[[quoteright:197:[[Franchise/ArchieComics http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donttasejughead.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:197: The perils of this trope: [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece how many of you know what the phrase on Jughead's shirt even means?]]]]
->''"At only a year and a half since the event being referenced, this [see right] is the most current pop-culture reference that Archie Comics have ever made, beating out the same issue's ''AmericanIdol'' joke by a good five years."''
-->--''[[http://www.the-isb.com/?p=1223 Chris' Invincible Super-Blog]]''
Suppose you've got yourself a LongRunner. And while your Long Runner hasn't really wavered in popularity, not significantly, you still want to connect with the youth of today. [[TrendAesop Perhaps you'd also like to comment on current pop-culture events as well]].
Well, you'd better tread carefully or you might sound like you're just screaming, [[TitleDrop "We're Still Relevant, Dammit!"]]
The parent trope of both TotallyRadical and FadSuper, this happens when a series that is gettin' old decides to make an attempt to stay current. Of-the-moment pop-culture references (that usually end up dated by the time the work of fiction makes its premiere) are certainly most common. The writers might also decide to [[NotAsYouKnowThem radically change a character]] or create an "updated" {{Expy}} of an older character. A number of times a character has been made DarkerAndEdgier easily fit the bill. Another popular tactic is to make the character suddenly become a member of a [[SubcultureOfTheWeek newly emerged subculture]], fandom, or similar group. The result, especially if the writer is not part of said subculture and doesn't do the research, is often laughably embarrassing instead of the bold new direction the producers were hoping for.
This often heralds the beginning of a DorkAge. Can very often result in an UnintentionalPeriodPiece.
See also PopularityPolynomial, MascotWithAttitude, DiscreditedMeme, FollowTheLeader, TwoDecadesBehind and more than a few [[TheScrappy Scrappies]] and cases of MisaimedMarketing.
TropesAreTools standing aside, this is usually a sign of bad writing.
----
!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Advertising]]
* [[Series/{{Lost}} Daniel Faraday]] would like to remind you that [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLhfxI8T2cU Subaru cars are "like punk rock"]]. Do not question his logic!
* An ad for the Nissan Cube features icons such as "Add Friends" when someone other than the driver gets in the car, and "Join Group" when the car parks at an area with other people. The car itself is referred to as the "Cube Mobile Device".
* Parodied in a Smokey the Bear PublicServiceAnnouncement. The PSA starts out being a PissTakeRap or something like that, but Smokey calls it off midway through because this sort of pandering to the younger demographic just isn't his style.
* In 2012, Chuck E. Cheese's radically redesigned Chuck E. Cheese, giving him a design like something out of ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' and making him play the electric guitar as he sings Music/BowlingForSoup songs. [[InternetBackdraft This did not]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks get positive reactions.]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Comics]]
* Dear old Jughead Jones of ''ArchieComics'' fame has often fallen victim to this trope. ''Archie Comics'' may be made fun of occasionally, but thanks to its cozy look at the bright side of being a teenager, most people tend to view it with warm nostalgic feelings. This makes these attempts to be "hip and happening" ever more bewildering. Everyone, from every generation, knows Jughead as Archie's goofy hamburger-eating [=BFF=] in that ridiculous hat. Well, over the years, he has ''also'' had mercifully brief careers as (get some coffee and a comfortable seat) a beatnik, a hippie, a punk, a disco king, a breakdancer, a time-traveler a la ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', a rapper, a paranormal investigator a la ''Series/{{The X-Files}}'', an {{emo teen}}, a {{superhero}}, and so on. At this point Jughead's {{Genre Shift}}ing has almost become a RunningGag. See [[http://www.avclub.com/content/node/48531 this useful Onion AV Club article]] for more details.
** Let's not forget that brief span ("[[http://joeydevilla.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2005/10/shes_goth_to_have_it.jpg She's Goth to Have It]]") where Betty decides to become a {{goth}}. And not long after, Archie, Reggie, and Veronica follow suit.
*** [[SoBadItsGood "Yeah! It's totally dismal and excellent!"]] Who can hate anything with such a hilarious closing line?
** They've finally gotten around to [[http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/books/04/23/archie.gay/index.html?hpt=C2 adding]] a [[TokenMinority gay character]] to the cast, about 10 years after anyone would've cared.
*** Although the fact that he's now getting married and joining the army arguably makes him relevant.
** Then there were the "manga-style" Archie stories.
** And now "[[http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/07/23/archie-takes-on-occupy-riverdale-an-exclusive-bleeding-cool-preview/ Occupy Riverdale]]".
** TheComicsCurmudgeon openly suspected that ''Archie'' was so old and tired that it used a computer to come up with daily jokes, and even dubbed it the "Archie Joke-Generating Laugh Unit 3000" or AJGLU 3000. ''Archie'' [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1827 struck back in this comic]], putting Archie in a "No AJGLU 3000" shirt.
* In [[SilverAge the Sixties]], JimmyOlsen ''was'' this trope. He was, at various points, a hippie, ''a Beatle'' (in Ancient Rome, no less!), a wide variety of superheroes, and many other things, most of which fall under the WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs / SoBadItsGood heading. Once again, it's become sort of a RunningGag, focused on at places like SuperDickery.
** The example with the longest ramifications was when the Jimmy Olsen title was written by JackKirby, who used the craziness to introduce {{Darkseid}} and the [[NewGods Fourth World mythos]] to the wider DCUniverse.
** The last few decades have seen the whole ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' mythos tangled in this trope:
*** Superman proves he's right and a thinly veiled version of TheAuthority is wrong! Superman walks across the country solving real people's problems! Superman quits the ''Daily Planet'' to become a blogger! Superman has a mullet!
* ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'' famously used TheFalcon to do a controversial storyline about affirmative action...close to 20 years after JohnFKennedy actually issued it.
* ''TheUltimates'' started off as the hip, DarkerAndEdgier little brother of ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'', but has now gotten to the point where the title is over a decade old. This has lead to things like Comicbook/IronMan mentioning that he's friends with BeyonceKnowles and JayZ just to try and make him seem young and hip again.
