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Specifically the one famous joke (that even made it onto The Sopranos).... What is the hardest thing about roller blading? Telling your parents you're gay. I

Specifically the one famous joke (that even made it onto The Sopranos).... What is the hardest thing about roller blading? Telling your parents you're gay. I never knew a joke could change the course of history.

mikestew 5y ago
But why was rollerblading ever associated with homosexuals to begin with? As one who did not know anyone in the 90s who was both a rollerblader and an out gay person, is it a "yeah, but looks gay" thing? I dunno, seemed like one of those things one says when they can't afford rollerblades, or can afford them but sucks at it and gave up.
- bobbytit 5y ago
  My recollection is that the flamboyant gay rollerbladers zipping around places like Venice Beach became a meme of sorts.
  - laurent92 5y ago
    Also in Malcolm in the middle, the father teaches Malcolm rollerblading, and uses this kind of flamboyant clothing and the camera emphasizes the tight clothes.
- ehnto 5y ago
  My intuition from my scene was simply that skateboarding was the cool kid thing to do, and if it wasn't skateboarding it must be lame. That stigma had it's application on BMX, scooters, even different types of skateboards weren't free from the mockery of skateboarders. It's not skateboardings fault, it was just the culture. I like to think it's changed and thanks to the internet you can always find people doing what you like. Back then all I had was rateaskater.com to share the sport with.
  - atkailash 5y ago
    It’s also not a far leap from this to gay as in homosexual since for the longest time “that’s gay” was used as “that’s lame”.
- pengaru 5y ago
  figureskating
- dehrmann 5y ago
  There was also a window where "gay" meant "uncool." > 2. (slang, derogatory) Used to express dislike: lame, uncool, stupid. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gay#Adjective https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gay#Adjective
  - noduerme 5y ago
    To teenage boys where I grew up the '90s, "don't be gay" was just a standard egg-on challenge, interchangeable with "don't be a pussy." We weren't exactly in touch with our feminine sides. Your supposed masculinity was proven by doing things more idiotically dangerous than your friends. Only danger could lead to teenage glory. (See: Jackass). We had a saying for it: "Balls and stupidity." Teenage boys are like 2-year-old dogs before they get snipped. Rollerblading just wasn't dangerous enough. Especially with a bunch of pads on. Also, older people started doing it. You'd see lawyers rollerblading to work holding a latte. That more than anything probably killed it for teenagers. After living in Spain and watching teenage boys do mindlessly dangerous moto dirtbike tricks for audiences of girls on the street, I had an insight that this was probably how Bullfighting started... some kid daring another kid to go stab a bull, and him doing it for attention from girls. And that sport is still heavily associated with machismo. One other thing on the macho side - like, my mom roller skated when she was young, and even she got a pair of roller blades. You can't really be dangerously cool doing something your mom does.
- mthoms 5y ago
  > or can afford them but sucks at it and gave up. It’s actually the opposite. The term originated with skateboarders. Rollerblading was seen as (a) too easy and (b) lacking any sort of “culture”.
- odessacubbage 5y ago
  rollerblading had a lot of associations to sub-activities from prior cultural zeitgeists like rollerdisco that are frankly, very silly. it was also more respectable and sport-like in the eyes of the general public, and following the teenager's universal laws of cool: if your parents and grandparents do it, it's not cool.
coldtea 5y ago
Well, jokes have changed the course of history in far more important circumstances and the fates of nations of millions - so simply making a passtime out of fashion is not much...
- bobbytit 5y ago
  What jokes have changed the course of history? It would make a good book.
  - coldtea 5y ago
    There's a long list of comedy that affected politics, from Aristophanes critiques of the Pelloponisian war (and obsfuscating relativism introduced by philosophers, which contributed to the charges against Socrates), to Jonathan Swift's "Modest proposal" aimed at then prevalent policies against the poor and/or Irish, US (Twain and others), and Europlean humorous writers and playwrights with considerable influence in their contemporary affairs (from Shaw to Karl Krauss), all the way to modern comedians like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin affecting free speech laws (all the way to the Supreme Court), and tons of similar examples worldwide. And we shouldn't forget one of the biggest jokes of the 20th century, Chamberlain.
    - bobbytit 5y ago
      Bill Burr was blaming that one specific joke for the demise of blading. Can you think of an example where a single joke has changed the course of history in a significant way? I don't doubt the impact humour has had. It is the favorite method that our rulers use to feed us propaganda.
Fricken 5y ago
Lower back tattoos were popular amongst young women in the 90s. Then the term "tramp stamp" caught on like wildfire and the practice came to an abrupt stop.
- q-big 5y ago
  > Then the term "tramp stamp" caught on like wildfire and the practice came to an abrupt stop. In Germany, the same happened, but via the term "Arschgeweih" ["ass antler"]. For the readers who understand German: there also existed a song "Bye Bye Arschgeweih" by Ina Müller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIY1SZ_boEQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIY1SZ_boEQ (the song title is of course a pun on the refrain line "Bye-bye, Miss American Pie" of the song American Pie by Don McLean)
  - bobbytit 5y ago
    Ass antler. That is hilarious.
    - q-big 5y ago
      I just found out that the variant "arse antlers" actually seems to be used in Britain (source: https://deen.dict.cc/?s=Arschgeweih https://deen.dict.cc/?s=Arschgeweih).
- watwut 5y ago
  It is always disappointing when bullying campaign works.
  - bobbytit 5y ago
    Yeah, the world needs more tramp stamps and arse antlers
    - watwut 5y ago
      No, the world needs less people who go out of their way to bully others. There is nothing wrong with tatoo on lower back, it does not matter whether it is needed or not. The issue is that some assholes just could not stomach those women having something nice, so they needed to bully them out of it. And these kind of assholes have too much influence.

