The End of Pop Culture (023, May 2011)

This Banter Uptown session, in conjunction with the Mindfield folks, saw us deliver an all-guns-blazing obituary for pop culture in the beautiful surroundings of Merrion Square, Dublin on a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon.

The panelists raking over the ashes of pop culture past and present wereย Todd Zunigaย (Literary Death Match), Nathan Rabinย (A.V. Club, The Onion) andย Una Mullally.

This freewheeling, wide-ranging eulogy referenced (deep breath) John Morley (the one-time Chief Secretary for Ireland who was the first to mention popular culture in an 1876 speech), R, Kelly, Odd Future, Black Eyed Peas, Community, Youtube videos of cats, authenticity, irony, short attention spans, Bosco, Twink, Dan Charnas’ The Big Payback, Weird Al Yankovic, Timothy Leary, Shaun Dunne’s Homebird and much, much more.

It was also the only Banter to date which featured (a) Shane McGowan in the audience heckling panelists by singing The Village People’s “In the Navy” and (b) a bunch of children running around the place (which certainly cut down on the amount of cussing and swearing from the stage). If you weren’t there, you missed one hell of a do because it was not recorded.