this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
372 points (97.4% liked)

Mildly Interesting

23954 readers
676 users here now

This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

Just post some stuff and don't spam.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] snappy@lemmy.world 96 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Bob Dylan, Chubby Checker, Bernhard Goetz

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

If this is a highlander situation my money is definitely on Goetz.

[–] Apeman42@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And that's when Chubby Checker hits you with The Twist.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

Ages 84, 84, and 78, respectively.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Bernhard Goetz

First time I heard him called Bernhard...

Yeah, Bernie Goetz

I''ve been thinking about Bernie Goetz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x60V0eayiAY

Doomtree - 38 airweight

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Bob Dylan probably doesn't have long, lol

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

judging by his recent gigs, he may already be gone

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

By "recent", you mean the last 50 years?

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

yeah, i was in austin the same time he was recently. everyone was goggling about going to see him and were you going to go see him? I was like, for the $400 they're asking i can watch a tape. i saw a mid-80s year old buddy guy a few years back and while as a guitar player it was a really technically interesting concert, he hardly played any songs. he mostly imitated other greats who have died and had been influenced by his style. like, cool you can play like stevie and jimi but i came to hear you dude. buddy was only $20 a pop so it was still a great concert. I was not going to risk that at $400 a pop.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

In order of the FMK game, I assume?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Also Brigitte Bardot is a racist pos. People, especially media, want to gloss over that because she was hot. Same with how Coco Chanel still gets venerated.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 day ago (3 children)

HP Lovecraft racist or rich white woman born in the 30s racist?

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Marrying the advisor of Jean-Marie Le Pen ( leader of Front Nationale a far-right French political party) type of racist. Plus she called Marie le Pen (daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen and also a fascist) the Joan of Arc of the 21st century in an interview.

i mean if she lights the pyre

[–] sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

HP Lovecraft racist or rich white woman born in the 30s racist?

That's literally the same racism, when do you think HP Lovecraft was living/writing...?

Also, we gotta stop giving old people passes. They have the ability to change, they just choose to be bigots. My 90+ year old grandma wholeheartedly embraces my trans friends even if she doesn't fully understand how or why "Robert" became "Annalise", and she had never interacted with a trans person in her life before then.

Brigitte Bardot was just a racist, xenophobic bitter POS until the end.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] tatann@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Uber-racist (and homophobe, anti-feminist, etc...)

She would have been a great asset in the Trump administration

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 40 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The list of suspects narrow...

[–] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

The long arc of justice will prevail.

[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 32 points 1 day ago

The article is light on detail. No actual list of who's in the song.

Here's the full list of 119 references:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_references_in_We_Didn%27t_Start_the_Fire

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 28 points 1 day ago

this might be one of the most mildly interestings things ive ever read

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The song also mentions the Beatles, and I'm sure there's at least one Belgian still in the Congo.

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago

It mentions Beatlemania, which I think we can safely say has died.

And you'd need two Belgians in the Congo.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Any troubles in the Suez still?

Has the boat gotten stuck again?

[–] GreenCrunch@piefed.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Well... since "we" could be interpreted to include Billy Joel and the listener... that's two more!

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I think including the listener is stretching it. I think it's pretty straightforward that "we" refers to Billy Joel's generation.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And any living Belgians who were in the Congo before 1960.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 18 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I wish the Fall Out Boy update to the song was good.

[–] Postimo@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In Bo Burnham fan circles people joked that That Funny Feeling from Inside is the truer generational update to We Didn't Start the Fire 🥲

[–] Aqarius@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

That's... entirely correct. Jesus.

[–] ech@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

What's your issue with it?

I didn't realize the Fall Out Boy version existed before this comment and streamed it. It sounds fairly good, about what I'd expect from a Fall Out Boy update

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago

The selection of items seems weaker to me, but for me the main sin is that the original is basically chronological, which makes it more impressive that it's a coherent song at all, if a bit overrated and very boomerific. Fallout Boy one just throws shit in at random to make the lines scan and rhyme, so it's very "meh" even as a follow-up. It feels like they kind of didn't understand that the original was a survey of the time period.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Did any of those 3 people start the fire?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] FardyCakes@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

I mean some of them weren’t alive even when the song came out.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

15 years ago he was in the news suing because someone put out a smartphone app named “Chubby Checker” and that’s was not the sort of association he wanted to his name. 😉

[–] hypnicjerk@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Holy shit, a Fire Punch meme on Lemmy. (read Fire Punch, everyone)

[–] aramis87@fedia.io 7 points 1 day ago

Only three people listed in the song are still alive: Bob Dylan, Chubby Checker, and Bernhard Goetz.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] tourist@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago

This was an interesting choice of image for the JFK mention.

collapsed inline media"JFK blown away" with a link to the Wikipedia page of JFK's assassination alongside a forensic drawing of JFK's head during the event. Wikipedia probably has better alt text, check there.

I know mashups are pretty tired but I always wanted to hear a mashup of "We Didn't Start the Fire" and Prodigy's "Firestarter".

[–] nemanin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I mean…only like 7 of them were alive in 1994 in the first place.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Amuletta@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Phegan@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

It's wild that payola was a scandal, compared to today where it's a drop in the bucket of corruption

load more comments
view more: next ›