There are some things in life that everyone loves, in a universal kinda-way. You know, Brad Pitt… chocolate… fairy lights… Friends… those things that if you’re in the pub with someone and the conversation dries up (awkward…) you can turn to talking about and everything will be alright.
“Favourite episode of Friends?” you could ask. (My answer would be “Series 2: The One Where No One’s Ready” – it’s a classic.)
But then there are things in life that everyone LOVES… but you don’t really understand why. People enthuse about these things, and you really want to love them too, but you just can’t work out what the fuss is about.
So ladies and gentlemen, I bring you… the things everyone loves, but I just don’t get:
When Prince was here in the UK recently, playing some live shows, everyone was excited. People were tweeting about trying to get tickets, talking about how much they love him, discussing favourite songs. And I was confused. “Is liking Prince a thing?” I hadn’t realised. I remember him releasing stuff in the 80s, when I was a kid (true fact: I thought he was the boyfriend of 80s pop singer Princess) but his music largely passed me by, and hearing it in recent years hasn’t made me develop a new-found love for him. In fact, I’d go as far as to say tunes like Raspberry Beret kinda annoy me.
They’ve become a bit of a modern classic, these tote bags. I can sort of see why – made with lovely leather and large/roomy so you can fit lots of crap important things in it. And you can hang it off the crook of your arm and look all chic as you walk along. I often spot gaggles of 21-year-olds walking along together, and they all have variations of this bag on their arm (they also often have really similar outfits and hair – in that way that we all do when we’re that age.) But if I’m honest? I just find these bags a bit ‘meh’. I’d much rather have something with a bit of character like this striped messenger bag.
I know. Just saying this out loud is like I’m betraying every woman on the planet. Thing is, I do think Ryan Gosling is quite cute. And in Crazy, Stupid, Love he’s all kinds of hot. Oh and in The Notebook too. But I don’t GET-get the Ryan Gosling thing. I think I’ve made myself fancy him because apparently THAT’S WHAT WOMEN DO. We fancy Ryan Gosling. But, really, I just think he’s OK.
Ugh. Stay away from me, cake pops. I’m not interested in your small, faddy ways. If I want some cake, I’d like a big ol’ slab of chocolate cake (ooh, or carrot) on a plate please. Not a small, crumbly ball of cake whacked on a stick. For starters, one cake pop is never enough, so you automatically feel like a pig, helping yourself to a second (or *cough* third.) They’re messy to eat, and you generally need your second hand to be cupped underneath it to catch the falling debris. And the sponge-to-icing-ratio is all wrong for me. Jog on, cake pops.
I was only seven when this movie was released in the cinemas, and despite meaning to watch it sooner, I didn’t see it until around eight years ago. Having grown up as a John Hughes movie fan and having heard loads about this classic film, I was very excited to sit down and watch it. And my reaction was: “Oh.” Sure, there are clever moments and funny lines, but does anything actually happen in the movie? I found myself feeling frustrated at the plot and dialogue. Maybe it’s just too subtle for this Ferris Bueller loving girl. It was recently the 30th anniversary of the detention date in the movie and my Twitter feed went wild with people reminiscing about this classic movie. I think I’d rather sit in detention for a whole Saturday than watch this film again…
Disagree passionately with any of these? Tell me! And is there anything you just don’t get? Tell me!
I opened this hoping you weren’t going to say “stationery” or “filofaxes” so I breathed a sigh of relief. So, in response.
1. Prince’s music – amaze! Prince the man – tosser.
2. Tote bags can tote off – I need a shoulder strap.
3. Ryan Gosling – cannot see the appeal.
4. Cake pops – a pretentious way of eating a cake. Just mush it into your gob, for flips sake!
5. The Breakfast Club – oh Alison… you failed at the last hurdle. It’s BRILLIANT but mainly because it *is* so understated. The whole point of the film is the difference between the letters at the beginning of the film and the end of the film. Have another go at it 😉
Author
I get that the subtlety is the whole point Nickie but that doesn’t make me like it any more. However, on your request, I will try it again!
Oh my word Raspberry Beret is quite possibly my favourite song EVER! And I was one of those people who would have given their right arm/surplus kidney/firstborn child to get a ticket to see him! I’m so with you on the Ryan Gosling thing though. I just don’t get it. Not one bit.
Author
Don’t even get me started on Purple Rain…
OK, I’m totally with you on ALL of these… except Ryan Gosling. C’mon woman, what’s wrong with you?! IT’S RYAN GOSLING!! But carrot cake over cake pops any day, for sure. And Prince? Meh.
