Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman
Oh, Chuck.
I love your columns in Esquire. I love your essays. And I love your book.
I don’t just love your book because it’s hilarious, or because it’s sort of poignant in a campy way, or because you relate the most strange events and objects together in a way that makes them seem cosmically aligned.
I love it because you write about Saved by the Bell. That show which no one considers to be consequential enough to even mention. You don’t shy away, you dive in. You analyze, you pick apart, you tell us about Zack Morris. And I love you for that.
A moment of explanation. I love Saved by the Bell. It’s a crappy show, yes. But I don’t love it because I like to sit and watch it, I love it in that it was what I was watching when I went to Cooper Mountain Elementary School, back when life was simple and I was boy crazy to the point of concerning my teachers. I watched Saved by the Bell when I was young, when I was young enough to not be able to imagine what high school would be like. I imagined that one day, I would be just like one of the kids at Bayside High.
That’s not where the significance ends for me: My husband and I singlehandedly credit the series with our meeting.
We were sitting at a long table of people. There were probably four people between us, and I was just talking to the people around me. I was new, a freshman at WSU, and Eric was in his second year there. We were all sitting at the late-night snack spot called “Flix.”
Flix has lots of neon lights and great 90s vibes. Movie posters on the wall, red glittery plastic upholstery on the chairs. Big booths. It reminded everyone of “The Max.” You know, the diner on Saved by the Bell. So naturally, that kicked off a conversation about the show and soon someone asked what everyone else’s favorite episode was. Eric and I began to answer at the same second, and we both cited the same episode. The rest is history.
Klosterman’s book is a hilarious compilation of essays that talk about these kind of things. Things you fondly remember. The “Left Behind” series with Kirk Cameron. Saved by the Bell. Et cetera.
My favorite essay, personally, is one about journalism and journalists. It talks about how “media bias” doesn’t exist, and what people should really be concerned about is random circumstance. Generally, a reporter will put out four calls to four people, and whoever calls back has the first say and the say that will shape the article. I felt like that essay was written to me. Thanks, Chuck.
Read this book. Read this book especially if you happened to be born in the late 70s (like Klosterman) or early 80s (like me) or if you’re a journalist. You will laugh. You will think. You will remember Saved by the Bell.