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Not Your Daddy's X

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An oft-used stock phrase when it comes to merchandising or advertising, done to ensure the intended consumer that their product has evolved beyond its original form. How true such a bold statement actually is tends to be subject to personal opinion.

Typically, no insult is intended to "your daddy's" generation as the item in question was Fair for Its Day and it can still be appreciated for the nostalgia. The reality that Time Marches On and Technology Marches On are the main reasons that "your daddy's version" just won't cut it anymore.

This can also use other family members in place of "father." "Mother", "Grampa", or "Grandma" are the most common. Also appears as "isn't your father's."


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Late 1980's: "This is not your father's Oldsmobile... This is the new generation of Olds." This is often considered the modern day Ur-Example due to the ubiquity of those ads. However, this "new generation" did not last long as Oldsmobile went defunct in 2004 after years of declining sales.
  • Brought up and, upon causing a quickly overblown misunderstanding, subsequently explained to no avail in an advert for Sonic's Spicy Super Crunch Chicken Strips.
    Guy 1 (Peter Grosz): "These Spicy Super Crunch Chicken Strips are not your mom's chicken strips."
    Guy 2 (T.J. Jagodowski): "No, they're my chicken strips."
    Guy 1: "It's an expression. It means they're not, y'know, plain old chicken strips."
    Guy 2: "You're calling my mom plain and old?"
  • One online ad for Bud Light's series of "The Bud Light Party" commercials featuring Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer reads, "Not Your Founding Father's Party."
  • A 90's commercial for DC Comics featured Lobo announcing, "These ain't your daddy's comic books, fanboy!"

    Comic Book 
  • DC Comics' Punch-Clock Hero team The Conglomorate once announced themselves with "This is not your father's Justice League."
  • The first issue of Transformers: Generation 2 proudly proclaimed, "This is not your father's Autobot." ... Which is strange, since as Linkara pointed out, the Transformers franchise began in 1984, while the comic came out less than ten years after, in 1993.

    Films — Animation 
  • Ads for 9 touted it as "not your little brother's cartoon."

    Films — Live-Action 

    Live-Action TV 
  • Farscape was often advertised with the slogan "This ain't your daddy's Sci-Fi."
  • Lewis Black, during one of his "Back in Black" segments on The Daily Show (this one entitled "Sexy Gaming"), has this to say about Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.
    Lewis Black: "Now this is not your father's Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. This one lets you choose which girl you get to be, which tiny bikini she gets to wear, and... uh, what's it matter after that?"

    Magazines 
  • An early issue of Wizard magazine described DC's Adam Strange as "Not your father's superhero. He's your grandfather's" — due to the fact that the only time when he was especially popular was in the early Silver Age.

    Music 
  • Miranda Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart" is a play on this phrase: the narrator's mother is trying to convince her to have a more refined reaction, so "This ain't my mama's broken heart" means both "This is a new kind of broken heart" and "This is my tragedy so I'll choose how to deal with it."

    Networks 

    News Broadcast 
  • The Pulse
    Shepard Smith: "This isn't your father's news magazine."

    Other 
  • Clothing brand Not Your Daughter's Jeans.
  • There is a brand of root beer-flavored alcoholic soda called Not Your Father's Root Beer, which has now expanded to include Not Your Father's Ginger Ale, ... Vanilla Cream Ale, and ...Mountain Ale, plus a line of Not Your Mom's Apple Pie, ... Iced Tea, and ... Strawberry Rhubarb alcoholic drinks.

    Video Games 
  • The Flash game Wreckanoid has the line "This ain't your daddy's Arkanoid" in the description of the first level.
  • The Donkey Kong Country instruction manual says that the titular character "is not your father's Donkey Kong!" This is literally true, as the Donkey Kong from the arcade games is now Cranky Kong, this Donkey Kong's grandfather.
  • Examining a wad of paper in Informatory gives you the following text:
    No parchment scroll, but a flimsy scrap. Unfolded it says -
    Your unregistered copy of XYZZY will expire after one successful use.
    Not your mother's XYZZY, this update is completely incompatible with all previous versions in both use and effect. This multi-function spell will require 543 megabytes of free disk space for a full installation.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • A Toonami promo for BIONICLE: Mask of Light ends with Peter Cullen saying "This ain't your daddy's LEGO."
  • One episode of G.I. Joe: Renegades has Flint remarking about the laser-based weaponry manufactured by M.A.R.S. Industries (which is slowly beginning to replace bullet-based guns as the weapon of choice on the frontlines), warning his men, "Watch the recoil! These are plasma-pulse rifles, not your daddy's M16s!"
  • A variation with the marketing for Monsuno: "What if your little brother's monster show grew up, and got really, really cool?"

Alternative Title(s): Not Your Fathers X

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