* There's a MickeyMouse [[http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2007-020 comic story]] demonstrating this trope, published in 2008, in which Mickey attempts to join [=MyPlace=] (a [[BlandNameProduct parody]] of ''MySpace'' and finds out somebody is already on there impersonating him. (Unfortunately, this story is not yet available in English.)
** Disney has realized their playing safe with MickeyMouse has been a bit of problem. ''EpicMickey'' is part of an effort to make him relevant ''without'' falling into this trope.
* Lampshaded for humour in a 1990s ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'' comic, in which Catwoman comes up against Two-Face -- who is toting as henchmen two ridiculously outdated (even for the time) Goth {{Mooks}}. When the fact that Goths aren't exactly hip anymore is raised, Catwoman snarks that 'time moves slower in Arkham'.
* ''TheBeano'' tried this in 2001 with a character called ''Robbie Rebel'', essentially a more hip, contemporary version of Dennis the Menace. He was apparently based on Robbie Williams, and the strip also featured two scantily-clad girls called Kylie and Geri. Presumably this was to combat the dated appearance of the other characters (he wore jeans and a t-shirt instead of short trousers and a jersey), but he only lasted a few years.
* ''FreddyVsJasonVsAsh: The Nightmare Warriors'' had a prolonged, rather random, and immature TakeThat towards George W. Bush... who had been out of office for a couple years by the comics publication.
* Brazilian comic ''MonicasGang'' engages in this every now and then, since it's been running for 50 years. They even have a "turn our characters into a memeface" contest on their Facebook page!
* Marvel Comics' 10-issue run of ''MightyMouse'' concluded with a mysterious figure who used a vacuum to drain all the "hipness" from TV personalities (anthropomorphic animal editions of Pat Sajak, Johnny Carson, et al). The paramedics warn Mighty Mouse not to get too close all he'll lose all ''his'' hipness, and a scoffs, saying he's still relevant. That is, until the official word is that his cartoon show on CBS was canceled. Mighty Mouse eventually wins by drawing in his breath to counter the villain's vacuum. When he tells the paramedics he's as hip as ever, they quip, "Are you sure? The audience said you really [[IncrediblyLamePun sucked!]]"
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/TheNeverEndingStory III'', the inhabitants of [[MagicalLand Fantasia]] undergo considerable change, including spouting contemporary pop-culture references. Bastian updates his hairdo because his sister calls it "un". The ultimate depiction in the movie, however, has to be Rock Biter taking his son for a bike ride...while singing "Born to be Wild". As the review on ''Everything Is Terrible'' put it, "The sound you're hearing right now is your childhood throwing up."
* When the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4IoUo_ZJkY trailer]] for the [[Film/TheThreeStooges Three Stooges]] movie was shown to be rife with this, complete with a modern setting, an iPhone, and even the cast of the ''Jersey Shore'', many people who hadn't heard anything about the film since Sean Penn was involved (which implied a more serious biography of the Stooges) were, to say the least, surprised. When people hoping these were just [[NeverTrustATrailer gags made for the trailer]] saw it and found out that ''Jersey Shore'' is not only a big part of the film but is also instrumental to the plot, they were '''pissed'''.
* The ''RockyAndBullwinkle'' LiveActionAdaptation is so loaded with early 00s pop culture references that it might as well be called "The Year 2000, starring Moose and Squirrel."
* ''Film/TheSmurfs'' movie is infamous for trying [[TotallyRadical every]] [[ProductPlacement cheap]] [[PissTakeRap tactic]] [[ReferenceOverdosed in]] the book to try to get the franchise "Down with the kids".
* An in-universe example is the whole point of ''The Internship''. Two salesmen whose careers have been [[TechnologyMarchesOn made obsolete by the digital age]] try to get a coveted internship at {{Google}}.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* BobHope constantly attempted this in the 70's and on. As {{Frasier}} told Niles, "Don't use slang. You sound like Bob Hope when he acts like The Fonz."
* ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'''s attempts to prove that the franchise was still relevant at the turn of the millennium by allegorizing on the subject of TheWarOnTerror could get heavy-handed at times.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' sums this trope up with the character of Ace; a clear attempt to be relevant and "with it" for the youth of the day, her "wicked" fashion style and "ace" dialogue was frequently considered either laughable or cringeworthy at the time, never mind later on. The writer reportedly ''tried'' for accuracy, hanging out with real kids to get a sense of who they were and how they acted, but ExecutiveMeddling resulted in actual teenage slang and speaking patterns being tossed out. However, she is redeemed by being one of the wildest ActionGirl companions the Doctor ever had, including her CrowningMomentOfAwesome when she smashed up a Dalek with a baseball bat, a feat of kick-assery by which all subsequent Doc companions are measured.
** While not as {{egregious}} as some other examples, the new ''Doctor Who'' series can suffer from this, too - numerous celebrity cameos and pop-culture references are scattered across multiple episodes but can leave them feeling very dated in a short space of time.
*** ''The End of the World'' amusingly used this trope by residents of the distant future referring to BritneySpears' music as "a traditional ballad". [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBw5tOeXWkY This is not the first time in the show that current pop music was described as "classical".]][[note]]Should the link disappear: the First Doctor, Vicki, Barbara and Ian are watching ''Music/TheBeatles,'' which Vicki considers classical music.[[/note]]
*** Music/TheBeatles, or the "Bee-attles" comes up again as classical music in the new series episode "42". This was a CallBack to the same joke being made by a character from the future during the Hartnell Era, when the Beatles were ''still around.''
*** ''The Shakespeare Code'' had a few ''Literature/HarryPotter'' references, including one to the final book which came out that year, and "Expelliarmus!" turns out to be key to defeating the MonsterOfTheWeek (admittedly this was because the preceding word was hard to rhyme). Unfortunately, the writers apparently forgot Martha was actually from a year ahead of the episode's air date, so it seems pretty odd that she hadn't read ''Deathly Hallows''.
