History Main / BeforeMyTime

* In ''{{Zombieland}}'', Talahassee (after being informed of the concept of HannahMontana) bemoans the fact that young people don't know who BillMurray is, and that it's like saying they don't know who Ghandi is.
--> "Who's Ghandi?"

-->(And must have grown up without a TV, given that it's been in syndication her entire life.)

* In ''SixteenOhTwo'', [[SpiderMan Peter Parquagh]] tells [[NickFury Sir Nicholas Fury]] that he's unaware of previous events in that timeline, because, as he justifies it in his own words, "I wasn't born yet". [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped Fury responds by telling him the importance of knowing about history.]]

Funny thing. This Wiki has entries relating to ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'', SherlockHolmes, and many, many connected to Creator/WilliamShakespeare. Does this mean that a large number of Tropers are ReallySevenHundredYearsOld? Probably not. More likely, their education and particular interests have left them with knowledge of things that happened well before they were born.

* On ''{{The X-Files}}'', Mulder goes to interview a retired FBI agent who investigated X-Files in TheFifties. The agent asks Mulder whether he's heard of the House Un-American Activities Committee, but immediately assumes that he hasn't. Even if he knew nothing about Mulder personally, the topic is covered in high school history classes.

-->When you say [[BobDylan Dylan]], he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas\\

* In MonsterInLaw, Jane Fonda is a newscaster interviewing a "dumb blonde" type famous pop singer, who mentioned that she liked ''really old'' movies, and gives some examples, none of which are more than ten or fifteen years old.

* Sometimes seen on ''Series/{{The Office|US}}''. In one episode, Michael goes clubbing with Ryan and chats up a girl with a tangent on ''Film/BackToTheFuture''. She doesn't seem to have heard of it, even though the movie or one of its sequels is basically always playing on some cable channel or other.
* On ''Series/{{House}}'', the title character is making one of his trademark analogies to Thirteen, in this case referencing ''AlteredStates''. She tries to shut him down by saying the movie came out before she was even born. Which apparently prevents her not only from having seen the movie, but also from understanding anything he says about it. Just in case you were wondering why fandom so loves this character.

* As the youngest character on ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Cerie continuously fails to recognize references to anything from earlier than last month. This does fit her character as she is a DumbBlonde.

* On ''Series/{{Community}}'', one of the characters in a community college study group makes a reference to [[{{Cheers}} Sam and Dianne]].
-->Annie: Who are Sam and Dianne?
-->Shirley: Ok, we ''get'' it! You're ''young''!

A more technologically-oriented version of this is WhatAreRecords?

Funny thing. This Wiki has entries relating to ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'', SherlockHolmes, and many, many connected to WilliamShakespeare. Does this mean that a large number of Tropers are ReallySevenHundredYearsOld? Probably not. More likely, their education and particular interests have left them with knowledge of things that happened well before they were born.

The opposite is often true of people - and especially young people - in fiction. Barring special circumstances, characters will be limited in knowledge of movies, music, politics etc. to things occurring after their birth. In some cases, the ignorance extends to some time after they reached high school.

Before My Time is a kind of in-universe version of the FleetingDemographicRule, wherein a character demonstrates glaring ignorance of anything significantly in the past. Frequently this involves blank stares and [[ChirpingCrickets crickets chirping]] in response to something said by an older character.

* Sometimes seen on ''Series/{{The Office|US}}''. In one episode, Michael goes clubbing with Ryan and chats up a girl with a tangent on ''Film/BackToTheFuture''. She doesn't seem to have heard of it, even though the movie or one of its sequels is basically always playing on some cable channel or other.
* On ''Series/{{House}}'', the title character is making one of his trademark analogies to Thirteen, in this case referencing ''AlteredStates''. She tries to shut him down by saying the movie came out before she was even born. Which apparently prevents her not only from having seen the movie, but also from understanding anything he says about it. Just in case you were wondering why fandom so loves this character.
* On ''{{The X-Files}}'', Mulder goes to interview a retired FBI agent who investigated X-Files in TheFifties. The agent asks Mulder whether he's heard of the House Un-American Activities Committee, but immediately assumes that he hasn't. Even if he knew nothing about Mulder personally, the topic is covered in high school history classes.

