Scrambled porn channels in the 90s. This one is half-real but inflated into folklore. People describe it like some cyberpunk forbidden technology where entire generations trained themselves to decode static with their minds. Mostly it was just a noisy distorted screen where maybe every 40 seconds you’d see half a second of a shoulder or something. The mythology became stronger than the experience.

“Everybody watched Lost together every week.” Massive show, yes. But retrospective memory turns it into a universal monoculture event on the level of the moon landing. Huge portions of the public either never watched it or dropped out after Season 2 when the mystery-box fatigue set in.

“Nintendo playground wars.” People remember every schoolyard as some apocalyptic ideological conflict between Nintendo and Sega kids. In reality most children just played whatever console happened to be in the house.

“Everyone had quicksand anxiety in the 80s/90s.” Internet meme historians love this one. Quicksand appeared in adventure media sometimes, but people now act like children thought death by quicksand was statistically imminent.

“The Bermuda Triangle.” People in the 70s and 80s talked about it like commercial aviation was moments from collapse. Turns out boats and planes disappearing over decades in a heavily traveled region is not actually paranormal.

“Everyone watched music videos on MTV all day.” By the late 90s, MTV itself barely showed music videos anymore, but culturally we remember a permanent golden age of nonstop videos.

“Phone booths everywhere.” Younger people imagine cities looked like a noir film full of glowing pay phones. There were plenty, sure, but not every street corner looked like The Matrix.

“You could just show up at the airport 10 minutes before your flight pre-9/11.” Exaggerated into this lost libertarian golden age where air travel was like boarding a bus. Airports were still miserable, people still missed flights, security still existed, and airlines were already treating passengers like livestock by the late 90s.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49896836)

It's kind of back in a low key way now and I like the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms show

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49896883)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49896887)

the tadpole to frog pipeline, most important biology lesson of kindergarten, that shit was huge

penmanship and longhand math

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49900783)

C- execution by OP, as usual

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49897251)

Skinemax and scrambled porn are the 2 hills I'll die on. this shit didn't exist irl but got talked about constantly by comedians and whatever else.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49897336)

they didnt overlap for me though. the switch to digital cable meant no more scrambled channels but that was also when i finally got cinemax, hbo & showtime

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49904277)

I think this was the bubble right before pokemon and gameboy color hit so game gear had a lot of cachet among rich kids. they were actually killing it with surprisingly faithful genesis ports around 1995, like Ristar.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49897339)

as a corollary, the popularity of really shitty dance-rap/pop and whiny R&B from the early and mid-90's is kind of forgotten or covered up in the cultural imagination. boyz II men whining about the end of the road was the 'sound' of '92; not 'grunge.'

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49897344)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49897365)

Ass you an Indian from Canada

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49897372)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49897377)

Also grunge never outsold rock. top albums by year:

91 GNR - use your illusion

92 Eric clapton - unplugged

93 Aerosmith - get a grip

94 green day - dookie

95 Oasis - morning glory

96 Metalica - Load

etc...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49904183)

Same with scrambled playboy channel. If you had an old tv with a fine tuning function you could set it just so you could basically watch it in very low quality. Strip search, night calls, adult stars close up all that shit.

iPhones really have destroyed much of the Engineering that went into the teenage masturbation process

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49897812)

(in my case the 1990-91 calendar with exotic full frontals)

they were actually Penthouse

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49900361)

I did that a few times, maybe 1-2x a year. people act like it was a formative memory

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49899866)

Book-it and Personal Pan Pizzas were cool iirc.

iirc The Video Games were ignominious so I didn't rush to the arcade when parents were present

never went to the buffet, ever

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49900347)

Service was VERY poor in the 90s btw, because it was predominated by Gen X. 15% tips were the absolute max in these years. when millennial Women started waitressing, 20% became more normalized.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49900354)

Haven't seen the thing about Razor Ruddock II, but may look it up. This wasn't part of the shared memory at the time (most of us casuals only became aware of Cus later), but it seems like things went off the rails when there was no one to keep Tyson in line and working hard. That's part of the "Prime" mystique for Tyson: actually working his fucking ass off and not thinking winning was predestined. I think that type of focused and angry Tyson works Holyfield, but as you said, we'll never know

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49904325)

https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/michael_jordan_vs_hakeem_olajuwon.htm#google_vignette

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49904432)

your school must have been full of huge pussies if you couldn't have even ONE team. Not even a prestigious private school with lacrosse chads either. Just massive pussies. Not one of your cliques even requires any upper body strength. We had dudes benching 4 plates and squatting 6 (each side).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49904510)

“Skinemax” - it was never that everyone was watching it every night - just that it existed. I, along with probably 80% of white millenials, had sleep overs at friends house where we would all go to the house that had Cinemax and watch it.

Scrambled porn channels in the 90s.- Every person knew that certain channels had scrambled porn and every person tried to watch them for a couple of minutes once and a while. People weren't tuning it for appointment viewing or watching for hours, but no one is alleging that.

“Everybody watched Lost together every week.” - I don't think anyone thinks that. Most people think it was a middling hit show, nowhere near as big as Friends and less big than Modern Family.

“Everyone had quicksand anxiety in the 80s/90s.” - this is a joke dude. The average kid probably watched 10-20 episodes of cartoons that had quick sand even though it doesn't exist.

“The Bermuda Triangle.” - this was just for fun

“Everyone watched music videos on MTV all day.” - people did consume way more music videos. Most people here can identify the music videos for Britney Spears, NSync, Shania Twain, Limp Bizkit, etc. I don't think the same is true for Post Malone, Sabrina Carpenter or Morgan Wallen.

“Phone booths everywhere.” - every section of the mall had a payphone and a lot of businesses. they were about as popular as vending machines now

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2/#49904530)