Current Events > Dated characters and concepts that still exist in modern media

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sometimes it's because it's a long running IP and sometimes it's because stuff is creatively bankrupt.

Like Otto the bus driver in The Simpsons. He is now based on a slacker stereotype from over three decades ago. Guys like him are in their late 40s and 50s now.

Peter Parker being an Spider-Man's exclusive photographer for a newspaper sounds ridiculous now. But most depictions seem to have moved away from that.

Sci-fi and futuristic settings still want to ignore the internet, messaging and social media being a thing. People will talk via holograms and video calls or leave voice and text memos behind. The internet doesn't exist. Mobile phones don't exist. It's more likely that there's a futuristic version of a newspaper.

What are some other examples?

I don't remember what it was that I watched recently but it had a really tacked on "guy gets the girl at the end" thing and it made an already meh movie bad. It wasn't a romance or anything that could excuse such an ending and it just felt like such a relic.

BoomerKuwanger posted...

I don't know if it really fits this topic exactly but I actually was just thinking earlier about how the hell the perfect suburban nuclear family image of the 1950's has pervaded for so long. I wouldn't even say that there was ever a whole lot of media that depicted it when you think about it, let alone modern media anymore, but it's something that took such a strong hold as an established trope that you still have some people idealizing the 50's.

I think that does apply. I remember sitcoms still depicting the stay at home housewife when I was a teen.

Not sure how common it is now but it wouldn't surprise me if it still stuck around or that the concept of a working family is half assed.

Is Homer really a millennial?

Punished_Blinx posted...

Sometimes it's because it's a long running IP and sometimes it's because stuff is creatively bankrupt.

Like Otto the bus driver in The Simpsons. He is now based on a slacker stereotype from over three decades ago. Guys like him are in their late 40s and 50s now.

Peter Parker being an Spider-Man's exclusive photographer for a newspaper sounds ridiculous now. But most depictions seem to have moved away from that.

Sci-fi and futuristic settings still want to ignore the internet, messaging and social media being a thing. People will talk via holograms and video calls or leave voice and text memos behind. The internet doesn't exist. Mobile phones don't exist. It's more likely that there's a futuristic version of a newspaper.

What are some other examples?

Newspapers still exist and they use photos...

Sufferedphoenix posted...

Newspapers still exist and they use photos...

I never said they didn't.

But I think it's safe to say that it's not going to be a major way to find out information in the future.

If you meant Peter Parker then good luck having that as a job in an era where everyone has a camera on them that can film at any time. Why would people be buying the Bugle for Spider-Man pictures in the year 2024?

Dakimakura posted...

Is Homer really a millennial?

Batman is too. The magic of sliding timescale media

A ton of modern vampire shit in general has aged extremely badly. Twilight is arguably one of the ones that makes the most sense. Stuff from the Anne Rice/White Wolf era really stretches suspension of disbelief with the omnipresent surveillance we have today. If I was going to run another vampire RPG it would have to be set in the 80s.

Zikten posted...

Batman is too. The magic of sliding timescale media

I don't want to be the same age as Batman

if were going to the morgue or the IT department on a police drama get ready to meet a quirky/goth/ woman or an awkward zany guy.

Tyranthraxus posted...

A ton of modern vampire shit in general has aged extremely badly. Twilight is arguably one of the ones that makes the most sense. Stuff from the Anne Rice/White Wolf era really stretches suspension of disbelief with the omnipresent surveillance we have today. If I was going to run another vampire RPG it would have to be set in the 80s.

Pretty much everything mysterious and supernatural is a much tougher well from the 90s onwards. It's pretty interesting.

People talk about an X-Files reboot but I outright don't see that working anymore. The world doesn't feel mysterious like that anymore.

Peter Parker would more likely be Spider-Mans social media representative nowadays, and hed be taking video for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as opposed to photos.

There being no such thing as CCTV unless its a plot point.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Sci-fi and futuristic settings still want to ignore the internet, messaging and social media being a thing. People will talk via holograms and video calls or leave voice and text memos behind. The internet doesn't exist. Mobile phones don't exist. It's more likely that there's a futuristic version of a newspaper.

That's easy to take away though.

The government says no internet, that means no internet. It's not like you can start up an "internet generator" in your back yard. If there's no service to tap into, you're out of luck.

Most futures are dystopic, so that fits with a corrupt government. If you have a more ideal future without internet, it could be that they've learned we're not responsible enough to wield such power -- like how it invariably becomes a platform for spreading hatred and misinformation.

