The List, 1978-2011

January 1, 2011 12:17 PM

January 1, 1985: Earfuls of earrings out, armful of bangles in.
January 1, 1993: Pellegrino out, Crystal Pepsi in
January 1, 2004: Viagra out, Levitra in (MetaFilter previously in)
January 1, 2011: Trolling out, Hacktivism in.

The List: a middlebrow, Beltway elite, mildly insufferable, perennially baffling Washington Post tradition since 1978 (Concave chests out, bosoms in)
posted by silby (52 comments total)

New Kids on the Backstreet Boys is a serious and legitimate thing that is actually happening?
posted by kipmanley at 12:24 PM on January 1, 2011

1066 Saxons out, Normans in.
posted by grumblebee at 12:26 PM on January 1, 2011 [22 favorites]

I would describe MetaFilter as:

• Filiblustery
• Oily
• Refudiated
• Vuvuzela-esque
• Gay

posted by Wolfdog at 12:31 PM on January 1, 2011

In: MIA Out: NKOTBSB

I had no idea what NKOTBSB was, but apparently it's an amalgam of New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys.

What the fuck?
posted by delmoi at 12:33 PM on January 1, 2011

I feel like it's kind of useless for these items to not all have supporting links. Without supporting links it's just a random assemblage of words.
posted by amethysts at 12:33 PM on January 1, 2011

New Kids on the Backstreet Boys is a serious and legitimate thing that is actually happening?

That seems problematic from the standpoint of cardinality alone; one New Kid would have no Backstreet Boy on which to be. Perhaps the most effective solution would be a layer of New Kids with Backstreet Boys on them in the manner of stacked firewood.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:35 PM on January 1, 2011 [9 favorites]

Both bands performed together last night on the Dick Clark/Ryan Secrest Times Square thing.
posted by octothorpe at 12:39 PM on January 1, 2011

Wolfdog: "I would describe MetaFilter as:

• Filiblustery
• Oily
• Refudiated
• Vuvuzela-esque
• Gay

"

FORVG?

In a world where SLYT exists, I guess that's doable.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:40 PM on January 1, 2011

Also, I would like to say that this animated gif, set, as it is, to loop infinitely, is probably quite representative of what happens with whatever snake oil they're trying to sell with it.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:40 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Seems like everyone's always predicting the downfall of zombies.
posted by brundlefly at 12:42 PM on January 1, 2011

"Death" is also out, not leaving us a lot of options.
posted by girih knot at 12:48 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Out: meaningful lists and descriptive words.
In: obfuscation and linkfarming.
posted by cmoj at 12:49 PM on January 1, 2011

Out: True Blood
In: True Grit

Clever word gymnastics aside, a remake of a classic film that no one will be talking about a month from now (or at least not after the Academy Awards) versus some lustful, smoking hot, Southern-style vampires (for grown folks, not those sparkly things), werewolves, and shapeshifters who'll be back next summer to up the ante? Yeah, good luck with the cowboy rehash.

Kardashian crazy versus Quaid crazy: does this mean Randy Quaid's getting a reality show? I would so watch that, just to get a look at all the people he says are trying to kill him.

Also, I would like to say that this animated gif, set, as it is, to loop infinitely, is probably quite representative of what happens with whatever snake oil they're trying to sell with it.

The snake oil apparently gives you an urge to write a check to a plastic surgeon for liposuction.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:55 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

New Kids on the Backstreet Boys

Okay raise your hand if your brain went to a completely different place for a second.
posted by The Whelk at 1:01 PM on January 1, 2011 [18 favorites]

"I would describe MetaFilter as:

invigorating.

free

Cloture
posted by tustinrick at 1:07 PM on January 1, 2011

Wow, the WP really thinks 2011 is going to be the year of Richard Dawkins and Corporate Darwinism, don't they?

Can't wait to them to evolve into something relevant to the 21st century.
posted by BYiro at 1:11 PM on January 1, 2011

fuse theorem, True Grit is another adaptation of the novel, not a remake. But, sure, Coen Bros. films always pale in comparison to supernatural soap operas. :P
posted by brundlefly at 1:13 PM on January 1, 2011 [7 favorites]

I am capable of liking both terse Westerns AND sexy vampires at the same time. I know right, amazing.
posted by The Whelk at 1:18 PM on January 1, 2011 [4 favorites]

[raises hand]
posted by *burp* at 1:21 PM on January 1, 2011

I am capable of liking both lustful werewolves at the same time.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:24 PM on January 1, 2011

Clever word gymnastics aside, a remake of a classic film that no one will be talking about a month from now (or at least not after the Academy Awards) versus some lustful, smoking hot, Southern-style vampires (for grown folks, not those sparkly things), werewolves, and shapeshifters who'll be back next summer to up the ante? Yeah, good luck with the cowboy rehash.

