37 Photos Of Random Early '90s Things That Gen X'ers And Elder Millennials Have Totally Forgotten About, But That Secretly Live Rent-Free Deep In Their Minds

1.The Simpsons being a controversial TV show because it satirized the nuclear family and because Bart was considered a bad influence on kids:

magazine with the simpsons on the front cover

2.And the "Do the Bartman" music video that played on VH1 and MTV:

the family dancing
20th Century Fox / Via youtube.com

3.The Gap when their logo was spelled out in lowercase letters and it was the absolute coolest store:

outside of the store
Evan Agostini / Getty Images

4.Earring Magic Ken, who ended up being a gay icon after he was accidentally designed to look like an early-'90s gay man heading out for a fun night at the clubs — complete with a cock ring necklace:

Earring Magic Ken against blue background
Yvonne Hemsey / Contributor / Getty Images

5.Madonna's Sex book and the huge backlash she got after releasing it:

the binded book

6.And her infamous interview with David Letterman where she smoked a cigar and said "fuck" more than a few times:

letterman looks annoyed
Letterman / Via youtube.com

7.Mark Wahlberg being known as Marky Mark and for pulling his pants down and dancing around in his underwear:

  Tim Roney / Getty Images
Tim Roney / Getty Images

8.In Living Color which, aside from being hilarious, was probably the edgiest show on TV:

the cast gathered for a promo photo
20thcentfox / ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection

9.And In Living Color's Fly girls dancers — which included Jennifer Lopez:

promo photo with j.lo in the middle and the only one facing the camera
/ ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection

10.CK One, which was the coolest fragrance and had everyone smelling like it:

ebay.com

11.And Sassy magazine, which was one of the coolest magazines around and had a brother (it was aimed towards guys) magazine called Dirt:

  Lang Communications
Lang Communications

12.Batman Returns being one of the most-anticipated sequels ever and the tons of backlash it got for being too dark:

  Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

13.Anna Nicole Smith as the face of Guess ad campaigns:

the billboard on melrose street
Paul Harris / Getty Images

14.SNL's "Coffee Talk with Linda Richman" — whose voice you can probably hear in your head right now:

Mike Myers as Linda Richman during "Coffee Talk" skit
Nbc / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

15.And SNL's "Gap Girls" skit, which Chris Farley would steal every moment of:

David Spade as Christy Henderson, Adam Sandler as Lucy Brawn and Chris Farley as Cindy Crawford during The Gap skit
Nbc / NBCUniversal via Getty Images

16.Cordless home phones that were giant with big antennas that stuck out and, weirdly, did not have much range. They also had zero battery life:

Woman talking on white cordless house phone
Comstock / Getty Images

17.And giant carphones, which were such a status symbol:

car phone in the middle console
UselessPickles / Via youtube.com

18.MTV's early seasons of The Real World, which was reality TV before it truly existed. Also, cast members were truly themselves and not there to make careers out of being on television:

the cast hanging out in the kitchen
MTV/ Courtesy Everett Collection

19.Tony Little's Ab Isolator infomercials. As soon as they came on on Saturday mornings, you knew cartoon time was over:

Screenshot of Tony helping someone do ab exercises
mycommercials/ youtube.com

20.And Susan Powter's "Stop the Insanity!" infomercials — which was a lot of yelling and played right after Saturday morning cartoons ended:

Susan yelling
chevyguy36w/ youtube.com

21.Cindy Crawford as the host of MTV's House of Style:

   / ©MTV/Courtesy Everett Collection
/ ©MTV/Courtesy Everett Collection

22.CDs that came packaged in wasteful long boxes. And in case you were still wondering why: this was done because CDs were too small for store shelves created for vinyl, so by packaging them in long boxes, retailers could just reuse the shelves they already had. It also helped make them harder to steal:

Beverly Hills 90210 soundtrack in long box
Brian Galindo/ BuzzFeed

23.Cassette singles, which usually came with a remix or B-side:

various cassettes laid out

24.Sony Sport Walkmans that were bright yellow and came with hard plastic headphones that went directly into your ear — and were always slightly uncomfortable to wear:

Close up of a yellow Walkman with headphones
Uriah Samuel Bravo / EyeEm / Getty Images

25.The infomercial that featured Cher selling Lori Davis hair products:

Cher talking to Lori Davis
Joseph Guerrero/ youtube.com

26.America's Funniest Home Videos hosted by Bob Saget, which was one of the original ways to watch viral videos:

bob holding up a large camcorder
Abc / ©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

27.The Jurassic Park soundtrack — which EVERYBODY owned:

  CPJCollectibles/ UMG / Via etsy.com

28.Howard Stern's ~superhero~ persona, Fartman — which we probably all just remember from the 1992 VMAs, but was actually a character on his radio show and was almost made into a movie:

Howard Stern as Fartman during the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angele
Frank Micelotta Archive / Getty Images

29.Melrose Place and it being appointment television:

the cast all together
Aaron Spelling Prods / ©Aaron Spelling Prods/Courtesy Everett Collection

30.Then-vice president Dan Quayle decrying Murphy Brown as a terrible show that was basically ~destroying America~ because the title character decided to be a single mother:

   / ©CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection
/ ©CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection

31.The Club steering wheel lock and the commercials they would play nonstop for them (especially if you stayed home sick and watched daytime TV):

A red wheel lock

32.The Rock the Vote commercials MTV played during elections and featured a bunch of famous singers:

  RockTheVote / Via youtube.com
RockTheVote / Via youtube.com

33.Bill Clinton appearing in 1992 on MTV's Choose or Lose in order to appeal to disenfranchised Gen X voters:

him sitting in front of an audience of young people
L. Cohen / WireImage / Getty Images

34.Ray Charles' "You got the right one" campaign for Diet Pepsi:

Screenshot of Ray Charles in a tux with "You got the right one" next to him
Darin & Anita (Syndicated Radio)/ Pepsi / Via youtube.com

35.The black-and-white ads inside TV Guide that would give you a little synopsis about what that week's episodes would be about:

CBS Television advertisement as appeared in the October 23, 1993 issue of TV Guide magazine
Cbs Photo Archive / CBS via Getty Images

36.The big reusable plastic water bottles with the thick-ass straws that gave everything a plasticky flavor. These were also the bottles you would freeze and then wrap in aluminum foil (to keep cold) on field trips:

Simpsons plastic water bottle

37.And lastly, these square radio alarm clocks that would flash red or green light in your face in the middle of the night:

A white Sony Dream Machine radio alarm clock