History Main / CyclicNationalFascination

* UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} enjoyed a period of popularity in the 1990's thanks to ''Film/JurassicPark'', to the point that the movie singlehandedly made the ''[[RaptorAttack Velociraptor]]'' a {{Stock Dinosaur|s}}. They seem to be coming back in 2014-2015, with the ''Franchise/Jurassic Park'' franchise getting [[Film/JurassicWorld a revival]], ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' getting [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction dinosaur]]-[[Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge focused]] installments, and the release of at least [[VideoGame/FossilFighters one]] other dinosaur-focused work.

* American interest in AncientEgypt peaked with both the discovery of King UsefulNotes/Tutankhamun's tomb in the 1920's and the touring exhibit of his relics in the 1970's.

* American interest in AncientEgypt peaked with both the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb in the 1920's and the touring exhibit of his relics in the 1970's.

* American interest in ancient Egypt peaked with both the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb in the 1920's and the touring exhibit of his relics in the 1970's.

** In the early [=XIXth=] century, NapoleonBonaparte's Egypt campaigns and the subsequent popularisation of ancient Egyptian culture also generated a fad for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revival all things]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revival_decorative_arts pharaonic]].
* {{Anime}} may fit this. Outside of Japan, it was an underground subculture that made its first inroads in the West with ''Anime/AstroBoy'' and ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', then percolated in TheSeventies (''StarBlazers'') and TheEighties (''RoboTech'') before bursting into mainstream in the mid-1990s, peaking in the early 2000s when 85% of people under 35 watched at least one hour of anime a week. It hasn't faded away completely, but it has declined in popularity since the mid-2000s. Much of this may be due to declining quality as production houses, looking to exploit the new American market, focused on making shows that were either fast and cheap or overly filled with injokes for anime fans.

* From about 1985 to 1990, HeavyMetal music became hugely popular. Everywhere you looked kids were growing their hair long, buying leather jackets, and throwing up the devil horns hand gesture. Heavy Metal's popularity reached such high levels that the MoralGuardians of the day even held Senate hearings trying to force record companies to put warning labels on albums with explicit lyrics. When {{Grunge}} killed HairMetal in 1991, many record companies as well as {{MTV}} also forgot about heavy metal in favor of the newest trend. As a result public interest in heavy metal dropped significantly but still managed to maintain a devoted fanbase, with bands like Music/{{Pantera}} managing to become very successful during the 1990s despite receiving little attention from mainstream media sources. In the mid-2000s heavy metal experienced a resurgance in popularity due to the highly successful ''GuitarHero'' video game franchise, although metal still doesn't have the mainstream popularity that it did in the latter half of the 80s.
* [[TropesOfTheLivingDead Zombies]] -- or rather, [[CrazyPrepared zombie-related survivalism]] -- is an example of a subculture that developed with the craze. It started in the early-mid '00s, when a number of highly popular zombie films (''Film/ResidentEvil'', ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', the ''Film/{{Dawn of the Dead|2004}}'' remake, ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'') came out within two years of one another, helping to bring back from the grave a genre that had been lying stiff since TheEighties. From there, the infection burned through film, books, comics, games, music videos, television, and especially the internet, where the ZombieApocalypse mutated into a {{meme|ticMutation}}.[[note]]There, is that enough [[AWorldwidePunomenon undead-related puns]] for you?[[/note]] Shows like ''Series/{{Community}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' had zombie-themed {{Halloween episode}}s, communities the world over staged zombie walks and games of ''LARP/HumansVsZombies'', and ''everybody'' had at least considered "a plan". Preparedness groups and even the Center for Disease Control jumped on board, using the pop culture's obsession with zombies as a way to tell people to be prepared for disasters and emergencies.

