As most of you may well know, I play a lot of bar trivia. I'm more than just alright at it...I'm quite good. I also have categories that I specialize in. Of course I do quite well at Sports and Movie, but I'm also excellent when it comes to history. I am a student of history and have always been interested in tracking ideas, invention, and phenomena back to their origins. This is what I have decided to do with the concept of the "bromance". I'm going to trace it from it's inception to it's present status.
Before we get to the timeline there are a few terms you will need to become familiar with:
Bromance: A homosocial relationship between two men built upon non-sexual intimacy. It is portmanteau of the words "brother" and "romance".
Fauxmance: A fallacious bromance. This is a relationship that is often thought of as a bromance but is in fact not for a variety of reasons.
Packmance: A bromance consisting of three or more members.
Sidekick Bromance: A bromance in which one member of the relationship is superior to the other and will always take first billing.
On to the timeline...
300 B.C. - Aristotle describes a relationship similar to what we currently think of as a bromance stating, "It is those who desire the good of their friends for the friends' sake that are most truly friends, because each loves the other for what he is, and not for any incidental quality."
44 B.C. - Here we have the advent of history's earliest surviving fauxmance. Neither Brutus and Julius Caesar not Marc Antony and Caesar can qualify as a bromance. It is damn near Rule #1 of Bromances that you do not betray and kill a bro. It is also historically clear that Antony avenged the death of Caesar not because they were bros, but for the good of Rome and to consolidate power.
30 A.D. - This marked the advent of the first "faux-pack-mance". Jesus and his disciples were not a packmance. Sure they cared about each other (with the exception of Judas) but they were more of a missionary group that wasn't really focused on bro-ing around town.
1597 - This year marks the advent of the first fictional fauxmances. Shakespeare published Romeo and Juliet. I am sorry but as for Romeo and Mercutio, when you kill yourself over the death of a girl you've known two weeks and barely mourn at all a good friend that you have known since you were chitlins...you were not in a bromance. Also, in regards to Petrucio and Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew, setting a guy up with your sister-in-law so that you can get your cock wet does not a bromance make. Shakespeare didn't do bromances.
1795 - That means that this is the year that marks the age of bromance. On your calendars mark this as Year 0 of the Bromance. We see the beginning of history's first bromance as Meriwether Lewis is enlisted into the brigade of life-long bro William Clark.
1803 - While the meeting of Lewis and Clark constitutes Year 0 of Bromances. This is when the Bromance was truly forged. Nothing forges the bonds of bromance like a road trip and what a road trip these two had. A thing of beauty...two bros discovering America together going after beaver pelts...both furs for trading and the one in Sacagawea's pants.
1842 - History marks this as a year of another ambiguous bromance with not enough information readily available to be stricken as a fauxmance. William R. King and James Buchanan, who would rise to the Vice Presidency and the Presidency (respectively), begin living together for 15 years. However, James Buchanan was the only bachelor president and others such as former President Andrew Jackson apparently had misgivings that this was more than a bromance by calling King names such as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy".
1844 - The first example of a literary packmance. Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnon are born out of The Three Musketeers. Their motto of "All For One and One For All" is the credo by which all true bromances and packmances stand to this day.
1887 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pens the first inclusion of Dr. Watson into his Sherlock Holmes series. This cements one of literature's most prolific bromances and also is a prime example of the "Sidekick Bromance". It paved the mold for later sidekick bromances (e.g. Batman and Robin, Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon, and John McEnroe and Peter Fleming).
1922 - Before there was Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, or Hope and Crosby we saw the dawn of the Hollywood Bromance. It started in 1922 with two up and coming Vaudeville performers named Mo Howard and Larry Fine. They went on to a legendary bromance that is often considered a packmance with Mo's brother Curly Howard. However, brothers can't have a bromance and that means that the Three Stooges were actually two bromances (Mo and Larry as well as Curly and Larry) rather than a packmance.
1955 - This marked the year of history's first packmance: The Rat Pack. Contrary to popular belief, the Rat Pack was not always Frank, Dean, and Sammy. It was actually started by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Not to be sexist, but it truly became a packmance when they started excluding women. The Rat Pack's stated purpose: "to drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late".
1963 - A legendary year in the history of bromances. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield meet in a junior high gym class. More on the significance of this later.
1969 - This was a powerful year for the bromance as Robert Redford and Paul Newman bromanced on and off the silver screen. They starred together as the title characters in the quintessential bromance film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They also formed an off-screen bromance that would lead to future collaboration in the Best Picture masterpiece The Sting (1973).
1977 - The original Star Wars is released on May 25th. After careful analysis of the Han Solo/Chewbacca relationship, scientists determine that there is such a thing as an inter-species bromance. However, this phenomenon has yet to be properly duplicated in fiction or reality.
1978 - Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield open the first Ben and Jerry's cementing what may prove to be history's greatest bromance. Together they revolutionized the way ice cream is made. They have thousands of locations in 31 countries and have invented hundreds of flavors that unconcieved of prior to them. They also invented the Vermonster which I will partake of at some juncture during my lifetime.