*** ''The End of Time'' made a few {{Anvilicious}} nods towards BarackObama's proposed economic reform. Also, "Fear Her" had a background gag to then-current ''TheXFactor'' winner Shayne Ward's greatest hits.
*** When the Master returned in the new series, he was updated into a [[PopCulturedBadass murderous pop culture junkie.]] He is shown watching an episode of ''Series/{{Teletubbies}}'' (supposedly a ShoutOut to the original series where he watches an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheClangers'') and has pop music played when he releases the Tochlafane to decimate the Earth's population (''Voodoo Child'', by ''Rogue Traders'') and at the start of season 3's finale whilst he is wheeling the Doctor around on a wheelchair (''I Can't Decide'' by the ''Scissor Sisters'').
* The final season of ''TheBradyBunch'' was like this at times. In the wake of the runaway success of ''AllInTheFamily'', ''The Brady Bunch'' had an episode that didn't involve the Bradys at all, in which a white family adopted a black and an Asian kid. (A bigoted neighbor in the episode is expressly compared to Archie Bunker.)
** "Kelly's Kids," the episode in question, was a PoorlyDisguisedPilot which didn't sell - not at the time, anyway; SherwoodSchwartz eventually succeeded in selling the concept as ''Together We Stand''. [[http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/togetherwestand/ See this article for more details.]]
* In an episode of ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' Ethan and Devin are playing a painfully bad {{Expy}} of ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'', it screams of this trope.
* The episode of ''Series/{{Today}}'' where they did the Harlem Shake (and managed to temporarily kill the meme) for Valentine's Day basically screamed this.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Music]]
* Plenty of ProgressiveRock supergroups of TheSeventies, faced with [[AccentuateTheNegative negative press]] over their "irrelevance" in the [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth age of punk rock/new wave]], sported EightiesHair, streamlined their images and musical styles, made hip music videos, and added high-tech synths to their sound in an attempt to keep up with the times. Some failed (Gentle Giant, Music/JethroTull, Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer, Kansas, Music/TheWho), and some succeeded (Music/{{Yes}}, Music/{{Genesis}}, Music/{{Rush}}, Music/KingCrimson). This, however, led [[BrokenBase earlier fans]] to [[ItsPopularNowItSucks revolt against the new sounds and styles]].
** For the same reason, Music/{{KISS}} ditched their trademark facepaint and costumes in the '80s for a glam look. They've since gone back to their classic style with the album ''Psycho Circus''.
** Witness, also, CheapTrick's attempts, at least since their late '70s heyday ended, to update their look, sound and style to fit the times. Heavy synths in the mid-'80s (which gave them [[BlackSheepHit their only #1 hit]], "The Flame",), a more AOR/pop-metal sound by 1988-93, then more grunge- and alternative-influenced work in TheNineties, while groups with a clear lineage to their early work gained success. They've been making inroads into their more influential, early, power-pop sound more recently.
* ChristianRock band Petra continuously changed their image and sound during TheEighties based on what was popular, with varying results. Their most successful case was an entirely accidental one -- the untimely departure of lead singer Greg Volz (who sounds a lot like Steve Walsh from Kansas) in the mid-'80s forced them to bring in John Schlitt (who sounds like every HairMetal lead singer ever), which led to the peak of their career and their most famous material. TheNineties, on the other hand, were their DorkAge, as they attempted to find footing in the age of {{grunge}} and [[AlternativeRock alt-rock]] while still retaining Schlitt on lead ''and'' trying to garner airplay on contemporary Christian radio. Eventually, they released one last classic-rock album to [[PanderingToTheBase appease the long-time fans]] and then folded.
* Music/{{Metallica}} preemptively pulled this trope between the albums ''Load'' and ''St. Anger''; during that time period, they tried to adapt to the rising AlternativeMetal trends by changing their sound, [[ImportantHaircut hair]] and logo. After the... erm... "not so well-received" album ''St. Anger'', they finally returned to their trademark thrash sound that we all know and love on ''[[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Death Magnetic]]''.
* HerbieHancock spent most of the seventies and eighties jumping from genre to genre. He tried fusion, disco, funk and electronica, [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly sometimes combining several of these]].
* In 1981, VillagePeople, those 1970s disco icons, tried to adapt to a new decade by discarding their [[ManlyGay macho gay]] look and adopting a New Romantic one. The result was [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Villagepeople_renaissance.jpg less than]] [[http://cdn.hmvdigital.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/006/184/0000618491_500.jpg convincing]].
* Arguably, EltonJohn has stayed (or tried to stay) contemporary for many decades, with mixed results. He dabbled with Philadelphia soul with "Philadelphia Freedom", disco on ''Victim Of Love'', new wave and synth-pop on parts of ''The Fox'' and ''Jump Up!'', experimented heavily with contemporary synthesizers and drum machines in TheEighties and TheNineties (especially 1985-1993), planned to record a HipHop album with {{Eminem}}'s producers before Proof's death, and returned to basics with ''Songs From The West Coast'' after hearing the AlternativeCountry of Music/RyanAdams in 2001. Part of the trend may have been aggravated by Elton's SignatureStyle of singer-songwriter Piano Pop, which was rarely fashionable in rock in the first place.
* Music/KoRn's announcement that their album ''The Path of Totality'' would consist of a blend of their traditional sound and [[{{Dubstep}} brostep]] rather smacked of this trope.
* {{U2}}'s announcement that their next album(s) would be variously produced by Danger Mouse, will.i.am, and David Guetta sounds suspiciously like this trope. It wouldn't be the first time either, since they did record ''Achtung Baby'', one of the most successful albums specifically designed to make a band relevant once again.
* REM spent most of their career trying to avert being part of any trend, but they still managed to have rappers on both 1991's "Radio Song" and 2004's "The Outsiders". On both occasions it does work with the music, but it was OutOfCharacter for them. Radio Song has dated because the rap style is in the 80s rap style. The Outsiders is more jazz rap so it hasn't.
