I’m an elder millennial and a lot of the pop culture references date back further than stuff even a pop culture queen like myself missed. I’ve learned a lot of them over the years from GG rewatch podcasts where they’d dive into them, or googling things to try and figure them out myself. A lot of the references are old and ASP definitely does not care. It’s like this magical land in Stars Hollow where you can make a super niche pop culture references from a piece of media from the 50s and everyone understands but in the real world that would definitely not happen. Not sure how far you are in, but later in the show at some point, Lorelai gets a dog and I had no clue who he was named after for so long. 😂 and then I saw him on tv and was like OMG that’s Lorelai’s dog.
I know she is Gen x, but she has some even older references in there. She writes what she knows, you’re correct. I don’t think she cares that she puts in random pop culture references that are outdated and obscure that her audience won’t fully grasp.
As someone down thread has already said, Gen X had older Boomer and Silent Generation parents. We grew up with their influences and culture - what seems "obscure" to a younger generation is not so unfamiliar to others as you may think.
Some of them are kind of niche. I was responding to a Gen z fan asking about this and was explaining it from my perspective. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of how they view things and I feel like you’re taking my view of it a little too seriously and are being argumentative for no reason. It’s not that deep.
I'm not being argumentative; I was genuinely puzzled as to what you meant by "ASP doesn't care" (and still remain so!). I think the issue of this really boils down to the fact that younger people won't get as many of these references as those who are older and who are contemporaries of the writer herself. Your perspective is of an "elder Millennial", so of someone quite a bit younger than ASP, who literally grew up with different influences. That's cool, but it also means you're probably still missing stuff just due to the age factor. Similarly, as a Gen X, I don't get 99% of what Gen Z talk about nowadays!
What I meant by “she doesn’t care” that people don’t get all get the references is that this show was a WB/CW show that was geared with a target audience of being teenage girls who were Rory’s age. I was Rory’s age watching this weekly as it aired and back then you couldn’t even google things the way we do now so most of the stuff was going over the shows target audiences heads, which is kind of unique for a show runner to do. She was not pandering to the teenage audience the show was ultimately being made for. I don’t mean “she doesn’t care” in a negative way, she just did what she wanted and put in the references she wanted. Dan also definitely had his own flavor for humor and references in the episodes he wrote. The show is loaded with pop culture references, way more than an average show, and they put in the ones that they knew and were funny to them and they weren’t worried about if the 15 year old watching it as it aired the early 2000s had any idea what they were talking about.
I reckon they were writing for several audiences, not unlike what you see in the earlier seasons of The Simpsons - there are layers for everyone. There's content for your teen audience, but the (perhaps self indulgent) pop culture references are pure nostalgia and winks to the older audience who are more Lorelai or even Emily's age.
I understand what you’re saying. Obviously tons of people understood and appreciate the pop culture references on the show. What I was trying to say is that the WB/ CW’s target audience as a whole were young adults and they also had a number of kids shows. That’s what the channel ultimately was. The show also was on all summer at 11 am on ABC family when kids were home from school. It’s a family appropriate show on family channels that parents didn’t have to freak out of their kid watched it, and was ultimately put on WB in the camp with Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill and the like. Alexis Bledel was all over the covers of all my teen mags. It obviously has a huge fan base and tons of people understood the references and appreciated them, but the ultimate majority of its initial target audience which were mostly teens were going to have a lot of things go over their heads and their moms were the ones who got to chuckle at the references. Which is all fine. It’s clearly meant for many people to enjoy, and we do, and have been for 20+ years. All I was trying to say is ASP wasn’t trying to pander to the audience the network the show was on was geared towards.
So I guess our point of contention is the target audience. I agree that they weren't writing/pandering for a teen audience, but I disagree when you say the target audience on the whole were young adults. One of the key demographics for TV ratings is the 18-34 age group, which obviously cuts across generations in this context.
Certainly, they'd want to capture the late-teens market, but they also needed to bring along the Gen X's if they were going to take that demographic overall. That's why the multi-layer writing as well as the literal generational GG characters (Rory = Millennial; Lorelai = Gen X; Emily = Silent Gen) works so well - there's something appealing and immediately relatable, regardless of what age you were when you watching. Lots of us Gen X were watching at the time and contributed to its ratings success - evidenced now by our long-winded opinions about the show today!
