On July 20, 1969,1 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon marking one of man’s greatest achievements. We learn about and study the event in school and countless books have been written on the subject. The events of Apollo 11 also became cemented in pop culture, spawning lore of all varieties: proverbs, legends, material culture, memes, myths, and even its own sub-genre of conspiracy theories. All great examples of American poplore.
For those lucky enough to watch the moon landing on TV, the memories of grainy black-and-white footage accompanied by crackling voices are unforgettable. But for the rest of us, those memories are fabricated. It’s no longer a matter of literally remembering the event as much as it is tapping into the collective memory as propped up by popular culture.
The formality of the history is the foundation, of course. The footage exists for all of us to watch. The astronauts themselves gave first-hand accounts. The history books highlighted and expanded upon the event, ensuring future generations would have at least a baseline knowledge of America’s achievement.
But the narrative around the event is also propped up by a tangled web of poplore. From Hollywood portrayals to the logo for MTV, the American public has been taught about Apollo 11 (and the larger Space Race) through popular culture. This created — and continues to create — an environment where Apollo 11 functions as a source of enduring cultural expression and memory. To wit, Apollo 11 has become an integral moment in American identity and American identity relies on knowledge of and interaction with Apollo 11. This is poplore in action.
The following examples fall into the category of “proverbs” — although I doubt many think of them that way. These are not your Biblical proverbs or Ben Franklin’s Old Wives Tales, but these quotes have entered popular culture in a way that both express and reinforce their own meaning. The legacy of Apollo 11 is unending and in many ways it is directly because of these pop culture proverbs.
It was Kennedy’s 1962 speech that gave us this enduring American proverb, mythologizing the American spirit and devotion to hard work:
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
Sadly, we hardly remember that immediately before that iconic moment, JFK made a hilarious college football joke:
But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
Even more iconic than Kennedy’s speech are Neil Armstrong’s proclamations:
Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
and
That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
Both have become embedded in popular culture, with an almost endless amount of references and callbacks. This is just a snippet of easily accessible gifs and memes proving the point:
Here’s a bonus video of Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin punching out a guy who claims the moon landing was fake. USA! USA! USA!
#Actually it was 2:56am July 21 UTC . But UTC is 5 hours ahead of the US Eastern Time Zone, so for Americans it was still the 20th.
I was lucky enough to watch the moon landing and those first steps on the moon. I was 15. Space travel has captured our imagination probably since man started gazing at the stars. Jules Verne wrote about it in 1865. Great article!