** The widespread worry about nuclear war in the late 1940's and 1950's should count as an even earlier example of survivalism, although there were no zombies. Bomb shelters were a popular home-improvement project in some circles (even inspiring a 'Twilight Zone' episode), the sci-fi and comics of the time practically LIVED on tropes related to nuclear apocalypse and radiation mutations, and many of Baby Boomer age still chuckle about the deadly-serious suggestion given in educational filmstrips that hiding under one's school desk was a viable way of avoiding a city-melting fireball. Science-fiction author Robert Heinlein deliberately fed the hysteria in a series of essays (see his collection "Expanded Universe") meant to scare people badly enough to get nukes banned. Didn't work, obviously, but a case could be made that he accidentally "created" survivalism.
* {{Vampire|Tropes}}s, the ''other'' undead monsters, at roughly the same time as zombies. While the zombie obsession was largely born out of geek culture, the vampire craze came from teenagers, particularly teenage girls, beginning when ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' romanticized the creatures to a degree that AnneRice and Creator/JossWhedon could scarcely have imagined. It truly took off once the ''Twilight'' movies came out, with vampires becoming ''the'' symbols of romance for an entire generation of women born between 1985 and 1995. Shows like ''Series/TrueBlood'' and ''TheVampireDiaries'' only fed the craze.
* Thanks to [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar cold war intrigue]] and the success of the ''Film/JamesBond'' franchise, TheSixties produced a fascination with [[SpyFiction spies and spy culture]]. Shows such as ''Series/ISpy'', ''Series/TheManFromUncle'', ''Series/TheAvengers'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', and the parody ''Series/GetSmart'', films like ''Film/TheIpcressFile'' (along with parodies like ''Film/OurManFlint'' and Music/TheBeatles' spoof ''Film/{{Help}}''), spy movie-influenced songs like Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O-Soul", books by Creator/JohnLeCarre and Creator/LenDeighton, and spy undertones in ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' and ''WesternAnimation/SecretSquirrel'' abounded, and spy toys were popular with young children. The craze died out as the Cold War fizzled, but its influence can be found in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' and the Film/AustinPowers movies and cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' and ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies''.

* [[TheBeautifulGame Association Football]], a.k.a. soccer, became highly popular in the United States during the late 1970's with the New York Cosmos's signing of several big name international stars such as Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer. After Pelé's retirement, the game's popularity declined and the league folded. Interest revived somewhat with the 1994 World Cup, when the U.S. hosted the event and the men's team reached the knockout stage for the first time in 40 years, and again in the 2010 World Cup when the men's team won their group on a stoppage-time goal. The establishment of Major League Soccer, and more recently the National Women's Soccer League, may eventually make soccer less of a fad and more of an ongoing niche interest.

* UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} enjoyed a period of popularity in the 1990's thanks to ''Film/JurassicPark'', to the point that the movie singlehandedly made the ''[[RaptorAttack Velociraptor]]'' a {{Stock Dinosaur|s}}. They seem to be coming back in 2014-2015, with the ''Jurassic Park'' franchise getting [[Film/JurassicWorld a revival]], ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' getting [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction dinosaur]]-[[Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge focused]] installments, and the release of at least [[VideoGame/FossilFighters one]] other dinosaur-focused work.

* UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} enjoyed a period of popularity in the 1990's thanks to ''Film/JurassicPark'', to the point that the movie singlehandedly made the Velociraptor a {{Stock Dinosaur|s}}. They seem to be coming back in 2014-2015, with the ''Jurassic Park'' franchise getting [[Film/JurassicWorld a revival]], ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' getting [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction dinosaur]]-[[Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge focused]] installments, and the release of at least [[VideoGame/FossilFighters one]] other dinosaur-focused work.

* {{Vampire|Tropes}}s, the ''other'' undead monsters, at roughly the same time as zombies. While the zombie obsession was largely born out of geek culture, the vampire craze came from teenagers, particularly teenage girls, beginning when ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' romanticized the creatures to a degree that AnneRice and JossWhedon could scarcely have imagined. It truly took off once the ''Twilight'' movies came out, with vampires becoming ''the'' symbols of romance for an entire generation of women born between 1985 and 1995. Shows like ''Series/TrueBlood'' and ''TheVampireDiaries'' only fed the craze.