** On the other hand, "The Outsiders" was on ''Around The Sun'', from a period that [[CreatorBacklash even the band themselves consider a]] DorkAge.
* During TheEighties, when disco was, well, DeaderThanDisco, the BeeGees tried to reinvent themselves (again) with pop ballads. But everyone associated them with disco, so the ReTool didn't work. (It had a decade earlier, when they went from a band not unlike Music/TheBeatles to a disco group, but didn't work this time.)
** Only in the United States. In England, their Eighties and Nineties output was well-received. (Even in America, international hits from their latter-year albums are featured heavily.)
* Likewise, the Bee Gees' Robin Gibb tried a solo comeback in 2003 with "Magnet," nearly twenty years after his last solo album. Unfortunately, Robin - a mid-fifties Englishman - tried his damndest to sound as relevant as the young pop stars of the day, including attempts at hip hop and lyrics about getting his 'freak on.' The album was a massive flop, and ended up being one of the most embarrassing items in the history of the Bee Gees. (The fact that he followed it up with one of the worst live albums in history didn't help.)
* The RollingStones' 1978 album ''Some Girls'' was a very deliberate response to critics who had dismissed them as outdated in the face of PunkRock and disco. It paid off big time, and the Stones pointed out that numerous punk rockers had grown up listening to them. It's also helped that they've absorbed many different music styles, while still retaining their core blues-rock sound.
* DavidBowie, despite his notorious penchant for the NewSoundAlbum trope, has largely stayed ahead of the curves that come along in music and avoided accusations of trend-jumping, owing in part to both his ''strong'' CreatorThumbprint as a lyricist and his compelling stage presence. He was mocked in the British music press over 1997's ''Earthling'', though -- it was an intelligent drum 'n' bass-heavy album that came along ''just'' as that style peaked and was on its way to DeaderThanDisco status. He'd just turned 50 years old, too, which didn't help.
* MichaelJackson, according to producer Quincy Jones, didn't think rap music would catch on back in TheEighties. He struggled with this trope for the rest of his career, starting with 1991's ''Dangerous''. He tried to update his sound with new jack swing, hip-hop, and rap stylings, hiring big-name producers and guest musicians in the process. ''Dangerous'' alone had guest spots from Heavy D, Wreckx-n-Effect, and [[Music/GunsNRoses Slash]], and the music videos featured trendy celebrities such as Macaulay Culkin, Iman, Eddie Murphy, Magic Johnson, Naomi Campbell, Michael Jordan, and even Bart and Homer Simpson. Ten years later, David Browne commented in his ''Entertainment Weekly'' review of ''Invincible'' that Jackson "appears to be so lacking in confidence that he's top-loaded the album with every conceivable collaborator he could call, from Carlos Santana and Babyface for the oldsters to Rodney Jerkins and rapper Fats for the kids."
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]
* Similar to the above Jughead image are the occasional attempts at current events humor in ''TheFamilyCircus''. The general concessions to changing times -- the toys the NotAllowedToGrowUp kids are seen playing with or the shows they watch -- are subtle and actually topical. But these days any attempts at mining ''humor'' from that result in odd, unfunny jokes such as Billy saying that Daddy's cartoons would look better in [=HD=]. Then there was Dolly dressing up as SarahPalin for Halloween 2008 (which wasn't even presented as a joke; she just ''was''), Billy is dressed up as Film/IronMan and Jeffy is dressed up as [[Film/TheDarkKnight Batman]].
** An odd example for 2012: Billy asks to go out as a specific character, "Tactical Sergeant ''Tarkus from the Blood Ravens 4th Company in ''Warhammer 40,000''." Not only is ''Warhammer 40000 extremely obscure outside geek circles, Tarkus only appeared in ''DawnOfWar 2'' which came out three years prior.
*** As a side note, it was hilarious watching people on /tg/, the 4chan board that deals with ''40k'', slowly coming to the realization that yes, ''Family Circus'' of all things had just referenced Tarkus.
** {{Seanbaby}} points out the awkwardness of this in an article about the comic. One strip has a computer monitor displaying static (i.e. "snow") in order for the kids to deliver the punchline "[[{{Pun}} winter-net]]". Yeah, quick question, how many times has ''your'' monitor displayed TV-style "snow"?
*** Heck, when was the last time your ''TV'' displayed TV-style snow?
* ''{{Blondie}}'' has also taken to this in recent years. The jokes have generally been about how out-of-touch Dagwood is with modern society, but the "modern society" the reader is often shown still feels like it's trapped in a time warp. Most references to modern technology come from Elmo, a small child who somehow affords every "hip" new product despite being a small child.
** In 1991, Blondie put on pants and started a catering business with her friend Tootsie. In 2000, Blondie yelled "Dagwood Bumstead Dot Com!" to wake her husband. Dagwood responded, "Omigosh, that means BUSINESS!" Dagwood uses a flatscreen computer monitor at work, Cookie and Alexander use cell phones and crack jokes about Facebook. But Dagwood is still late to work -- although now he races out the door to his car pool rather than a city bus -- and Mr. Dithers still kicks him in the ass.
* ''{{Peanuts}}'' occasionally delved into this, usually through having Snoopy picking up on then-current fads. This arguably reached its apex (or nadir) with the '80s TV special ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO6ccX90HNI It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown]]''.
** In one of the last comics published before the strip ended in 2000, [[http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1999/11/08 Sally attempted to invite Harry Potter over to her house for dinner]]. What an interesting {{Crossover}} that could have been.
** [[TropesAreNotBad Peppermint Patty owes her entire existence to this trope]]. At the height of the in the late '60s feminist movement, Schulz decided he needed a female character who wasn't stereotypically feminine. Apparently, it was a somewhat big deal at the time that she (gasp!) wore shorts and sandals.
* ''TheComicsCurmudgeon'' gets a lot of humor out of this topic:
** [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1865 This]] ''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith'' strip, which notes that television show references are out of place in the time warp the hillbillies live in anyway.
