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Shared Cultural Memories that never happened or are exaggerated af
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:12 PM Author: confused fanboi “Skinemax” as this omnipresent teenage rite of passage. Yes, late-night softcore existed on premium cable like Cinemax, but people talk like every suburban kid was up at 1:30 AM watching wall-to-wall erotic thrillers every night. In reality most households either didn’t have premium cable, parents locked it down, or the content was mostly boring softcore nonsense with saxophone music and plots about “seductive art gallery murders.” 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.
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:14 PM Author: Hairraiser heaven tp (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896838) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:43 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896882) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:20 PM Author: Pale medicated lettuce (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896842) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:30 PM Author: Massive cracking milk sweet tailpipe Like half of these are straight up false (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896854) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:34 PM Author: Topaz keepsake machete space (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896860) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:42 PM Author: confused fanboi (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896878) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:43 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap 80+ shared cultural memories tp (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896884) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 7:22 PM Author: Naked Church Messiness (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49897025) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 2:15 PM Author: navy shivering selfie kitchen (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904022) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:42 PM Author: Drunken marketing idea place of business All real and some survived for a time, for like 5 years GoT was bigger than the Super Bowl and bigger than anything else outside POTUS campaigns, just a massive monocultural wave that came and went. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896880) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:43 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896881) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:43 PM Author: Pale medicated lettuce Yeah GOT was everywhere and huge and then just totally vanished from existence for five years
It's kind of back in a low key way now and I like the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms show |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 7:08 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896994) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:44 PM Author: Pale medicated lettuce Video store nostalgia is hilarious because at the time Blockbuster etc. was reviled for homogenizing the video rental landscape and getting rid of mom and pop video stores and so on
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 6:59 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896940) |
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Date: May 24th, 2026 7:38 PM Author: supple idea he suggested lmao everyone understood that those stores survived by renting porn (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49898979) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 7:07 PM Author: Buff Crawly Casino Psychic This place really is full of some of the most miserable faggots in existence (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896982) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 7:08 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap 180 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896992) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 7:08 PM Author: ebony thirsty parlour quicksand was an epidemic (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896990) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 7:08 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49896993) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 7:33 PM Author: Drunken marketing idea place of business Johnny Appleseed the tadpole to frog pipeline, most important biology lesson of kindergarten, that shit was huge penmanship and longhand math |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 7:47 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49900797) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 8:41 AM Author: passionate boiling water quadroon my cousin died that way. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49903670) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 9:16 PM Author: unhinged theater stage giraffe A+ thread concept
C- execution by OP, as usual |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:06 PM Author: confused fanboi ok that's what threads are for, do a better example.
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. |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 2:21 PM Author: navy shivering selfie kitchen We could see a good amount on my friend's scrambled porn channels. And your skinemax analysis doesn't really hold because even if many people didn't have it or their parent had it locked down, just about everyone knew a guy who did have it. And you're also forgetting the phone sex commercials on normal TV stations. We had a lot of options for softcore porn. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904028) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 5:38 PM Author: Contagious dingle berry lol along with watching music videos those 2 were the ones that were definitely real ime
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 |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:09 PM Author: ebony thirsty parlour i think he did a fine job. damn fine job (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49897337) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:10 PM Author: Walnut self-absorbed base (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49897340) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 5:29 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49900518) |
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Date: May 24th, 2026 1:24 AM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49897616) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:10 PM Author: Walnut self-absorbed base I went to a weird school, but people constantly had their handhelds out at recess and were lending/swapping games and for some reason a lot of people had game gear. console rivalries were absolutely real but it was like 20% arguing about what was better, 80% wanting to play everything.
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. |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:12 PM Author: mint business firm boring softcore nonsense with saxophone music and plots about “seductive art gallery murders" would've been mind blowing (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49897342) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:16 PM Author: Excitant resort there was a division between softcore shows like red shoe diaries with 'real' plots and sets, and shows like 'beverly hills bordello' which were basically porn shoots with more clothes and no money-shots. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49897346) |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:15 PM Author: Excitant resort the popularity of nirvana and grunge is overstated in retrospect. it was popular, but not omnipresent, and was always massively out-sold by shit like WHOOMP! THERE IT IS!
