An X-istential Crisis

An X-istential Crisis

I'm starting to get sick of the letter X. Once upon a time, X indicated something strange, mysterious, beyond the norm. The letter X had a proud history: there were the X-Men, of course, and X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes, The X from Outer Space, The X Files, X-rated movies, the Sesame Street skit featuring Cowboy X, and even American History X. In all these x-amples, the X had a reason to x-ist.

But now pop culture is suffering from an x-treme overdose of X. There's the horrifying superhero tv show Mutant X (or as I like to call it, "Mutant X-Crement"), the grotesque James Bond ripoff xXx, the brain-deadening accident clip show Max X, and all manner of "x-treme" sports shows. And even more maddening, my own generation has been stamped with the letter X. Do any of these things deserve the mysterious X? Bah! Even diapers and ice cream flavours are being rated X.

Let's return our favourite letter to its proud status as a harbinger of the truly weird, mysterious, and dangerous. Let's x-terminate the overuse of our beloved X, before future generations have a reason to x-communicate their foolish ancestors.