The Popular Culture Ph.D.

The Secret McDonald’s Burger

pcphd — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:32:47 +0000

For months I have been reading about an item on the secret McDonald’s secret menu called the Land, Air, and Sea Burger. According to internet lore this sandwich contains a hamburger patty, a chicken patty, a Filet-O-Fish patty on one bun and can be requested but is not on the regular menu. An Esquire article about mysterious burger can be found here. Today, after talking about it for months, two of my friends and I went to a local McDonald’s and attempted to order this culinary monstrosity. We requested the Land, Air, and Sea Burger by name and the McDonald’s employee taking our order claimed to have never heard of it.

When we explained what it was she passed us off to her manager who also declared ignorance. He explained that we could order three sandwiches and put them together ourselves though, so we did. Actually, we only ordered a small hamburger, and a crispy chicken patty, and a Filet-O-Fish patty. We found out that this was a suitable option because the chicken and fish patties cost about half what the entire sandwich does. All total the Land, Air, and Sea Burger cost $4.09 (not counting the cost of the Tums that I took later.) It burger was much better than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, the chicken and fish flavor overpowered the hamburger and I wish I had gotten a Quarter Pounder instead of the small burger. Maybe we’ll try the Angry Leprechaun next time.

Amazing Vintage Style Star Wars and Video Game Posters

pcphd — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:00:43 +0000

An artist named Steve Thomas produces some amazing vintage style travel, promotional, and propaganda posters based on Star Wars, video games, and other popular culture themes. He has a wonderful Star Wars travel series and video game themed posters rendered in a early 20th century style. His present day office propaganda posters are inspired. Check out his photostream here and his website here. An example of each is below.

New Ferris Bueller Teaser Ad

pcphd — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:23:19 +0000

A new commercial has popped up that appears to be teasing a Ferris Bueller themed Superbowl ad. It’s unclear what product the commercial will be advertising, but I hope it’s for a nationwide chain of Abe Froman, Sausage King restaurants. A copy of the 10 second teaser commercial is below.

My Twelve-Year-Old Self Reviews Y: The Last Man

pcphd — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:18 +0000

This is the second in a series of columns that is meant to highlight how much we change as we age. The contrivance is that my tweleve-year-old self, living in 1984, is reviewing comic books and coming to vastly different conclusions than I do. The first column can be found here. In today’s posting my twelve-year-old-self reviews all ten volumes of Brian K. Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man, a wonderful series that I encourage everyone to read. My twelve-year-old self appears to feel differently though in his writings below.

I’m back writing another review of things I read. It took me so long to do this one because I just finished the last book and because I’m mad. I was told that I could read a series of ten comic book books for free and all I had to do was write this. I knew that it was too good to be true and I was right. The dude who gave me the books lied to me. Y: The Last Man isn’t a comic book. It’s a book with drawings and nothing else. There are no superheroes in it. No one has superpowers or saves the world. No super-villains try to take over the world. There are no hot superwomen with big boobs. Nothing. A comic book needs to have all of these things. It’s part of the definition of a comic book. Look it up and you will see that I’m right. This story has a lot of walking and talking. Why would anyone buy a book that is about walking and talking? It’s like Lord of Rings without the cool stuff.

I think when people get old they start to smell weird and they forget what is cool. It’s like this. Every week we have to go to my grandma and grandpa’s house. While I’m there I can’t watch tv, I can’t bring my electronic football game, I can’t even bring toy cars. What can I do? Sit at the table, eat dinner, and then listen to my mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa talk. If I start to talk too much my dad gives me a look that means that I shouldn’t talk about cool things. Instead I should listen to them talk about boring stuff like old people they know and how things were 100 years ago when they were young. On top of that, we have to eat lots of vegetables while we are there. My point is that they could do anything they want. They could eat hamburgers and drink orange soda and watch TV, but they don’t. They could buy a Donkey King machine and play it for free, but they don’t. Instead they eat Brussels sprouts and pinto beans and talk. Sometimes we have to take a walk after dinner (I think it’s because the beans give my grandpa gas and my grandma doesn’t like him to fart in the house.) So, they walk and talk when they could do anything. That is like these books. The writer could do anything, but he decides to have the characters walk and talk and not fight monsters or have superpowers.

Here’s what I liked about the book. First, the main plot is that all of the men on Earth have died, except one, and now the world is ruled by women. It’s a good idea and it could have been a good story. I also like that the women in the story are very real. Most people think that women are very nice and I know that this isn’t true. I have two sisters and both of them are really mean. Most books and television shows show women to be very nice but my sisters are mean just like many of the women in the story. If my sisters ran the world then it would be terrible. I don’t even want to start talking about my teacher Mrs. Schultz. It would be bad if women were in charge.

