Popular things that you just don't get the appeal of.

[Something Amyss]

The popularity of hating popular things.

This isn't addressed at this thread. I understand the "I don't get it" mentality. But I mean, like actual dislike/hate/antipathy.

I don't like Justin Beiber. I also don't pay him much mind. The Anne Frank thing aside. Creed? I don't like them, but I don't have to listen to him. Michael Bay? Eh.

But people carry on like these people are the antichrist when all they've done is not be good.

But something more relatable to people on this site maybe: Let's Plays. The whole point of videogames as a medium is that they're interactive, so you would think watching them as opposed to playing them would be like a "Plan B" choice you would only do under certain conditions or circumstances. The fact that let's plays are mainstream and people watch them regularly is weird to me.

While this may fall under "plan b," there are genres I have no interest in playing but still find interesting. Alternatively, some of the commentary can simply be enjoyable.

Also, I'd rather watch game footage than read a review, or even watch a review. LPs tend to be unfiltered. Or, at least, less filtered.

Though something I've never understood is that multiple people have asked me to do Let's Plays. Maybe they have insomnia?

 

[Godhead]

In continuation of the theme of overrated fast food places I am going to say I don't understand the appeal of Five guys. A couple have recently opened near to where I live and a lot of people that I know nearly turned themselves inside out with excitement. Now I have had Five guys when I lived in the US, and while I thought it was OK, I didn't think it was anything remotely special. It could be that Five guys is relatively new in the UK, but it still baffles me.

Five Guys has a noticeable drop in quality once you leave the East Coast. It started in Virginia, and all the best Five Guys are in Northern Virginia and Southern Maryland.

OT: Top 40 music. I don't understand how people can think that if a song is catchy it means that it's good.

 

[SweetShark]

Heavy alcohol drinking. I have this one friend, whenever there's a big party, he wants to drink a lot, and he wants everyone else to, too. So he'll go around demanding that everyone have a drink with him. Then, he'll fall asleep and miss most of the party. What a waste. And that's not even mentioning his liver.

Well, being a person who drinks everyday wine and sometimes whisky when I feel pressure, I don't think is something very unusual. Not a lot of drinks mind you, but it make me feel a little more relax after a intense day at work.
Plus the wine is very good for your heart.
But I digress, I only once become so drank that I done a lot of funny things without caring with my buddies as well.
In other words, is good to have a friend as drank as you so you do not feel lonely. That why we have a thing in Greece we call it "κουπες". *Don't bother translate it, you will see only some coffee cups*

Anyway, I guess one problem I have, is to understand the appeal of Minecraft or similar games. Yes, I get the whole idea of these games, but it is so time consuming which make them pointless.
Maybe if I was younger and I had the a lot more time, I would appreciated, but having now a job, I can just use my time to built something for just a moment of appreciation from others. Better use the time to create your time to create something original.

 

[Truniron]

To me it's acctually Facebook. I did not join it until mid high school while everyone else had been talking about it for some years already. To me it just did not seem like that much of an interesting site and I barely ever visited or used the site at all. My visits where so few in between that people someimes thought I had quit it, even though I was only in there for less than 2 min. once each month. This may sound rather cynical, but I cared little for many of those on the "friend list". Some of them I had only seen or spoken one or few words with and if I want to contact my fiends, I send them an sms or call them, like I have done since I learned how to use a phone. I am more active on other social medias, so I am not compleetly lost from this day an age, but Facebook never really caught on with me. Cared little about it back then and, as of now, it has been almost a year since I was last online. Don't regret logging off.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

ctrl + f
"MLP"
Zero hits
"bronie"
Zero hits
"pony"
Zero hits

I can't begin to describe how surprised I am that a thread about popular things people don't get the appeal of has made it an entire page without anyone saying "My Little Pony".

 

[MeatMachine]

Mass Effect. All the way back when the first game came out and my mom went out and bought it for me solely because she was laughing about FOX New's "seX-BOX" coverage of it, I thought the game was absolute shit. Intuitive, boring, and just not immersive. I heard that it really picks up in the character development department, but the investment to get there was way too high for me.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Same as above.

