People believe that '80% of the things on the list have aged poorly.'
Popularity is vastly overrated. Things like sipping lattes, revering celebrities, crafting zines, and relishing summer mangoes might be popular, but not always liked, particularly by the author who penned this list for the 1995 issue of GQ Magazine. The list has 81 names of people, places, foods, and things that the author thought, were "utterly unworthy of the praise and respect they’d received.” After 3 decades, when the list surfaced on the internet again, it caused an uproar, with people questioning its genuineness.
A snapshot of the magazine featuring the list was posted on Reddit by a user, u/lamboo-. In just a few days, it has managed to grab the attention of hundreds of reactions. Beneath the bold title, “The 1995 Overrated List,” appears a witty description that reads, “On this page in last September issue, GQ introduced ‘The Overrated List,’ a roster of eighty-one people, places and things, utterly unworthy of the praise and respect they’d received."
Twelve months have gone by, and suffice it to say, there’s still a lot of mediocrity and outright crap out there that’s getting a free ride. But not here," reads the full description by the magazine. In the image, we see a layout featuring 90s vintage-looking photos arranged in a hollow square design surrounding the detailed list, which is divided into three columns.
From former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan to rainforests and virtual reality, the wide range of the list has left a lot of people flabbergasted as they fail to understand how some of the top trends of the year 1995 are deemed "overrated" by the magazine. A few entries on the list on which a majority of people disagree are:
In the 1990s, the popularity of mangoes started to grow exponentially around the globe. South Asia saw mangoes' increasing popularity during that time. In North America and Europe, too, mangoes became highly popular, making millions of sales. Even more so, in the year 1995, mangoes won the Guinness World Record for being the sweetest fruit!
According to 787Coffee, the trend of serving lattes is mostly attributed to a Seattle-based company, Seattle’s Best Coffee, that introduced the iced latte in the year 1995. In the same year, a man named David Schomer introduced "latte art" in Seattle and created a video course titled "Caffe Latte Art," which became viral at that time, per HISTORY.
In 1995, rock band Pearl Jam went into battle with the ticketing giant Ticketmaster. The argument stirred up on the subject of booking fees. The band claimed that Ticketmaster had charged higher ticket fees from the fans than the actual fee. Although the argument was resolved later on, the year is remembered for this tug-of-war, according to FarOutMagazine.
Global warming was not as bad in the 1990s as it is now, but signs of deforestation were already beginning to show. Headlines buzzed with stories of Amazon forests. According to the satellite images collected by NASA between 1993 and 1995, Amazon rainforests were rapidly starting to become deforested. An article by The New York Times also revealed that over 6,950 square miles of the Amazon were destroyed from 1995 to 1996, indicating that the situation was getting out of control.
In 1995, Bill Gates published a book titled "The Road Ahead," in which he described his dream bunker house situated near Lake Washington. In an excerpt, he revealed that it was the first house to have the most unusual electronic features built into it. The house made headlines and people were intrigued by the high-tech home boasting eccentric features.
Interestingly, the list also features some very random things like zines, duets, comic books, the smell of fresh-cut grass, digitized family albums, poetry slams, and large intestine. Plus, entries like “the white Power Ranger” made people quite mad at the magazine writers.
u/question4theppl5 expressed surprise at the list, saying, “Wood burning pizza ovens? Damn, this person has no joy.” u/sunshine3310 was jolted by the "magoes" entry, “What does anyone have against mangoes." u/ajhart86 had a sarcastic jibe towards the list, “I’m glad someone is finally calling out the large intestine.” u/TeamocilAddict commented, "Wow this really aged poorly" and u/AshgarPN added, "80% of this list did not age well."
It seems people wonder whether this "overrated" list itself is becoming overrated. In any case, here’s the full list of the 89 things that were considered "overrated" by GQ 28 years ago. '90s sensation Björk tops the list.
1. Bjork
2. Alan Greenspan
3. Christo
4. Righteousness about Ticketmaster
5. Vine-ripened tomatoes
6. Rain forests
7. Pitt the Younger
8. Homespun American wisdom
9. Lattes
10. Pat Riley
11. The white Power Ranger
12. Shaved heads
13. Violent action movies from Hong Kong
14. Martin Lawrence
15. Melissa Etheridge
16. Converting to Islam in jail
17. Lisa Maris Presley’s looks
18. Beaujolais Nouveau
19. Gender ambiguity
20. The prefix cyber
21. Poetry slams
22. Bill Gates’ electrofitted bunker home
23. Absolutely Fabulous sitcom
24. Raconteur cabbies
25. Being the host city of the Olympic Games
26. Martin Amis
27. Alumni of The Harvard Lampoon
28. Upscale taquerias
29. The ‘genius’ of Brian Wilson
30. Fiestaware
31. Local color
32. Wood-burning pizza ovens
33. Field trips to see Peter and the Wolf
34. Anything called a ‘summerfest’
35. Agassi vs. Sampras
36. CNBC talk shows
37. The prefix cyber-
38. ‘Town meeting’-style interfaces with elected officials
39. Pliny the Elder
40. Montana-based writers
41. Designer lesbianism
42. Designer Buddhism
43. The large intestine
44. Driving a 4X4 on gravel
45. Amusement parks
46. Corinthian leather
47. Longevity
48. Gay stand-up comedy
49. Morphing
50. Mangoes
51. Appearing at a public function unwashed and on the arm of Juliette Lewis
52. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
53. Every Broadway musical since Evita
54. Digitized family albums
55. Cruise control
56. Middle-relief pitching
57. Heather Locklear’s galvanizing effect on ‘Melrose Place’
58. Duets
59. Anyone dubbed ‘the Sexiest Man Alive’
60. Striped bass
61. Quick-cutting
62. Zines
63. Jennifer Jason Leigh’s range
64. Virtual reality
65. Heavily choreographed concerts at which the featured performer wears a headset microphone and is backed by 35 dancers
66. Sex on the beach
67. Sex that lasts four hours
68. Rowing crew
69. Michael Graves
70. Youthful world-weariness
71. Reggie Miller
72. Telling it like it is
73. Dessert wines
74. Whit Stillman
75. Any British woman described as a beauty
76. The Baseball Hall of Fame
77. Feisty backbenchers
78. Homeschooling
79. 1968
80. The signed editorials in The New York Times
81. Demi Moore’s body
82. Jay Leno’s comeback
83. Manufacturer rebates
84. Hootie & the Blowfish
85. All-you-can-eat shrimp
86. Comic books
87. The smell of fresh-cut grass
88. Instantaneous Wall Street jokes about national tragedies
89. Having a ‘funny’ back page
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