There Is A Link Between Funny T-Shirts And Popular Culture

By Mark Ladd


Do you realize how much popular culture affects your everyday goings-on? Chances are, you may have an inkling because of the general water-cooler talk and how it always seem to veer towards what was on television the previous night or what new music someone is into. If you actually took a pad and pen around with you and kept a record of what you talked about all day, you would see that popular culture has wormed itself into your life way further than you first believed. Chances are, you have funny t-shirts that are based on these popular culture topics.

We may not all agree on what type of music we like, but we all like music. Whether you listen to rap or country, music is a big part of everyone's life. It soothes us, it helps us deal with strong emotions, and it can touch us deeply. There is no wonder that music has found itself into the complex maze of popular culture. There are far too many people who take what musicians say as gospel, even though many of them don't even have a high school diploma. Despite not being anywhere near being qualified, people still consider these stars important enough to make funny t-shirts about their antics.

Movies have to be one of the major contributors to popular culture affecting us today. Funny t-shirts are constantly being made that are based on famous movie moments, quotes, and jokes. There are people in every friend group who memorize lines from movies and throw them out in conversation, whether the line is appropriate for the situation or not. It's become a social crutch for people who can't think of their own jokes, so they take the easy path and find common ground in things that everyone likes.

Television is quickly taking over as the king of pop culture, and not for the right reasons. I honestly feel like we are experiencing a television renaissance with all of the excellent programming out there right now. At the same time, the reality programming is what has seemed to grab hold of the hearts and minds of people to the point of ridiculousness. Have you seen how many funny t-shirts are dedicated to "Jersey Shore?" If there is any show that should just disappear, it is most surely that one before our youth start believing that's how people should act.

I am myself a gamer, which means that I follow video games fervently. There are more and more people like me coming out every year in support of the industry. With this emergence into the realm of popular culture, we can go online and see that funny t-shirts are springing up in support of the subject matter. If my theory of the connection between funny t-shirts and pop culture is true, then we'll see lots more funny t-shirts coming out in the coming years.

I can only guess that this link between funny t-shirts and popular culture exists, but I can't help but believe that the connection is real from the evidence I've seen. Art imitates art at this point, and people are drawn to the things they already love. God help you if this is true, but if you love Jersey Shore then you will be more into buying a shirt that features Jersey Shore than some joke that you're a stranger to. Perhaps watching the rise of certain funny t-shirts will help us determine what shows we should be watching. I can't be less thrilled.




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