Super Pop!: Pop Culture Top Ten Lists to Help You Win at Trivia, Survive in the Wild, and Make It Through the Holidays

By Daniel Harmon

Super Pop! offers a maximum-pleasure, minimum-effort way to become smarter, happier, and more likely to survive your next family function (or a shark attack). This hilarious and wide-ranging guide sorts nearly 500 different bestsellers, blockbusters, and underappreciated gems into quirky top ten lists, like "Outwit Death: Essential Lessons in Survival," and "Achieve Mindfulness: Movies That Will Show You the Way (With Wise Elders Now Included)." So whether you're looking for some motivational workout music, need help planning a July 4th double feature, or just want to pick up some knowledge without straining your brain, this book has you covered. With new insights on old classics and fresh ideas for jaded eyes, Super Pop! makes sense of pop culture — and then puts pop culture back to work!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lerner Publishing
• Release date: Aug 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781541582071

Daniel Harmon

Daniel Harmon is a former staff writer for Brokelyn.com, an occasional essayist on the topic of Tommy Wiseau's film The Room, and the author of the book Super Pop! Pop Culture Top Ten Lists to Help You Win at Trivia, Survive in the Wild, and Make It Through the Holidays.

Book preview

AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

There are a lot of things going on in this book. There are words, there are numbers, there are lists, there are illustrations, and there are probabably some typoos, too, but there is also, beneath and above all that, a genuine desire to turn readers on (. . . keep reading) to exciting new things and underappreciated old things and to make entertainment edifying. But before beginning, I wanted to take a moment to explain where this book came from, what it’s meant for, and where it falls on the Arbitrary Spectrum. Why? Because a book without an introduction is like a movie without an overture—and I miss overtures in movies. So without further ado or explanation, I give you the first of many top ten lists . . .

THE TOP TEN THINGS TO BEAR IN MIND WHEN READING THIS BOOK

Things are a lot less fun when you feel terrible after they are over (cf. Mardi Gras, warfare, New Year’s Eve, and celebratory cigars on all occasions). That’s the problem with a lot of pop culture: It goes down way too easy, and four seasons of Real Housewives later, you wonder where your humanity ran off to and why it has your credit cards. The lists in this book are organized into five different self-improvement categories—Be More Interesting, Get Smart(er), Stop Doing It Wrong, Find Happiness, and Survive the Holidays. Not every item in every list is equally instructive, but there really is a lot of value in the things that entertain us, and sometimes, by just paying attention to that fact, we can remove a lot of the guilt from our guilty pleasures." Not always, Top Gun, but sometimes.

I’m serious! This is the way I, for one, actually relate to pop culture. I have a very hard time enjoying a book or a movie unless I feel it’s in the service of some greater good— sounding informed, for example, or feeling better about myself, or actually learning something new. And with a little planning and ambition, I am convinced that pop culture can lead to a more fulfilling existence. But even if this were not my real belief— even if this were a giddy contrivance—it would still have some value here; because if you can find a way to connect ten different pop-cultural phenomena under a single coherent category—no matter what that category may be—then even the most debased of those ten items will gain something by its connection to everything else. That’s the theory, anyway. (This theory brought to you by The Weakest Link.)

Very arbitrary! This is a book of top ten lists in the most literal sense only. Each of the 40+ lists included here begins with the number ten and ends at the number one, but the order of the entries is 96 percent arbitrary at least 50 percent of the time. The point here isn’t to dictate what the best revenge movie is or what the most magical fantasy landscape may be, but rather to consolidate and organize the best, most popular, and most exciting stuff from pop culture.

Ten is a totally arbitrary number that’s nicely round. It’s big enough to let some fun outliers in, and yet not so big that the lists lose their coherence. Ten is a starting point and nothing more. (Ten is also net spelled backwards. For what it’s worth.)

The rules aren’t arbitrary at all, because there are no rules. If something is good and it’s relevant to a list that I thought had some merit, then I tried to include it. If that something was first a book but was then turned into a movie that was then further adapted into a video game (like, say, The Great Gatsby), then I tried to either pick the best of all these versions or, short of that, pick the shortest and most consumable iteration. If you feel like there are things that should be in these lists but aren’t, perhaps you are a gumshoe. Or some other more modern form of detective. I don’t know, but whatever the case, you definitely have a nose for the truth, and I could not agree with you more. A surprising amount of material was left on the cutting room floor. But everything that is in here is intended as a sincere recommendation (with the single exception of item #4 in the Sleep with the Fishes list).

The answer to almost every question is, of course, the internet. I am aware of this, but the fact remains that, with a very few exceptions (A.V. Club’s Inventory series, for instance, or the Criterion Collection’s Top 10s), most lists and recommendations on the internet are pretty unsurprising. In December you get the Christmas movie lists, on Valentine’s Day you get the romantic movies lists, and on every other day of the year you see the same basic set of books, movies, games, and songs, no matter where you read your news. Some of the titles may change, but it’s hard to find anything that’s really going to open your eyes.

