I Wanted To See How Many Of My Gen Z Coworkers Recognized These Very Specific '90s Stars, And The Results Were...Hilarious
Helloooooo fine people. I'm a "geriatric millennial" (b. 1982) but have watched the ongoing generation wars from the sidelines. Honestly, I admire a lot of the general (generalized?) qualities of Gen X'ers and Gen Z'ers, so I mostly find it fun, and funny, to see where cultural reference points converge and collapse, rather than pitting generations against each other.
With that in mind, I wanted to quiz some of my younger coworkers on famous people that feel distinctly '90s to me and see if they A) had any clue who they were and B) would be willing to guess who they might be.
Honestly...it was fun and stupid, and I'm so glad I asked. Let's get into it.
1.Pauly Shore
'90s Kids Know Him As: The Weez, a lovable MTV host/comedian — and thoroughly confusing stoner type — who had a run of hit movies seemingly out of the blue. Definitely file under: You had to be there.
THE GUESSES:
'90s Kids Know Him As: One of the breakout stars from Heathers, a dark and satirical coming of age classic. His brooding intensity really stood out in cult classics like Pump Up the Volume and True Romance. Maybe the finest and most fetching widow's peak of the '90s.
THE GUESSES:
3.Sinbad
'90s Kids Know Him As: The ostentatiously dressed stand-up comedian who had a series of smaller but memorable roles around Hollywood, from A Different World to Jingle All the Way. It's Sinbad!
THE GUESSES:
'90s Kids Know Him As: A teen idol on the cover of every heartthrob mag with roles in distinctly '90s fare like The Faculty. You can catch him with a big role in this year's Oppenheimer.
THE GUESSES:
5.Rider Strong
'90s Kids Know Him As: Shawn from Boy Meets World, of course. Then Shawn from Girl Meets World. And Rider Strong from Pod Meets World.
THE GUESSES:
6.Mya
'90s Kids Know Her As: Singer on the late '90s party jam "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)" and part of the star-studded lineup on "Lady Marmalade."
THE GUESSES:
7.Jonathan Taylor Thomas
'90s Kids Know Him As: The massive tween heartthrob who costarred on Home Improvement and challenged Hartnett for "most magazine features about cute boys."
THE GUESSES:
8.The Smashing Pumpkins
'90s Kids Know Them As: Angsty grunge-pop legends led by grumpy savant Billy Corgan, with hits like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," "Today," "Tonight, Tonight," and many more.
THE GUESSES:
9.Puck from The Real World: San Francisco
'90s Kids Know Him As: The thorny Gen X prankster from The Real World: San Francisco who famously clashed with housemate and AIDS activist Pedro Zamora.
THE GUESSES:
10.Tom Green
'90s Kids Know Him As: Oddball comedian and actor who had a bizarre-yet-delightful MTV show, a romance with Drew Barrymore, and an ill-fated film called Freddy Got Fingered.
THE GUESSES:
11.John Leguizamo
'90s Kids Know Him As: Irrepressible actor from a series of extremely '90s projects like Romeo + Juliet, Dr. Dolittle, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.
THE GUESSES:
12.Lara Flynn Boyle
'90s Kids Know Her As: Primarily as Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks, honestly, but it would be remiss of me not to mention her small but memorable part as Stacy in Wayne's World.
THE GUESSES:
13.Minnie Driver
'90s Kids Know Her As: The iconic curly-hair star of classic films like Good Will Hunting and Grosse Pointe Blank (so underrated!).
THE GUESSES:
14.Wendy, "The Snapple Lady"
'90s Kids Know Her As: Wendy...the Snapple lady.
THE GUESSES:
15.Clay Aiken
'00s Kids Know Him As: Runner-up during the second season of American Idol with signature spiky mop. He also ran for the House of Representatives in 2014 and announced last year that he'll be running again. The classic Idol-to-Congress pipeline, ya know?
THE GUESSES:
16.Justin Guarini
'00s Kids Know Him As: The runner-up in the very first American Idol — he lost to future icon Kelly Clarkson in fairness — and costar of notorious bomb From Justin to Kelly (8% on Rotten Tomatoes 😬).
THE GUESSES:
Well this was a wild ride. Anybody else you wonder if my fantastic but much younger coworkers would know?