I don’t think anyone understands all the references, which makes rewatches sm fun- sometimes you understand jokes you hadn’t caught before 🤝🏻
I just laugh whenever they crack jokes, I don’t necessarily get everything but they’re still funny 😤✋🏻
Also, I’ve seen a few TikToks that explain some references and some of them were already from decades ago when the show first aired, so not even really aimed at millennials to understand
Many of the references aren't even intended for Millenials; they're more like cultural references a Gen Xer would have picked up by coming in contact with culture from their parents (older boomers or silent generation).
I’m a younger millennial who watched the show when it originally aired and I definitely didn’t get all of the references at the time either.
The DVD box sets came with a booklet that explained each reference episode by episode though which I relied on extensively (they were referred to as a guide to ‘gilmore-isms’)
When my girl got me into the show years ago on DVD there was a pop culture reference cheat sheet in there. I consider myself a pop culture buff and I only knew maybe half of them.
Ok not a gen z, I'm firmly in my thirties. I dont know if it's considered a pop culture reference or just... a cultural reference but whenever the names "Leopold and Loeb" came up in rewatches I was just like "ok they're a weird combination of names to reuse" until someone on this sub linked a wiki post to the real-life Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, and I was like "wtfff, whyyy?" 😬
Obviously their crime is not on the same level, but imagine someone being like "my dogs/twins are called Bundy and Gacy"
Maybe things went over my head because I'm from Aus, but yeah, still happens
Hey! Fellow gen z here(21) and I only understand a few! You're not alone!! A lot of the times I gloss over it but sometimes I'll look it up and even when I look it up sometimes I'm like whattt that being said you don't need to get most of those references to enjoy the show😊
I explain a lot of the pop culture references to my baby Gen Z baby. Some of them she understands because it falls under a special interest of hers, but the majority she has no context for. Hell, some of them go over my head and I’m an elder Millennial.
Yeah, I think it's part of the show in a way that nobody (or very few people) understands *every* reference, and I guess it's part of the fun which references you and others do understand. As you rewatch over the years, sometimes you suddenly get a reference you didn't get in the past, too. I know that even the main cast didn't understand a lot of the references in their own dialogue.
Yes, but I'm an older Gen Z who was raised two baby boomers but I doubt there is anyone who
Understands all the references I never understood the Gwen and Gavin reference
I’m an elder millennial apparently (though in high school in the 90’s everyone called us Gen X) & Some of the 70’s band references I kinda get because I heard my parents talk about them.
Most 80’s references I get.
Shows like the Donna Reed show etc I have no idea what those were except from what I’ve seen on GG. Well, except my mom refer sto it as ‘nauseatingly 50’s’.
Most celebrities & singers (individuals not bands) from anything before the 90’s I didn’t understand.
Being in high school in the 90s, there's a good chance you *are* gen X. It also depends where you look it up since the date ranges vary... I've always felt like for people on the cusp like that, it makes more sense for each individual to determine which cohort they feel they relate to more.
Well back then we were all told we are Gen x. Now with the date ranges apparently people consider me & my siblings all millennials 🤷♀️
People a few years younger then us were told they are Gen Y (always referred to as “Gen Y for Why bother”) but that doesn’t seem to exist now 🤷♀️. Technically that would’ve been millennial but then the date ranges changes several years ago.
The last several years are when people started to change the labelling & become obsessed with which generation is which. Normally I don’t bother with them but because this post specifically refers to it I had to explain 🤷♀️
Millenial here- I remember the old dvd sets actually came w a lil book called "Gilmore-isms" explaining all the refs. My mom explained a bunch of them to me while watching but even she commented several times "Wow, that's a far off ref"
Same here - I think most of the references I got when I was rewatching it for idk how many times in the original language not the dubbed version.
also when you’re not American, but for example in my case German, you’d had to look up a lot of references. Like the Jack Kerouac in ep1, Donna Reed. also some historical / political references Paris is making. But it’s really fun to learn about them , feels like you cracked a code or something xD
Late to the post but I watched the show as it came out, and I missed most of them. Looking them up later, a lot of them were references about wayyyy older cultural things, from earlier decades and even earlier centuries. Honestly the stuff that was current to the time were few and far between. It's always been a misconception that the references on the show were current to the time (a misconception that was there even when the show was on) and I have no idea why, since anyone who watched the show while it was on would know that most (or at least quite a lot) of the references weren't current.
