Which side am I on? I grew up in a community that had some ticky-tacky houses and I saw loads of them. They're cheesy.

Keep in mind that if you dislike making fun of mass-produced, popular things, you must never make fun of B******er beer, American Idol and whatever it is in the UK, McDonald's, Walmart.

What I find most offensive is that you're equating a fortysomething year old piss-take on housing popular in America fortysomething years ago with "an ill-natured and unwarranted attack on the legitimate aspirations and lifestyles of a perfectly respectable and hardworking segment of the community". People are not equal to the stuff sold to them, and to think they are is stereotyping.

Not only that, but saying today's American 'segment' is the same as the 1950s American 'segment' is leaving the whole pop culture reference out and... stereotyping of people. It's all "middle class Americans bought crap back then and we know they still do, but we shouldn't make fun of the disadvantaged." I never had one of those houses. My family lived in the house my grandparents built and couldn't afford the ticky-tacky houses that the doctors, lawyers and engineers could. I didn't have much of a problem making fun of people with more money than I had and for the choices they made. Luckily, most of the people I've met who lived in those 'little boxes' had a bit of a sense of humor about them.

And in any case, the cookie-cutter houses are a bit different these days:

Now the boxes on the hillside are sold cheap at 300K
And they all got foreclosed on as the interest rate rolled
There's a sign on the front lawn that says a house is for sale again
And other signs on other lawns and none of them say 'sold'.

Cuz there's taxes on the houses and the houses are in New Hampshire
And no one can pay the taxes unless they rob a bank
There's a closed one and a closed one and another one that's almost done
And the banks own all the mortgages and that's why they tanked

(I know--f I had a day job, I wouldn't give it up.)