Punished_Blinx posted...

I never said they didn't.

But I think it's safe to say that it's not going to be a major way to find out information in the future.

If you meant Peter Parker then good luck having that as a job in an era where everyone has a camera on them that can film at any time. Why would people be buying the Bugle for Spider-Man pictures in the year 2024?

Perry white pays for pics of spiderman and Peter gets the best.

They could evolve or to where the bugle is a internet news site though

FortuneCookie posted...

That's easy to take away though.

The government says no internet, that means no internet. It's not like you can start up an "internet generator" in your back yard. If there's no service to tap into, you're out of luck.

Most futures are dystopic, so that fits with a corrupt government. If you have a more ideal future without internet, it could be that they've learned we're not responsible enough to wield such power -- like how it invariably becomes a platform for spreading hatred and misinformation.

I will say games like cyberpunk are weird to me cause they still use cords to connect into things and during Johnny's time frame they use decks which is like a keyboard when we got touch screen stuff nowadays.

Websites just browse for coverage on social media and repost it for free. They'd do the same thing for Spider-Man.

If Peter can get studio quality pictures of Spider-Man in the age of social media that's just gonna make it obvious it's him.

Punished_Blinx posted...

I think that does apply. I remember sitcoms still depicting the stay at home housewife when I was a teen.

Not sure how common it is now but it wouldn't surprise me if it still stuck around or that the concept of a working family is half assed.

That's another thing in The Simpsons. The idea that Homer's income alone is enough to own a house and support a family of five was far more believable in 1990 than it is today.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

I will say games like cyberpunk are weird to me cause they still use cords to connect into things and during Johnny's time frame they use decks which is like a keyboard when we got touch screen stuff nowadays.

Yeah, okay. I get that one.

I guess it isn't as exciting to have a cyborg ask "What's your Wi-Fi password?" before remotely connecting to the Matrix .

<_<

Magneto being a holocaust survivor

Punished_Blinx posted...

Sci-fi and futuristic settings still want to ignore the internet, messaging and social media being a thing. People will talk via holograms and video calls or leave voice and text memos behind. The internet doesn't exist. Mobile phones don't exist. It's more likely that there's a futuristic version of a newspaper.

One could make the argument that even in the most negative depictions of the future, society had enough sense to move past social media.

UnsteadyOwl posted...

That's another thing in The Simpsons. The idea that Homer's income alone is enough to own a house and support a family of five was far more believable in 1990 than it is today.

Actually his dad bought the house for them, or at least fronted a huge chunk of the initial payment (there are some passing comments in other eps about having a mortgage, so Grandpa probably didn't buy it outright). Which makes it even more relatable by today's standards.

Every gay man (especially in sitcoms) being portrayed as a hyperactive, sarcastic sex fiend who has dated and/or slept with every other gay man that appears on screen.

DipDipDiver posted...

Magneto being a holocaust survivor

Yeah, this is a good one. You just know that as soon as they properly introduce the mutants into the MCU there are going to be a lot of people asking why the 50-year-old Magneto is no longer written as a survivor from a war that took place 80 years ago.

DipDipDiver posted...

Magneto being a holocaust survivor

Some mutants have extraordinarily long lives.

I'd still like to see the MCU have the courage to change his ethnicity and make him a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. That would make him the same age that his character would have been when the series was created in the 1960s.

TMOG posted...

Yeah, this is a good one. You just know that as soon as they properly introduce the mutants into the MCU there are going to be a lot of people asking why the 50-year-old Magneto is no longer written as a survivor from a war that took place 80 years ago.

Until the role is officially cast otherwise, I will still hold out hope that they get Denzel to play Magneto, at which point his backstory would likely get updated as a Rwandan genocide survivor.

masterpug53 posted...

Actually his dad bought the house for them, or at least fronted a huge chunk of the initial payment (there are some passing comments in other eps about having a mortgage, so Grandpa probably didn't buy it outright). Which makes it even more relatable by today's standards.

It was also established last season that Marge has been secretly collecting monthly payments as per her father's will to keep the family afloat.

Kami_no_Kami posted...

There being no such thing as CCTV unless its a plot point.

I mean irl the things are almost never recording

Sufferedphoenix posted...

I will say games like cyberpunk are weird to me cause they still use cords to connect into things and during Johnny's time frame they use decks which is like a keyboard when we got touch screen stuff nowadays.