For me, this phenomenon became most frustrating when I was looking for a few new movies to add to my annual Christmas movie marathon party (a twelve-hour party which, according to tradition, only I am able to enjoy). It was almost impossible to find any list that went much further than all the old standards and a few new staples. The fact that it was so hard to search for Christmas movies that went beyond the classics was, on the one hand, frustrating, but on the other hand, kind of exciting. Because there are a lot of great movies about snow and dysfunctional families—so where was that list!? That is Christmas! And what’s true for Christmas is doubly or triply true for Mother’s Day, for instance.

I wanted to write a book of lists that took recognizable occasions (like holidays) and genres (like historical fiction, say, or survival books) and offered some new ideas. I relied heavily on said internet in order to populate these lists with relevant entertainment options, but my goal was always to create lists that would resonate with people, but which the internet would not be able to populate on demand.

I am a guy who grew up craving pop culture but consuming very little of it. I read a lot as a young person, but most of what I read was written by the white and the dead—and not in a fun, zombie way. Luckily, I was also sick a lot, and in the course of my sick days, I got sick unto death of entertainment that was not actually entertaining. At the time (pre-Google), I was at a loss. But then I realized that someone at my local library cared enough to get old movies that were actually good, and I was officially back in business. From curated library collections I moved on to curated internet recommendations and podcast endorsements, and although I don’t have any shortage of recommendations these days, I still feel like the more lists there are, the better. Especially if they’re even just a little bit different. (I use the word different here in both the complimentary and the insulting sense.)

I has a tendency to be kind of intrusive in nonfiction books, so I tried to keep me out of it for the most part. I pop up when occasion demands, but the recommendations included here are not just things that I like. In fact, very few of the books on my shelves or the movies in my Netflix history even appear in this book. I have consumed at least some significant part of every item included in this book, and I heartily recommend them all, but I also made sure that I was not the only one who was a fan. I used online review forums, the advice of friends, and, of course, any number of canonical lists—from IMDB’s Top 250 to Rolling Stone’s Top 500 to the Modern Library’s top 100 novels list—to ensure that this wasn’t simply a listing of things that I had once crushed on in the privacy of my own home. Because that list would be embarrassing in the extreme.

By pop culture, I mean whatever is convenient for me at any given time. We know it when we see it, so I don’t see much benefit in worrying about it. There’s some very high culture in here and some very low culture, too, but basically what I’m going for, with every item in every list, is something that people can reasonably expect to consume for fun.

Once upon a time, before discs began popping out to us from mailboxes and before videos came streaming into our homes through internet tubes, we had to rely on actual, physical stores. And since these stores had limited space—and since Block-buster had all the new releases on lockdown—the mom and pops of the world had two ways of keeping their customers interested: They could either carefully curate their collections and rotate their titles into and out of different categories (Flemish Neo-Noirs, Musical Westerns, and ALF-inspired Space Comedies, for instance), or they could just say to hell with it and let the movies fall into a general state of chaos.

Curation is great, but there’s still an order to it; only in the chaos shops did you feel that anything was possible. It wasn’t like the good movies were over here and the bad movies were over there and the rated x movies were behind that curtain; instead, everything was everywhere, so you really had to look. Nothing could be dismissed out of hand. Hopefully this book can be read in the same way that those old video stores were browsed. Hopefully you can open up to any page and find something of interest. (Or, short of that, at least something to laugh at.)

Where? Oh, just all manner of places. Just all manner. If there is a bookshelf or a computer or a television or even a smartphone available, then this book should come in very handy indeed. So I guess the real question is, where does it not come in handy? Aha! That list is much shorter: in space (especially when plummeting through it), under water (unless in a submarine vehicle of some kind), in any kind of vehicle, whether sub- or super-marine (because focus on the road!), and in the future when the machines turn against us.

When? Well, my hope is that this book will have something to offer whether you’re looking for a new recommendation or just hoping for a new take on an old favorite. My hope is that if you haven’t heard of the given thing before, that you’ll want to check it out, and that if you have, then you’ll want to check it out again.

Approximately zero. But now that it’s over, I hope you enjoy the book! (Also, bear in mind is a terrifying phrase.)

LIVE LIKE AN ARISTOCRAT

THE BEST PLACES TO MINGLE

WITH THE ELITE

As James Bond has demonstrated time and time again, you don’t have to be a baron to live like an aristocrat. Instead, you just need a superior demeanor, a stiff upper lip, and a distinctive slogan to go along with your favorite drink order. (Make mine a milk. Boiled, salted, and in a pan, to give one example. Or: Tequila. Now. And a bacon straw for sipping.) But if you’re not yet adept at tying a bow tie or landing a line, don’t lose hope. Even failure can work in your favor (since past inbreeding did, after all, set a fine precedent for eccentric mannerisms). So settle in, keep an open mind, and select the aristocratic tic that works for you!