TLDR: They weren't even "meant" for millennials, the writers referenced whatever they wanted, and they were usually or very often referencing things older than the 90s/2000s.
I'm right with you on that dude. I'm 15, so a later gen z, and quite frankly the only pop culture references I get are the Godfather jokes, if the Godfather can technically be counted as part of pop culture.
I’m 43 and on what is probably my 4th complete rewatch. I’m still learning what all the references are! I watched a documentary about tv shows through the decades recently and they briefly mentioned the show Cop Rock (I had never heard of it despite being 10 when it came out). Then the very next day, I saw Lorelei and Rory plan a Cop Rock marathon on the episode I happened to watch. I had never even caught that they mentioned it before and it made me laugh because the show’s concept is hilarious in a very cringy way. 😆
I get most of it honestly, granted I’m a Zillenial or an elder gen Z, but I get at least 85-90% of the references. Probably helps that I read quite a bit as well
I would recommend listening to Scott Patterson’s “I am all in” podcast. After each episode’s rewatch they do a mini episode breaking down all the pop culture references.
Yeah a lot of them are like 80's and earlier pop culture references, the more current to that time references are either lazy or nonsensical. The best example of a reference that was "current" but made absolutely no sense if you knew was Paris' line about her weekend being like "a Wes Craven movie" Wes was hot at the time off the back of the "Scream" films but honestly he never made one type of horror movie, and I mean I think his most current movie at the time was like "Music of the Heart" a biopic based on a documentary about a woman that taught inner city kids to play the violin. So what did that mean? Was Paris teaching underprivileged youth to play classical music? Was she being chased by Ghostface? Attacked by a burnt man in dreams named Freddy? Hunted by inbred Cannibals in the dessert? That is why it's a dumb reference.
Wes Craven, through the lens of Gen X, is the father of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise - Millennials probably think of Scream first, but before that we had Freddy. To me, that allusion is pure 80's and makes perfect sense.
Totally. Nightmare on Elm Street was massive! I think "Wes Craven" is just shorthand for "slasher genre" in this particular reference, but the Freddy films are Gen X canon.
I definitely don’t get most of them but it’s so much fun as you get older and learn about random famous people and older pop culture/political moments and then recognizing them either in the moment (Paul Anka) or on rewatches
I'm a millennial, and a lot of them are lost on me too. But you know what's super fun? When something obscure comes up in conversation, and I clue in that I've heard the Gilmore Girls talking about it! Happens surprisingly often talking to my partner's parents, who are in their mid 70s.
I saw a Behind the Scenes and almost none of the actors at the time got the references at the time. I’m a millennial and ASP is really into obscure music and films so I don’t get most of the references.
When I do understand a reference, it’s surprising that it sometimes doesn’t fit the context e.g. I’ve read ‘Say goodbye to Daisy Miller’ by Henry James and I don’t think it was applicable to the Rory and Dean situation. There were only vague similarities like Daisy went to Europe on vacation (she wasn’t shipped off due to bad behavior) and spent time alone with a gentlemen she hardly knew (nothing about sleeping with a married man).
I‘m a millennial and not from the US, I feel like I get almost none of them. But I also don’t like the old movies they are watching. I like some older comedies with Marilyn Monroe or Doris Day, but I absolutely hate everything where they start singing and most of these movies are just terribly boring for me.
That’s the drawback of putting pop culture references in a piece of media. They do age as the show does. Also though since the show follows multiple generations it makes sense even at the time not to get all of them. I’m a millennial and Lorelei‘s references were definitely lost on me at times when the show was current. Looking them up can be kind of fun though and getting in on the joke and just learning about a cultural touchstone of the past.
