Mr. James Lileks has a post up today that features some screen caps he did took from 1970s game shows. It's a good post, which isn't a surprise as he puts up good posts with a consistency that is really quite intimidating. Do click on the link above to pop over to his site and read the whole thing.
Looking at one of his screen caps, something jumped out at me and I hope he will not mind that I borrowed it to use here. Take a gander at this:
Mr. Lileks thinks this is a twenty year old dressing like a twelve year old but he is wrong about that:
Nowadays, you just don't see that because the parents of anyone with such an overbite, and especially a girl, and even more especially a pretty girl like her, would have it fixed.
You may be thinking, "So what?" Here's what: Back in the 1960s and 1970s only a small segment of the population could afford to have an overbite corrected. And even if you could afford it, the braces of the time were very uncomfortable things. Plus a kid with braces would go through years of being mocked and taunted by her classmates. So most people didn't bother. Everywhere you went, there would be people with overbites. Walk into an office, and there would be two or three workers there with overbites. Walk into a restaurant, same thing. But not anymore. Over the next day or two, take a look around and see how many 20-to-40-year-old adults with overbites like the one in the picture you can find.
PS: It may be just an accidental effect of this still but that girl looks decidedly stoned to me.
Looking at one of his screen caps, something jumped out at me and I hope he will not mind that I borrowed it to use here. Take a gander at this:
Mr. Lileks thinks this is a twenty year old dressing like a twelve year old but he is wrong about that:
Then there’s the uncomfortable reminder that unlike today, when 12-year old dress like 20 somethings, 20 somethings dressed liked 12 year olds.Yes, there is something very little girlish about her appearance but her clothes wouldn't have been enough to make her look as young as she does here. There is one more item doing the real work. It's her teeth. She has an overbite, which is to say that her top teeth are fairly far in front of her lower teeth. In a perfect bite, the top teeth should be a tiny bit forward of the bottom ones but hers are way forward.
Nowadays, you just don't see that because the parents of anyone with such an overbite, and especially a girl, and even more especially a pretty girl like her, would have it fixed.
You may be thinking, "So what?" Here's what: Back in the 1960s and 1970s only a small segment of the population could afford to have an overbite corrected. And even if you could afford it, the braces of the time were very uncomfortable things. Plus a kid with braces would go through years of being mocked and taunted by her classmates. So most people didn't bother. Everywhere you went, there would be people with overbites. Walk into an office, and there would be two or three workers there with overbites. Walk into a restaurant, same thing. But not anymore. Over the next day or two, take a look around and see how many 20-to-40-year-old adults with overbites like the one in the picture you can find.
PS: It may be just an accidental effect of this still but that girl looks decidedly stoned to me.
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