It’s hard to talk about this movie without talking about its director: Luchino Visconti was born into a noble Italian family, but he made his first big international splash with La Terra Trema, a chronicle of life in a Sicilian fishing village that was so authentically rendered that subtitles had to be added so that Italian audiences could understand what the amateur actors were saying. At the time, that naturalistic style was all the rage, but Visconti’s own personal style was always something a bit more . . . elegant. The Leopard, a historical epic chronicling the political turmoil of nineteenth-century Sicily, is saturated with color and moves fluidly from opulent scene to opulent scene—until the walls come crumbling down and a new, more democratic country is born. Through it all, the Prince of Salina, Don Fabrizio (played by Burt Lancaster) strides over this chaos with Bendicò (his loyal Great Dane) behind him. He is the perfect gentleman, and he is going down with the ship.

Jeeves is a man whose mother named him Jeeves; and, therefore, Jeeves is also, necessarily, a butler. Bertram Bertie Wooster, on the other hand, is not much of anything at all. He is not almost by profession. He is not employed. He is not unhappy. He is not especially intelligent. And he is not overly bothered by much of anything—except his overbearing aunts. But without Jeeves, Wooster would not be Wooster; and without Wooster, Jeeves would not be Jeeves. They are a master and servant, yes, but they are also a perfect pair. Bertie has the problems and Jeeves has the answers, over and over and over again. But the familiar setup operates in the same way that the apartment or the coffee shop operates in so many classic sitcoms: It simply allows us to settle in and pay attention to what really matters—namely, the interactions among the characters (and the inspired ways they denigrate each other).

It’s too bad that Evelyn Waugh was named Evelyn, because if he had simply been named George then George Waugh would be famous for having written one of the funniest and most truly enjoyable books in the English language, instead of being mocked for having a name that appears to have been stolen from an elderly English lady. But that’s just the way things go sometimes.

Brideshead is the estate of Lord Marchmain and his family—including, most notably, the young Sebastian Flyte and his teddy bear, Aloysius. (Note to Sebastian: If you are old enough to drink and troubled enough to brood over all of your many drinks, you are also probably too old to have a teddy bear, just as a general rule.) Sebastian’s difficulty in coping with his privileged existence is telling, however. This is one of the funniest books ever written, but it’s also deeply somber. The drunk scion’s teddy bear is a good indication of that tension. The family is old and rich and powerful, but they are also at the end of their rope. Luckily, ropes are much more interesting toward their ends, and the book’s narrator, Charles Ryder, is on hand to account for Flyte’s dissolution (via grain alcohol and whimsicality) and to give a full accounting of both what the family stood for and what they really were.

James Bond is not a member of the aristocracy in anything but the most metaphorical sense—but if anyone has ever had a stiffer upper lip than 007, I would like to meet this person, shake his hand, and offer to break the spell that has turned him into a statue. Ian Fleming didn’t waste any time in establishing the key elements in his first Bond novel. Casino Royale has it all: sangfroid, Russians, shaken martinis, expensive accoutrements, alluring strangers, dangerous new friends, sadistic villains, confusing plots, and torture. And on that note, if anyone ever invites you to strip down and make yourself comfortable on a chair that has no seat, DO NOT DO IT; but if you do sit down, and if someone does then cane you from below, take it like a spy. If you can get through that with style, then you truly have arrived.

It’s hard to imagine how Daniel Day-Lewis (the hyper-intense method actor), Martin Scorsese (the artiste behind America’s best gangster films), and Edith Wharton (the turn-of-the-century American author who obsessed over questions of decorum and social class) could ever find a common ground. Day-Lewis and Scorsese? That one’s easy: Gangs of New York. Wharton and Day-Lewis? Sure: They both share a genius for saying a lot with a little. Wharton and Scorsese, however . . . that’s where things begin to fall apart. But in an interview with Roger Ebert in 2005, Scorsese revealed the tie that binds them all together: What has always stuck in my head is the brutality under the manners. Sticks and stones may break my bones, in other words, but words may do the same. (And looks may do even worse.) If you want to learn how to stab someone to death with a pen (verbally, I mean) this is where you need to go to school.

Mr. Ripley is very talented at knowing what he wants and then pursuing it. According to many self-help books, this should make Mr. Ripley a very healthy, very wealthy, and very wise man, indeed. And by the end of the book, Mr. Ripley has in fact made himself far better off and far better situated than he was at the outset, but his greatest attribute is luck. His compulsion to take what he wants and be what he desires (and to do so without delay) makes him very prone to errors, but time and again a little stroke of luck stands between him and his always imminent (but never actual) punishment. The devil is in the details, however, and there are a lot of details in Mr. Ripley’s story. (Principle among them is the fact that he is not afraid to indulge in an occasional bout of murder.) From the selfishness to the cynicism to the strange blending of love and homicide, this is the story of a budding aristocrat, if ever there was one . . .

