cdollaz

Your original post was not a logical thought, so why would we waste our time digging up soundtracks to refute it.

Count Dooku

You're so concerned with the reality of the characters, why don't you use your brain and think about the premise of the show.

What we're seeing is Ted's recollection from 20 years in the future.

FutureTed has "forgotten" that in 1996, Lily's favorite song was One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men --and by "forgotten", I mean he doesn't want to admit it.

Y'see, in the future, The Violent Femmes are gonna be like The Ramones.
If you believe movies and TV shows, you would think everybody in 1977/78 was listening to The Ramones --not the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, like they really were.

Just like anyone from 1969 is gonna "remember" loving Led Zeppelin and Hendrix, and conveniently forget that their favorite song was "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies...
And in 1985, I was totally into Run-DMC (before they got on MTV with Aerosmith, so that makes me cooler) not Huey Lewis

FutureTed is just saying that he and his friends liked the Violent Femmes because it makes them sound cool, and if the years don't match up, that's because he's lying.

Now f1shf00d, you can enjoy HIMYM because anytime anything doesn't make logical sense you know that it's because FutureTed is confused or lying.

Big Boy Laroux

seriously, man, it's not like they picked some random one-hit wonder song from the 80's (that only got airplay during the year it was released) as their favorite songs/bands.

All those bands mentioned are ones that have been around for a long time. Sure, they're not releasing new music, but people get converted onto that music every single day because that music has staying power. it can apply to multiple decades.

I just want to know why they didn't say "Let's go to the mall" is their favorite song.

Big Boy Laroux

as for the Fiero, millions of people buy these things called "used" cars.

now, if the show specifically said that they bought that car brand new (and i don't remember), then forget i said anything snooty above.

invisiblegt

Also, if I'm not mistaken... A favorite artist of Ted's is Otis Redding, and has been mentioned on the show quite a number of times.

It is quite a shame that the writers not only have a character in his late twenties liking Otis Redding, but that they would also attempt to manipulate you into buying a CD of a man who has been dead for forty some years.

Damned corporate bastards.

(Now, if you'll excuse me, I am off to purchase a copy of Seals and Croft's "Summer Breeze," Ted's guilty pleasure song.)

calhoun07

I think that album had a resurgence of popularity among teens in the 90s. I worked with a girl that also loved that song, and she was certainly younger than me. When I told her the album came out in 1983 (to show what a geezer I am, I guess!) she insisted I was wrong, that it came out in the 90s. It must have been a re-release.

It's great, timeless music is what it is!

JZ1276

actually, Huey Lewis is muuuuuuuuch cooler than run dmc

JZ1276

I dont know much of Pixies music, but I do know that Where is My Mind was at the end of Fight Club, and that was after '96

cdollaz

You may want to read the original post for context. And that song came out in the late 80's, not after 1996.

f1shf00d

so maybe I'm totally wrong about about how characters should behave in sit-coms...but if you read between the lines of my original post, you should be able to tell that I like this show...I refer to it as "the little show that tries too hard," and I'm opposed to what I see as tricks and cheats and things that don't feel natural....but as some of you say, it's just a show... and Count Dooku says the best, that it's Ted's false memories that make his youth seem cooler than it really is... that makes the show even more interesting. (but holy crap, the way some of you overreact to a simple Internet post....it makes me weep for mankind)

megashopper

The Fiero was Marshall's not Lily's. And it was passed down to him from his older brothers in a hilarious episode from the second season.

Adam Tyner

He said Fight Club came out after '96, not "Where Is My Mind?".

Big Boy Laroux

thank you megas, that was the episode when he had to go through the drive-thru naked, right? I knew he didn't get in brand new.

oh my goodness! the Procaimers "500 Miles" was also in that car! quick, fishfood, make sure that syncs up in your timeline!

Gdrlv

I graduated high school in 1993. When I graduated, the first Violent Femmes album was one of my favorite albums. I've always viewed that album as timeless. Discovering it is almost like a rite of passage.

Spicollidriver1

My roomate loved that car for a very long time and it was the only non cadilac he ever wanted until he test drove one and realised he was to big and it was uncomfortable to drive.

f1shf00d

I still don't understand how the above paragraph from the original post was completely overlooked or misunderstood...

too many people have obsessed over whether or not someone can listen to music before their time....which was never the point....never....not ever...

when a date flashes on the screen or when I watch a period movie, I expect to see and hear things that go with that period...therefore, when "1996" is on the screen, I expect to hear and see 1996 stuff....just like if a movie takes place in the seventies, you want to hear seventies music; sure they could play Elvis Presley music, but you'd feel more like it's the seventies if you hear disco or Led Zeppelin or Kansas. so it's not about the songs or the car; it's about shows that try to appeal to the widest audience: sometimes I don't believe how the characters behave..... the OP was never about the bands or the songs.... if you meet a girl and a song is playing on the radio and you both say that it's your favorite song, it makes more sense to me if that song is newer, maybe something popular that year..... you all can listen to whatever music you like.... now that I know that the Femmes had come around again to college kids in '96, it makes more sense to me... that was the simplest answer. that student got an "A." the rest of you need to resubmit your essays... except for Count Dooku, who is very funny and should write professionally...

greydt

Well, to refute you from an advertising perspective: we wouldn't use HIMYM to target a 40+ affluent target. HIMYM is probably strong in the A25-54 or A18-49 demos, and it would be inefficient to use a show that skews younger like that, esp. in such a mass market medium.

In addition to an older age, you adding the qualifier of "affluent" means we'd more likely advertise in print (business magazines), some radio (probably the AM drive and PM drive dayparts), and cherry pick our tv programs (in one example I've been in, "The McLaughlin Group")

Hence, no, HIMYM does not = "40 year-old writers create (or worse) or younger writers who write for the more affluent 40+ demographic, so they can sell more ads". You can try again, but the current explanation you have doesn't make sense.

DeputyDave

Silly argument, but I'll weigh in. My son's (he's now 15) favorite band when he was 12 (he's now 15) was by far Nirvana, his 2nd favorite at the time was The Ramones.

Also, The Violent Fems top three "hits" (Blister, Add it up, and Kiss Off) regularly played (and still do today) on the number 1 Pop station here in San Diego (and since it’s a Clear Channel station I’m sure the same robot programs other cities). I could easily see a song off the same album as those three songs become someone's favorite.

innocentfreak

I must say I didn't discover Violent Femmes until I was in my junior year of high school which was 92-93. If you had asked me back then I would have only assumed they were new since I had never heard of them until I moved up north for school. I definitely overplayed their first album and still listen to it to this day.

f1shf00d

I declared shenanigans against HIMYM because in the episode, "best prom ever," Ted and Lily claim, during a flashback to 1996, that "Good Feeling" by Violent Femmes is their favorite song.

I declared shenanigans because I didn't believe that you could establish the year 1996 by playing a song from 1983, (believing that there were commercial advertising motives for it that I feel are deceitful).

My declaration of shenanigans was proven to be unfounded when it was reported that the Femmes are staples of college radio and possibly re-discovered by college students every ten years or so, or that "Ted" in the year 2030 is embellishing his youth to his kids in order to sound more cool than he really was.

Hence, the declaration was squashed. There are no provisions for the punishment for a wrongful declaration of shenanigans, but so far it seems to be the endless ridicule of the accuser, me.

Spicollidriver1

I Thought the punishment was the same as premature cashing in of a slap bet.

madcougar

Blister in the Sun was prominently featured in Grosse Pointe Blank in 1997. This was the first time I heard it at least and I was 27 at the time. Now it's my favorite song ever. No not really.