Exactly. I used to love the Coens, but this film won't be remembered beyond February 27, even though the reviewers are wetting their pants over Hailee Steinfeld, whose name's not even above the title.

And ..... hippies were "in" and yuppies were "out" at the start of 1987? In what bizarro universe?
posted by blucevalo at 1:28 PM on January 1, 2011

I'm quite amused that most of the thing on that list feel like old hat. I missed the sweet crepe craze and have been quietly ignoring whoopie pies, while wondering whether either fancy jellos or gourmet doughnuts will do a break away like cupcakes did. Yaye for spending too much time on incoming trends instead of having a life!
posted by Phalene at 1:29 PM on January 1, 2011

I totally called gourmet doughnuts as the Next Food Fad like a year ago.

Look upon me and despair.
posted by The Whelk at 1:32 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Funny, I might describe metafilter as:

elite, mildly insufferable, perennially baffling

But totally in a good way!
posted by molecicco at 1:39 PM on January 1, 2011

Alcoholic whipped cream

There's also whipped cream flavored vodka. If you topped the latter with the former, you'd have one weird-ass cocktail.
posted by jonmc at 1:41 PM on January 1, 2011

2010: Fraud (Out), Adultery(In)
2011: Self Loathing Sexcapades (Out), Realizing You're Not Don Draper (In)

if the editors of The List actually attempted to retain some level of consistency between each year, this would actually be kind of interesting, instead of being a slightly fancier version a Cracked Top 10.

and, fwiw, I'll see the call for gourmet doughnuts and raise it as gourmet eclairs. The only thing separating the two is the shape and presence of choux cream.
posted by bl1nk at 1:43 PM on January 1, 2011

1989: Karl Marx out, Wittgenstein in

this seems weird to me
posted by silby at 1:47 PM on January 1, 2011

You can have my Self Loathing Sexcapades when you pry them from my cold dead hands!
posted by chaff at 1:52 PM on January 1, 2011

And ..... hippies were "in" and yuppies were "out" at the start of 1987? In what bizarro universe?

No, that one's true, at least in terms of what mass media was promoting. I was 16 in 1987 and a serious neo-hippie, tiedyes, Grateful Dead and plenty of pot and LSD. All the magazines did 1967 retrospectives, commercials were full of co-opted 1960's music. (One particularly horrible one I seem to remember is a minivan ad with the theme "This Is The Dawning of the Age of the Aerostar.")
posted by Daily Alice at 1:52 PM on January 1, 2011 [2 favorites]

Perhaps the most effective solution would be a layer of New Kids with Backstreet Boys on them in the manner of stacked firewood.

It's Boy Bands all the way down.
posted by formless at 2:15 PM on January 1, 2011 [4 favorites]

I, for one, am just glad that Cherry Coke Zero, one of the greatest diet sodas of our time, is finally getting its turn in the spotlight. Take that, Diet Dr. Pepper. You're out.
posted by kerning at 2:41 PM on January 1, 2011

That seems problematic from the standpoint of cardinality alone; one New Kid would have no Backstreet Boy on which to be.

That seems fine.

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  | | | |

I used to do this with cafeteria glasses all the time. When at my best (and with some good glasses), I could start off with the two useful members of Nsync*, with the Hanson Brothers on top of them, and then the NKOTBSB.

If the surface was just right (preferably the floor), I could put them all on the King of Pop, right where he always longed to be, at the bottom of a boy band dogpile.

Man it's hard to think of 2-person boy band-like groups.
posted by Lemurrhea at 2:51 PM on January 1, 2011 [3 favorites]

Then all of a sudden it just hits you, like WHAM!
posted by Wolfdog at 2:55 PM on January 1, 2011 [11 favorites]

New Kids on the Backstreet Boys is a serious and legitimate thing that is actually happening?

I'm willing to stipulate that it is a serious thing if we can move on to debate over "legitimate".
posted by Babblesort at 3:09 PM on January 1, 2011 [2 favorites]

I just watched the video of the boy-band mashup. I have to admit that seeing the New Kids on the Block made me squeal just like the young girl I was when I last saw them.
posted by mai at 3:19 PM on January 1, 2011

(Concave chests out, bosoms in)

But if the concave chests are out, and the bosoms are in, isn't that a noop?
posted by kenko at 4:18 PM on January 1, 2011 [4 favorites]

It's the new Hotness Stankness.
posted by Burhanistan at 4:39 PM on January 1, 2011

Regarding the 2011 list:
1. I love Cherry Coke Zero, I really do, but Canada Dry Diet Ginger Ale is the greatest diet soda of all time. We just got a new soda machine at work and it is one of the choices. A bunch of people bitched about it but then it was the first flavor to run out.