Russia has its counts and countesses, England has its dukes and duchesses, and we in America, what do we have? Well, high-powered trial attorneys for one, corporate kingpins for two, and media celebrities for three (and the win). Damages gives us all of the above. If you’re wondering what the American struggle for power looks like when it’s dressed up and ready for dinner, this is it. And if you want to know what the American struggle for power would look like after it has been shoved into an alley, handed a broom, and told to get ready for a knife fight, keep your eyes fixed on Rose Byrne in every single season premiere. Each new season plunks her down in a rat-infested bag of trouble, and the plot twists don’t let up until the finale, the cliffhanger upon which a new season will begin. Because this is America, where winning matters more than blood (and where blood only matters if it kills you). This is the rebirth of the aristocracy, all dressed up in red, white, and blue.

Once upon a time there was a thing called the aristocracy. It was a loose affiliation of nervous people who did what they could to keep it in the family so as to maintain their wealth and prestige. The aristocracy was not always loved, and people called it names, but it was feared and admired for a while (due to its success), before it was violently overthrown. Once upon a time there was also a television show called The Brady Brunch, which chronicled the conflicts and resolutions that occur when two distinct families (a father with three sons and a mother with three daughters) try to combine their respective parts in the California suburbs. This show was not always loved, and people called it names, but it was feared and admired for a while (due to its success), before it was violently overthrown. Then it was put into syndication and turned into a movie franchise, because duh.

Keeping Up with the Kardashians is the sum of these two ideas. The show is a fairly bald means of increasing the Kardashian family’s fame and prestige, but it’s also a sitcom, a reality show, and a place where reality seems to play no significant role. Most but not all of the children born to Kris Jenner (the matriarch) have names that begin with the letter K. Kourtney is the oldest, Kim is the famousest, Khloe is the most accented, and Rob is the K-lessest; but there’s also Brandon, Brody, Kendall, Kylie, and a rotating cast of American celebrities and superstars, from Reggie Bush to Kanye West to Lamar Odom. Some people love this family, other people hate it; but all in all, it has to be said that they are a pretty big deal. They are rich, attractive, famous, self-involved, and crass. They are who America wants to be. (But imitate them at your own peril.)

Season 1 of Downton Abbey was phenomenal because it was like being allowed to spend even more time on the grounds of Gosford Park (the setting of the film of the same name where Julian Fellowes first made his reputation). It was a place where rich people made decisions slowly, judged people rapidly, and fought against any and every possible change to the status quo—no matter how big or small. It was the entertainment equivalent of a rearguard action. But if Lady Grantham (played by Dame Maggie Smith) is playing defense for you, then hope is far from lost. For proof of this fact, see Season 2, in which Europe is ravaged by the First World War, influenza, and a variety of upstarts, but in which Downton also remains a stoical, implacable host to all. (And if you’re looking for proof of how sadistic an entertainer Fellowes really is, see Season 3.)

So with the possible exceptions of Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Casino Royale, all of the works mentioned above are really more about the death of the ruling class than they are about the existence of the same. They are all looking back at aristocracy. Thus, in order to find something that engages with the nobles on more or less equal terms, we have to move to a parallel universe: We have to move to the Seven Kingdoms, and play the Game of Thrones . . .

And in order to avoid losing ourselves in the murky political waters of this impressively epic TV series, let us just say that here, in this universe, might is almost always right. The only problem is that it’s often very hard to tell who is mighty and what exactly makes them so. The family that seems to have the firmest grasp on what it takes to achieve real dominance is the Lannisters. They are unquenchable in their thirst for power and merciless in their execution of it (no pun intended). There are many families who possess some share of political significance, or money, or dragons, but the Lannisters are the only real aristocrats in the show. (And how do we know this? Just listen to their accents!)

Like any number of great fables, Game of Thrones never strays very far from its central idea, but it is never held in thrall to that idea either. So to put it another way, Game of Thrones is about power in the same way that Peter Pan is about boyhood—that is to say, entirely and not at all. And although GOT is ostentatious where Peter Pan is wry, they both use the leash of their central theme as a means of keeping nearly everything relevant.

Game of Thrones takes place in a world where, like ours, anything is possible because everything is up for grabs—with sufficient means, that is. And thus, in a family that contains an uncompromising father, a charismatic son, a domineering daughter, a Joffre, and a dwarf, the Lannisters contain something for us all. Like the aristocracy, the only thing the Lannisters don’t contain within their ranks is the populace they trample underfoot. Oh, and dragons. (Which could be a problem . . .)

