I think it’s a nested joke, where that one game totally dominates the kid’s free time, with the clueless parents thinking that’s the only relevant game in existence.
The one that got me was when my mom referred to a game console as a game. I even called her on it and her response was something like “oh, it’s all just games to me”. I know she understands the difference between a VCR or DVD player and a movie, so I don’t know why she wouldn’t distinguish between a piece of media and the hardware that plays it when talking about games. I think many boomers are just so actively dismissive of games that they make of point of not learning even the most basic vocabulary.
1990: “Our comic readers have only heard of one video game ever, but we need to stretch this to look like an entire newspaper page.”
I think it’s a nested joke, where that one game totally dominates the kid’s free time, with the clueless parents thinking that’s the only relevant game in existence.
Also, at the time every game was “the Nintendo” to parents, and still was for a couple decades after. Mario had an enormous impact.
The one that got me was when my mom referred to a game console as a game. I even called her on it and her response was something like “oh, it’s all just games to me”. I know she understands the difference between a VCR or DVD player and a movie, so I don’t know why she wouldn’t distinguish between a piece of media and the hardware that plays it when talking about games. I think many boomers are just so actively dismissive of games that they make of point of not learning even the most basic vocabulary.