On popular culture and my brain

Somehow - and believe me, I have no idea why this is the case - my brain decided a long while back that it would be far more helpful to retain random snippets from pop culture than actual, useful information. Long division? Gone. How and when to best utilise the French subjunctive? Gone. The theme tune to Doctor Snuggles? Very much still lodged in there.

My brain is basically a breeding ground for ridiculous and pointless minutiae. It's as if the more rubbish I put into it, the more that encourages old rubbish to be unearthed and to hang out for a while at the front of my attention. You cannot - I repeat, cannot - use any vaguely well known phrase around me (or really any words at all), and not have it send my brain sky-rocketing towards an annoyingly catchy song lyric, or a line from a 90s sci-fi show. A simple example for you: ask me what time it is, and my instant reaction will be one of 3 things:

1. It's Hammer time
2. It's summer time (for all of you High School Musical fans out there)
3. It's Chico time

Yeah. I know. They're not even respectable popular culture references. Don't expect me to remember lines from A Streetcar Named Desire, or to quote Keats at you. My brain welcomes only abysmal popular culture remnants: you must be of low-brow value to ride this roller-coaster.

It can be a bit embarrassing, particularly when I find myself humming a hitherto forgotten Spice Girls tune because someone has innocently used the phrase "who do you think you are?" (Yeah. Enjoy that particular walk down memory lane free of charge). I imagine it's also incredibly irritating for those who are with me, who might not quite realise that what we've just experienced is exactly like a scene in season 3, episode 4 of The Gilmore Girls, or understand why I think it's so important that they share and revel in that with me.

On the other hand, it can also be pretty handy. You know you've found a true friend when you both have the same "aha" moment (possibly even over an A-ha reference). When someone shares your useless pop culture knowledge, it's an instant and powerful bond. It's rather like a shared sense of humour, except a bit more niche, and a bit more bizarre to anyone looking in from the outside. So even if titles of Supernatural episodes and quotes from Empire Records have pushed valuable knowledge regarding how to fix the fuse box out of my head, I'm fine with that. Electricians exist for a reason, and I've made connections with some pretty brilliant people as a result of my weird brain.

...and everyone else is just going to have to put up with me getting very excited when they ask "what's with you today?"

"What's with today, today?"