Line #82 Main/FlashInThePanFad


1	->''"It's a fad. This week it's popular, next week we won't even know it existed."''
2	-->-- '''Robin Lefler''', ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E6TheGame The Game]]"
3
4	Fashions come and go, and new technologies become obsolete, but this is ridiculous.
5
6	Fiction likes to take the [[PopularityPolynomial natural rise and fall]] of trends and parody it by cranking up the speed. Anything at all--a style of clothes, a book, a new diet, a must-have gadget, whatever--can be completely unknown one week, then the hottest topic in the world next week... and then CondemnedByHistory the week after that. Heck, sometimes this rise and fall happens in mere days. And it's practically a StockJoke now that as soon as you buy a computer, a new model will come out and make yours obsolete.
7
8	MemeticMutation is often a RealLife example: the internet moves quickly enough that trending topics can become {{Discredited Meme}}s in one day, or even shorter.
9
10	Often overlaps with the TrendAesop. See also AnyoneRememberPogs, when the flash-in-the-pan fads are reminisced and ridiculed in retrospect.
11
12	----
13	!!Examples:
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15	[[foldercontrol]]
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17	[[folder:Advertising]]
18	* In a commercial for Best Buy's buyback program (where you can trade in your tech for the latest version within a certain length of time) we see a man who has just taken delivery of a big screen 3D TV, the latest and greatest technology of the day, only to notice that the delivery van has a huge ad for the new 4D [=TVs=].
19	[[/folder]]
20
21	[[folder:Literature]]
22	* In ''Creator/DaveBarry in Cyberspace'', Dave jokes that computer companies have spies watching ''your'' house so they can release new computer models at the ideal time: immediately after you buy the current model. You may think you can trick them by carrying an empty box into your house and loudly declaring that you just bought a new computer, but that doesn't work. The spies have x-ray goggles.
23	* The Creator/DrSeuss story [[Literature/TheSneetchesAndOtherStories "The Sneetches"]] mixes this trope with a struggle between the haves and the have-nots. Initially the star-bellied Sneetches are the upper class of Sneetch society. But when the plain-bellied Sneetches find a way to ''get'' stars, the upper crust preserves the class dichotomy by removing their own stars and declaring that the plain-bellied look is now ''in''. The two sides swap their looks so many times that they eventually can't remember which they started out as.
24	* Esme Squalor in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' is a gleeful specialist in these, combined with TheFashionista. She goes so far in her first appearance as to adopt children because "orphans are in." Many of the trends she jumps on are downright absurd, including drinking "aqueous martinis" (water with an olive in it), attending restaurants that serve exclusively salmon, or putting her entire home in complete darkness.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
28	* Discussed in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E6TheGame The Game]]". As the ''Enterprise'' crew become obsessed with playing a holographic video game, Robin Lefler thinks, "It's a fad. This week it's popular, next week we won't even know it existed." But she's wrong, and The Game turns out to be both highly addictive and capable of mind-controlling anyone who plays it.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Music]]
32	* Music/FiveIronFrenzy mocks this in their anti-consumerism song "Vultures".
33	-->Did you you see the new computers,
34	-->aren't they oh-so-obsolete?
35	-->And that shade of black you wear,
36	-->it's so Tuesday of last week.
37	* Similarly, Music/{{Pantera}} mercilessly and angrily criticizes trends in their song "The Great Southern Trendkill".
38	--> Buy it at a store,
39	--> from Creator/{{MTV}} to on the floor
40	--> You look just like a star,
41	--> it's proof you don't know who you are
42	* ''Music/TheyMightBeGiants'': "Spiraling Shape" is, according to Linnel and Flansburgh, about the seemingly endless cycle of people becoming obsessed with "the next big thing", and abandoning it when it doesn't live up to the hype.
43	-->''And now that you've tried it, you're back to report\
44	That the spiraling shape was a fraud and a fake\
45	You didn't enjoy it, you never believed it\
46	There won't be a refund, you'll never go back''
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
50	* One ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' storyline had Paige and Nicole debating whether to steal a popular CD from the music store, since they don't have enough money to buy it. Paige insists they should just wait until they can buy the CD, but Nicole counters that they need the album ''now'', because the band will be completely passe by the end of the week, if not sooner.
51	-->'''Paige:''' There's a definite downside to liking flash-in-the-pan groups.
52	* ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'': In the [[https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2016/01/22 January 22, 2016]] strip, Rat buys the [[BlandNameProduct Smartphone 6]], which just came out that very day. Then the store announces that the Smartphone 7 ("All new features! Faster! Bigger!") is coming out ''tomorrow''.
53	-->'''Rat:''' Tech companies are evil.
