The past has never been as easy to cut and paste as it was in 2011. Two decades ruled this inaugural aught -- the 1990s and the 1960s.
The 90s -- if you're in your early twenties, this is when you played with Beanie Babies, Tamagotchis, yo-yos, and pogs and watched "Legends of the Hidden Temple." If you're a little older than that, this is when you wore clunky black shoes, dirty plaids, dirty hair, and a disaffected scowl. And now, in 2011, regardless of how old you actually were in the real 1990s, you can swim in the huge puddle of cultural backwash that's swishing around the country.
When VH1 came out with "I Love the 90's" in 2004, it was 'too soon.' Apparently, that's not true anymore: This year we saw New Kids on the Block tour with the Backstreet Boys, the return of "Clarissa Explains it All" and other Nick classics, and the appearance of a certain former Speaker of the House.
The 60s were lurking, too. The Beatles were more in the news than pretty much any contemporary band on the radio, television flooded with "Mad Men"-era dramas, and, across the country, people marched in protest against governmental policy.
Some critics wonder if we're living in a piecemeal culture, made up of screenshotted YouTube videos meme-ified into GIFs and tweeted, respect for and knowledge of history forgotten amidst the billion tabs open in the browser. We can't say if that's true, but we will say that next year, we're hoping for the '70s comeback we all so richly deserve.
Read on for our list of deja-vu moments:
