this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
65 points (77.3% liked)
Showerthoughts
29612 readers
1201 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Avoid politics (NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out)
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm not sure I understand the "yesterday's" part. Thomas the Tank Engine predates Cars by decades.
Did you really read yesterday as August 21, 2023?? That's hilarious.
"Yesterday's" was used to mean "in a time passed"
In this way both the train and the automobile were used as characters in children's programs to associate the mode with a positive experience. (The actual programming or content)
Lightning McQueen is more recent than Thomas The tank, so the correct phrase would be "Lightning McQueen is today's Thomas The Tank..." or "Thomas The Tank is yesterday's Lightning McQueen..."
This is a difficult statement to assess.
Thomas is multi-generational, the main series started in 1984 and ran as recently as 2021.
That’s like saying “yesterdays kids grew up with Raffi”. That dude is still touring (at least in Canada, but he’s been to the US recently) and still putting out new stuff. In fact, he refers to his “older fans”, who now have their own kids that are getting introduced to Raffi, as “beluga grads”.
Meanwhile the original Cars movie came out in 2004 but had movie sequels in 2011 and 2017, but there are also spin-offs in the universe including movies, shows and shorts.
No, I read yesterday (Lightning McQueen) as juxtaposed with today (Thomas the Tank Engine), as if you were implying that Lightning McQueen predated Thomas the Tank Engine and TTTE was a newish show.
confidently incorrect
That's not what "yesterday's" means in this context, or more specifically, you flipped the two characters if you wanted to use it like that.
Corrected it'd be:
"Thomas the Tank Engine was yesterday's Lightning McQueen"
I think I'm understanding what you mean but it's very clunky. Maybe try again?
You're saying that Thomas the Tank Engine and Lighting McQueen introduced kids of different generations to trains and cars.
To jump on the semantics bandwagon, "yesteryear" would have been more appropriate.
I'm not sure those two IPs were as generational as you're giving them credit for. There's also nothing very interesting about your observation, if I understood correctly.
It made sense to me, but I just realized that you said that McQueen is yesterday's Thomas.
That's backwards. Thomas is yesterday's McQueen.
Although, I'm not convinced that they are that similar at all.
amazing thread, and as everyone is pointing out, you got it backwards.
The Thomas the Tank Engine TV series started in the early 80s. The books have been around for the better part of a century
Lol