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.' |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:30 PM Author: Topaz keepsake machete space certainly not my experience. school dances would play some Ace of Base or Barbie Girl... but the school went nuts when Kurt died. and my grade 9 yearbook is covered in STP, pumpkins, PJ, Nirvana, etc lyrics not B2M
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:35 PM Author: confused fanboi “grade 9”
Ass you an Indian from Canada |
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:37 PM Author: Topaz keepsake machete space yes, i listen to grunge in my Peterbilt
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Date: May 23rd, 2026 10:34 PM Author: confused fanboi Are you a millennial azn? Gen X loved grunge tbf (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49897371) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 4:10 PM Author: vigorous senate friendly grandma truth. Nirvana was popular but wasnt mainstream until kurts clever career move.
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... |
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Date: May 24th, 2026 7:13 AM Author: Boyish deranged toilet seat Skinamax was a very real thing. You looked up the times in the tv guide and set the timer on your vcr then got up early to conceal the evidence.
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 |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 9:53 AM Author: sable feces And mom and dad knew damn well why you wanted to see the tv listings in the paper and why your alarm was going off at 3:28am. But if you missed this this, you’d have to get by with hoping to catch Aerosmith “Crazy” or your sister’s/gf’s ym. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49899737) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 4:20 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49900341) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 2:54 PM Author: Boyish deranged toilet seat (zoomer who never set a vcr timer) (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904083) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 6:50 PM Author: fishy internet-worthy hospital Cr my parents were too cheap to buy tv guide but the local paper had the weekend's tv listings every Thursday. I coveted the Thursday paper (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904358) |
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Date: May 24th, 2026 11:54 PM Author: pea-brained fiercely-loyal knife music videos / mtv in the 80's was very legit. everyone would wait to watch debuts of new videos. mj thriller was yuge. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49899346) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 12:53 AM Author: confused fanboi (Gen Xer) (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49899394) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 6:52 PM Author: fishy internet-worthy hospital I was there (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904365) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 10:02 AM Author: stimulating piazza karate i was definitely intrigued by the scrambled porn channel and remember muting the tv since the sound was all static too. for the split second that you could maybe catch a boob or a woman's face it was crazy. i dont think i was at the age of jerking off yet but getting little glimpses into adult things like this seem much healthier initiation than full on hardcore pornography available as soon as you get your own phone or computer (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49899754) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 11:10 AM Author: Topaz keepsake machete space (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49899854) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 4:24 PM Author: Drunken marketing idea place of business cr finding the forbidden dusty attic Playboy magazines was a rite of passage (in my case the 1990-91 calendar with exotic full frontals) they were actually Penthouse |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 4:28 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49900379) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 11:14 AM Author: Laughsome black woman pizza hut tmnt thread should be linked here. I did that a few times, maybe 1-2x a year. people act like it was a formative memory |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 4:19 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49900340) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 4:21 PM Author: confused fanboi mine had a Jukebox
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 |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 4:21 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49900349) |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 4:22 PM Author: confused fanboi I think I sat at one once for a really long time and the waiter was slow as fuck, basically never came, and we had to leave. which when you think about it isn't an everyday thing.