** ''[[http://joshreads.com/?p=863 Momma]]'' has a writer that may have ''never'' seen a computer in his life.
** And ''[[http://joshreads.com/?p=6374 Crock]]'' clearly has no idea what "iTunes" means.
* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' fell into this in the '60s and '70s as original writer Chester Gould tried desperately to keep the strip relevant with the changing times. This led to him giving the strip a sci-fi swerve, where Tracy met the moon people and the police force gained moon technology - his son even married one of the moon people, "Moon Maid". This led to problems when the Apollo Moon Landings showed the moon barren of all life, forcing him to eventually drop many of these elements. In the 70s, he tried to update Tracy's distinct look with long hair and a mustache, along with a hippie sidekick named "Groovy Grove". The mustache went over so poorly he later drew a strip in which several characters pinned Tracy down and shaved it off. Gould's successor, Max Allan Collins, had both Moon Maid and Groovy Grove killed off as soon as he inherited the strip. The strip's current author seems to be ''far'' too displaced from reality to make references like this.
* ''LilAbner'' introduced student radicals called SWINE (Students Wildly Indignant at Nearly Everything) during TheSixties.
** This was actually a combination of this trope and AuthorTract, as the conservative Al Capp felt the increasing need to vent his disgust with the political/cultural developments of the era.
* ''TheWizardOfId'', circa late January 2012, made a ''ThreeHundred'' reference, only about five years after the movie was released.[[note]]Yes, you've been hearing jokes about this being SPARTAAAAA for that long.[[/note]]
** Not much better was a January 2013 strip making a TakeThat at ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', released about a couple months after the final film.
* ''HiAndLois'', in ''2011'', apparently believes that [[http://joshreads.com/?p=11706 setting a custom song for your ringtone]] is something so new, unusual and bizarre that it can be used as a punchline in itself. Literally, the entire punchline of the 10/28/11 strip is that Chip has changed his ringtone.
* A January 2013 {{Baldo}} comic had a punchline involving "[[{{Music/PSY}} Gangnam Style]]". As did a BeetleBailey strip that saw print during the same month.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Professional Wrestling ]]
* WWE commentators constantly mentioning Twitter or current pop culture comes across this way a lot of times.
* It's something of a RunningGag among wrestling fans that Wrestling/{{WWE}} is roughly 3-5 years behind pop culture. In fact, this was the main cause behind the dropping of Paul Burchill's pirate gimmick; at the time, ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' was too current for Vince [=McMahon=] to understand, and he didn't understand why a pirate should be a {{face}}.
** Earlier than that, Vince discontinued The Blonde Bytch project because he, personally, had never heard of ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'' at the very height of its popularity.
** It's only gotten worse. Witness Vince bringing in ZZ Top, who haven't been on the charts since the late 80s, to be the guest General Managers of Raw.
*** To be fair to Vince, that could have just been because a lot of [=WWE=] fans (and come to think of it, wrestlers) are classic rock fans.
** In general, ideas that relate to current pop culture that get smothered are because if Vince [=McMahon=] hasn't heard of it, surely ''you'' haven't either.
** A particularly glaring example came when Vince was doing commentary for a match featuring Avatar, who was Al Snow under a mask. The commentary crew was speculating as to the identity of the new wrestler, when Vince pipes up with, "Maybe it's Bart!" Cue blank looks from the other commentators, at which point Vince clarifies with, "You know, from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''?" The Simpsons at this point had been on the air for 5-6 years.
*** Which would make [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_vs._Patty_and_Selma the relevant season 6 episode]] contemporary, so it actually ''was'' relevant this time.
* Without question, this is how {{TNA}} came off when they brought in "Robbie E" and "Cookie" with a ''Series/JerseyShore'' gimmick. And then they actually brought in J-Woww to feud with Cookie. For 15 minutes.
* WWE has always been doing this. They had a wrestler dressed as {{Batman}} ([[SarcasmMode imaginatively]] known as "Battman") in the mid-1960s, when the TV show was a hit. During the mid-1990s they had Rad Radford, who dressed like a grunge-rock musician. Some of WWE's most popular and enduring gimmicks started out this way: {{Edge}}, for example, in his original "Brood" incarnation with his BadassLongcoat and CoolShades and vampire fangs, was strikingly reminiscent of the title character of ''{{Blade}}'', which had just hit theaters at the time.
* In ProfessionalWrestling this trope is used well when it's [[InvokedTrope deliberately invoked]] for comedy or satirical purposes. The tag team "Cryme Tyme" became darlings of the fans despite trafficking in "Yo-yo-yo!"/"in the 'hood" stereotypes that had already been cliched for over a decade.
** Ditto with [[DiscoDan "Disco Inferno"]] (in the late '90s).
*** {{WCW}} would, unfortunately, go back to that well again with "That '70s Guy" Mike Awesome after That70sShow became a hit. It didn't come off nearly as funny or clever the second time around.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Puppet Shows ]]
* ''TheMuppets'' are known to suffer from this from time to time, and handle it with various levels of success. Most of the time they pull it off rather well, but a few cases stand out as blatant attempts at this: the panned ''Studio DC: Almost Live'', which featured Disney stars such as MileyCyrus and the JonasBrothers acting alongside the Muppets in order to introduce them to a younger audience, and [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Darin_McGowan_pitches a few horrifying-looking Muppet cartoons that were proposed in the mid-2000's]] (that luckily never got made).
-->Featuring [[TotallyRadical funky, cool new designs]] of [[JimHenson JIM HENSON's]] Muppets by Darin [=McGowan=]
** In the same vein, ''Film/TheMuppets'' does this trope, but decides to bring back what made them entertaining in ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' and the subsequent movies pre-''From Space''. It was a success.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Radio]]
* ''TheGoonShow:'' On the fiftieth anniversary of the show in 2001, two third-season scripts were combined and recorded with a new cast as "Goon Again". The jokes and ambiance are a good match for the original show, which makes it all the more jarring when Bluebottle makes a .com reference.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Toys]]
* Pretty much the premise of a toyline like ''{{Barbie}}''. Every new fashion trend for the past fifty years has resulted in new versions of the doll.