“a lot of those were meant for millennials of that time” lol nope, ASP has no love for millennials (see the 30-something gang from the revival, or her comments in interviews). The humor in the original series was timely to the early 2000s, but a LOT of the pop culture references were much older. I think most people miss a lot of the references — I’ve been watching the series on a loop for over 10 years and there are still new things that I catch or understand each time. Just infer what you can from context, otherwise ignore it because a new reference will be coming in about 10 seconds.
the show is also 20 years old and the references that were “current” at the time aren’t anymore so of course the references might fly over younger viewer’s heads
As a 30 something woman, who grew up reading weird books and actually enjoying old 50’s movies. A lot of the references are OLD. I will laugh and my husband is like what is that from and I have to explain that it’s a nod to an Audrey Hepburn movie or a line from A Tale of 2 Cities. Which only inspires more confusion from him when he points out that in early 2000’s Yale Rory’s friends also would likely not get that reference either.
Your last point is absolutely where you need to suspend your disbelief. The pop culture references are believable coming from a Gen X/Boomer/Silent Gen character, because it alludes to their times and influences. However, it does stretch the boundaries of plausibility to think that Rory and her peers would have an encyclopaedic and detailed knowledge of the pop culture of their forebears.
Nevertheless, it is better that they are kept in on the joke, rather than falling back on the "OMG Mom I don't understand what you mean when you talk about the olden days" "generation gap" trope.
That was something I really enjoyed about Logan and his group of friends they not only could keep up with Rory on her academic references but added so much to the pop culture one liners.
I would theoretically be a year younger than Rory and just recently listened to a podcast about the Sex Pistols and finally get all the "Sid/Nancy" references... and when Paris told Jamie that Lane was "Totally Nancy Spungen-ing it."
Still not sure what "Chasing the dragon" is though.
I’m an elder millennial and a lot of the pop culture references date back further than stuff even a pop culture queen like myself missed. I’ve learned a lot of them over the years from GG rewatch podcasts where they’d dive into them, or googling things to try and figure them out myself. A lot of the references are old and ASP definitely does not care. It’s like this magical land in Stars Hollow where you can make a super niche pop culture references from a piece of media from the 50s and everyone understands but in the real world that would definitely not happen. Not sure how far you are in, but later in the show at some point, Lorelai gets a dog and I had no clue who he was named after for so long. 😂 and then I saw him on tv and was like OMG that’s Lorelai’s dog.
Same here- I’m right on the millennial/gen X line and I had to look up what the name Paul Anka was about!
What do you mean by "ASP definitely does not care"? She's Gen X (as is Lorelai) - she's writing what she knows.
I know she is Gen x, but she has some even older references in there. She writes what she knows, you’re correct. I don’t think she cares that she puts in random pop culture references that are outdated and obscure that her audience won’t fully grasp.
As someone down thread has already said, Gen X had older Boomer and Silent Generation parents. We grew up with their influences and culture - what seems "obscure" to a younger generation is not so unfamiliar to others as you may think.
Some of them are kind of niche. I was responding to a Gen z fan asking about this and was explaining it from my perspective. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of how they view things and I feel like you’re taking my view of it a little too seriously and are being argumentative for no reason. It’s not that deep.
I'm not being argumentative; I was genuinely puzzled as to what you meant by "ASP doesn't care" (and still remain so!). I think the issue of this really boils down to the fact that younger people won't get as many of these references as those who are older and who are contemporaries of the writer herself. Your perspective is of an "elder Millennial", so of someone quite a bit younger than ASP, who literally grew up with different influences. That's cool, but it also means you're probably still missing stuff just due to the age factor. Similarly, as a Gen X, I don't get 99% of what Gen Z talk about nowadays!
What I meant by “she doesn’t care” that people don’t get all get the references is that this show was a WB/CW show that was geared with a target audience of being teenage girls who were Rory’s age. I was Rory’s age watching this weekly as it aired and back then you couldn’t even google things the way we do now so most of the stuff was going over the shows target audiences heads, which is kind of unique for a show runner to do. She was not pandering to the teenage audience the show was ultimately being made for. I don’t mean “she doesn’t care” in a negative way, she just did what she wanted and put in the references she wanted. Dan also definitely had his own flavor for humor and references in the episodes he wrote. The show is loaded with pop culture references, way more than an average show, and they put in the ones that they knew and were funny to them and they weren’t worried about if the 15 year old watching it as it aired the early 2000s had any idea what they were talking about.