Social Media sites. The more narcissistic people are, the more they gravitate around these sites. Everyone spends 99% of their time updating their profile for the 1% of the time that others will bother to look at it. When I finally came to terms with the fact that I wanted to get rid of my Facebook account permanently, none of my closest friends/family noticed for the first month.

Batman - Christopher Nolan's version. Hands down the worst incarnation of Batman I've ever seen. Batman is an incredibly versatile character in his portrayals. He can be dark and tragic (certain comics), he can be campy and goofy (60's live-action TV), he can be gothic and Orwellian (many of his animated appearances), he can be cartoony and nonsensical (many of his other animated appearances)... but the Dark Knight saga was just fucking BORING to me. The first two movies are the only movies I had ever actually fallen asleep while watching in movie theaters - only two movies ever, and both of them Christopher Nolan Batman movies.

Marijuana/Sex. I've done both dozens of times, and while they were occasionally a small bit of fun, I cannot for the life of me understand how so many people model their entire lives around either of these like they are the most transcendent pleasures on earth. If I tell anyone like that how I feel about them, they always say the same thing: "You just haven't had GOOD pot/sex yet." Sorry fellas, but if you eat lobster 20 times and each time say to yourself, "wasn't half as good as it cracked up to be, but it probably wasn't prepared right," at what point to you forfeit to the possibility that you just don't like lobster?

 

[Dalisclock]

ctrl + f
"MLP"
Zero hits
"bronie"
Zero hits
"pony"
Zero hits

I can't begin to describe how surprised I am that a thread about popular things people don't get the appeal of has made it an entire page without anyone saying "My Little Pony".

You had to bring it up, didn't you?

 

[RaikuFA]

"Look at me, I went to a restaurant, look at this burger I ate, it was good" followed by 17 pictures. What the fuck is the point?

I... actually do this but rarely. It's mainly to show how the food looks to show my fiancee or relatives. Only other reason is to show off the local food if you're traveling. If you're doing it for McDonalds or Burger King though you deserve scorn.

OT: Selfies.

 

[RedRockRun]

The band or person St. Vincent. I can't stand her music, yet when I Google things like, "I hate St. Vincent," or "I don't like St. Vincent," or "St. Vincent isn't good," all I get are results to the tune of "OMG St. VINCENT IS BEST EVAR," and so on.

Another big one was Mass Effect. I played the first one when it was first released, and it bored me to death. I thought the world was boring, the characters were boring, combat was boring, and general design of things like weapons, armor, and races were all boring.

Also the show Arrow. I watched a few episodes and was so turned off by the acting; I don't understand why people think it's so great. It seems so much like basic network TV superhero show aimed at teens - like Smallville. The same goes for Netflix's Daredevil. There are some interesting bits of cinematography, but I don't find it all that captivating. I see it as one more rich and/or good looking superhero thing.

 

[babinro]

Dancing

Jerry "I can't believe we're going dancing!"
Girl "Oh, you don't go that often?"
Jerry "No cause it's so stupid"

Seinfeld sums it up. I don't 'get' dancing. I understand the desire to move your body a bit along with a melody but dancing takes that too far and makes it something unnatural. Watching dancing in music videos or even dance shows doesn't help me appreciate the art either. It never looks like 'good' dancing to me. Just a lot of random unnatural movement that sometimes flows with the song but most of the time doesn't.

Runner Up: Drinking to get drunk.

 

[SquallTheBlade]

Dancing

Jerry "I can't believe we're going dancing!"
Girl "Oh, you don't go that often?"
Jerry "No cause it's so stupid"

Seinfeld sums it up. I don't 'get' dancing. I understand the desire to move your body a bit along with a melody but dancing takes that too far and makes it something unnatural. Watching dancing in music videos or even dance shows doesn't help me appreciate the art either. It never looks like 'good' dancing to me. Just a lot of random unnatural movement that sometimes flows with the song but most of the time doesn't.

Runner Up: Drinking to get drunk.

