GQ's 1995 overrated pop culture list is proof of how poorly people and ideas can age over time
This extensive list is full of names that were considered overrated and apparently did not deserve any popularity or respect in the '90s.
GQ is among the most popular men's magazines in the market, attracting millions of global readers since the 1930s. Once, the magazine that primarily focused on men's fashion, style and culture published an interesting and controversial editorial piece. The particular page from the 1995 edition of GQ was shared with the Reddit community by u/Lamboo-. The page mentions a list of some popular trends that were deemed overrated in the '90s and sarcastically takes a dig at them.
"A roster of 81 people, places and things utterly unworthy of the praise and respect they'd received," the print on the magazine read. "12 months have gone by and suffice it to say, there is still a lot of mediocrity and outright c*ap out there that is getting a free ride. But not here." The so-called overrated list mentions names of famous personalities like Bjork, Alan Greenspan, Reggie Miller and Michael Graves. The magazine took a dig at some actresses like Jennifer Jason Leigh, who was criticized for her acting range and Demi Moore for her body.
Other items on the list included vine-ripened tomatoes, rainforests, shaved heads, wood-burning pizza ovens, amusement parks and even the functionality of the large intestine. A lot of people today might not be able to wrap their heads around why Lisa Marie Presley's looks were the talk of the town or why people were converting to Islam in great numbers from behind bars. Gender ambiguity was on the rise and so were violent movies from Hong Kong.
People were enchanted by the White Ranger from "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and Bill Gates’ electrofitted bunker home. They also had fixations over poetry slams, being the host city of the Olympic Games that year and the tennis rivalry between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. However, a lot of things on this list aged poorly indeed. The GQ list called out Ticketmaster and lately, Ticketmaster has been slammed by the public for not taking enough precautions to avoid scams on their site, per CP24. The article also dissed every other Broadway musical except "Evita."
The magazine also scrunched its nose at the digitization of family albums, the rise of virtual reality and homeschooling. "Heavily choreographed concerts at which the featured performer wears a headset microphone and is backed by 35 dancers, any British woman described as a beauty, The Baseball Hall of Fame, Jay Leno's comeback, instantaneous Wall Street jokes about national tragedies," the list continued. Reddit users responded hilariously to this list and left their thoughts. u/Armand74 wrote, "Righteousness about Ticketmaster. Fast forward to today and now Ticketmaster is being sued for the monopoly that they are."
u/Vengefulily quipped, "Appearing at a public function unwashed and on the arm of Juliette Lewis is definitely a shot at some highly specific '90s incident that no one cared about outside tabloids." u/manikfox mentioned, "All you can eat shrimp was an investment scam to bring Red Lobster into as much debt as possible and funnel as much equity into a different business. So technically, it wasn't overrated. It was systematically destroyed for profit." u/bassmansrc added, "My guess is they were referring to the coming movie 'Striptease' where it was a big deal that Demi was going to be playing the lead role of a stripper while in her 30s. The '90s were pretty toxic for women."
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