* [[TropesOfTheLivingDead Zombies]] -- or rather, [[CrazyPrepared zombie-related survivalism]] -- is an example of a subculture that developed with the craze. It started in the early-mid '00s, when a number of highly popular zombie films (''Film/ResidentEvil'', ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', the ''Film/{{Dawn of the Dead|2004}}'' remake, ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'') came out within two years of one another, helping to bring back from the grave a genre that had been lying stiff since TheEighties. From there, the infection burned through film, books, comics, games, music videos, television, and especially the internet, where the ZombieApocalypse mutated into a {{meme|ticMutation}}.[[note]]There, is that enough [[AWorldwidePunomenon undead-related puns]] for you?[[/note]] Shows like ''Series/{{Community}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' had zombie-themed {{Halloween episode}}s, communities the world over staged zombie walks and games of HumansVsZombies, and ''everybody'' had at least considered "a plan". Preparedness groups and even the Center for Disease Control jumped on board, using the pop culture's obsession with zombies as a way to tell people to be prepared for disasters and emergencies.

** For the confused, we mean right-wing, anti-UsefulNotes/{{Washington|DC}} (neo-) populist movements in the US, not parties where [[SpotOfTea people drink tea]], which emerge every fifteen minutes (at least in the UK). It tends to reach a fever pitch of media attention every fifteen years, manifesting itself as the "[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]] Revolution" and the "sagebrush rebels" in the late '70s and early '80s, the "Contract with America" in the mid '90s, and the Tea Party movement today. The left-wing version appears as well, but less frequently: recent examples include the craze over BarackObama and the "Occupy" movements fitting this trope.

* From about 1985 to 1990, Music/HeavyMetal music became hugely popular. Everywhere you looked kids were growing their hair long, buying leather jackets, and throwing up the devil horns hand gesture. Heavy Metal's popularity reached such high levels that the MoralGuardians of the day even held Senate hearings trying to force record companies to put warning labels on albums with explicit lyrics. When {{Grunge}} killed HairMetal in 1991, many record companies as well as {{MTV}} also forgot about heavy metal in favor of the newest trend. As a result public interest in heavy metal dropped significantly but still managed to maintain a devoted fanbase, with bands like Music/{{Pantera}} managing to become very successful during the 1990s despite receiving little attention from mainstream media sources. In the mid-2000s heavy metal experienced a resurgance in popularity due to the highly successful ''GuitarHero'' video game franchise, although metal still doesn't have the mainstream popularity that it did in the latter half of the 80s.

* Thanks to [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar cold war intrigue]] and the success of the ''Film/JamesBond'' franchise, TheSixties produced a fascination with [[SpyFiction spies and spy culture]]. Shows such as ''Series/ISpy'', ''Series/TheManFromUncle'', ''Series/TheAvengers'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', and the parody ''Series/GetSmart'', films like ''Film/TheIpcressFile'' (along with parodies like ''Film/OurManFlint'' and Music/TheBeatles' spoof ''Film/{{Help}}''), spy movie-influenced songs like Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O-Soul", books by JohnLeCarre and LenDeighton, and spy undertones in ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' and ''WesternAnimation/SecretSquirrel'' abounded, and spy toys were popular with young children. The craze died out as the Cold War fizzled, but its influence can be found in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' and the Film/AustinPowers movies and cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' and ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies''.

* The success of ''QueerEyeForTheStraightGuy'' gave us a period of infatuation with "[[WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame gay culture]]" (in other words, every [[StereotypeGay gay stereotype]] possible). This period even gave us "metrosexuals", men who, [[AmbiguouslyGay despite not actually being gay]], [[CampStraight spoke, dressed, and acted as much like flaming queens]] as possible. It also led to the replacement of ''fop'' with this neologism; a literal reading of the word would mean either "one who is sexually attracted to moderation", "one who is sexually attracted to cities", "[[Theatre/OedipusRex one who is sexually attracted to mothers]]", or possibly "one who is sexually attracted to a subway system"... [[FetishFuel not that those things don't exist.]]

** For the confused, we mean right-wing, anti-UsefulNotes/{{Washington|DC}} (neo-) populist movements in the US, not parties where [[SpotOfTea people drink tea]], which emerge every fifteen minutes (at least in the UK). It tends to reach a fever pitch of media attention every fifteen years, manifesting itself as the "[[RonaldReagan Reagan]] Revolution" and the "sagebrush rebels" in the late '70s and early '80s, the "Contract with America" in the mid '90s, and the Tea Party movement today. The left-wing version appears as well, but less frequently: recent examples include the craze over BarackObama and the "Occupy" movements fitting this trope.

