In this article, the author describes a pedagogical approach to teaching theory to pre-service teachers. This approach involves articulating academic texts that introduce theoretical ideas and tools with carefully selected popular culture texts that can be taken up to illustrate the elements of a particular theory. Examples of the theories discussed in the article are preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings; denotative and connotative levels of meaning; and detournement. Among the popular culture texts used to teach these theories is the film "Dangerous Minds", as well as visual advertising texts that accompany movies. The emphasis of the article is on the pedagogical approach that is used to teach theory, though references are provided to other articles that explain how pre-service teachers have applied these theories in a variety of ways. (Contains 3 notes.)