But dancing is one of those stupid things you do for fun. You do have done other stupid things just for fun, right? Dancing isn't that different. And moving along the music feels natural anyway. You don't even have to be good. Just DO IT. Someone might get a laugh out of your "sick" moves but isn't that only a good thing? : D

 

[Kajin]

Dancing

Jerry "I can't believe we're going dancing!"
Girl "Oh, you don't go that often?"
Jerry "No cause it's so stupid"

Seinfeld sums it up. I don't 'get' dancing. I understand the desire to move your body a bit along with a melody but dancing takes that too far and makes it something unnatural. Watching dancing in music videos or even dance shows doesn't help me appreciate the art either. It never looks like 'good' dancing to me. Just a lot of random unnatural movement that sometimes flows with the song but most of the time doesn't..

Same people find running fun? Or swimming? Or hiking or mountain climbing or biking or martial arts? Physical movement can be enjoyable for people that don't spend all their time glued to a computer monitor like myself and presumably a solid third of everyone else on the internet.

 

[GhostFox]

Seconding on the celebrity obsession thing. And doubly so for "celebrities" like the entire extended Kardashian clan, who aren't even famous FOR anything. Why does anyone care what these people get up to at all?

But for me the big one is professional sports. The degree of obsession among fans, the obscene amount of money involved, the "worship" of sports "heroes" to the point of many of them being pretty much immune to the law unless it gets to the point of something really egregious... WTF?

To RedRockRun re: Arrow, though -- The first few episodes of the first season really aren't that good. But then it improves dramatically. You may want to give it another look. If you still don't like it, that's fine. As in all things entertainment, YMMV. But it would be a shame to dismiss it based on how it starts and deprive yourself of the potential enjoyment of the series once it really hits its stride. Also, The Flash is outstanding, and works fine on its own merits, but is probably best enjoyed with the context Arrow sets up for it (and continues to intertwine with it).

 

[Risingblade]

I live in California and there's a fast food chain called "In 'N Out" which is I guess renown as this amazing burger place. Every tourist that comes here is like "I HAVE TO EAT AT IN N OUT BEFORE I LEAVE." Below is a picture of an In N Out burger. Take note of the size of the burger patty. To my taste they aren't too far off from a mcdonalds/burger king patty, but even if they were the best tasting burger patty in the world, how the fuck would you even get the flavor of it over the lettuce/tomato/onions?

It baffles me that In N Out is so popular that it legitimately creates traffic in a 2 block radius around it.

But something more relatable to people on this site maybe: Let's Plays. The whole point of videogames as a medium is that they're interactive, so you would think watching them as opposed to playing them would be like a "Plan B" choice you would only do under certain conditions or circumstances. The fact that let's plays are mainstream and people watch them regularly is weird to me.

You must have some pretty nice Mcdonalds and Burger Kings in your area if you think in and out is similar in taste.

 

[Silvanus]

Minions. Minions, and David Tennant's Doctor.

 

[San Martin]

Japan. I'm not knocking the country but I don't get its appeal over and above all the others in the world.

 

[dragoongfa]

Let's see...

Selfie Culture
Twerking
Justin Bieber and similar musicians
History Channel Fake Documentaries
Any type of reality show
'Reaction to' Youtube videos

There are more of course but right now that's all that comes to my mind.

 

[McElroy]

Silly, dumb fun. Or just a load of dumb things in general. Unless it's schadenfreude or something. Because I'm not dumb myself. I think this requires a sick burn of some kind... Guardians of the Galaxy! Burn you fools! Hahahaa!

Adults being childlike fans of things. Fan merchandise is another (unless it has actual merit as a piece of art).

 

[stormtrooper9091]

Facebook and just about AAAAAAAAAAAAANYTHING related to it (selfies, instagram, fake philosophy, slacktivism, all that crap)
Reality TV
Pop music
Shows where random people sing and a bunch of twats then judges their performance
Smartphones
Game of Thrones
Big Bang Theory
Emma Watson
Tabloids
Parties
Summer
Family Guy

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Apple stuff. The Macs can get by slightly for editing purposes, but otherwise, their products are meh. Restricted functionality, idiotic trend setting and stupidly high prices. I have no concept of why people buy them.

Social networks. I'll be the first to shake my walking stick in saying that I think they're the devil. I'll get a facebook acc soon to keep up with friends, but stuff like twitter, tumblr and instagram bewilder me(and at least tumblr can be used as a quasi art portfolio). I don't understand why some people text each other images of their face with a line of writing instead of an SMS. It makes no sense.

And twitter is just terrible.