* The post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarII villains ''du jour'' in American media have been: Sinister Russian [[DirtyCommunists Commies]] during the postwar period, Sinister Muslim [[ArabOilSheikh Oil Barons]] during the energy crises of TheSeventies, Sinister Russians again during TheEighties and TheNineties (with [[TheNewRussia a transition]] from commies to [[TheMafiya gangsters and arms dealers]] after [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp around 1990]]), and Sinister Muslim Terrorists during TheWarOnTerror. VladimirPutin is alleged to be working hard to maintain the cycle. The alleged perpetrators of the April 2013 Boston bombing turning out to be [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Sinister Russian Muslims]] probably indicates this perception isn't going away anytime soon.

* The post-WorldWarII villains ''du jour'' in American media have been: Sinister Russian [[DirtyCommunists Commies]] during the postwar period, Sinister Muslim [[ArabOilSheikh Oil Barons]] during the energy crises of TheSeventies, Sinister Russians again during TheEighties and TheNineties (with [[TheNewRussia a transition]] from commies to [[TheMafiya gangsters and arms dealers]] after [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp around 1990]]), and Sinister Muslim Terrorists during TheWarOnTerror. VladimirPutin is alleged to be working hard to maintain the cycle. The alleged perpetrators of the April 2013 Boston bombing turning out to be [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Sinister Russian Muslims]] probably indicates this perception isn't going away anytime soon.

* Thanks to [[ColdWar cold war intrigue]] and the success of the ''Film/JamesBond'' franchise, TheSixties produced a fascination with [[SpyFiction spies and spy culture]]. Shows such as ''Series/ISpy'', ''Series/TheManFromUncle'', ''Series/TheAvengers'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', and the parody ''Series/GetSmart'', films like ''Film/TheIpcressFile'' (along with parodies like ''Film/OurManFlint'' and Music/TheBeatles' spoof ''Film/{{Help}}''), spy movie-influenced songs like Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O-Soul", books by JohnLeCarre and LenDeighton, and spy undertones in ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' and ''WesternAnimation/SecretSquirrel'' abounded, and spy toys were popular with young children. The craze died out as the Cold War fizzled, but its influence can be found in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' and the Film/AustinPowers movies and cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' and ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies''.

* Thanks to [[ColdWar cold war intrigue]] and the success of the JamesBond franchise, TheSixties produced a fascination with [[SpyFiction spies and spy culture]]. Shows such as ''Series/ISpy'', ''Series/TheManFromUncle'', ''Series/TheAvengers'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', and the parody ''Series/GetSmart'', films like ''Film/TheIpcressFile'' (along with parodies like ''Film/OurManFlint'' and Music/TheBeatles' spoof ''Film/{{Help}}''), spy movie-influenced songs like Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O-Soul", books by JohnLeCarre and LenDeighton, and spy undertones in ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' and ''WesternAnimation/SecretSquirrel'' abounded, and spy toys were popular with young children. The craze died out as the Cold War fizzled, but its influence can be found in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' and the Film/AustinPowers movies and cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' and ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies''.

* In the 1970s came the trucker and [[HollywoodCB CB radio]] fad, kicked off almost singlehandedly by the CW [=McCall=] song "Convoy" and the movie ''SmokeyAndTheBandit''. The cultural momentum it gathered was so substantial that it actually forced changes in the way the government licensed CB radios. For a few years in the late 1970's, some US-made cars even had CB radios as factory-available features. And to this day, practically every trucker character in TV or movies is a direct descendant of the Rubber Duck.

* [[EverythingsFunkierWithDisco Disco]]. [[DeaderThanDisco America spent twenty years trying to forget.]]
* For a time in TheSixties or so, biker culture became a fad.
* In the [[TheEighties late '80s]] through [[TheNineties the '90s]] and the [[TurnOfTheMillennium early '00s]], many suburban white kids became [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy fascinated]] with GangstaRap and "urban" culture, most likely because their parents [[TheNewRockAndRoll weren't]]. It ended in the mid-late '00s once MoralGuardians stopped caring about rap music, GlamRap became part of the fabric of pop music, and pre-2000 "old school/golden age" hip-hop started passing into [[NostalgiaFilter nostalgia territory]].
* In the 1980s, films like ''CrocodileDundee'' made UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} quite visible in American pop culture, putting the "National" in CyclicNationalFascination. As an episode of ''TheSimpsons'' notes:
--> As I'm sure you remember, in the late 1980s the US experienced a short-lived infatuation with Australian culture. For some bizarre reason, the Aussies thought this would be a permanent thing. Of course, it wasn't.

