h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I hit high school in the 80's and one fad in particular that sticks in my memory was "rat's tails" in your hair. I think they may have been partly inspired by Cyndi Lauper. Another (earlier, I think) craze at one stage were "slinkys" - those springs that walk down stairs. When I had one they were metal. Nowadays they are marketed towards the very young (they sell them in "educational" toy catalogues you get from pre-school) and they're made of plastic. There are some fads that keep re-surfacing. Yo-yos and jacks come to mind.

I remember when I was about 14 years old, everybody was trying (the operative word for most people) to breakdance. This spawned a number of hit singles, probably the most famous here in England being "I Feel for You" by Chaka Khan and also lots of medical complaints like twisted testicles, and broken necks from people trying to "Windmill" and "Head spin" respectively. Does this fit into the "Fad" category as it was a form of dancing that disappeared with a rapidity that was astonishing? (Thank god!)

Well of course there's the biggest fad of them all...

the Internet.

Of course, what hasn't been mentioned is that any fad, no matter how brief or how absurd, will net a small group a die-hard fans. Long after the fad in question has sunk into the murky depths of popular history, there will still be people who follow it relentlessly. cf misguided individuals who still think Take That were a good group.

In time, even the internet will be used only by spods at university with nothing better to do. Ah, that would seem to include me.

Well, first off, I think I still suffer from back spasms every time I think about my breakdancing days.(they called
it that for a reason) Secondly, I still have a crush on the "old" Cyndi Lauper. Yep, I was fourteen and she was...
a goddess I think. *sigh* Anyway, speaking of the eighties. Not the nineties, oughties, noughties, or anything
else, but the eighties, does anyone remember tight-rolling? You know, how we were all so dead set against bell
bottoms that we actually rolled our pants legs up and folded them so that they stopped right at the top of the shoe.
I seem to remember the more hip females would wear multi-colored and patterned socks with the tight-rolled pants
stopping right above the sock. I don't know how that got started, but I do know that it must constitute as a fad.
Right?

About six years ago it was very cool in Germany to put a sticker on your car that looked like a drop of color.
Suddenly all the car-owners had a drop to much. A year later long female-fingernails became modern, obviously
because they were so useful to remove the stickers.
Is this another thing angloamerican culture has had so many years earlier or is it yet to come ?
Its only because I have some of the stickers left...
Last year most car-owners liked cat-like thinks to be stuck against the car-windows in order to get some
shadow for the children in the back.

Now, as for many years, in America, you can find:cats(ie:Garfield), little screens with smurfs and sports teams
and the like, as well as sheets of colored plastic. It's been happening ever since the first Garfield stick-up doll
came out, and it's grown like wild-fire ever since. The one that I really miss these days is the doll calle"Seymour
Butts". This lovely little character stood facing away from the window and, when a string was pulled, he pulled
down his pants. This effectively mooned and annoyed fellow drivers.
As far as the little drops of color go, if they are what I think they are, I actually have an origin story for them. They
first came out when the game paintball started to become really popular. That is, popular in the States. They are
supposed to signify that the person driving the vehicle with the said spots plays the game. Well, I never played
basketball, but I've owned a pair of Nike basketball shoes before. We call the pretenders poseurs. What's your
word? (I do play paintball quite a bit, but have yet to own one of the "spot" stickers!)

WEll, the ultimate recurring fad would have to be Yo-Yos - popular one month, gone the next, back in again after that.

And who could forget the fad that was Tamagotchi?

Where have you been hiding, haven't you noticed that breakdancing is back. Most of the new music videos have some form of breakdancing in them. It seemed to start in the one called "That's the way it is" last year.

i, for one, would like to know who started the beast that is called pokemon. silliest thing i have ever seen and i would normally never purchase such a thing. however my nephew is determined to have pokemon stuff so i was forced to by $40 worth of pokemon crap for his birthday. so in essence i furthered the fad along i suppose. lets just hope it dies a quick death. as for the 80's i only wish someone had told me how silly i looked the tight rolled jeans. and we mustn't forget aqua-net, the life blood of female every teen-ager with aspirations of high hair. i am glad to say that with an effective 12- step program i have been hairspray free for 10 years now.

oh yes...odd that no one has mentioned the demon from hell, furby.

Plastic furniture in fluro colours, that you blow up - oh wow, just sit on one of those jobs in summertime and you have to peel your skin off the chair , only good for making fart type noises(if youre that kind of laughs). Now they also have blow up fluro handbags, wallets, and hair thingos. I can see this fad fast fading, phew.

Thanks! I thought I already had! aaaaahhhhh, it's needing food again! I thought I killed you. hehe

in schools at the moment here in the uk, there are Millenium Babies, repulsive little oddities in an egg, presumably this fad will last until the millenium...
80's fads - hoola hoops, those executive toy things.. they come and go in popularity..

Pokemon... is it safe to say that evil word? We don't watch tv or have a Nintendo so we were spared the Pokemon beast until school started this fall. My kids have never been ones to follow the crowd and ask for things just because the "other kids have them" but this one seems to have taken hold. I refused to buy the garbage, if nothing else but on the sheer principle that I wont buy anything that is "the" fad. Unfortunately, my husband, who is usually a completely sensible and great guy went out and got the starter set. Suddenly that is all I hear. Pokemon is about to be banned in the house just because I am sick to death of hearing about it. Someone please assure me this is going to be as short lived as an over ripe tomato? Truly I don't know which I want more, for it to end quickly or last awhile as I am not looking forward to what mindless crap takes it's place!

I can only assure you that it will last as long as the ad campaign driving it an come up with "catchy" ways to
sell it. However, it is the way of children to be annoyingly commercial. You should be asking yourself how long
that will last! I'm afraid the time involved there will be much longer. sorry.

and speaking of ad campaigns,someone please tell me that the end of the half-hour infomercial is near. i'd much rather watch re-runs of gomer pyle or something.

As they say on FX's "Dinner and a Movie". "There has to be something on television, and we're that something!"

Not to mention blow up flower vases, photo frames and tissue box covers! What are they thinking?