DIVE INTO THE UNDERWORLD

ESSENTIAL TOURS OF GANG WARS,

THE DRUG TRADE, AND OTHERWISE

FELONIOUS LIVING

If you’re at a party and you can tell a story about how your old friend Jack Rumballs McMannard once accidentally stole his favorite sister’s favorite car (on her birthday, no less!) you’re going to go home a winner. Street cred is the best cred, and it’s not just the rat-racers who invest in their criminal affiliations. After all, where would the merry men be without Robin Hood? (Answer: Stuck at Euro Disney.) Who would count all 40 thieves, if it weren’t for Ali Baba? (Answer: Count von Count . . . he alone.) Everyone wants to know the right kind of wrong people, and everyone wants to know the secret password. But there are a lot of ways to say Open Sesame. It’s time to start getting fluent in the streets . . .

The most exciting—and most terrifying—thing about the criminal element in Breaking Bad is that it is everywhere. Walter White gets his initial baking supplies from the high school where he teaches; he gets his motivation from the American health care system (which essentially abandons him after his cancer diagnosis); he finds his customers everywhere; and he hides his captive-taking, drug-dealing, murderous second life in plain sight. This is the state of the American underbelly, the show seems to say. It’s everywhere. Weeds put it in the suburbs, but Breaking Bad goes one step further and puts it in the desert—the place where pretty much nothing lives (a suitably ominous setting for the increasingly morbid, increasingly pessimistic, and increasingly brilliant show).

The underworld, wherever it’s found and by whatever name it’s known, is always reliant on a secret code—because the walls have ears. In Grand Theft Auto IV, the necessity for a secret code is reflected not only in the game’s dialogue (which one New York Times reviewer said possessed a mastery of street patois to rival Elmore Leonard’s) but is also evident in its icons and landmarks. Swingers (aka the New York Yankees) and the Algonquin (aka Manhattan), for example, help to reproduce New York in satirical miniature as Liberty City, a place where prostitutes, smugglers, drug dealers, pimps, murderers, robbers, carjackers, racists, stereotypes, con-men, and thieves all come together to pay homage to the American dream—sometimes by another name, and sometimes not. It’s the place where, in one scene, you’ve made it, and in the next scene, they’ve made you. It’s rough, it’s tumble, it’s America—virtually.

Brazil is big. Rio is big. But Rio’s slums are enormous. Almost a quarter of the city’s six million residents reside in the favelas, which are not, by all accounts, a very safe place to be. Drugs are big business, guns are everywhere, and the police have little control. For Rocket, the main character in City of God, this is his world. We follow him as he grows up here, and what we wind up with is a picture of a completely believable adolescence in a completely unbelievable place. When the violence or the threat of violence gets too intense, Rocket manages to find little moments of escape by going to the beach, smoking pot with his friends, and taking pictures of the world as he sees it. But as the drug wars intensify, escape gets harder and harder to come by, and at one crucial moment, escape and captivity combine: He’s stuck taking pictures of a live gunfight. And one way or another, you know that this is going to be his way out.

It seems improper to write anything at all about the underworld without mentioning the Yakuza—Japan’s very organized collection of organized criminals. You know, the guys with the tattoos, the rigorous code of behavior, the pervasive cultural influence, and, of course, the finger-shortening. But at the same time, because

Reviews for Super Pop!

[asbooks-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is really fun and funny. A collection of Pop Culture lists with paragraphs describing each item on the list. Great tone and made me laugh literally out loud. Recommended if you like to smile.

[aquariusnat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun trivia book ! It has a wide variety of topics to delve into . There is plenty of room for debate in all of the lists in the book , but that's half the fun ! If you like these types of trivia list books , then you'll be pleased with this .

[breadnbutter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you are a fan of all kinds of pop culture (tv, movies, music) then this book is for you. After reading through all the lists, I got a lot of reccomendations for new shows and movies to watch which is great. I am always on the lookout for new awesome entertainment. This is a great coffee table or bedtime book to peruse even if you only have a few minutes.

[hrc0826 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I thought that my 16 year old daughter and I would both enjoy this book so I was excited when I received it. We both found it to be clunky and not overly interesting. A good idea but the format could use some help.

[idj_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Zest Books, the publisher of this book, lists it in their 2013 catalog as a new book of 'Teen Reads With a Twist'. It may be that the text is written at a level that any teen with normal reading comprehension will understand it, because I certainly see this book appealing to a far broader audience than just teens. In fact, anyone with an interest in contemporary pop culture will be interested in giving this book a go. It's funny, modern and has a tongue-in-cheek approach to a lot of things - things we hear or read on the internet every day. The book struggles a bit to be contemporary and 'with it' but, in the end, succeeds in doing what a good book should do - spark interest, stimulate curiosity and inform. To what degree each of those ends are met are left to the individual reader. I must say that I did enjoy it - probably because I get great satisfaction from poking fun at modern culture. Such fun...

