How many of you remember or have every played the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game?

In the mid-90s this silly party game challenged players to find a way to link the actor Kevin Bacon with any other actor using no more than six connections. (For instance, Val Kilmer was in “Top Gun” with Tom Cruise who was in “A Few Good Men,” which also featured Kevin Bacon.) Eventually what was really just a movie trivia game became a way for us to see ourselves as somehow related to anyone else on the planet with just six simple steps.

Poking fun at himself and at this trend, Kevin Bacon starred in a Visa check card commercial. In the commercial a cashier won’t take Bacon’s check when the actor has no identification on him. Bacon leaves and returns with a group of people, explaining to the cashier, “…