Cords are more reliable and less susceptible to EM interference and signal interception.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Sci-fi and futuristic settings still want to ignore the internet, messaging and social media being a thing. People will talk via holograms and video calls or leave voice and text memos behind. The internet doesn't exist. Mobile phones don't exist. It's more likely that there's a futuristic version of a newspaper.

I think some of this is that it's hard to create proper dramatic tension when there is very free flow of information. A significant number of stories revolve around things like:

• some characters knowing things but not everyone
• characters being unable to find each other
• characters having incomplete information about the world

even settings where tech and internet is a pretty big thing, I find often the intense / crisis moments have to come up with some reason for the communication lines to be jammed or otherwise nonfunctional

TMOG posted...

Every gay man (especially in sitcoms) being portrayed as a hyperactive, sarcastic sex fiend who has dated and/or slept with every other gay man that appears on screen.

Is this still a thing?

I see it in a lot of reruns from 90s and 2000s shows. Is the Will and Grace typecast still going strong in modern television and streaming shows?

DipDipDiver posted...

Magneto being a holocaust survivor

iirc the comics explained it away by killing him and having come back to life younger. Same as they did with Xavier.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

I will say games like cyberpunk are weird to me cause they still use cords to connect into things and during Johnny's time frame they use decks which is like a keyboard when we got touch screen stuff nowadays.

Cyberpunk is based on an 80s TTRPG so it uses a lot of imagery of the future that the 80s expected.

On the subject of sci-fi, most of the early stuff never predicted the computer. You got all kinds of weird shit like laser guns and so on but when they had to chart a path through space, they busted out good ol' pencil & paper & nautical navigation tools.

The way anime treats lesbians half of the time being super sexual aggressive toward their straight friends

Mass Effect is also guilty in that the entire plot could have been avoided if Shepard had a body cam in his armor.

Also the whole "no one knows what quarians look like" mystery when if they were advanced (which they were) there'd be tons a videos and images still available.

Tyranthraxus posted...

On the subject of sci-fi, most of the early stuff never predicted the computer. You got all kinds of weird shit like laser guns and so on but when they had to chart a path through space, they busted out good ol' pencil & paper & nautical navigation tools.

my favourite variant of this is the settings where one of the most important roles for spaceflight is some kind of supergenius polymath where their brain is basically a giant calculator/computer that does math 1000x faster than the average person

vampire shit [...] omnipresent surveillance

aren't they immune to mirrors therefore cameras

Fluttershy posted...

vampire shit [...] omnipresent surveillance

aren't they immune to mirrors therefore cameras

Do you not see a problem with invisible people doing shit on camera?

Ivynn posted...

Mass Effect is also guilty in that the entire plot could have been avoided if Shepard had a body cam in his armor.

Also the whole "no one knows what quarians look like" mystery when if they were advanced (which they were) there'd be tons a videos and images still available.

He is a space cop so he turned it off.

Remember the days when thrillers would have a houseful of people cut off from the outside world because someone snipped the phone line?

I suppose nowadays you could say they're all customers of the Three network. It'd plausibly explain why everyone loses signal.

It's a lot harder to plot mysteries these days than even a few years ago.

Phone tracking is always one that gets moulded to suit the plot. When they need it, they can pinpoint a person's exact location in seconds by 'pinging cell towers'. However, if that's going to make life too easy, there will be an 'untraceable burner' handy.

Do you not see a problem with invisible people doing shit on camera?

i get what you're saying but how do you prove it was them.

Fluttershy posted...

Do you not see a problem with invisible people doing shit on camera?

i get what you're saying but how do you prove it was them.

The point is once you could prove this was a thing, people would start looking for it in real time. They'd peek at everyone though their phone cameras. It would become nearly impossible to hide.

Grandpa Abe is still a WWII vet even though the youngest of them would be in their mid 90s at this point.

Do you think in 100, 200, 800 years people will still be carrying around phones? With cameras on them and everything?

I wonder if we'll ever grow out of needing to have a camera on us at all times.

Ivynn posted...

Mass Effect is also guilty in that the entire plot could have been avoided if Shepard had a body cam in his armor.

Also the whole "no one knows what quarians look like" mystery when if they were advanced (which they were) there'd be tons a videos and images still available.

Mass Effect is funny because they treat a sound file as irrefutable evidence, which would be laughable today, let alone 150 years in the future

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

No way. Detective Crashmore is timeless.

Opposite take.

With the rise in popularity of the dad bod, the family sitcom cliche of the bland, pudgy, dad with the hot wife thats way out of his league is more of a reality than ever.