** Francophilia. Speaking French was required in the high levels of the Mexican government, and many Russian aristocrats (especially women, who didn't have to deal with politicians or business concerns) spoke only French. For a time, French was the ''[[DoubleEntendre Lingua Franca]]'' of the western world, so speaking French implied that you were worldly.

* ''{{Glee}}'' and ''HighSchoolMusical'' seem to be doing this for glee clubs/choruses.

* Thanks to ''Series/TheSopranos'' and especially ''JerseyShore'', the state of [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]] and Italian-American culture (which apparently means "every guido[=/=][[TheMafia Mafia]][=/=]party kid stereotype known to man") have "enjoyed" this, with reality shows like ''Jerseylicious'', ''The Real Housewives of New Jersey'', and ''Jersey Couture'' cashing in. Actual NJ residents and Italians aren't too happy about it.

* The release of ''TheFastAndTheFurious'' in 2001 created an obsession with tuner culture, in which people took seemingly "uncool" compact cars, turned them into high-performance machines, and ([[TheThemeParkVersion at least in the movie]]) used them to competed in illegal, high-stakes races on crowded city streets. Hollywood cashed in with films like ''Biker Boyz'' and ''{{Torque}}'' (as well as turning ''F&F'' into a franchise that is still going strong), while the video game industry likewise responded with the ''MidnightClub'' series and by shifting the focus of the ''NeedForSpeed'' franchise from exotic cars to souped-up, modern-day hot rods. And to say nothing of all [[RiceBurner the wannabe "boy racers" out there]]...

* In the early years of the 21st century, Texas Hold 'Em Poker experienced a huge boom in popularity thanks to the rise of online poker sites, the invention of the hole-card camera (which made poker entertaining to watch as a spectator sport), and the 1998 film ''Film/{{Rounders}}'', which at least a few poker champions have named as having gotten them interested in the game. Virtually overnight, casinos started adding poker rooms (in prior years, poker rooms had been done away with to make room for more slot machines) and hosting tournaments, people started having poker nights at their homes with groups of friends, and ESPN's broadcast of the World Series of Poker became a highly-rated television event. In 2003, accountant Chris Moneymaker worked his way up from a $39 online tournament to a [=WSOP=] Main Event title, taking poker's popularity to yet another level and ushering in a wave of young hotshots. ''Film/CasinoRoyale'' even had its iconic baccarat scene changed to Texas Hold 'Em for the film adaptation.
* The UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} subculture/lifestyle in the early 2010s, largely thanks to the erotic novel ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey''. Many couples started buying fetish gear and trying out the kinky sex moves from that book, stores like Spencer's Gifts started carrying handcuffs and ropes in their lingerie/sex toy sections, and women's lifestyle magazines such as ''Cosmopolitan'' came up with their own ''Shades''-inspired moves.
* The early 2000s marked the beginning of the pop cultural fascination with forensic science. Shows like {{Series/CSI}} started the trend, followed by [[ForensicDrama many others]]. Once these shows started to become popular, schools offering education in forensic science actually saw an upswing in young people registering for such courses. Unfortunately, since most of these shows are very [[HollywoodScience highly]] [[TheCSIEffect dramatized]], they also saw a huge drop-out rate, once many of the students realized that actual forensic science is quite difficult, involves very few car chases, and has almost nothing to do with [[Series/CSIMiami wearing sunglasses]].

* The American surfin' craze of the early-mid '60s influenced everything from music (Music/TheBeachBoys, Surf City, Surfin' Bird, Jan & Dean, Surfin' USA, etc, etc, etc) to film (numerous "beach party" movies and the Beatles' second movie ''Help!'') to lingo (hang ten, big kahuna, etc) to comic books (Stan Lee's Silver Surfer in the ComicBook/FantasticFour being most prominent among them).
* After WorldWarII, the return of American servicemen from the Pacific produced an infatuation with South Pacific (particularly Polynesian[=/=]UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}an) culture that lasted through the '50s and into the early '60s.