The problem is that this writer has a good start but he doesn’t do anything with it. He doesn’t seem to have many ideas. Why doesn’t he put in more hot women in bikinis? Why doesn’t Yorick, the main character, get to be king of thing world? Why isn’t the story about Yorick fighting the women for control of the world and then making them do what he says? Why doesn’t he take over and tell everyone else what to do? Why doesn’t he get to fight monsters or demons? Where are the dinosaurs and flying cars? That would be cool. See, I have a million ideas just sitting here and yet the story’s writer doesn’t have hardly any. He should let me write this story. His pet monkey is cool and I like that he throws a lot of poop, but why doesn’t have the monkey do more cool things? Why can’t they go on adventures together without the women? Maybe meet some space aliens or cavemen? Women can be in the book but don’t make them the main characters. Hasn’t the writer read science fiction before? Women aren’t they main characters, they are just there from time to time. It is not realistic to have women as the heroes. This book would have been really cool if it had more action and less ordinary women. No one wants to read a book that makes you think of fighting with your sisters or visiting your grandparents’ house. Hopefully the writer will keep that in mind for future stories and he will have more ideas by then. I’m sure lots of people will tell him what he should change though and his next story will be better.

Things you don’t need but really want

pcphd — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:05:24 +0000

Why would you ever pay $10 for a candy bar? When it is a chocolate model of Han Solo trapped in Carbonite. What Star Wars fan wouldn’t want to have his own mini Han candy bar? Don’t eat too many though or you’ll look like Jabba the Hutt.

Funny Megan Fox Brazilian Commercial

pcphd — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:48 +0000

Here’s a funny ad for a Brazilian language school featuring Megan Fox. There’s also a cameo by a famous former athlete. The advert display a unique form of internationalism and globalization. It features a Hollywood actresses enticing Brazilian youth to learn English. There has to be a scholarly study there somewhere and it’s fun to watch.

Superheroes Fighter Breast Cancer and Poverty

pcphd — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:23:36 +0000

Lately DC Comics and Marvel Comics superheroes have been fighting real world problems and not only battling comic book villains. In December, Wonder Woman, Storm, Catwoman, and She-Hulk were the focus of a Mozambique breast cancer screening advertising campaign. The ads promote self examination and health screenings as tools to combat cancer. This week, the Justice League became the center of advertisements for Save the Children, International Rescue Committee, and Mercy Corps. These ads are designed to raise money for poverty relief in the Horn of Africa. Both campaigns use superheroes in attempts to combat social and economic ills in Africa. Comic book superheroes have a long history of battling real problems including the Great Depression, World War II, drug abuse, and the poverty in Africa during the 1980s. It will be interesting to see what kind of results these two campaigns produce and if more social advertising follows.

Academic Insult of the Day- December 15, 2011

pcphd — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:09:51 +0000

I just read your latest book and it made me think of the Voltaire quote about the Holy Roman Empire. He claimed the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. You are neither a scholar, nor an intellectual, nor a writer.

Popular Culture Pie Chart- December 13, 2011

pcphd — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:49:58 +0000

Horatio Alger Sexual Book Titles

pcphd — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 19:31:51 +0000

Many people write about Lewis Carroll’s odd and possibly pedophilic background. Few people mention Horatio Alger’s history with sexual scandal and his lifelong interest in stories about young boys though. In the last few days I’ve head a number of people reference Alger’s “rags to riches” tales as wholesome and “All American but comment on Alger’s disturbing history.” My colleague Dr. Greg Kupsky and myself were speaking about Alger the other day and I was surprised to learn that Alger was a former Unitarian pastor who was forced to leave the ministry because he was convicted of having an ”unnatural familiarity with boys” in 1866. As one can most likely gather this is a round about way of declaring Alger a pedophile. Alger did not contest the charges, rather he sent a letter of remorse in which he declared the charges to be true. Because of the time period’s standards Alger was not charged with a crime but was only defrocked. After being forced to leave the church and his profession, Alger began to write children’s books, which almost always featured stories about young boys. Oddly, many of the titles are sexually suggestive to modern ears. Such as:

Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Bootblacks Rough and Ready; or, Life Among the New York Newsboys Tattered Tom; or, The Story of a Street Arab

I understand that the book titles were not as suggestive in the 19th century as today, but many of Alger’s stories feature an odd familiarity between adult males and young boys that becomes quite unsettling when read with a knowledge of the author’s background. I am not suggesting that one not read Alger’s books or that the author’s works be censored, rather I am trying to add context to a collective understand of the author. Many people laud Alger for creating inspiring “rags to riches” tales, but few comment on the author’s background. This is an oversite that should be remedied. We are often quick to embrace a modern scandal as it develops but are often ignorant of the historical figures on which we heap praise.