1980 - This year marks the first meeting of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck who have become Hollywood's most prolific and functional bromance. There's has been a bromance that has included Oscars, blockbusters, and a People's Sexiest Man award each. It also is credited with inspiring Brad Pitt and George Clooney to start thier own bromance.
1985 - The mid-Eighties brought along with it another example of the "faux-pack-mance" with the Brat Pack. The Brat Pack had no real affection for each other and wasn't about bro-ing around town. It was mainly just a collection of teen actors who hung together because none of them knew who was going to break out as a big star and they needed some coat-tails to grab at. Too bad most of them weren't close enough to Charlie Sheen or Demi Moore to still be relevent today.
1986 - Top Gun came out this year and despite a lot of homoerotic volleyball it remains one of the best portrayals of a bromance at it's best and worst.
1992 - This was a landmark year for bromances as this was the year that the term "bromance" was officially coined. It first appeared in Big Brother magazine and was used to described a relationship amongst skateboarders who spend an excessive amount of time together.
1995 - The movie Tommy Boy comes out attacking the bromance dynamic from a different angle. Chris Farley and David Spade play Tommy and Richard, two men who are clearly forge a bromance during a road trip, but whose relationship is built on insults and trumpery. This kind of bromance was lightly explored with The Odd Couple, but it did not actually cross the threshhold until Tommy Boy.
1996 - With the release of The Cable Guy, a mediocre Jim Carrey film, we see the launch of what is today's most successful and noticeable packmance, The Frat Pack. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson all collaborate for the first time on this film. The group will later add on the likes of Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson who will inspire the groups's name with 2003's Old School. They will continue to use each other in various projects including Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Anchorman, and Wedding Crashers.
2004 - TV begins to take it's stab at the bromance with FOX's hit House M.D. and the dynamic between it's main character Dr. Gregory House and his best friend Dr. James Wilson. This is a prime example of a bromance that works as both a Sidekick Bromance yet also displays elements of the adversarial bromance pioneered by Spade and Farley in Tommy Boy.
2005 - The stipulation that a bromance need be a homiosocial and cannot be a homosexual relationship is largely debated after Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal star as Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain. It is eventually decided by the same scientists that studied the Han/Chewie paradox that this does not constitute a bromance.
2008 - Brody Jenner debuts the show Bromance to find a best friend to replace Spencer Pratt. He almost ruins bromances for everybody. This is an event that from here on out shall be referred to as Bromance Hindenberg. The fallout from this is not over and the bromance is still recovering. It is agreed upon by all that Brody Jenner is a useless tool who turned his father from a god-like greatest athlete on the planet into a rubber-faced, dyslexic, butler to the Kardashians.
Before we get to the timeline there are a few terms you will need to become familiar with:
Bromance: A homosocial relationship between two men built upon non-sexual intimacy. It is portmanteau of the words "brother" and "romance".
Fauxmance: A fallacious bromance. This is a relationship that is often thought of as a bromance but is in fact not for a variety of reasons.
Packmance: A bromance consisting of three or more members.Sidekick Bromance: A bromance in which one member of the relationship is superior to the other and will always take first billing.
On to the timeline...
300 B.C. - Aristotle describes a relationship similar to what we currently think of as a bromance stating, "It is those who desire the good of their friends for the friends' sake that are most truly friends, because each loves the other for what he is, and not for any incidental quality."
44 B.C. - Here we have the advent of history's earliest surviving fauxmance. Neither Brutus and Julius Caesar not Marc Antony and Caesar can qualify as a bromance. It is damn near Rule #1 of Bromances that you do not betray and kill a bro. It is also historically clear that Antony avenged the death of Caesar not because they were bros, but for the good of Rome and to consolidate power.
30 A.D. - This marked the advent of the first "faux-pack-mance". Jesus and his disciples were not a packmance. Sure they cared about each other (with the exception of Judas) but they were more of a missionary group that wasn't really focused on bro-ing around town.
1597 - This year marks the advent of the first fictional fauxmances. Shakespeare published Romeo and Juliet. I am sorry but as for Romeo and Mercutio, when you kill yourself over the death of a girl you've known two weeks and barely mourn at all a good friend that you have known since you were chitlins...you were not in a bromance. Also, in regards to Petrucio and Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew, setting a guy up with your sister-in-law so that you can get your cock wet does not a bromance make. Shakespeare didn't do bromances.
1795 - That means that this is the year that marks the age of bromance. On your calendars mark this as Year 0 of the Bromance. We see the beginning of history's first bromance as Meriwether Lewis is enlisted into the brigade of life-long bro William Clark.1803 - While the meeting of Lewis and Clark constitutes Year 0 of Bromances. This is when the Bromance was truly forged. Nothing forges the bonds of bromance like a road trip and what a road trip these two had. A thing of beauty...two bros discovering America together going after beaver pelts...both furs for trading and the one in Sacagawea's pants.