54	[[/folder]]
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56	[[folder:Web Animation]]
57	* ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail:'' In [[Recap/StrongBadEmailE112OldComics "old comics"]], the defunct newspaper comic ''The Castlefunnies'' tried to come back into the mainstream by releasing a line of officially licensed "King Castlefunny Pencil Moisteners". ''"But, considering the Dry Pencil Scare of '47 only lasted 3 days, they didn't sell too many."''
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Web Original]]
61	* ''Website/SCPFoundation'' puts a horror spin on the phenomenon with [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1425 SCP-1425]], a self-help book titled ''Star Signals''. It quickly becomes a best-seller due to its mind-warping, reality-altering effects, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and also celebrity endorsements]]. Then a week later, the book is completely forgotten--because the Foundation realizes the threat it poses, seizes all copies of the book, and uses their considerable resources to erase the book from the collective memory, both [[LaserGuidedAmnesia literally]] and [[UnPerson figuratively]].
62	[[/folder]]
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64	[[folder:Web Video]]
65	* ''WebVideo/ScootertrixTheAbridged'': In episode 11, everypony besides Twilight is suddenly wearing a "winter vest" (with a matching arm band), and will eagerly talk at length about how great these vests are. Twilight isn't interested at all, but she eventually decides to buy a vest anyway, just to stop everyone from bugging her. But when she goes to buy one, Rarity refuses to sell one to her because the vests are already out of fashion.
66	-->'''Rarity:''' Well, um, you see, nopony wears the vests anymore because, um, that was yesterday's fashion.\
67	'''Twilight:''' Yesterday's fashion?\
68	'''Rarity:''' Yes.\
69	'''Twilight:''' But, but I...\
70	'''Rarity:''' You need to, uh, you need to keep up with the times, there, Twilight.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Western Animation]]
74	* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' has Dil inventing several such fads, that Tommy tries to take advantage of in order to make money, but each fad fizzles out as quickly as it came for one reason or another (for example, one fad dies out ''instantly'' when Pangborn joins in). By the end of the episode, [[PopularityPolynomial one of the fads has become popular again]] as it's apparently old enough to be considered retro, "and retro's in!" Bear in mind that the whole episode can't have spanned more than a week or two.
75	* {{Exaggerated\|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' with "Woogle" collectibles, a craze that annoys Arthur to the point that he says that clicking the bubble-top of a metal bottle cap would be just as fun. Cue the next trend: bottle cap clicking.
76	* {{Exaggerated\|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' in the episode "It's Way Ed". The kids spend the day coming up with new fads every few ''minutes'', and the Eds desperately try to figure out how to keep up with them.
77	* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'':
78	** {{Parodied\|Trope}} by the super-trendy Katt Savage, who makes it her life's calling to be ahead of the pop-culture curve and has a storage room full of fads that stopped being cutting-edge. It leaves her a StepfordSmiler on the verge of a breakdown.
79	--->''"See, I follow trends. All of them, no matter what -- piercings, colonics, trendy surgeries, online affairs. I've even done some street fighting."''
80	** PlayedForDrama on the episode "Born Again to be Wild", wherein Bobby becomes part of a radical Christian youth group that is essentially TheMoralSubstitute for a skater punk rocker gang. Bobby associating religion with "radical" heightens his love of God but Hank, ever the FantasyForbiddingFather, comes to detest the group because he's afraid Bobby will eventually grow bored of the skater fad and ditch God altogether as a result. To point this out to him, Hank shows him a box full of old fads that the family grew out of, including Bobby's old toys and a picture of Hank wearing a Members Only jacket.
81	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
82	** The episode "Chez Platypus" has the boys set up a platypus-themed restaurant they call "''Chez Platypus''". Word of the "trendiest restaurant" spread into the entire Tri-State Area and people quickly went in line to the Fletchers' backyard, even Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his date. At the end of the day, a badger-themed restaurant opened up in the street, the patrons promptly bailed, and the restaurant was sold to someone who wishes to expand it to a chain.
83	-->'''Ferb''': Ah, the public is fickle.
84	** In the episode "Run Away Runway", Phineas and Ferb set up a fashion line based on their LimitedWardrobe. Within seconds everyone is wearing it, until an army of Doofenshmirtz clones inadvertently turn ''his'' LimitedWardrobe into a craze. [[StatusQuoIsGod until the next episode, anyway.]]
85	--->'''Gaston Le Mode''': Face it, mon ami, your designs are 3 minutes and 37 seconds ago.
86	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E12BartGetsFamous Bart Gets Famous]]", Bart is catapulted into celebrity when he screws up a ''Krusty the Clown'' sketch and blurts out "I didn't do it!", which becomes an insanely popular catchphrase. It spawns a bunch of merchandise and a media tour, but the public [[FifteenMinutesOfFame tires of Bart just as abruptly]] by the end of the episode.
87	[[/folder]]

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