-->(And must have grown up without a TV, given that it's been in syndication her entire life.)

[[AC:{{Music}}]]

The man ain't got no culture

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]

* The "after my time" inversion was used in those exact words on ''Series/{{Lost}}'' when Locke doesn't recognize Sawyer's reference to ''OfMiceAndMen''. Since Locke is actually [[spoiler:the Smoke Monster, who's been on the Island for centuries]] it kind of is.

* Sometimes seen on ''TheOffice''. In one episode, Michael goes clubbing with Ryan and chats up a girl with a tangent on ''BackToTheFuture''. She doesn't seem to have heard of it, even though the movie or one of its sequels is basically always playing on some cable channel or other.

* On ''{{House}}'', the title character is making one of his trademark analogies to Thirteen, in this case referencing ''AlteredStates''. She tries to shut him down by saying the movie came out before she was even born. Which apparently prevents her not only from having seen the movie, but also from understanding anything he says about it. Just in case you were wondering why fandom so loves this character.

* The "after my time" inversion was used in those exact words on ''{{Lost}}'' when Locke doesn't recognize Sawyer's reference to ''OfMiceAndMen''. Since Locke is actually [[spoiler:the Smoke Monster, who's been on the Island for centuries]] it kind of is.

* On ''{{Community}}'', one of the characters in a community college study group makes a reference to [[{{Cheers}} Sam and Dianne]].

* As the youngest character on ''[[{{ptitleolsdue4jfzga}} 30 Rock]]'', Cerie continuously fails to recognize references to anything from earlier than last month. This does fit her character as she is a DumbBlonde.

Before My Time is a kind of in-universe version of {{NOHAMOTYO}}, wherein a character demonstrates glaring ignorance of anything significantly in the past. Frequently this involves blank stares and [[ChirpingCrickets crickets chirping]] in response to something said by an older character.

Funny thing. This Wiki has entries relating to ''TheMalteseFalcon'', SherlockHolmes, and many, many connected to WilliamShakespeare. Does this mean that a large number of Tropers are ReallySevenHundredYearsOld? Probably not. More likely, their education and particular interests have left them with knowledge of things that happened well before they were born.

* On ''{{The X-Files}}'', Mulder goes to interview a retired FBI agent who investigated X-Files in TheFifties. The agent asks Mulder whether he's heard of the House Un-American Activities Committee, but immediately assumes that he hasn't. Even knowing nothing about Mulder personally, the agent knows that it is covered in high school U.S. history courses.

** In response to that last point: sorry to break the news, but as someone who's even slightly older than Annie's meant to be, even though ''I'' may know who Sam and Diane are (I'm on TV Tropes; I know my TV), my friends certainly don't.

* Played straight and subverted in ''TheBoondocks''. The Freemans' buppie neighbor asks Huey whether he's named after [[HueyLewisAndTheNews Huey Lewis]], and Huey actually responds, "Before my time." The subversion comes in the fact that Huey has just given an erudite lecture on Black Panther Huey Newton. He may just be baiting the poor guy.

The opposite is often true of people--and especially young people--in fiction. Barring special circumstances, characters will be limited in knowledge of movies, music, politics etc. to things occurring after their birth. In some cases, the ignorance extends to some time after they reached high school.

Before My Time is a kind of in-universe version of {{NOHAMOTYO}}, wherein a character demonstrates glaring ignorance of anything significantly in the past. Frequently this involves blank stares and crickets chirping in response to something said by an older character.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* This troper cannot find it now, but he once read an article about InteractiveFiction which began by declaring, essentially, "''No one'' who is under 20 years has ever heard about text adventures."
** This high school troper played the Zork series while in middle school. She can definitely back that statement up if the word "practically" is added at the beginning - nobody else in her school knows what a text adventure is. And she goes to a ''school of geeks''.

[[AC:Film]]

Before My Time is a kind of in-universe version of {{NOHAMOTYO}}, wherein a character demonstrates glaring ignorance of anything significantly in the past. Frequently this involves blank stares and crickets chirpng in response to something said by an older character.