Author
I know! I’ve TRIED to fancy him! 🙁
I’m afraid I am in the LOVE Prince camp – first concert I ever saw, The Diamond & Pearls tour. I love Raspberry Beret, I love When Doves Cry, I love his songs generally! He himself is a bit of a twit, granted.
Not fussed about Ryan Gosling.
Not down with cake pops.
Oh and here’s another one for the list… Dirty Dancing – kinda ok with the music, ish, but the film does nothing for me.
Author
What your first concert was probably says so much about you. My first concert was a Smash Hits Roadshow with East 17 headlining. Says a lot. You are far cooler than me Bianca 😉
Who is Ryan Gosling?
Author
Haha!
Prince. Love him mainly coz he’s great live and I grew up listening to him.
The rest…. Pop cakes. Crap. That bag is okay, but I agree a bit meh. The breakfast club, never heard of! And Ryan gosling I don’t get at all, much like I don’t see the attraction in Jonny Depp.
I’d add to the list Keith Lemon. He’s just not funny.
Author
Ah see I love Keith Lemon. But can totally see why lots of people don’t find him funny.
I don’t fancy Ryan OR Brad. I think I might need help.
I hate pop cakes.
Great post x
Author
You don’t fancy Brad? Oh Ellie!! Right, I’m sending round his DVD back catalogue and you have to report back 😉
Pretty much with you on every single one of these things, including – gasp – Ryan Gosling x
Author
Yess. Join the Gosling’s Not Great gang.
I’m totally with you on the Prince thing. It’s nice to know I’m not alone any more!! I just couldn’t get it when everyone went bonkers for him. Totally passed me by.
And don’t get me started on Ryan gosling. Never trust a man whose eyes are too close together…
Author
People really LOVE Prince, don’t they? Little Red Corvette just doesn’t do it for me…
Great post! I agree with you on everything EXCEPT Prince because I LOVE Raspberry Beret Little Red Corvette Pop Life…
Author
Don’t get it 😉
Ah!! I was nodding along all the way to number 5, but how can you dislike the breakfast club??? Can we do a separate post on the Zara totes, the Michael Kors ones and the brown Mulberry ones? Why are these bags meant to be nice? The mere fact that everyone owns one surely should be enough of a put me off, no?
Author
True. I do remember loving having the same stuff as my mates when I was younger though. It’s a bit of a tribe thing, isn’t it?
I don’t get cakepops, but not so vehemently opposed to all the others (and Ryan Gosling is lovely, but I wish he had more in the shoulder department!) What I don’t get is false nails/extensions overly-decorated with gems on and piercings – seems like the equivalent of Chinese foot binding to me, designed to keep women from being of any use (except women are complicit in this).
Author
I’m not keen on those nails either. Now nail art – that I love.
So with you on the Prince thing.
The only thing I know of Ryan Gosling is that he’s “hot” based on what I read on twitter, I just assumed he was an actor so thank you for confirming that!
And Richmond Mummy, here here! Dirty Dancing. Just. Don’t. Get. It.
Is there a conference where ‘people’ get together to decide what becomes a ‘thing’ that we don’t know about?! But we all go along with it until brave souls like you speak out?!
Great post as always 🙂
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Let’s start one Helen!
Author
Oh and PS can’t believe you and Richmond Mummy don’t like Dirty Dancing. It’s SO GOOD! 🙂
I don’t really get the BreKfast club. My hubby thinks I’m insane because he’s a hard core 80s fan. I like when doves cry but i don’t get Prince either. I know it’s not on your list but I don’t get Breakfast at Tiffanys either.
Author
Not a fan of breakfast related films?!
I don’t get prince at all, I have no idea who Ryan Gosling is!! I’ve never seen one of those bags on my life until now – I really dislike it. I’ve never tried a cake pop but would much prefer a giant slab of chocolate fudge cake instead.
However Breakfast Club is a brilliant film I love the simplicity of it, and the innocence of it. Most things in it are implied rather than shown
Author
Meh 😉
Love this post – since uni days I’ve notice people chat about loving this or that – followers! I just never got it.
Prince – meh
Tote bag – meh, prefer the one you mentioned.
Cake pop – not worth it – why would I want one of those when I can have plant worth of cake
Ryan Gosling – sorry I disagree, until you’ve watched every film he had stared in you will not understand talented and sexy he is – it’s not his looks it his skills!
Breakfast club – watched it once – t’was good. Don’t need to watch again.
I don’t get re-watching stuff like friends and laughing so hard like its first time you’ve seen – I’ve seen it, it was good but I don’t need to re-watch it thanks.
Cop films or action films – No, No, No – boring same old.