1842 - History marks this as a year of another ambiguous bromance with not enough information readily available to be stricken as a fauxmance. William R. King and James Buchanan, who would rise to the Vice Presidency and the Presidency (respectively), begin living together for 15 years. However, James Buchanan was the only bachelor president and others such as former President Andrew Jackson apparently had misgivings that this was more than a bromance by calling King names such as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy".
1844 - The first example of a literary packmance. Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnon are born out of The Three Musketeers. Their motto of "All For One and One For All" is the credo by which all true bromances and packmances stand to this day.1887 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pens the first inclusion of Dr. Watson into his Sherlock Holmes series. This cements one of literature's most prolific bromances and also is a prime example of the "Sidekick Bromance". It paved the mold for later sidekick bromances (e.g. Batman and Robin, Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon, and John McEnroe and Peter Fleming).
1922 - Before there was Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, or Hope and Crosby we saw the dawn of the Hollywood Bromance. It started in 1922 with two up and coming Vaudeville performers named Mo Howard and Larry Fine. They went on to a legendary bromance that is often considered a packmance with Mo's brother Curly Howard. However, brothers can't have a bromance and that means that the Three Stooges were actually two bromances (Mo and Larry as well as Curly and Larry) rather than a packmance.
1955 - This marked the year of history's first packmance: The Rat Pack. Contrary to popular belief, the Rat Pack was not always Frank, Dean, and Sammy. It was actually started by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Not to be sexist, but it truly became a packmance when they started excluding women. The Rat Pack's stated purpose: "to drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late".
1963 - A legendary year in the history of bromances. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield meet in a junior high gym class. More on the significance of this later.
1969 - This was a powerful year for the bromance as Robert Redford and Paul Newman bromanced on and off the silver screen. They starred together as the title characters in the quintessential bromance film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They also formed an off-screen bromance that would lead to future collaboration in the Best Picture masterpiece The Sting (1973).
1977 - The original Star Wars is released on May 25th. After careful analysis of the Han Solo/Chewbacca relationship, scientists determine that there is such a thing as an inter-species bromance. However, this phenomenon has yet to be properly duplicated in fiction or reality.
1978 - Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield open the first Ben and Jerry's cementing what may prove to be history's greatest bromance. Together they revolutionized the way ice cream is made. They have thousands of locations in 31 countries and have invented hundreds of flavors that unconcieved of prior to them. They also invented the Vermonster which I will partake of at some juncture during my lifetime.1980 - This year marks the first meeting of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck who have become Hollywood's most prolific and functional bromance. There's has been a bromance that has included Oscars, blockbusters, and a People's Sexiest Man award each. It also is credited with inspiring Brad Pitt and George Clooney to start thier own bromance.
1985 - The mid-Eighties brought along with it another example of the "faux-pack-mance" with the Brat Pack. The Brat Pack had no real affection for each other and wasn't about bro-ing around town. It was mainly just a collection of teen actors who hung together because none of them knew who was going to break out as a big star and they needed some coat-tails to grab at. Too bad most of them weren't close enough to Charlie Sheen or Demi Moore to still be relevent today.
1986 - Top Gun came out this year and despite a lot of homoerotic volleyball it remains one of the best portrayals of a bromance at it's best and worst.
1992 - This was a landmark year for bromances as this was the year that the term "bromance" was officially coined. It first appeared in Big Brother magazine and was used to described a relationship amongst skateboarders who spend an excessive amount of time together.
1995 - The movie Tommy Boy comes out attacking the bromance dynamic from a different angle. Chris Farley and David Spade play Tommy and Richard, two men who are clearly forge a bromance during a road trip, but whose relationship is built on insults and trumpery. This kind of bromance was lightly explored with The Odd Couple, but it did not actually cross the threshhold until Tommy Boy.1996 - With the release of The Cable Guy, a mediocre Jim Carrey film, we see the launch of what is today's most successful and noticeable packmance, The Frat Pack. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson all collaborate for the first time on this film. The group will later add on the likes of Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson who will inspire the groups's name with 2003's Old School. They will continue to use each other in various projects including Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Anchorman, and Wedding Crashers.
2004 - TV begins to take it's stab at the bromance with FOX's hit House M.D. and the dynamic between it's main character Dr. Gregory House and his best friend Dr. James Wilson. This is a prime example of a bromance that works as both a Sidekick Bromance yet also displays elements of the adversarial bromance pioneered by Spade and Farley in Tommy Boy.
2005 - The stipulation that a bromance need be a homiosocial and cannot be a homosexual relationship is largely debated after Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal star as Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain. It is eventually decided by the same scientists that studied the Han/Chewie paradox that this does not constitute a bromance.
2008 - Brody Jenner debuts the show Bromance to find a best friend to replace Spencer Pratt. He almost ruins bromances for everybody. This is an event that from here on out shall be referred to as Bromance Hindenberg. The fallout from this is not over and the bromance is still recovering. It is agreed upon by all that Brody Jenner is a useless tool who turned his father from a god-like greatest athlete on the planet into a rubber-faced, dyslexic, butler to the Kardashians.
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