** Parodied on ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy," where two girls find Malibu Stacy dolls ("Achy Breaky Stacy" and "Live from the Improv Stacy") that are now in the bargain bin now that the song "Achy Breaky Heart" and ''Evening at the Improv'' aren't popular anymore.
* ''GIJoe'' too. The '70s "adventure team" version of the franchise existed in an attempt to make war cool, despite that America was really hurting after the Vietnam War and society pretty much saw war as a pointless waste of human life.
** The 1980s revival/retool, while avoiding the political issues of war by having a well-defined, clearly-evil enemy bent on [[TakeOverTheWorld world domination]], still fell victim to this trope in the early 1990s with the introduction of the [[GreenAesop Eco-Warriors]] and [[DrugsAreBad Drug Elimination Force]]. (The former were even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the comics when one of the Eco-Warriors points out that their new battle suits are made from ''recycled action figures!'') The new lineups didn't prove popular, so they went with [[HighlyVisibleNinja neon-colored ninjas]] until the line died out.
** And then, after the short-lived ''Sgt. Savage'' retool, they released ''GIJoeExtreme'', which gave us a TotallyRadical team TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. They soon went back to the original 1982 premise, upon which every subsequent adaptation has been based.
* The concepts of ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' toys didn't change all that much, but their depictions in media sure as hell did. ''Generation 2'' comics were ''aggressively'' Dark Age, and just check out [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzsLUlzaocw this commercial]]. ''They were '''all''' [[TotallyRadical like that]].''
** This also applies to the recent comics continuities such as IDW. The premise of blocky, boxy 80's characters from a MerchandiseDriven cartoon starring in plot-driven, DarkerAndEdgier teen- and adult- oriented comics is just ''ridiculous''. Nonetheless, the recent comics became popular with the older fans they were targeted to, seemingly providing a small amount of [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids mainstream justification]] for them to [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids be fans of the G1 Transformers]].
** ''Transformers'' seems to be a magnet for this trope. Another example would be the "Bot Shots" line, presumably made to cash in on the popularity of ''TabletopGame/{{Bakugan}}''.
* In a very similar case to the G2 Transformers commercial, for the 2006 Piraka set line, ''{{Bionicle}}'' also attempted to promote their sets with a shoddy rap song, as well as forcing the characters into a "gangsta'" setting, complete with the villains lounging around in their fortress which is surrounded with chain fences, sitting on sofas, chewing bubblegum, and doing various other activities that not only had nothing to do with the official story, but clashed something fierce with the image the franchise had built up in the previous years. This was not the first example, though: beginning from '05, just about all of the commercials had various rock songs attached to them, replacing the tribal music. They even crept into the movies, too. But these stood out way less.
** Story-wise, again in a similar fashion to the ''Transformers'' example cited above, [[DarkerAndEdgier the plots took a turn to the exceedingly dark and violent side]], which was to the delight of many fans, but it still gave off the stench of a "Look, older fans, there is gore now, don't leave!" mentality. Especially since at first, these were confined to side-stories that weren't meant to bring in newer fans.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Video Games ]]
* Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'' [[PlayingWithATrope plays with]] this trope. While it is an attempt by Disney to make MickeyMouse relevant again, the people really screaming "We're still relevant, dammit!" are the characters ''in'' the game. The people living in Wasteland have been abandoned and forgotten by those who created them, and some of them want to use Mickey as a means to leave Wasteland and be loved again.
** Also an inversion in that their efforts to make Mickey as a character relevant again was by ''restoring'' him to how the character was originally portrayed in the [[{{Reconstruction}} early 30's]].
* [[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog's]] turn towards the [[DarkerAndEdgier Dark and Edgy]] during the first half of the TurnOfTheMillennium could be seen as a sad and misguided attempt to keep Sonic relevant in a time when [[RatedMForMoney adult-oriented]] material like GrandTheftAuto and Halo dominated the gaming industry. With all the attention heaped on those games, it looked like color platformers featuring [[MascotWithAttitude Mascots With Attitude]] wouldn't have much of a place anymore.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Web Original ]]
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' satirized this kind of thing in the Strongbad Email ''[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail164.html looking old]]'', where Strongbad makes an effort to "reconnect with the youth of today":
--> '''Strong Bad:''' Now what I need is an image overhaul. Something to reconnect me with the youth of today. Something that says - "Sup my young parsons, I too am so on the go that I drink my yogurt from a tube".
** They went at it again in their [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/aprilfool10.html 2010 April Fools' Day cartoon]], ''[[XtremeKoolLetterz Xeriouxly Forxe]]'', which soon got [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/main26.html its own version of the homepage]].
-->"Revamped for [[DarkAge the nineties!]]
-->So much more exciting!
-->"Pointy elbows and lots of lightning!
-->[[DarkerAndEdgier Edgy and angry]], so zesty and tangy!"
* Brutally satirized in [=TLG=] Media's "[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/223809# A New Bunny]]" (very, very {{NSFW}} language). It mocks ''Loonatics Unleashed'', mentioned below, as one of the Ur-examples of blatantly trying to make "updated" versions of older characters so that today's kids will like them more. This exchange pretty much exemplifies this trope:
-->'''Kid:''' "But I don't like you!"
-->'''Buzzed Bunny:''' "Hell '''YES''' you do!!!"
** Their followup [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/243842 Another New Bunny]] is about the damage-control Warner tried to do when people rebelled against the plans for Loonatics. That is, to try and update the characters, while keeping them the same at the same time.