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. |
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Date: May 25th, 2026 4:27 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49900373) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 8:08 AM Author: confused fanboi (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49903656) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 6:53 PM Author: fishy internet-worthy hospital The buffet was strictly for proles. We got our own fresh and hot deeps dish. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904376) |
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Date: May 28th, 2026 9:57 AM Author: Laughsome black woman (main character in John Hguhes movie) (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904937) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 3:57 PM Author: passionate boiling water quadroon I played a ton of TMNT but it was at the putt-putt golf arcade not Pizza Hut. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904155) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 4:07 PM Author: Chartreuse Voyeur Mad-dog Skullcap Whoa (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904179) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 2:38 PM Author: navy shivering selfie kitchen People believe that the Tyson fight was stopped because "he bit his ear" but it was actually ruled a no-contest due to unintentional clash of heads. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904046) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 4:48 PM Author: scarlet mind-boggling headpube dog poop Does anyone disagree that Tyson in his prime would have put Holyfield flat on his back? If you do, we definitely do not have shared cultural memories of Mike FUCKING Tyson (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904215) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 6:15 PM Author: navy shivering selfie kitchen I saw a video that made a decent case that Tyson - Ruddock II took so much out of both men that neither fighter was really the same after. Unfortunately there's no way to independently analyze that theory because he never fought again before going to prison, but he had just taken a shitload of punishment including a perforated eardrum at the time he would have first fought Holyfield, so it's an interesting theory. But yeah, the shared cultural memory is that Mike FUCKING Tyson in his prime would literally kill anyone who has ever boxed during any era. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904322) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 6:20 PM Author: scarlet mind-boggling headpube dog poop My man!
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 |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 2:43 PM Author: fuchsia irradiated hell pistol Interesting (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904060) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 6:51 PM Author: fishy internet-worthy hospital I was 4 paragraphs into the OP before I realized it was a cowgod poast. That's a new record. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904364) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 7:29 PM Author: navy shivering selfie kitchen There is a shared cultural memory that Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were "dominant," but in reality Jordan ducked Hakeem "playing" "baseball" during Hakeem's peak years to avoid a humiliating defeat. They only played each other in the regular season, where MJ had a very poor record against Hakeem.
https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/michael_jordan_vs_hakeem_olajuwon.htm#google_vignette |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 7:38 PM Author: frum lodge High school being divided into jocks/preps/nerds/goths/whatever. My high school had cliques, but it was based on what sport you played: soccer, basketball, swimming, badminton, cross country, and track were the main cliques. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904444) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 7:57 PM Author: navy shivering selfie kitchen This just means you went to a high school full of faggots that couldn't field a football team. LMAO @ the "badminton clique." You absolutely did not have a normal high school experience. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904472) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 8:07 PM Author: frum lodge My school couldn't field a football team because there were literally 2 girls for every boy. But I'm sure you enjoyed your normal high school with the crowded locker room showers. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904479) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 8:22 PM Author: navy shivering selfie kitchen We had 6 teams. Freshman A/B, Soph A/B, JV, Varsity. Each one full of ABSOLUTE CHADS to the very last man. While you were off spending your formative years in a tiny, feminized environment (the end result of which is a moniker named after an angsty teenage girl antagonist of a second-rate visual novel series), I was laughing it up with the bros completely filling some dude's football helmet to the brim with piss.
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).
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Date: May 27th, 2026 8:33 PM Author: frum lodge How did the piss taste? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904518) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 8:48 PM Author: navy shivering selfie kitchen Only time in my life I've ever tasted piss was when I had to go during an unskippable Halo 5 cutscene and used a piss jug and then forgot about it and a couple days later accidentally took a sip. It doesn't taste good. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904527) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 8:28 PM Author: confused fanboi Is this some sort of Joke (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904516) |
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Date: May 28th, 2026 10:32 AM Author: vigorous senate friendly grandma your experience does not sound typical. a more accurate take would be that jocks were not aggressive meatheads who picked on meak little nerds. ime the unpopular kids were that way because they were dicks and/or isolated themselves. (hollywood) propoganda that every blonde haired quarterback was an asshole was and is an absurd lie. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904965) |
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Date: May 27th, 2026 8:51 PM Author: bateful zombie-like new version These are all wrong or misrepresented -
“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
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Date: May 28th, 2026 10:52 AM Author: confused fanboi Stop being an autist. There are plenty of examples of this aside from OP. Like the shared cultural memory of you not being a fag, champ. 😏 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5868478&forum_id=2...#49904973) |