In Defense of Generation Douchebag

It seems as though we’ve got some intergenerational conflict simmering in the blogosphere.

A couple of weeks ago – which is, admittedly, like a million billion years ago in blog time – Pajiba’s backhandedly apologetic review of the Prom Night remake sparked some heated debate in its comments section between the site’s Gen X contingent and readers from the next generation, who didn’t take too kindly to being referred to as “Generation Douchebag” in the main article.

And on Thursday, Chez of Deus Ex Malcontent infamy had some not so kind words for the ‘tween demographic and its “crappy, overproduced, Disneyfied” brand of entertainment.

Before I kinda, sorta defend the kids in a roundabout way, let’s get something straight. I do not like any of the things that these ‘tweens find entertaining. Hell, I can barely tolerate most of the things that my contemporaries like. I think that, by and large, pop culture is a vast ocean of liquid poop that we must traverse using rickety rafts crudely fashioned from “Firefly” and “Venture Bros.” DVDs, or from the entirety of Jay Reatard’s discography, or what have you.

But the contrarian prick in me loves to play devil’s advocate. So, here we go.

Ever since the teen demographic was invented sometime after World War II, every generation of teens, tweens and tots has had its fair share of nigh inescapable trendy trash to confound its elders.

The ‘50s saw the rise and subsequent omnipresence of rock ‘n’ roll, which was to sell damn near everything. Even Tony Bennet and Perry motherfucking Como got briefly tagged as rockers during this period. And remember those Elvis movies? Ugh. (I side with that Japanese hepcat from Mystery Train – Carl Perkins is the real king.)

The ‘60s had the British Invasion, Brill Building pop, psychadelia and the summer of love and what have you. Sure, there was a bunch of great stuff that came out of that, but there was also the Monkees and Bobby Goldsboro and the inexplicable cult of Jim Morrison to piss all over the parade.

The ‘70s had disco. ‘Nuff said.

Now that I’ve grossly generalized pretty much everyone who came before me, we arrive at the time of my birth, the 1980s. I’m 22 years old. I’ve lived through a lot of bullshit trends even at my young age, even if I only have vague memories of them.

Here are some of them, in no particular order:

• hair metal

• a catch-all category of crappy synth pop, which includes all teen hearthrob solo acts, boy bands and girl groups from the ‘80s to the present day

• motherfucking Nintendo everything

• “alternative” rock, whatever the hell that is

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

• Saved by the Bell

• Nicktoons

• the Incredible Crash Dummies

• the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, who I’ve just learned are in their fourteenth incarnation

• digital. fucking. pets.

• the Tickle Me Elmo/N64 Christmas death march

• the second boom period of professional wrestling (which, while incredibly dumb, was still fucking awesome no matter what anyone says)

• nu-metal

• Total Request Live

• reality TV

• ironic co-opting or referencing of stuff from the past for humorous purposes, especially stuff from the ‘80s, which is supposedly inherently funny for some reason I can’t fathom (a.k.a., “Family Guy Syndrome”)

• emo/screamo/emocore/screamocore/metalcore/whatevercore

And that’s just the stuff that I could rattle off the top of my head. Even if you like or liked some of the stuff that I listed above in my extremely rough history of America’s pop culture landscape, you must admit that a lot of it is pretty stupid.

My point is, every generation of kids has had its share of ubiquitously popular crap. This generation is no different.

Which isn’t to say that we can’t bitch about it. Bitching is an inalienable right shared by all Americans, young and old. Take away our right to bitch, and you might as well take away our right to breathe.

But while we bitch about the young’uns, let’s just keep in mind that the generations before us said the exact same things about us that we say about them now.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled mudslinging.

"I'm sorry. I love you."

I can’t pretend to know all of the ins and outs of Ric Flair’s storied 36-year wrestling career.

He started wrestling 14 years before I was born. He’d already won seven of his 16 world championships by the time I was 5 years old. Needless to say, I don’t remember much from when he was on top of his game.

I do remember how I felt about him in my adolescence, though.

I didn’t like him.

In fact, I hated him.

Not because he was a bad guy. I knew wrestling wasn’t real.

I loathed the man, not the character.

To a lot of wrestling fans, admitting this is like burning the Bible, pissing on it to put out the flames and wiping your ass with whatever is left over. It’s like being a rock fan and hating Elvis, the Beatles and the Stones all at the same time.

But it’s true. I hated Ric Flair.

Every time he showed up on my TV, I would cringe.

“What’s this guy still doing in the ring?” I’d say. “He’s been going gray since before I was born. Fuck you, Dick Hair. Retire, already!”

As far as I was concerned, old farts like Ric Flair had no place in wrestling. I craved excitement and athleticism. I wanted blood, backflips, chair shots and head drops. I didn’t want to see some geezer strutting around, wooing and rambling on and on about his high-flyin’, limousine-ridin’, kiss-stealin’, wheelin’ dealin’ ways.

And forget about watching him wrestle. The guy never left his boots! All he did was chop and trade holds! If a wrestler couldn’t do a moonsault or wasn’t willing to roll around in barbed wire, he wasn’t worth a damn to me back then.

Take that shit back to the 80's, old timer, I’d think. You’re all talk. I want action.

Over the years, I learned to respect him for all of the contributions he made to wrestling over the years, but a big part of me still thought he was just another old timer who didn’t know when to hang up his boots.

Let me squirt another bit of piss on that Bible: I felt this way until November 26, 2007.

On that Monday night’s episode of WWE RAW, the Ric Flair retirement storyline began.

The evil Mr. McMahon put a stipulation on every one-on-one match Flair had from that point on. If he lost a match in any way, he would be forced to retire from wrestling forever. If he was pinned, if he submitted, if he was disqualified, or if he was out of the ring for more than 10 seconds, there would be no more Ric Flair.

That night, after Chris Jericho provided the distraction that allowed Flair to give Randy Orton a low blow and pin his shoulders for the three count, something dawned on me. I had never known a wrestling world without Ric Flair.

Flair was like wrestling’s AC/DC. He had his prime before a lot of fans were born. He occasionally pulled out a gem afterward and he was a reliable nostalgia trip. There was something comforting about having him around. But that would all end soon.

Cut to March 20, 2008. Wrestlemania XXIV. The official main event was Edge vs. The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship, but the emotional main event happened earlier in the night.

At 8:27 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Ric Flair strutted to the ring to face down WWE icon Shawn Michaels.

At 8:49 p.m., after pulling out all of the stops, after putting on all of the signature holds, and after pulling all of the dirty tricks he could to stay in the game, he caught a swift sidekick to the face and went down hard.

Michaels stood hesitantly in the corner. He knew what he came to do, but couldn’t bring himself to finish the job.

Flair slowly stood up. He raised his hands to the guard position. Bring it on, his gestures said. He looked ready.

At 8:50 p.m., Shawn Michaels mouthed five words.

One kick and three seconds later, the greatest career in wrestling history ended.

I’m sorry, Ric. I love you.