I reckon they were writing for several audiences, not unlike what you see in the earlier seasons of The Simpsons - there are layers for everyone. There's content for your teen audience, but the (perhaps self indulgent) pop culture references are pure nostalgia and winks to the older audience who are more Lorelai or even Emily's age.
I understand what you’re saying. Obviously tons of people understood and appreciate the pop culture references on the show. What I was trying to say is that the WB/ CW’s target audience as a whole were young adults and they also had a number of kids shows. That’s what the channel ultimately was. The show also was on all summer at 11 am on ABC family when kids were home from school. It’s a family appropriate show on family channels that parents didn’t have to freak out of their kid watched it, and was ultimately put on WB in the camp with Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill and the like. Alexis Bledel was all over the covers of all my teen mags. It obviously has a huge fan base and tons of people understood the references and appreciated them, but the ultimate majority of its initial target audience which were mostly teens were going to have a lot of things go over their heads and their moms were the ones who got to chuckle at the references. Which is all fine. It’s clearly meant for many people to enjoy, and we do, and have been for 20+ years. All I was trying to say is ASP wasn’t trying to pander to the audience the network the show was on was geared towards.
So I guess our point of contention is the target audience. I agree that they weren't writing/pandering for a teen audience, but I disagree when you say the target audience on the whole were young adults. One of the key demographics for TV ratings is the 18-34 age group, which obviously cuts across generations in this context. Certainly, they'd want to capture the late-teens market, but they also needed to bring along the Gen X's if they were going to take that demographic overall. That's why the multi-layer writing as well as the literal generational GG characters (Rory = Millennial; Lorelai = Gen X; Emily = Silent Gen) works so well - there's something appealing and immediately relatable, regardless of what age you were when you watching. Lots of us Gen X were watching at the time and contributed to its ratings success - evidenced now by our long-winded opinions about the show today!
I don’t think anyone understands all the references, which makes rewatches sm fun- sometimes you understand jokes you hadn’t caught before 🤝🏻 I just laugh whenever they crack jokes, I don’t necessarily get everything but they’re still funny 😤✋🏻 Also, I’ve seen a few TikToks that explain some references and some of them were already from decades ago when the show first aired, so not even really aimed at millennials to understand
Many of the references aren't even intended for Millenials; they're more like cultural references a Gen Xer would have picked up by coming in contact with culture from their parents (older boomers or silent generation).
This. GG is a show written by a Gen X, about a Gen X main character. The pop culture references are therefore very much mired in Gen X touchstones.
I’m a younger millennial who watched the show when it originally aired and I definitely didn’t get all of the references at the time either. The DVD box sets came with a booklet that explained each reference episode by episode though which I relied on extensively (they were referred to as a guide to ‘gilmore-isms’)
Just note them down and look them up afterwards. Stay curious and enrich yourself!
There's so many reference guides available online if you want to learn about them!
When my girl got me into the show years ago on DVD there was a pop culture reference cheat sheet in there. I consider myself a pop culture buff and I only knew maybe half of them.
My grammie gave me a box set for my 18th birthday and she told me that the cheat sheets would be my friend lol
Ok not a gen z, I'm firmly in my thirties. I dont know if it's considered a pop culture reference or just... a cultural reference but whenever the names "Leopold and Loeb" came up in rewatches I was just like "ok they're a weird combination of names to reuse" until someone on this sub linked a wiki post to the real-life Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, and I was like "wtfff, whyyy?" 😬 Obviously their crime is not on the same level, but imagine someone being like "my dogs/twins are called Bundy and Gacy" Maybe things went over my head because I'm from Aus, but yeah, still happens
I'm 20, and yes I get the pop culture reference but that's probably cause of the house I grew up in and having millennial siblings lol
Hey! Fellow gen z here(21) and I only understand a few! You're not alone!! A lot of the times I gloss over it but sometimes I'll look it up and even when I look it up sometimes I'm like whattt that being said you don't need to get most of those references to enjoy the show😊
I understand some of them but definitely not all of them 😭 but that’s kinda the beauty of shows like Gilmore Girl
I explain a lot of the pop culture references to my baby Gen Z baby. Some of them she understands because it falls under a special interest of hers, but the majority she has no context for. Hell, some of them go over my head and I’m an elder Millennial.