mikestew 5y ago

But why was rollerblading ever associated with homosexuals to begin with? As one who did not know anyone in the 90s who was both a rollerblader and an out gay person, is it a "yeah, but looks gay" thing? I dunno, seemed like one of those things one says when they can't afford rollerblades, or can afford them but sucks at it and gave up.

bobbytit 5y ago
My recollection is that the flamboyant gay rollerbladers zipping around places like Venice Beach became a meme of sorts.
- laurent92 5y ago
  Also in Malcolm in the middle, the father teaches Malcolm rollerblading, and uses this kind of flamboyant clothing and the camera emphasizes the tight clothes.
ehnto 5y ago
My intuition from my scene was simply that skateboarding was the cool kid thing to do, and if it wasn't skateboarding it must be lame. That stigma had it's application on BMX, scooters, even different types of skateboards weren't free from the mockery of skateboarders. It's not skateboardings fault, it was just the culture. I like to think it's changed and thanks to the internet you can always find people doing what you like. Back then all I had was rateaskater.com to share the sport with.
- atkailash 5y ago
  It’s also not a far leap from this to gay as in homosexual since for the longest time “that’s gay” was used as “that’s lame”.
pengaru 5y ago
figureskating
dehrmann 5y ago
There was also a window where "gay" meant "uncool." > 2. (slang, derogatory) Used to express dislike: lame, uncool, stupid. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gay#Adjective https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gay#Adjective
- noduerme 5y ago
  To teenage boys where I grew up the '90s, "don't be gay" was just a standard egg-on challenge, interchangeable with "don't be a pussy." We weren't exactly in touch with our feminine sides. Your supposed masculinity was proven by doing things more idiotically dangerous than your friends. Only danger could lead to teenage glory. (See: Jackass). We had a saying for it: "Balls and stupidity." Teenage boys are like 2-year-old dogs before they get snipped. Rollerblading just wasn't dangerous enough. Especially with a bunch of pads on. Also, older people started doing it. You'd see lawyers rollerblading to work holding a latte. That more than anything probably killed it for teenagers. After living in Spain and watching teenage boys do mindlessly dangerous moto dirtbike tricks for audiences of girls on the street, I had an insight that this was probably how Bullfighting started... some kid daring another kid to go stab a bull, and him doing it for attention from girls. And that sport is still heavily associated with machismo. One other thing on the macho side - like, my mom roller skated when she was young, and even she got a pair of roller blades. You can't really be dangerously cool doing something your mom does.
mthoms 5y ago
> or can afford them but sucks at it and gave up. It’s actually the opposite. The term originated with skateboarders. Rollerblading was seen as (a) too easy and (b) lacking any sort of “culture”.
odessacubbage 5y ago
rollerblading had a lot of associations to sub-activities from prior cultural zeitgeists like rollerdisco that are frankly, very silly. it was also more respectable and sport-like in the eyes of the general public, and following the teenager's universal laws of cool: if your parents and grandparents do it, it's not cool.

coldtea 5y ago

Well, jokes have changed the course of history in far more important circumstances and the fates of nations of millions - so simply making a passtime out of fashion is not much...

bobbytit 5y ago
What jokes have changed the course of history? It would make a good book.
- coldtea 5y ago
  There's a long list of comedy that affected politics, from Aristophanes critiques of the Pelloponisian war (and obsfuscating relativism introduced by philosophers, which contributed to the charges against Socrates), to Jonathan Swift's "Modest proposal" aimed at then prevalent policies against the poor and/or Irish, US (Twain and others), and Europlean humorous writers and playwrights with considerable influence in their contemporary affairs (from Shaw to Karl Krauss), all the way to modern comedians like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin affecting free speech laws (all the way to the Supreme Court), and tons of similar examples worldwide. And we shouldn't forget one of the biggest jokes of the 20th century, Chamberlain.
  - bobbytit 5y ago
    Bill Burr was blaming that one specific joke for the demise of blading. Can you think of an example where a single joke has changed the course of history in a significant way? I don't doubt the impact humour has had. It is the favorite method that our rulers use to feed us propaganda.

Fricken 5y ago

Lower back tattoos were popular amongst young women in the 90s. Then the term "tramp stamp" caught on like wildfire and the practice came to an abrupt stop.

q-big 5y ago
> Then the term "tramp stamp" caught on like wildfire and the practice came to an abrupt stop. In Germany, the same happened, but via the term "Arschgeweih" ["ass antler"]. For the readers who understand German: there also existed a song "Bye Bye Arschgeweih" by Ina Müller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIY1SZ_boEQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIY1SZ_boEQ (the song title is of course a pun on the refrain line "Bye-bye, Miss American Pie" of the song American Pie by Don McLean)
- bobbytit 5y ago
  Ass antler. That is hilarious.
  - q-big 5y ago
    I just found out that the variant "arse antlers" actually seems to be used in Britain (source: https://deen.dict.cc/?s=Arschgeweih https://deen.dict.cc/?s=Arschgeweih).
watwut 5y ago
It is always disappointing when bullying campaign works.
- bobbytit 5y ago
  Yeah, the world needs more tramp stamps and arse antlers
  - watwut 5y ago
    No, the world needs less people who go out of their way to bully others. There is nothing wrong with tatoo on lower back, it does not matter whether it is needed or not. The issue is that some assholes just could not stomach those women having something nice, so they needed to bully them out of it. And these kind of assholes have too much influence.