* [[PlayfulHacker Hackers]] in TheNineties, thanks to [[EternalSeptember the rise of the internet]] and the dot-com bubble.

* {{Blaxploitation}} in TheSeventies, which came back in the early 90's in the form of urban gangster films (Boyz N The Hood, New Jack City), and several times in the last twenty years thanks to QuentinTarantino.

* The early 2000s marked the beginning of the pop cultural fascination with forensic science. Shows like {{CSI}} started the trend, followed by [[ForensicDrama many others]]. Once these shows started to become popular, schools offering education in forensic science actually saw an upswing in young people registering for such courses. Unfortunately, since most of these shows are very [[HollywoodScience highly]] [[TheCSIEffect dramatized]], they also saw a huge drop-out rate, once many of the students realized that actual forensic science is quite difficult, involves very few car chases, and has almost nothing to do with [[CSIMiami wearing sunglasses]].

* The success of ''QueerEyeForTheStraightGuy'' gave us a period of infatuation with "[[WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame gay culture]]" (in other words, every [[StereotypeGay gay stereotype]] possible). This period even gave us "metrosexuals", men who, [[AmbiguouslyGay despite not actually being gay]], [[CampStraight spoke, dressed, and acted as much like flaming queens]] as possible. It also led to the replacement of ''fop'' with this neologism; a literal reading of the word would mean either "one who is sexually attracted to moderation", "one who is sexually attracted to cities", "[[Theatre/OedipusRex one who is sexually attracted to mothers]]", or possibly "one who is sexually attracted to a subway system"... [[RuleThirtySix not that those things don't exist.]]

* Thanks to [[ColdWar cold war intrigue]] and the success of the JamesBond franchise, TheSixties produced a fascination with [[SpyFiction spies and spy culture]]. Shows such as ISpy, TheManFromUncle, Series/TheAvengers, the James Bond spoof Series/GetSmart and Series/MissionImpossible, movies like InLikeFlint and TheIpcressFile (along with Music/TheBeatles' spoof {{Help}}), spy movie-influenced songs like Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O-Soul", books by JohnLeCarre and LenDeighton, and spy undertones in RockyAndBullwinkle and SecretSquirrel abounded, and spy toys were popular with young children. The craze died out as the Cold War fizzled, but its influence can be found in TheBourneSupremacy and AustinPowers movies and cartoons like KimPossible and TotallySpies.

* The American surfin' craze of the early-to-mid-1960's influenced everything from music(the Beach Boys, Surf City, Surfin' Bird, Jan & Dean, Surfin' USA, etc, etc, etc) to film(numerous Beach Blanket Bingo-type movies and even the Beatles' own second movie Help!) to lingo(hang ten, big kahuna, etc) to comic books(Stan Lee's Silver Surfer in the Fantastic Four being most prominent among them).

* In the early years of the 21st century, Texas Hold 'Em Poker experienced a huge boom in popularity thanks to the rise of online poker sites, the invention of the hole-card camera (which made poker entertaining to watch as a spectator sport), and the 1998 film ''Film/{{Rounders}}'', which at least a few poker champions have named as having gotten them interested in the game. Virtually overnight, casinos started adding poker rooms (in prior years, poker rooms had been done away with to make room for more slot machines) and hosting tournaments, people started having poker nights at their homes with groups of friends, and ESPN's broadcast of the World Series of Poker became a highly-rated television event. ''Film/CasinoRoyale'' even had its iconic baccarat scene changed to Texas Hold 'Em for the film adaptation.

* {{Blaxploitation}} in TheSeventies.

* Thanks to [[ColdWar cold war intrigue]] and the success of the JamesBond franchise, TheSixties produced a fascination with [[SpyFiction spies and spy culture]]. Shows such as ISpy, TheManFromUncle, Series/TheAvengers, the James Bond spoof Series/GetSmart and Series/MissionImpossible, movies like InLikeFlint and TheIpcressFile (along with TheBeatles' spoof {{Help}}), spy movie-influenced songs like Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O-Soul", books by JohnLeCarre and LenDeighton, and spy undertones in RockyAndBullwinkle and SecretSquirrel abounded, and spy toys were popular with young children. The craze died out as the Cold War fizzled, but its influence can be found in TheBourneSupremacy and AustinPowers movies and cartoons like KimPossible and TotallySpies.