* MySpace and its latest ReTool into a "Social Entertainment" website, after being driven into being DeaderThanDisco by FaceBook. Now everyone gets friend requests from fake celebrity pages, oh joy! They also let JackBlack "take over" the site in a publicity stunt.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* Creator/{{Disney}} was pretty bad at this in TheEighties -- chiefly, it tried to keep its core characters timely by releasing [[ImageSong albums of original songs]] for said characters after the surprisingly successful ''Mickey Mouse Disco'' in 1979. Follow-ups included ''Mousercise'', ''Splashdance'' (though the ''Flashdance'' connection was only in the title), and ''Totally Minnie''. The last was actually accompanied by [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b8mYFPlSR8 a very odd television special]] where Minnie, dressed like the young Madonna and accompanied by EltonJohn in what may be the most embarrassing costume he ever wore, taught people to "be hip". Also, DonaldDuck [[http://babbletrish.blogspot.com/2009/10/where-disney-was-around-1987.html became a skateboarder]]. And then, after a dry spell, there was the [[SoBadItsGood infamous]] ''[[http://saturdaymorningcentral.com/articles/001.html Mickey Unrapped]]'' album in TheNineties...
** The cartoons on the 90s Disney Afternoon block on ABC had the premise of taking old classic characters and updating them in new settings with new clothes and, occasionally, new personalities... usually to reflect what was "in" at the time. Huey, Dewey and Louie got theirs in ''WesternAnimation/QuackPack'', for example, where they aged into hip teenagers. Donald ditched his iconic sailor suit in favor of a Hawaiian shirt, and Daisy Duck became a sassy, assertive woman.
*** Of course, DonaldDuck (especially in the comics) is often ''the'' go-to character for this trope. With all the fads he's joined, all the different jobs he's had, and all the many, ''many'' things he's been an "expert" on in various stories, Donald is the one classic Disney character who ''can'' pull off TotallyRadical [[TropesAreNotBad and remain perfectly in character at all times]]. Hawaiian-shirted cameraman for a popular TV show? Sure, why not? You ''know'' that next month he'll try to be an astronaut or get hooked on sushi or be an Internet millionaire or whatever.
** ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'', as good as it was, is a pretty obvious example of old characters trying to be hip and current for the modern day(Just listen to the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts7--zxXXKQ opening theme]]). They updated Goofy and Pete into modern neighbors with pre-teen sons. It was successful enough to spin off into a several movies, but the end result of this is having Max Goof as a new character.
* By far, the most embarrassing attempt to make an older character "cool" to young people was the all-but-forgotten series ''WesternAnimation/YoYogi''. It had a teenaged WesternAnimation/YogiBear dressed in neon pink and green, solving mysteries, and hanging out in Jellystone ''Mall''. Magilla Gorilla was transformed into a rapping snowboarder named Magilla ''Ice'', Dick Dastardly was teenage troublemaker "Dicky D," and certain scenes were designed to be viewed with 3-D glasses, which looked awkward to say the least. Surprisingly, this is the last television series to star Yogi Bear. ''Yo, Yogi'' failed so badly that Creator/{{NBC}} decided to eighty-six their entire animated lineup in order to create an all-teen block in order to take advantage of ''SavedByTheBell'''s success and, later, expand the ''Today'' show to Saturdays.
** An earlier HannaBarbera example would be ''The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show'', which likewise depicted the youngsters from ''TheFlintstones'' as '70s-style teenagers.
*** At least Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm got to grow older.
* The aforementioned ''WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'' attempts a DarkerAndEdgier version of the 1930s-1960s WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes shorts and got a considerable amount of Hatedom and InternetBackdraft as a result.
** Likewise, ''WesternAnimation/BabyLooneyTunes'', but this time it's a LighterAndSofter version where the classic characters (and Lola Bunny) are made into babies and have adventures.
* Some believe ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' depends too much on this trope [[LongRunners thanks to being on the air for 20+ years]]. While the show never shied away from pop-culture references in its heyday, it's become increasingly apparent that the writers are taking a page from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' in trying to be relevant through using current trends and events as their basis for humor. The long episode production time and the fact that they've [[ItsBeenDone done every sitcom plot they could]] -- including ones that have been done on other shows and recycling the ones they've done before is also a contributing factor.
** It often lampshades this by having the Simpson family be the last people in town to get in on a new trend, like when Homer bought his first computer (in 1999) and didn't even know how to start his own Internet company, when Bart complains about being the only kid (in 2009) who doesn't have a cell phone, and Marge in "Marge Gamer" (a 2007 episode) being shunned by her friends for not having an email address and thinking "Googling yourself" is a euphemism for masturbation (as opposed to the common, "looking up your name on the Google search engine"). In fact, in the last example, Lisa compared Marge to Christopher Columbus, in that she "had discovered something millions of people already knew existed."
** The opening to the episode "To Surveil With Love," in which the entire Springfield populace lip syncs to Ke$ha's "[=TiK ToK=]" -- while pretty funny -- was an obvious attempt at pandering to a younger demographic.
** "[=MyPods=] and Boomsticks" was filled to the brim with jabs at Apple and Steve Jobs ([[BlandNameProduct MAPPLE and Steve Mobs]] in the show) and it was obvious the [[ShallowParody writers weren't very familiar with them]]. This was carried over to the episode where Homer gets a [[=MyPad=]] and thinks Steve Mobs is contacting him from beyond the grave.
** "The D'oh-cial Network" was worse than "[=MyPods=] and Boomsticks" in its portrayal of Apple. It had loads of references to Facebook (the episode was even a parody of the movie ''TheSocialNetwork'', which would have been fine -- had the episode actually aired around the time that that movie was popular), Twitter, Apple products, and stores that had recently gone out of business as of 2011. It also ended with an {{Anvilicious}} Aesop about not depending on technology.
** Another episode Lampshaded this with Itchy and Scratchy doing a ''BlackSwan'' parody, with Bart and Lisa commenting on how the parody was considered current at the time it was written.
** "Lisa Goes Gaga" (the episode focusing on Lady Gaga's guest appearance) -- much like the Ke$ha couch gag from "To Surveil With Love" and all of "The D'oh-cial Network" -- played out like a ''Simpsons''-LadyGaga crossover fanfiction. It got some decent reviews as seen on Wikipedia (which praised LadyGaga's voice acting work, but criticized the episode for being too gentle with the jokes about her weird clothes and music) but also received some backlash from fans.
