WHAT IS COOL?
When you or I think of the word cool we usually just mean “weird” or “mentally ill.” Mr Awesome is cool because he’s such a fucking loser, it’s funny. Explaining this definition of cool would take about a binder of acid sheets and a George Burns-sized lifetime so, no, we are not talking about actual real cool as in “neat-o” or “worthy.”
The kind of cool we will be discussing today is the commonly understood definition of cool. Basically, what a square thinks of when he hears the word. That is to say, if you were a marketing company and you had to make a brand of Sugar Corn Pops cool, what would they look like?
Today, in 2007, your Corn Pops would be on a skateboard with a sideways baseball hat, sunglasses and possibly some kind of rap clothing but he wasn’t always like that. Cool used to be dictated by about a couple hundred Italian immigrants who lived in Brooklyn.
1941 THE BEGINNING
Before 1941 a teenager was just a “young man.” This may have had something to do with a bunch of wars and depressions and people not living much past 40. With wealth came health came a longer life and all of a sudden you didn’t have to have your shit together before you turned 20. This ten-years-to-kill became a thing called “adolescence.” For the first time in history, young horny people with a lot of energy could focus on what they do best, partying. It took about a decade to get off the ground but once it did, holy shit. Cool was born.
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STREET BONER 1127
Being straight edge as a kid is a great way to rebel against: puking, getting pregnant, and wrapping your parent’s car around a tree.
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The pigeon-toed stance and skinny legs is over. But the white t-shirt slipped over gunship curves (and i’m talking about the first pic, not the street urchin) is here to stay.
02.09.08 at 9:53 am
Nice article.
Beat writers should be mentioned for the 1950s.
02.09.08 at 11:46 am
It’s 2008, your corn pops are so last year
02.09.08 at 2:04 pm
It’s a ball pitt metaphor
02.09.08 at 10:02 pm
[...] (part 1) [...]
02.10.08 at 8:41 am
Wait, you’re saying “cool” started in 1941? This means you are dismissing Ed Poe, Marquis De Sade, Sartre, Caligula… come on, dumbass. Maybe retitle this to read, “My Crap View on Cool.” Suck it.
02.10.08 at 3:10 pm
nah, i really like this article. its someone who pretty much knows what theyre talking about, talking about something which you dont hear about all the time.
which is basically step one and two on the road to a good article.
02.10.08 at 5:41 pm
That’s because you’re a sycophant. Anybody claiming cool started in 1941 is pretty fucking stupid.
02.10.08 at 8:43 pm
Those boobs are “cool”…
02.10.08 at 9:34 pm
Those boobs have pancake nipples.
02.11.08 at 1:20 am
[...] (part 1, part 2) [...]
02.11.08 at 8:51 am
Dear Street handjob and vodka boner,
Thanks for letting us know your collegiate philosophical and literary prowess but honestly, go jump in a river of dicks.
your pal,
Duderonomy
P.S. If you really think about it after world war 2 was when teens first got a disposable income, therefore making them a new consumer base. That also means that a new kind of culture for teens was established. If you look at it that way cool starting in 41 wasn’t too far off. oh, and go jump in a river of dicks.
02.13.08 at 11:09 am
haha, river of dicks. by the way, edgar allen poe wasn’t really cool, he was a filthy stinking drunk.
river of dicks, I can’t stop saying it.
02.15.08 at 3:16 pm