2. My brother and his wife are buying a place on H street so now I can tease him that his new 'hood is lame (not knowing anything about DC neighborhoods myself).
posted by misskaz at 4:40 PM on January 1, 2011

Trolling is not going anywhere.
posted by ymgve at 5:20 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

I got unjustifiably angry reading this list. Something about reducing everything in life to a fad makes me want to scream. Sarcasm, out; uncontrollable rage, in.
posted by outlandishmarxist at 5:58 PM on January 1, 2011 [5 favorites]

OUT: Large, soulless social sites like Facebook.
IN: Small, independent social sites like Metafilter.

Facebook is like LA, Metafilter is like Portland. We need more Portlands. (Even if I stick out with some of my political views.)
posted by andreaazure at 8:28 PM on January 1, 2011

Since I seem to have been completely oblivious to 90% of last years list, I may be able to up my obliviousness this year to 95%.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 2:35 AM on January 2, 2011

Sauerkraut and sequins are in? Finally a chance to wear the new dress!
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:35 AM on January 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

So, some smug gitwad writes an article declaring this or that is out... because he or she says so? Okay then, here's this smug gitwad's list:

OUT: Lists of things that some smug gitwad considers "in" or "out".

IN: Whatever the fuck you like.

God, I hate people.
posted by Decani at 4:40 AM on January 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

Wow, the WP really thinks 2011 is going to be the year of Richard Dawkins and Corporate Darwinism, don't they?

posted by BYiro at 9:11 PM on January 1

Wut? Where did they mention Dawkins? I don't see that.
posted by Decani at 4:43 AM on January 2, 2011

fuse theorem, True Grit is another adaptation of the novel, not a remake. But, sure, Coen Bros. films always pale in comparison to supernatural soap operas. :P

You say "another adaptation", I say "remake". Tomato, tomato.

Of course many Coen brothers films have become their own classics which have stood the test of time. I doubt that this film is a likely candidate although some of the actors may win on Oscar night. And the silly comparison to True Blood is just that, silly. The two things aren't driving on the same road.

There does not appear to be some new wave developing about Western movies or TV shows like there has been about vampires, werewolves, and other denizens of the supernatural realm. However, we'll see what happens after Cowboys & Aliens comes out next summer.
posted by fuse theorem at 6:37 AM on January 2, 2011

Tiki bars have been around in London for ages - I got taken to one by a date because he wanted to drink a flaming cocktail out of half an artificial coconut. I think I'd rather a Speakeasy.
posted by mippy at 6:54 AM on January 2, 2011

Crystal Pepsi was a great product. There, I said it. At least in terms of flavoured sugar-water, I mean. Cola that doesn't turn your mouth brown? Yes, please!

The fact that it was DOA should be blamed entirely on the unfortunate marketing campaign, which was so unhip it hurt.

It's an interesting counterpoint to Coke's OK Soda from the following year, which failed for the exact opposite reason (great branding, awful product).
posted by Sys Rq at 10:37 AM on January 2, 2011

OK Soda was awesome!

(Once, I spilled OK Soda on a blank piece of paper. Then, it turned into a finished book report. I got a B-... and that was OK.)
posted by andreaazure at 12:06 PM on January 2, 2011

OK, this is totally hilarious. Maybe some of it's DC-specific, like the hype over the IHOP. Or maybe absurdist humor is one of the things Metafilter doesn't do well.

My brother and his wife are buying a place on H street so now I can tease him that his new 'hood is lame (not knowing anything about DC neighborhoods myself).

Or you could concede that yes, it's hip, but it's the ugliest part of town thanks to (a) a depressing absence of trees and (b) the road being torn up for The Streetcar That Will Never Come.

and:

Sauerkraut and sequins are in? Finally a chance to wear the new dress!
posted by A Terrible Gaga

Much better.
posted by kittyprecious at 1:29 PM on January 2, 2011

1978: Fashion lists - out. Individual style - in.

Well I guess that one got rescinded the next year given that they proceeded to do lists for another thirty-odd years.
posted by egypturnash at 12:15 AM on January 3, 2011

There's also whipped cream flavored vodka. If you topped the latter with the former, you'd have one weird-ass cocktail."

My dad bought some of this before Christmas, and we had some horrifyingly confusing drinks before we realized it.
posted by This Guy at 4:47 AM on January 3, 2011