[princemuchao · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Perhaps this would be better suited for teens because everything I was interested in I had already seen, and the author for the most part does not do a good job convincing you to pursue list items you have not already experienced. His "witty" style of writing grates on me, and I was finding it very difficult to finish the book without skipping sections. Despite all this, some of the entries did show promise - the way he described Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt stands out among the rest and is illustrative of how this book could have been more successful in reaching me.

[peripa_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed Super Pop. I thought it was fun. The author has some fun and original commentary that kept me interested even though there was not necessarily a lot of new information. I imagine if one is less of a pop culture dork it would be a much more informative read. I think this book is marketed as being for teenagers. I'm not sure I would let young teenagers read it as there is some content/language best suited for older teenagers and adults. Overall: Super Pop is fun, looks stylish and would make a good gift for pop culture buffs or list lovers.

[kellyatfsu · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book and the different medias represented in the lists. The dialogue is funny and the topics entertaining. It would've been better with more pop culture related pictures. Not a super useful book, but fun to browse through

[booklove2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

POP CULTURE! That is my thing. Books, movies, music, TV, videogames. So this book had my interest right away. Actually, what caught my attention was that a Daniel Harmon wrote this book and I immediately thought of the creator of my favorite show 'Community' and how awesome a book about pop culture would be from such a brain as his. Though, as a disclaimer, the author of the book is NOT that Dan Harmon. But wow is this book fun. There are dozens of themed lists with countdowns of fun movies, music, etc included in that topic. An example: 'Thanksgiving: Ad hoc families that will do in a pinch'. This is supposedly a book for teens, but some of the things in these lists aren't really for teens... like anything in the 'Dive into the Underworld' category. Some of these things seem like the most extreme of the most extreme to me. It was fun just to think up what I might add to each list... and also how fun it would be to write your own book like this one. In general, I'd have to say that most of the things mentioned here were things I was already aware of... but if my brain knows anything, it knows pop culture. But maybe this is a pop culture primer... to make sure you are aware of these things, fill in the gaps. If anything, it reminded me of the great things I already knew about but didn't actually partake in yet: for example, 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Ocsar Wao' is on my shelves, I just haven't read it yet. This book may make me read that sooner. So this might be a nice look at pop culture things you should be aware of organized in the most fun and best way possible. I'm very thankful I'm living in 2013.. there is no lack of pop culture goodness to keep me occupied! For fun, I'll finish this review with a list of my Top 11 favorite things mentioned in this book:11. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith (book)10. The Avengers (movie)9. Arrested Development (TV)8.Amelie (movie)7. Seven Samurai (movie)6. American Gods - Neil Gaiman (book)5. Watchmen (graphic novel)4. Freaks & Geeks (TV)3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 'Once More With Feeling' (TV)2. Jeff Buckley's 'Hallelujah' (music)1. Community (TV)

[literate0ninja · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is a lot of fun. Presented as a book of lists, it gives a pretty good showing of pop culture today. The recommendations range from 18th century literature to YouTube music videos, and could conceivably be used as a textbook of modern human entertainment for someone just arrived from Mars. It is humorous, clever, and filled with really good information and suggestions. In nearly every list I found recommendations for things I had never heard of before, and I look forward to reading/viewing/hearing quite a few of them in the near future. Recommended for anyone who's ever said "I'm bored."

[alliebadger · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I got this from Early Reviewers and, when I found out which book I was getting, was a little disappointed. I assumed it was intended for kids and teens and didn't really need another book telling me what to watch. But once I got the book and started flipping through it, I became much happier. First of all, each list is a mix of mediums - no specific "movies" or "books" list, instead they all are considered for each category. And rather than your typical "10 Movies About France" lists, this book is full of entertaining list categories such as "Live Like an Aristocrat: The Best Places To Mingle With The Elite" (includes Jeeves & Wooster, Brideshead Revisted, Casino Royale, Keeping up with the Kardashians, Downton Abbey, and Game of Thrones) or "Go Where Everybody Knows Your Name: The Best Places To Hang Out For An Hour" (includes the bar in Cheers, the theme park in Adventureland, the Shire in LOTR, the Snakehole Lounge in Parks and Rec, and the Community study room). I look forward to making my way through the lists!

[thebentley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's surprising that the fine folks at Mental Floss magazine have not yet snapped up young Mr. Harmon. If nothing else, Super Pop! feels very much like a quality audition for that gig. It's a fun "bathroom book," at least as good as the "canon" of such books put out by Mental Floss, but, as a subscriber to that publication, I have to say that the magazine's copy-editors do a better job (and on a more frequent basis) and such lists are more effective when they are serialized. I only rarely agreed with Harmon's taste, and I thought many of his lists were specious at best (and that because his voice is charming and ironic and I couldn't help but like him). But the true test of a book like this is always whether or not it created interest, and I have to say that, in my case, it did. While I was reading it (in its, let's say, natural setting) I dog-eared many pages. I felt inclined to ask my friends, family and co-workers their opinions on the lists involved, and I added many books, movies, tv shows, comic books, websites, songs, podcasts, and video games to my list of stuff I need to experience. (You've got to give the author credit for his RANGE, which is simply exceptional). And I whole-heartedly agree with him that pop culture is both more important and more complex than we give it credit for. I am frankly very interested in seeing what Harmon would do with a regular column (or podcast!) in a periodical that shares his quirky values. In short, the book itself is mediocre (unless you are still stacking Reader's Digest on your toilet tank--in that case, burn them for fuel and buy this book!) but the author has a great future ahead of him.