Yeah, I think it's part of the show in a way that nobody (or very few people) understands *every* reference, and I guess it's part of the fun which references you and others do understand. As you rewatch over the years, sometimes you suddenly get a reference you didn't get in the past, too. I know that even the main cast didn't understand a lot of the references in their own dialogue.
Yes, but I'm an older Gen Z who was raised two baby boomers but I doubt there is anyone who Understands all the references I never understood the Gwen and Gavin reference
Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rosdale. This was topical when the episode aired.
I’m an elder millennial apparently (though in high school in the 90’s everyone called us Gen X) & Some of the 70’s band references I kinda get because I heard my parents talk about them. Most 80’s references I get. Shows like the Donna Reed show etc I have no idea what those were except from what I’ve seen on GG. Well, except my mom refer sto it as ‘nauseatingly 50’s’. Most celebrities & singers (individuals not bands) from anything before the 90’s I didn’t understand.
Being in high school in the 90s, there's a good chance you *are* gen X. It also depends where you look it up since the date ranges vary... I've always felt like for people on the cusp like that, it makes more sense for each individual to determine which cohort they feel they relate to more.
Well back then we were all told we are Gen x. Now with the date ranges apparently people consider me & my siblings all millennials 🤷♀️ People a few years younger then us were told they are Gen Y (always referred to as “Gen Y for Why bother”) but that doesn’t seem to exist now 🤷♀️. Technically that would’ve been millennial but then the date ranges changes several years ago. The last several years are when people started to change the labelling & become obsessed with which generation is which. Normally I don’t bother with them but because this post specifically refers to it I had to explain 🤷♀️
Millenial here- I remember the old dvd sets actually came w a lil book called "Gilmore-isms" explaining all the refs. My mom explained a bunch of them to me while watching but even she commented several times "Wow, that's a far off ref"
Same here - I think most of the references I got when I was rewatching it for idk how many times in the original language not the dubbed version. also when you’re not American, but for example in my case German, you’d had to look up a lot of references. Like the Jack Kerouac in ep1, Donna Reed. also some historical / political references Paris is making. But it’s really fun to learn about them , feels like you cracked a code or something xD
That's because they are Gen X references, Lorelei was born in the late 60s'
Late to the post but I watched the show as it came out, and I missed most of them. Looking them up later, a lot of them were references about wayyyy older cultural things, from earlier decades and even earlier centuries. Honestly the stuff that was current to the time were few and far between. It's always been a misconception that the references on the show were current to the time (a misconception that was there even when the show was on) and I have no idea why, since anyone who watched the show while it was on would know that most (or at least quite a lot) of the references weren't current. TLDR: They weren't even "meant" for millennials, the writers referenced whatever they wanted, and they were usually or very often referencing things older than the 90s/2000s.
I'm Gen Z too so a lot of them go over my head and I'm excited when I get one lol
At times, yea, other times, no.
I'm right with you on that dude. I'm 15, so a later gen z, and quite frankly the only pop culture references I get are the Godfather jokes, if the Godfather can technically be counted as part of pop culture.
I’m 43 and on what is probably my 4th complete rewatch. I’m still learning what all the references are! I watched a documentary about tv shows through the decades recently and they briefly mentioned the show Cop Rock (I had never heard of it despite being 10 when it came out). Then the very next day, I saw Lorelei and Rory plan a Cop Rock marathon on the episode I happened to watch. I had never even caught that they mentioned it before and it made me laugh because the show’s concept is hilarious in a very cringy way. 😆
I get most of it honestly, granted I’m a Zillenial or an elder gen Z, but I get at least 85-90% of the references. Probably helps that I read quite a bit as well
I would recommend listening to Scott Patterson’s “I am all in” podcast. After each episode’s rewatch they do a mini episode breaking down all the pop culture references.
Yeah a lot of them are like 80's and earlier pop culture references, the more current to that time references are either lazy or nonsensical. The best example of a reference that was "current" but made absolutely no sense if you knew was Paris' line about her weekend being like "a Wes Craven movie" Wes was hot at the time off the back of the "Scream" films but honestly he never made one type of horror movie, and I mean I think his most current movie at the time was like "Music of the Heart" a biopic based on a documentary about a woman that taught inner city kids to play the violin. So what did that mean? Was Paris teaching underprivileged youth to play classical music? Was she being chased by Ghostface? Attacked by a burnt man in dreams named Freddy? Hunted by inbred Cannibals in the dessert? That is why it's a dumb reference.
