|
1988 |
 |
What happens when you say
Beetelgeuse three times? You find yourself back in 1988…That’s right…’88 is back
and bigger than ever, starting with Big, when Tom Hanks taught us it was
okay for adults to wear Underoos. And we were growing up painlessly with the
Seaver family in Growing Pains, while Charles in Charge put Chachi
in charge of teenage girls.
Ickey wasn’t something gross; it was a running back with
a endzone dance—Ickey Woods. If football had the Ickey Shuffle, baseball had the
Bash Brothers. The Oakland A’s Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire patented the
Monster bash— smash your super-buffed forearms together and pretend you’re not
doing steroids!
George Herbert Walker Bush was doing his own victory
dance, asking the country to read his lips. And another Bush was just
sprouting…yes, the Chia Pet came to your Christmas tree in 1988.
An old dance craze had a brand new comeback, and
America was
introduced to Kylie Minogue: C’mon baby, do the Locomotion!
At the movies, Young Guns dueled it out with
Beaches, and a cartoon sex symbol was born—they might have framed Roger
Rabbit, but all eyes were on Jessica. Yes, there was something for everyone,
including the sleeper-hit comedy A Fish Called Wanda with a stuttering
hitman in K-K-K-K-Ken. Coming to America was Eddie Murphy as an African
prince looking for a wife in
Queens.
Whether you were a metal head watching Headbanger’s Ball
or rocking to the alternative, Jane’s Addiction, REM, Sonic Youth and the
Pixies, it was cool to wear your jeans ripped, but don’t admit to making the
cuts yourself. Alternative lifestyles were in, too. Paul Reiser and Greg Evigan
showed us 2 dads are better than one, but no, they’re not “gay.” Weren’t going
there in ’88.
The pick up line of the year belongs to
Billy Ocean: Get out of my
dreams, get into my car. This in a year when the trend was sticking suction
Garfield onto the windows. Thank god for Tracey Chapman.
You got a fast car…I want a ticket to anywhere…
The Jamaican bobsled team got a ticket to the Winter
Olympics in Calgary… no drug testing necessary. And remember those Hypercolor
t-shirts that changed colors, even under the armpits when you were sweating?
Wonder why those haven’t come back?
Well, have no fear…88 is here!