I don’t get why some people match everything – with clothes and interiors.
I don’t get game of thrones – again no thank you.
I don’t get Harry potter – I said it.
I don’t get Nike air max trainers – I wore them when 16 and I don’t need to feeling 16 year old again thank you.
I list many more!!!
Sorry for the many errors in my previous comment – my phone is rubbish for commenting. I can’t see anything and I have a toddler jumping on me – oh and I don’t get people who judge on minor mistakes like that person just killed someone .
Ryan! Cake Pops! *The* Zara tote!
How dare you slag off three of my favourite things – burn the witch! 😉
Cake pops are annoying, although I hate to say, I got sent some and they were delicious, but still too small.
Prince has done a few amazing songs, but I agree I don’t get the hero worship. Same goes for U2, I don’t get that at *all*
Am TOTALLY with you on The Breakfast Club. It’s ok, but only worth one watch. Give me Pretty in Pink any day.
Apart from Ryan Gosling I agree with you about most of these ‘things everyone loves’.
Your post has given me the courage to admit I also don’t understand the whole Dirty Dancing thing (shock horror). It is ok to watch once, but I don’t think it’s an amazing film. My others include Mcbusted and the X factor.
I agree with all of them, can I add onesies, jumpsuits and play suits too (variation on a theme there really)
I go further with the Prince thing and tip into active loathing. He’s always come across as basically a sleazy little weasel. I find him about as sexy as a crimplene suit/medallion/carpet tile chest combo. Ugh.
Being made to listen to his songs is just tedious.
Am a Mandarina Duck girl for bags, always bandouliere, since I like having my hands free. Also, am poor.
Don’t care about Ryan Gosling – he’s so utterly ordinary looking to me.
Cake pops seem to be designed to make all decent cake fans feel like pigs – one? One cake pop? What madness is this?
The Breakfast Club is actually from my era, being an old bag, but I’ve been utterly indifferent to it all this time. No plans to change.
I’m afraid I do rather like Ryan Gosling. R-Patz though – I do NOT get that. (Favourite episode of Friends – the one with all the resolutions. Ross + leather pants = amazing)
Please watch Breakfast Club again. It is so wonderful. The other things I can take or leave.But Breakfast Club. It’s more complex than you notice at first. 🙂
You’ve clearly never had a good cake pop! They’re not crumbly and one is just the right amount. I have the urge to send you an educational parcel of baked goods! 😉
I really enjoyed reading your post and agree with Prince being annoying- he is unfortunately annoyingly talented but also a bit sickly as are totes and cake pops. I do not get the whole Ryan thing- there are other better looking famous men who I enjoy looking at. They tend to have a very nice smile such as George Clooney or Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend) I still love Keanu Reeves. Also love the Breakfast Club. It sums up an era and teenage life in general. A bit like the author John Green who to me is the equivelent in books of that type of film but for the teenagers of now.
I love this. Prince is the most peculiar little man, and most of his music is horrendous! 1999, for example. Awful awful awful. I just don’t get him and his purpleness. Fiona hit the nail on the head. He does indeed come across as a sleazy little weasel! He is repellent in every way.
Ryan Gosling! Totally does not do it for me, and I’ve had to ask myself why? I saw a picture of him with no shirt, which was ok, however the pose was a little too junior primary school! Sitting very erect, hands clasped in front of him, eyes a little too wide. That freaked me out! It makes me feel weird just honking about it.
Cake pops, no thanks. I agree the cake/ icing ratio is all wrong!
Breakfast Club, One of my all time favourite movies! But I think with movies of that era, they made more sense and were more appropriate at the time, you know when we could identify with their angst!
Well, that’s my two cents for today! Keep up the good work!
Oh dear, I just posted my comment, an noticed predicty text on iPad changed thinking to honking! Just wanted to clarify Im a thinker, not a honker!
I’m with you on the Prince thing, I just don’t get it at all. It’s the same with Kate Bush – I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about when she announced some concert dates.
I am so with you on the Ryan Gosling thing. I had to check I wasn’t a man a couple of times, such was my ‘meh’ for him.
Love this and we have so much in common-nothing special about Gosling to me!
I must be strange then, I don’t find Brad Pitt appealing at all. Apart from in Troy where strangely for a brief bicep and thigh moment, I suddenly went a bit funny inside and got it. It was a brief flash of understanding.
The Breakfast Club is AWESOME!! Agree about those Zara totes though – meh.
That episode of Friends is also one of my favourites along with the one with the jellyfish and the one with the jam.
You had me until The Breakfast Club, while I do love Prince I can see how some people don’t but The Breakfast Club spoke to me in my youth and I love it still.