What Would Lorelai Make of Taylor Swift?
... and other pop culture references?
It’s been 7 years since we last saw Lorelai and Rory, swigging coffee and referencing pop culture faster than Road Runner could meep-meep.
Part of the many, many magnetic charms of the show were the references that made me feel like they were talking directly into my soul. Some examples…
Francie What’s your damage, Gilmore? (Heathers)
Lorelai You don’t care at all, do you? Michel To me, you are the teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoon. (Sounded like a muted trumpet - ‘WAH wAH waah’)
Rory Got it. Hey, how come we don’t have a tiki bar? Lorelai Well, we are not two wild and crazy guys. (Steve Martin’s characters on Saturday Night Live)
Rory You like pina coladas. Lorelai And getting lost in the rain. (Rupert Holmes’ Escape - The Pina Colada song)
What were your stand-out pop culture references?
In the Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie, there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment where Cap adds a handwritten note to his notebook of cultural references that he missed out on during his 65 year sleep. The scene differed from country to country so in the US theatrical release, it included I Love Lucy and ‘Pisco’ whereas in the UK it included ‘The Beatles’ and ‘World Cup Final (1966)’. Italy’s listed ‘Roberto Benigni’; Mexico had ‘Shakira’; and Korea had Oldboy. There’s a compilation of the different lists here.
Today’s loosely related daydreaming has me pondering… if Lorelai was on our screens today, what would she be referencing - and how?
Facebook only started in 2004. We didn’t have Twitter or tablets. Would she have been an uncontrollable Twitter-er? Perhaps they’d have gone totally post-modern, Rory and Lorelai sitting on their sofa remarking on how often Lauren Graham appeared on Ellen. Or the travesty of Bunheads being cancelled.
I can see Mark Wahlberg moving to Stars Hollow, playing Marky Mark in his early 40′s. He’d be flirting with Lorelai:
Marky Mark Hey, I just met you… and this is crazy, but here’s my number. Call me, maybe?
I think there’d be some sisterly love too for (the lovely) Taylor Swift, but what do you think Stars Hollow would be gabbing about today?
Here’s something to listen to while you think about it from that moment when the chic 70′s became the sweater-laden 80′s.