[seschend · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2.5 stars. Amusing in places and fun read, but definitely the sort of thing I'd normally shelve in a bathroom for reading in fits and starts.

[dmo_18 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book through the Early Reviewers program. I was curious to see the kinds of lists that were included and the items on those lists. As another reviewer has noted, there are some odd choices. A list of explorers is topped by Scrooge McDuck (what's that about???) and the "Find Your Calling" list is a group of movies, books, and TV shows that have characters with unusual hobbies. Other lists were a bit more interesting, such as the Essential Podcasts list. The "Get Motivated: Songs Guaranteed to Get You Pumped" exists solely to generate heated arguments, I'm sure. This is the kind of book that will serve to generate discussions on a long car ride and, likely, heated conversations between members of different generations. And it might lead you to check out a book or movie you have never heard of.

[kjeanqu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was great for list and trivia lovers. I thoroughly enjoyed the lists, the descriptions and the humor! The lists were varied and very descriptive. If you are looking for new books to read, movies or television to watch or even new music to listen to this is a great place to get some recommendations. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in pop culture.

[capfox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At first glance, I wasn't 100% sure what I was getting with this book. It's just a bunch of lists, written along pretty broad themes, for about 300 pages, and I thought it'd get tiring. But really, the net cast by the author is so broad, and the writing so clear and engaged with the various topics, that it never really got old! Beyond that, I also learned of a lot of different things that I hadn't heard of before, in terms of books, movies, music, and more, that I've enjoyed afterwards. I've gotten this as a present for a couple of people, and I really think it's worth giving a try. Probably best not to sit down and read all at once, especially if you want to try looking at some of the things on the lists you're reading through, but it's good enough you'll get through it eventually!

[wcs53_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book for anyone who loves lists and pop culture. What I liked most about it was that there were plenty of lists of things that may have seemed to be a little on the obscure side. Some of the lists are great as conversation starters and could lead to some interesting debates. It's a book that one can easily dip in and out of at any time. There were times when I found myself at odds with the author's ideas and choices, which isn't really a bad thing, because I'm sure that he wouldn't agree with all of my choices. I also discovered some new books and movies that I want to explore now, as some of the lists have piqued my interest. It's a great book to leave lying on the coffee table and a few of my friends have already shown some interest in it.

[marcush_42 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was an Early Reviewer copy of the book and honestly it kind of confused me. I'm a huge trivia and pop culture fan so I was looking forward to expanding my knowledge. Unfortunately, I felt like this just compiled the author's lists of favorite pop culture figures into personally themed lists. Examples include a list of books where the protagonist is very self-centered: Catcher in the Rye, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Room, Persepolis; and a list that compiles pop culture references to mentor-like figures: Empire Strikes Back, City Slickers, Silence of the Lambs, The Matrix, Harry Potter. While the author provides interesting examples, I kept scratching my head at some of the choices. Many of these odd choices are mentioned in other reviews (#1 explorer reference in pop culture = Scrooge McDuck...where the heck is Indiana Jones...nowhere on the list).While I can understand a compilation of pop culture lists being opinionated and slightly odd (I have my own lists that can attest to this), I was most disappointed with the small paragraph explanations of the choices. The explanations border mostly on summary and very rarely makes clear why the author includes the submission.Overall, the book could be entertaining if it is simply flipped through for some quick pleasure, but to sit down and read through each list creates a frustrating, head-scratching experience.

[morphidae_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I started off not liking this book because it wasn't what I expected. I thought I was getting a book of light-hearted top ten lists. Instead, I got lists that were more thoughtful with reviews for each entry. Once I got past my initial frustration, I mostly enjoyed it. The format was good and the writing has clarity. For the most part, I liked reading it though at times it got too dry or snarky. I went through the book with highlighter in hand for books, movies and such to search out later. One marker of success for this book is the amount of highlighting I did!

