this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
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In the 2020 primaries, Donald Trump said that Mayo Pete looks like Alfred E. Neuman (which is devastatingly accurate), and Pete countered that he'd never heard of Alfred E. Neuman and it "must be an old person thing." That was incredibly weird to me, because I'm younger than Pete Buttigieg and I know who Alfred E. Neuman is.

It seems like there's three possibilities: One is that Pete does know who Alfred E. Neuman is, and his retort was simply try-hard and pathetic. Another possibility is that Pete does not know who Alfred E. Neuman is because he's been such a careerist psycho his whole life that he knows nothing but the most basic of pop culture references and whatever his staffers tell him about. The third possibility is that I'm unusual in my age cohort for knowing Alfred E. Neuman. My friends and I read Mag Magazine as kids, but we were nerds, and it may have been well past the heyday when Mad was a universal cultural touchstone for kids.

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[–] iByteABit@hexbear.net 25 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I recognize the face but not the name

[–] Beaver@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago
[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 21 points 5 months ago

i'm two years older than that pod person and i totally know. i think mad magazine was something kids who went to convenience stores in the late 80s/early 90s unsupervised would know about. pete seems like his entire existence before the age of 20 was some kind of daily stage-managed romp through political career incubators and society tutelage before retiring to a special bath where a silent old woman would bath him in buttermilk for 45 minutes and then lay out cheese cubes for him to snack on while watching taped interviews with Henry Kissenger.

i don't think pete knows what anything is, except as it can be handed to him on an index card by a bodyman.

[–] davel@hexbear.net 20 points 5 months ago (1 children)

These are the same people who don’t know what woods porn is.

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 13 points 5 months ago

For zoomers like me who were like "I mean, I don't know what that is, but I don't want to look like I'm not in the know afront my venerable elders":

woods porn = porn you find or keep in the woods. It's that simple.

Youngsters had more woods to explore and more freedom to explore them, and porno was at this time mainly sold as physical magazines — so, if you didn't want your mags caught, you would keep them (or specific pages) in various locations "off the beaten path", so to speak. Other youngsters might stumble upon each others' caches while exploring the great outdoors, and this was naturally seen as quite a valuable and cool find.

This is at least how I understand it from a quick Web search.

[–] SerLava@hexbear.net 17 points 5 months ago

It took me like 20 seconds to remember it's the mad magazine kid. I saw plenty of those magazines but people never really said the name Alfred E. Neuman

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I read all of the mental illness themed humor magazines

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Did you know Cracked's archive was destroyed because of the 2001 anthrax letters?

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[–] courier8377@hexbear.net 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Zoomer who knows him but I'm a bit of an esoteriphile

[–] FourteenEyes@hexbear.net 17 points 5 months ago

who need they obscurussy ate?

[–] Tunnelvision@hexbear.net 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You ever heard of Seymour Butts?

[–] Weedian@hexbear.net 10 points 5 months ago

Yeah he's friends with Hugh Jass

[–] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 12 points 5 months ago

Yes, but my grandparents had a collection of Mad Magazines at their house.

[–] Owl@hexbear.net 11 points 5 months ago

Older millennial - don't know.

I saw like two Mad Magazines ever when I was a kid. I got the impression they were more of a Gen X thing.

[–] BurgerPunk@hexbear.net 11 points 5 months ago

You are not alone. Pete definitely knows who that is

[–] sloth@hexbear.net 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] RustyVenture@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

“What kind of slime would I marry?”

[–] DirtyPair@hexbear.net 9 points 5 months ago

never heard of him

oh it's the MAD guy? didn't know he had a name

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago

Yup, but through the Simpsons

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Nope, never heard of him in my life. My mom knows who he is and told me when I asked her just now, but she's a boomer*, so that doesn't really answer your question.

*She insists that I refer to her as a "late boomer".

Edit: If you'd shown me a picture I would say "the Mad Magazine kid" but I don't know him by name because I never read Mad Magazine.

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago

I don't know him but I'm not an anglo.

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago

Yes i used to read mad magazine in the store while my mom shopped

[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago

Elder Millennial, I guess. He's the guy with no worries.

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I know him from the mad covers when I was a kid and used to browse video game magazines in the grocery store. Anyone remember trading card game magazines? They'd have cool fantasy covers by artists like Keith Parkinson and would cover games like mtg or pokemon.

[–] HarryLime@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Was Wizards of the Coast one of those?

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

Wizard magazine, yes

Was all about the nerdy collectible shit like comics and tabletop games

Why back in '08 I drove down to Wizard World in Chicago to heckle the EIC of Marvel Comivs

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

I want to say yes but my memory is fuzzy without googling.

[–] cryptymythy@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)
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[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago

I had to think of it for a second and still wasn't 100% sure he was the mad magazine mascot guy.

[–] volcel_olive_oil@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago

it's the mad magazine guy

but I'm past 30 years old which is normal for millennials

[–] thebartermyth@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I have no idea who that is, honestly even with the body text as context

E: yeah, I've seen this picture before. Never knew the character's name though

[–] oregoncom@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I thought mad magazine stopped being published in like the 90s or something. I'm pretty sure most people my age don't even know what that is. I just know because I used to read cracked and they had some sort of rivalry going on. Also why the fuck would I know off the top of my head what their fucked up looking mascot boy's name is lmao.

[–] cryptymythy@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago
[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 months ago

I only know it's the Mad Magazine cartoon mascot guy (or whatever) because of a podcast that riffed on it. Otherwise, never heard of him. How does anyone even know his name? It's not like the cover of Mad Magazine explains his backstory or something.

[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yeah it's the cover guy from mad magazine. I'm an early millenial

[–] TeddyKila@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago

Library had Mad Mag growing up so yes.

[–] Lemmygradwontallowme@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Why should I know? I'm not even American...

[–] BigBoyKarlLiebknecht@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago

Your post made me dig up this Trump bit:

Trump calls Pete Buttigieg's name 'unpronounceable'

Honestly some of his best material from the 2020 campaign, no notes.

[–] Leon_Frotsky@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Im 20 and idk who he is, also british so if he was just an american thing that might be why.

Edit: i looked him up and yeah i recognise him, i just didnt know he was called that, also he really does like Booty-judger lol

[–] Yor@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago

I have no idea who that is upon hearing the name

[–] NewAcctWhoDis@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

I recognize the name but couldn't place it until I looked it up.

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

Neuman was (and still is?) a Mad Magazine fixture and I can't believe Mayo Pete never looked at the magazine and he never learned who Neuman was. If I'm right - he lied and it was a win-win. He got to do some pushback to Trump with zero effort and he pretended not to be the nerd that he actually is.

[–] SpiderFarmer@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago
[–] bigboopballs@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

yes, I liked the M.A.D. magazines when I was a kid

[–] InternetLefty@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

What, me worry?

[–] btbt@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Isn’t that the guy who invented time and space

[–] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

I would not worry

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 4 points 5 months ago

Of course. 'You Got A Friend In Me' gets me every time.

[–] MaoTheLawn@hexbear.net 4 points 5 months ago

Zoomer here, had no idea, but I'm not American

Was more of a Dennis the Menace kid

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