen playing with a yo-yo and speaks in a ''very'' whiny voice. When Adele finally starts acting like a grown-up and gives Early a [[Shut UP, Hannibal]] speech, {{spoiler|Early kills her; he then abducts the hero's more modern, liberated female companion and turns ''her'' into a sex toy, with a halter top and cutoff shorts. (Of course, since Early is also an unapologetic serial killer, his [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]] tendencies are just the tip of the iceberg.)}}

 

== Literature ==

* The title character of ''[[Don Quixote]]'' is a borderline example: his obsession with [[Chivalric Romance]] leaves him mentally stuck in an era that barely even existed.

 

* Some people from the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story ''Invasion of the Dinosaurs'' plan to literally revert modern-day Earth back to prehistory using [[Time Travel]] technology.

* In the [[Jump the Shark|post-shark]] seasons of ''[[Happy Days]]'', when the show was encroaching into [[The Sixties]], Fonzie refused to let go of his Greaser ways. In an earlier episode, he even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this himself: "If it was up to me, it would stay 1955 forever!"

** While there are people who dislike music (or certain genre of music) made after a certain year, there are others who perform in styles that have since long fallen out of favor except by their hardcore fans, not as a gimmick but as a core part of their style because they are uncomfortable with newer styles or dislike the newer, updated sounds. One example was, toward the end of his career (and, as it turned out, life) was country singer Faron Young. "The Singing Sherriff" (as he was known to his fans), Young—a hardcore honky-tonk singer who occasionally added elements of pop music into his material—enjoyed the peak of his popularity from the mid-1950s through mid-1970s, after which radio began turning toward younger acts. Young, as the story goes, did not take kindly to the changes in the music he loved, and his sound (rooted mostly in the 1960s) was beginning to sound dated with his new material recorded in the 1980s. Young grew increasing bitter and held closer to ''his'' sound by the early 1990s, when a bright young country star named [[Garth Brooks]] set new records for sales and concert attendance ... and not always with sounds that were even remotely considered country, and certainly what Young perceived to be the true sound of country; Young was outspoken about his criticisms about Brooks and others, but few were listening or even interested in his opinions by now. In December 1996, with health problems and his increasingly bitter attitudes toward country music and life in general setting in, he took his life.

** While other older country singers have never grown as bitter as Young, singers such as George Jones and Merle Haggard have been outspoken about what they regard as non-traditional country sounds (i.e., adult contemporary and straight-ahead pop) encroaching on their sounds of country music; acts like [[Taylor Swift]] and Rascal Flatts, and more recently Lady Antebellum, have taken the brunt of that criticism. While Jones and Haggard continue to record new material that has been critically acclaimed, their sounds remain rooted in traditional sounds.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* Jon from ''[[Garfield]]'' is a fan of disco. In the animated special, "[[Garfield Specials|Garfield Gets a Life]]", he's not even aware that it isn't popular anymore. In ''1991''. ("You learn a dance, then zango! - 14 years later, they change it!")

 

* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] tag team Deuce 'n Domino were a pair of '50s greaser throwbacks complete with pompadours, leather jackets, a valet who dresses in a poodle skirt (albeit ''[[Fan Service|much]]'' [[Stripperiffic|shorter]] than actual ones of the period) and rollerskates, an entrance that involves them driving out in a classic convertible, and a theme song that wouldn't be out of place on the ''[[Grease]]'' soundtrack. This got a brief subversion from play-by-play commentator Michael Cole, where he mentioned that they admitted in private with him that they realize it's not the '50s, but they like the look.

** They may have been prescient when it comes to rollerskates, though. Roller derby is currently making a comeback in large to medium-sized American cities, complete with the "retro" pre-1990s skate style.

** And then, of course, there was Johnny B. Badd, wherein Marc Mero was done up in an almost perfect [[Captain Ersatz|clone]] of Little Richard.

* In 2010, Jay Lethal of [[TNA]] did a gimmick that entailed pretending to be "Macho Man" [[Randy Savage]] (including the wraparound shades and the [[Jive Turkey]] accent) and literally acting as if it were still [[The Eighties]]. The gimmick was dubbed "Black Machismo."

 

== Video Games ==

** Strong Bad's latest computer, the Compé, appears to bringing him a bit closer to the present, but only slightly: while it has a flat-screen monitor, it has what looks like 256 colors and pixels as big as fists. Which means it's, what, 1991?

* ''Disco Bear'' from ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]''.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Brad Jones of ''[[The Cinema Snob]]'', has created a character called [[80's Dan]] who is this trope incarnate. His videos are parodies of 80s style sitcoms, with canned laughter and a feel good theme song, and feature the time displaced Dan subjecting his less than enthusiastic roommates and neighbors (including a R.O.B. the Robot) to the joys of 80s pop culture. Bonus points for him actually being named "Dan".

* "90s Kid" on ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' is out of touch and obsessed with [[Rob Liefeld]]-esque [[The Dark Age of Comic Books|1990s comic books]].

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]