The body switching ones aren't the worst, the worst are the ones when the girl has to choose between a nice nerd and a rebel slacker, and chooses the latter. There's always a token scene in which the nerd yells at someone, revealing his true self, and the rebel does something nice, revealing his true self. Never mind that for all the other scenes the nerd was nice and the rebel was a douche, those are the crucial scenes and we know the girl will ride off on the motorcycle.

However, I do think the 90s was an improvement, because geeks suddenly became hawt.

@NicoleK: the worst are the ones when the girl has to choose between a nice nerd and a rebel slacker, and chooses the latter.
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Good observation, but it starts well before that. When they are still in diapers, someone may read "the frog prince" to them, about how princes are hidden among the toads and just need a special girl to kiss them. Then they'll watch "Lady and the Tramp," learning that a self-confessed "chicken thief" and scoundrel is a good match for good girls. Then they'll see "Beauty and the Beast" and "Alladin," learning that jerks and thiefs are really loving souls, diamonds in the rough, and will show you the world, if only a special woman would give them a chance.

Hawtest geek of ALL? Chris Evans as "Jensen" in The Losers: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4142238976/ch0149914

He's getting undressed in an elevator, the doors open, all these secretaries are standing there, gawking at him, and he says something like, "so, you ladies liking the...angle of the dangle?" Cracked me up, and he's got a smokin' bod! (Not that I notice these kinds of things, mind you.)

But in all seriousness, this blaming the movies for your idiocy? Complete and utter bullshit, chilluns! I get that it's a joke, but it seems some of these mindless yahoos really think this way. And that's just...icky. Life is not "stress free bliss" and never will be. For anyone.

"We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact."

First pay the rent, kids, then pursue self-actualized historical accomplishment. You're in a tent in the city park with your misery and anger and cold feet and you are so very interesting.

I'm boring. I live in a tiny cottage with two cats and a tea kettle and i am content. You can be content as well:

STEP ONE: Stop watching television.
(And any movies about high school kids.)

Okay I just read the whole article and it's brilliant. I get that. And he's right, our generation kinda created the over-inflated sense of entitlement of the younger generations, but that's not what we set out to do. Really. We just wanted to give younger people an edge, because we knew how dog-eat-dog the real world really is. And as the writer points out, a lot of technology has really changed the way we interact with each other, if we even interact at all. There's a picture of a girl, sitting outside with her laptop, beautiful lanscape all around with the caption (paraphrasing here): It's so beautiful out, I'm so glad I'm here sharing this with all of my friends. Or something similar. Problem is, we get what we give. If we're not giving, we're not getting.

There is truth to what he is saying. I have had people tell me that their kids are too busy with extracurricular activites to get jobs, or heaven forbid, do chores around the house. If you are raised thinking that what you do is so important that you don't even have to pick up after yourself, how the he'll are you going to function in the real world?

BTW, I have never been out to that site before and I just blew my whole morning following the links and laughing myself silly. Viva Christmas vacation!! Thanks for the link!

Orwell used control of the language to control the people. Just what about "Affirmative Action" doesn't affect you?

Given that affect, how could anyone not see that a continuous barrage of trivia and evidence that bad people are everywhere - on 24/7 "news" channels - leads to the expectation that we all suck?

How in hell did anyone vote for "Hope and Change" otherwise?

NOW, I am of the opinion that a concerted effort is underway to undermine the prestige of the Presidency. A wonderful way to do that is to bring the loudest looney-tune to the front and give them credence.

What a cushy life Amy. My brother and I had to use a very old push mower. Luckily the front and back lawns were Los Angeles typical for the 40's and small.

What's up with OWS anyway? The Army will pay you to live like that.

I can sympathize with people who are upset that they borrowed a boatload of money to earn a degree that may never pay for itself. My engineering degree--the one so many people keep saying you ought to get--turned out to be useless. Nevertheless, borrowers should pay for their student loans to the best of their ability and learn at least one lesson: you can't believe everything you hear--you need to think for yourself.

As for resumes that list college degrees going into the "yes" pile, that's HR laziness for most jobs. I cull the resumes that have spelling errors; in other words, the vast majority of them.

I have had people tell me that their kids are too busy with extracurricular activites to get jobs, or heaven forbid, do chores around the house. If you are raised thinking that what you do is so important that you don't even have to pick up after yourself, how the he'll are you going to function in the real world?

Posted by: Sheepmommy at December 26, 2011 10:54 AM

In Japan, interestingly, it isn't extracurricular activities that keep kids from doing chores or paid jobs - it's STUDYING.

If it works for them, fine. In the U.S., though, kids really need to learn that unpaid work is not degrading - or for losers who can't hire a maid. This is the sort of attitude that makes young people turn away from volunteer work.

Check this out from 1997 (it's by Miss Manners):

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jun/27/expose-children-to-new-ideas-attitudes/

Quote: "....a lot has happened since then, notably the attitude that it is foolish to work for free. It is not only modern greed that created this, but a long-term general dismissal of the value volunteer work because it was done by unsalaried women."

I know the Cracked article is written for humor (and I do love me some Cracked) but the friends and acquaintances I grew up with had chores and the blue collar summer jobs like construction, baling hay, excavation, and, god forbid, paving. Manual labor wasn't anything to be ashamed of-it was how you made some decent cash. Maybe it's a location thing, as I grew up in a small town, but it definitely wasn't generational. (For the record, I graduated from high school in 2004, maybe things have gone downhill really fast).

Right now, I can count at least half a dozen friends who've gone into welding, the mills, working in restaurants, etc. Sure, lots went to four year colleges, but there's no sense that those that didn't were settling, especially when they're pulling down good money.

From the 1993 book about Generation X: "13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?" page 107:

"From 1975 to 1988, the proportion of high school seniors who like 'the kind of work you can forget about after the day is over' rose from 48 to 57 percent. The proportion who believed that 'to me, work is nothing more than making a living' rose from 19 to 25 percent." Monitoring the Future: Questionnaire Responses from the Nation's High School Seniors, administered by the University of Michigan.

(end of excerpt)

What's interesting about that is that it wasn't clear whether those high school seniors were truly averse to enjoying any activity that's more useful than watching TV, or whether they were merely pessimistic about finding a job that could possibly be enjoyable in any way - or overlap with their secret ambitions.