** A surprisingly quick example comes from the CouchGag to "Gorgeous Grampa" which has the cast do the Harlem Shake. Rather, the "Homer Shake".
** This goes back farther than you'd think. The 302nd episode, Season 14's "Barting Over" (the episode advertised as the 300th episode where Bart emancipates himself after finding out that he was a commercial star as a child and Homer blew all the money he made), contained a fawning cameo by Tony Hawk and a briefer one by Music/{{Blink182}}, both of whom were really big at the time (2003) but wouldn't be for very long (especially Blink-182, who broke up in the mid-2000s). Tony Hawk's dialogue in particular may cross over into TotallyRadical.
*** There's also the reason why Homer blew Bart's commercial money: to buy back incriminating photos of him nearly dropping his child over a balcony like MichaelJackson did at the time. Originally, Homer was supposed to blow the money on a star in the sky that went supernova, but the writers at the last minute changed it into something more current (which would serve as little more than a pop culture footnote years later).
** "Pulpit Friction," while a decent latter-day episode, does suffer from this trope, with the bedbug epidemic at the beginning. The bedbug epidemic in real life was an issue in 2009 and 2010, but has since died down.
** "Whiskey Business" continues the trend with references to the Occupy Wall Street pepper spray cop and the Tupac Shakur hologram. Looooong after they left the public mind.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' averts this trope due to the speed at which episodes can be made, including remaking planned episodes on the fly. For example, the quintuplets episode got changed from just about [[CreepyTwins creepy quintuplets]] to being about Elian Gonzales' capture ''just after'' the raid and his return to Cuba.
** The episode "About Last Night" was about the winner of the presidential election ''broadcast the night after the election''. And featuring ''verbatim'' lines from Obama's victory speech, to boot. The sequence was animated ahead of time but the voice acting was done only a couple of hours before airtime. Some of this was also luck - they'd originally wanted to have an alternate episode ready if [=McCain=] won, but decided for the sake of sanity to assume Obama would win - and guessed that if he lost, nobody would notice an episode of South Park in the ensuing frenzy. This same situation happened four years later with the episode "Obama Wins!"
** As you can probably guess, ''South Park'' can be (and has become) so incredibly topical that it possibly ''inverts'' this trope. Just for reference, A ''South Park'' episode can be finished in three days (watch the documentary "Six Days to Air," which outlines how a ''South Park'' episode is created). This includes writing, animating, and voicing it.
** The usual prominence of this trope made the timing of the {{Facebook}}-based episode, "You Have 0 Friends", especially odd, appearing several years after the site became a journalistic favorite and at least 4 years since Facebook first allowed members who didn't belong to a school/college. That and the overall tone of the episode made [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/you-have-0-friends,39915/ ''The [=AV=] Club'''s reviewer remark]] that the premise was akin to "a 44-year-old suburban dad who just doesn't understand what his kids are up to but knows he doesn't like it".
*** In the DVD commentary Trey explains that they made the episode because he had been resisting the Facebook fad for years and finally made an account but felt like he's getting "sucked in", so the episode was based on his experiences with it, rather than trying to be hip and current.
* Of late, there has been some nostalgia (mostly of the SoBadItsGood kind) for ''SuperMarioBrosSuperShow''. More specifically, people remember the cartoon hosted by wrestler Captain Lou, who starred as Mario in live-action framing segments. Almost nobody fondly remembers the "Club Mario" incarnation of the same series. The Captain Lou segments were deemed no longer cool and were swapped out for...[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhqxE8lsad0 this]].
* ''BeavisAndButthead'''s relaunch is a debatable case of this -- on the one hand, referencing things like ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' and ''SuperSizeMe'' in 2011 does come off as the writers being late to the party. On the other hand, it's generally done to provide interesting jumping off points for the duo's misadventures. "Werewolves of Highland" is about the concept of VampiresAreSexGods, and the duo ''trying'' to take advantage of that to get chicks. "Supersize Me" has them following in Morgan Spurlock's footsteps (gorging on fast food and filming themselves doing so) in hopes of becoming similarly famous and (again) getting chicks. The commentary segments with music videos and [=MTV=] reality shows are strictly up-to-date humor.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': The MySpace-centric episode when Strickland Propane starts networking with [=MySpace=] to bring in customers -- in 2008, when most onliners had abandoned MySpace for Facebook and/or Twitter (among other social networks). It's easy to [[MisBlamed misblame]] the writers for being so out of date, but [=MySpace=] was owned at the time by News Corp, the parent company of {{FOX}}, which produced and aired ''King Of The Hill''. Still, it worked as FridgeBrilliance, since places like Arlen tend to not get into the latest trends in technology until long after they've been established as commonplace.
* The revived ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episodes make many pop culture references to things such as panic over the alleged [[MayanDoomsday 2012 apocalypse]] (which has come, gone, and proven to be a crock), President Obama's allegedly not having a birth certificate ([[http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/birthcertificate.asp even though he does]]), and other things from the late 2000s and early 2010s. While it can be stated that ''Futurama'' had a lot of catching up to do satire-wise after being canceled for so long, some fans are worrying that this trope is making the Comedy Central episodes of ''Futurama'' more like the [[SeasonalRot latter-day episodes]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' writers mocking JimmyFallon for his {{Corpsing}} on the episode "Don't Make Me Over," which aired in June 2005 (right between the end of the 30th season, but a couple months before the start of SNL's 31st season[[note]]2005-2006 season; the season introducing Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, and Kristen Wiig, and the first season to be shown in high-def[[/note]]. Fallon left the show at the end of the 2003-2004 season[[note]]season 29[[/note]]). Sort of justified in that ''FamilyGuy'' was still canceled around the time that Fallon was on ''SNL'' and his cracking-up was a thing, but all the jokes about that dried up as soon as he left. Even ''TheSimpsons''' TakeThat against Jimmy Fallon (on the season 16 episode "Homer Away from Homer"[[note]]the episode where Flanders moves away after Homer tells everyone that Flanders is housing two college coeds who are filming softcore webcam porn[[/note]]) was timelier than this.
[[/folder]]
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