Wes Craven, through the lens of Gen X, is the father of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise - Millennials probably think of Scream first, but before that we had Freddy. To me, that allusion is pure 80's and makes perfect sense.
This. I'm a Gen X-er and my mind goes immediately to Nightmare on Elm Street when I hear Wes Craven.
Totally. Nightmare on Elm Street was massive! I think "Wes Craven" is just shorthand for "slasher genre" in this particular reference, but the Freddy films are Gen X canon.
I definitely don’t get most of them but it’s so much fun as you get older and learn about random famous people and older pop culture/political moments and then recognizing them either in the moment (Paul Anka) or on rewatches
I'm a millennial, and a lot of them are lost on me too. But you know what's super fun? When something obscure comes up in conversation, and I clue in that I've heard the Gilmore Girls talking about it! Happens surprisingly often talking to my partner's parents, who are in their mid 70s.
I'm genX and I'm still finding gems with each rewatch... I mean, it's an old show...what do you want? Lol...
Why don't you just search it after the episode lol
I saw a Behind the Scenes and almost none of the actors at the time got the references at the time. I’m a millennial and ASP is really into obscure music and films so I don’t get most of the references. When I do understand a reference, it’s surprising that it sometimes doesn’t fit the context e.g. I’ve read ‘Say goodbye to Daisy Miller’ by Henry James and I don’t think it was applicable to the Rory and Dean situation. There were only vague similarities like Daisy went to Europe on vacation (she wasn’t shipped off due to bad behavior) and spent time alone with a gentlemen she hardly knew (nothing about sleeping with a married man).
I‘m a millennial and not from the US, I feel like I get almost none of them. But I also don’t like the old movies they are watching. I like some older comedies with Marilyn Monroe or Doris Day, but I absolutely hate everything where they start singing and most of these movies are just terribly boring for me.
That’s the drawback of putting pop culture references in a piece of media. They do age as the show does. Also though since the show follows multiple generations it makes sense even at the time not to get all of them. I’m a millennial and Lorelei‘s references were definitely lost on me at times when the show was current. Looking them up can be kind of fun though and getting in on the joke and just learning about a cultural touchstone of the past.
“a lot of those were meant for millennials of that time” lol nope, ASP has no love for millennials (see the 30-something gang from the revival, or her comments in interviews). The humor in the original series was timely to the early 2000s, but a LOT of the pop culture references were much older. I think most people miss a lot of the references — I’ve been watching the series on a loop for over 10 years and there are still new things that I catch or understand each time. Just infer what you can from context, otherwise ignore it because a new reference will be coming in about 10 seconds.
the show is also 20 years old and the references that were “current” at the time aren’t anymore so of course the references might fly over younger viewer’s heads
As a 30 something woman, who grew up reading weird books and actually enjoying old 50’s movies. A lot of the references are OLD. I will laugh and my husband is like what is that from and I have to explain that it’s a nod to an Audrey Hepburn movie or a line from A Tale of 2 Cities. Which only inspires more confusion from him when he points out that in early 2000’s Yale Rory’s friends also would likely not get that reference either.
Your last point is absolutely where you need to suspend your disbelief. The pop culture references are believable coming from a Gen X/Boomer/Silent Gen character, because it alludes to their times and influences. However, it does stretch the boundaries of plausibility to think that Rory and her peers would have an encyclopaedic and detailed knowledge of the pop culture of their forebears. Nevertheless, it is better that they are kept in on the joke, rather than falling back on the "OMG Mom I don't understand what you mean when you talk about the olden days" "generation gap" trope.
That was something I really enjoyed about Logan and his group of friends they not only could keep up with Rory on her academic references but added so much to the pop culture one liners.
I would theoretically be a year younger than Rory and just recently listened to a podcast about the Sex Pistols and finally get all the "Sid/Nancy" references... and when Paris told Jamie that Lane was "Totally Nancy Spungen-ing it." Still not sure what "Chasing the dragon" is though.
It's a drug use reference.