Dude, that's hilarious

Where are kitschy male-trends born? You know the ones I'm talking about. Unexplainable, popular phenomenons among the dudes of our world that suddenly arise with seemingly no prompting.

I remember the first time I observed this take place. In high school, out of nowhere, the funniest thing for boys to talk about was the mullet. Why?!? We did not live in an area where the mullet was often sported. And as I recall, no movie was released senior year called "Mullets." Still, dudes spent study hall huddled around the computer looking at pictures of mullets online.

Then came pirates. In college pirates were just HILARIOUS to reference. Soon after pirates followed ninjas. Then our boys thought to themselves "What about pirates fighting ninjas?" This was a whole new realm of this kitschy phenomenon we had not experienced to this point: the merging of two odd fixations into one. I'm surprised we didn't hear about pirates with mullets or swashbuckling ninjas.

Chuck Norris. There's another one. None of the men of my generation talked about Walker Texas Ranger for the eight or so years it was actually airing sans syndication. But then, as if almost by magic, Chuck Norris was a force to be reckoned with, appearing on t-shirts and suddenly more popular than Will Ferrell banging on a cowbell.

I understand how trends among women happen. Most of this is driven by fashion, magazines, media...the mass culture. Maybe I'm not as observant about the land of the dudes, but their infatuation with strange things seems to be more of an underground uprising.

The root of a trend among women has nothing to do with it's kookiness or kitschy value; it's really just about style. Recently while shopping for costume jewelry my sister, who was wearing a large golden strawberry around her neck, (quite a popular trend in charms right now) turned to me and said "Apples are the new strawberries." I stared at her in astonishment. I wanted to say "What a ridiculous statement," but before I got the chance the store owner turned to me impressed and exclaimed "She really knows her stuff!"

The new wacky obsession of dudes is just around the corner and I think I've nailed it down:

Doppelgangers are the new ninjas.

Remember, you heard it here first.
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