system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
I remember Pokemon being ABSURDLY popular in 1999 and maybe you could even argue it rivaled the Simpsons that year....

But if I was thinking "classic 90s icon" it would be the Simpsons because they were popular for longer. Pokemon wasn't even in English until 1998.

I wonder if this question would be answered differently by somebody who lived in Japan as opposed to a Western country during 1996.

Edit: out of all of the weird posts to attract hate DMs. Don't reach out to me thru DMs, if you want to start a fight start it in public.
gpt
It's the same with the Simpsons, really. It took off in 1989, but it's run and reign were in the 90s. Pokemon arrived at the end of the 90s, it's cultural impact was on the 00s.