DUNK AFTER DUNK. JAM AFTER JAM.
November 20, 2015 7:55 AM   Subscribe

A day in the life of a 90s kid, set to the music of that great 90s man Aaron Carter. Pogs and Pez! Mechanical claws! It's like BOOM! Brought to you by Neil Cicierega, the trinity ghost of 90s past, present, and future.
posted by rorgy (28 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
If you're gonna talk about Aaron Carter, at all, you HAVE to listen to this RIGHT NOW:

http://www.theheartradio.org/season2/desirayandaaron
posted by signal at 8:05 AM on November 20, 2015


Trigger warning: shakycam. I suppose they were going for the Blair Witch look?
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 8:08 AM on November 20, 2015


Wait Pez was a thing in the 90s?
posted by shakespeherian at 8:31 AM on November 20, 2015


So if you want to experience a real uncanny valley and sense of being unmoored in time, watch some HBO half hour comedy specials from like 1995 - you will see woman with black finger polish and unwholesome blazers.
posted by The Whelk at 8:33 AM on November 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


Just come right out and say it: you're talking about Janeane Garofalo.
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 8:41 AM on November 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


Nothing makes me feel older than Neil Cicierega.
posted by egypturnash at 9:10 AM on November 20, 2015


Wait, were kids listening to Aaron Carter or Nirvana in the 90s? Or is this that part where I qualify as a 80's kid and the difference this whole time between me and these young whippersnappers is that they didn't realize that there was good music in the 90's too?
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:16 AM on November 20, 2015


Neil Cicierega is amazingly talented.
posted by 7segment at 9:31 AM on November 20, 2015


That had nothing on Brodyquest.
posted by Beardman at 9:41 AM on November 20, 2015


Rory is this a Homestuck thing, be honest
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:42 AM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was really pleasantly surprised recently to listen to some more recent Lemon Demon after kinda forgetting about them circa "Ultimate Showdown" - View-Monster and Nature Tapes (and random non-album songs like "Eighth Wonder" and "Reaganomics") are incredibly solid, it's an artistic leap I didn't anticipate from the pseudo-TMBG that came before. Not that it was bad by any means before, I love Neil C, but it was a pleasant surprise.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:42 AM on November 20, 2015


Here's the original song this is mashed up from, pretty awesome in it's own right. As an 80s kids I'm all wheres the beef tho.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:47 AM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


> Wait Pez was a thing in the 90s?

I remember Pez collecting first getting traction through the Optimistic Pezimist zine in the late 80s or so, and old Pez dispensers being displayed in the sorts of stores that would also stock vintage clothing, zines, cassettes, hair dye, etc. And then Pez dispenser price inflation generally becoming an occasional topic of discussion in the pre-eBay world.

So, yeah.
posted by ardgedee at 9:48 AM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's important to remember that early 90s kids and late 90s kids are two completely different species.
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:49 AM on November 20, 2015 [9 favorites]


“When he did ‘That’s How I Beat Shaq’ I knew it was gonna be a hit,” Shaq said. “It’s not a hit now. If you listen to it now, it’s terrible.”
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:52 AM on November 20, 2015


Wait Pez was a thing in the 90s?

That's no Pez, it's a Big Bite Fred Action Figure. That said, Pez got big in the 90s yeah, there was a Seinfeld episode, and as ardgedee said, a general big uptick in interest, plus the company started making new dispensers with hot licensed properties (the Star Wars ones began showing up in 1997 apparently).
posted by majuju at 9:54 AM on November 20, 2015


That's no Pez

It's a space station.
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:02 AM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


Yeah, Aaron Carter is late 90s bordering on 2000s.
posted by divabat at 10:09 AM on November 20, 2015


It's important to remember that early 90s kids and late 90s kids are two completely different species.

Yeah but they can have sterile offspring
posted by The Whelk at 10:14 AM on November 20, 2015 [3 favorites]




Is this what it was like for people turning 30 about ten years ago when kids who weren't conscious during the 80's started developing a popular idea about what it was like in the 80's that wasn't really very much like the 80's at all? Because while that's a very cool mashup/remix thing, and many of these things did in fact exist in the 90's, not much about this actually exemplifies the 90's to me. Least of all the Google image search on a tiny netbook that is half of the video.

God, my lawn is getting so big.
posted by cmoj at 10:24 AM on November 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


No, no, it's true, all of it. The hammer pants, the Dunkaroos, it's all real.
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:03 AM on November 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


I think Neil is more interested in the perception of the 90's looking back through the filter of the 2010's than presenting an accurate historical record.
posted by davejh at 1:03 PM on November 20, 2015


davejh: An interesting theory, but every minute in every suburban house in the 90s was exactly the way it's presented here, down to the fact that our vision kept shaking uncontrollably, making it difficult to focus on any one aspect of the colorful plastic worlds which each and every one of us was lucky enough to occupy.

Unless you're referring to the use of Google Image Search, that is. That was clearly an attempt by Neil to replicate the now-lost computers of the 90s, which would indeed spell out the word BOOM in various Ascii configurations if you slammed on them hard enough and to the appropriate beat. I believe those were the inspiration for Dance Dance Revolution, the same way that Lunchables inspired all those gimmicky Italian pizza places that've become such a popular trend across towns and cities in the 21st century.
posted by rorgy at 1:22 PM on November 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


I like the wrist cam. Think I can arrange that with this gorillapod and my phone.

Ow.
posted by carsonb at 3:34 PM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


He says in the comments the wrist cam is duct tape and a GoPro and I'm picturing a LOT of duct tape to keep it there with all the movement.
posted by jason_steakums at 3:43 PM on November 20, 2015


I like the effect of grabbing or touching eye-catching things only to immediately drop them - sometimes literally drop them on the floor - as the protagonist loses interest and moves on to the next shiny plasticky thing, over and over and over, while inane "hype" catchphrases repeat in the background. It's a brilliant caricature of the vibe of my 90s, even if the actual objects aren't all realistic.
posted by ctmf at 9:47 AM on November 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


the message is clear, you can skip your adderall doses and indulge in as much frantic nostalgia as you want, but you always end up at Jingle All The Way 2.
posted by The Whelk at 11:07 PM on November 21, 2015


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