[minacee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Super Pop is a "bathroom book" or the book you leave lying around your house for guests to pick up and casually flip through to begin conversations. This is not a book you read cover-to-cover unless you are really looking to waste time. Majority of the illustrations are black and white, feature the superhero mascot of the book, and resemble the notebook doodles of a teenager. The book is a series of top ten lists with snappy titles ("Gain Emotional Intelligence: Because Sometimes IQ Isn't Enough") that are fairly well-rounded and up-to date. Are today's teenagers (the reader the author had in mind when writing this book) familiar with Seinfeld? They may not be but Daniel Harmon, also the editorial director of Zest Books, drops the long-running sitcom in the same list with the currently airing Modern Family.The beginning of the subtitle of this book is what caught my eye and made me request it: "To help you win at trivia." I am a trivia buff and love information but imagine my surprise as I was flipping through the book and found an ERROR. Yes, Harmon is a "pop culture connoisseur" and there is straight-up wrong information in his book.In the list titled "Ten Essential Catchphrases for Use At Dinner Parties" Harmon quotes Ken, a character from the popular Capcom video game "Street Fighter." Street Fighter is a lucrative series and has been around since the late 1980's. The book says that one of Ken's phrases is "Sonic Boom!" This is incorrect and it seems the author has confused one American blonde character from the series with another American blonde character: Guile.Ken was trained under a karate master in Japan and when Ken throws his projectile he says "Hadoken!" Guile is a member of the US Air Force and he shouts "Sonic Boom!" when he throws his projectile.Are there more errors in this book? I don't know because that one mistake shattered my confidence and I put the book down. I would proceed with caution when repeating anything read in Super Pop unless you know it to be true.

[bragan_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is, basically, a collection of recommendations for books, movies, TV shows, comic strips, songs, podcasts, YouTube videos, and websites. It's organized into lists with a nominal "how to" theme, but few of them are really about learning how to do anything; they're mostly just an excuse to gather together a bunch of works that may or may not have anything obvious in common. I like this rather offbeat approach, which nicely avoids rehashing any of the tired, familiar top ten lists that can be found all over the internet, and I really like the eclectic nature of the choices, which range from the classic to the current, from the highbrow to the trashy. And, in my opinion, at least, a lot of those choices are pretty good ones. Sadly, despite all that, I don't think this book was terribly successful at what it was trying to do. It never resulted in any additions to my Netflix queue or my LibraryThing wishlist, never made me want to run out and sample any of this supposedly great stuff it was talking about. At most, it made me mildly curious about a handful of things. The thing is, when I was familiar with the work in question, more often than not I found myself nodding in agreement and smiling a little at the in-jokes, but when I wasn't, there was seldom enough substance here to tell me why I should want to familiarize myself with it or to make me feel particularly interested. Far too often, it felt like the author was too busy trying to be cool and funny and wacky and hip (with varying levels of success) to pay enough attention to actually having something worthwhile to say. So, while it was reasonably entertaining to flip through, it was ultimately a bit of a disappointment.Rating: A slightly generous 3.5/5

[theflamingoreads · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Super Pop!" by Daniel Harmon is one list after another full of contemporary cultural lists - everything from "Live Like an Aristocrat - The Best Places to Mingle With the Elite" to "Sleep With The Fishes - The Ten Best Places to Find Your Spirit Animal" - each with a reference to shows, music, and books that are relevant today. The subtitle, "To Help You Win At Trivia, Survive In The Wild, And Make It Through The Holidays" gives you some idea of what to look forward to in his book. Each part begins with a general topic, "Get Smart(er)", and then provides the lists, "Get Up to Speed", and "Think Outside the Box", etc. The author provides an opinion as to which movies, shows, or books will then give you the advantage should you ever find yourself in a precarious situation or on the losing end of a cultural debate.This is less of an trivia book than a 'book of lists'. Unless you've been living in a cave for the past 15 years you will know these references and that makes for interesting reading. It's just uncool to not get a reference or recognizing a cultural icon! Of course, not everyone will agree that the movie "Shaun of the Dead" is a great example of "the very best of a fictional, non-familial family", but if that encourages a healthy and fun discussion, than that's good.Aimed more at a teenage audience (it seems), it's still an interesting read. The author's writing style (you may not find it as hilarious as he does) nonetheless lends itself well to the topics. I don't think you'll find any great revelations here, but you may just think of your favorite movie or book in a different light. For the afternoons (or extended sitting breaks in the smallest room in your house, if you know what I mean) when you just want to be entertained and not indulge in heavy reading and for lovers of everything 'pop culture' this book is highly recommended.

[winterfox-392140 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At first glance, I wasn't 100% sure what I was getting with this book. It's just a bunch of lists, written along pretty broad themes, for about 300 pages, and I thought it'd get tiring. But really, the net cast by the author is so broad, and the writing so clear and engaged with the various topics, that it never really got old! Beyond that, I also learned of a lot of different things that I hadn't heard of before, in terms of books, movies, music, and more, that I've enjoyed afterwards. I've gotten this as a present for a couple of people, and I really think it's worth giving a try. Probably best not to sit down and read all at once, especially if you want to try looking at some of the things on the lists you're reading through, but it's good enough you'll get through it eventually!