Revenge of the 80s: The decade that is making a comeback

Hold on to your Wayfarers: ITV is set to bring back the classic teatime challenge show The Krypton Factor, after a 13-year absence. Soon, bleached-denim-clad couples everywhere will kick back on their white leather sofas, crank up the latest New Kids on the Block album and rip open packets of pickled onion flavour Monster Munch.

Ironic Eighties retro cool has for a while been the preserve of the Shore-ditch hipster. But now – on our plates, in our wardrobes and all over our television screens – the rest of us are muscling in on the stone-washed fun.

Due to (allegedly) massive demand, Monster Munch, the punchily flavoured "corn snacks", have been re-released. The packaging is just as lurid as it used to be, the post-consumption bad breath just as bad. As they were back in the day, each Monster Munch flavour is represented by a different variety of goggle-eyed beast. (In keeping with the key Eighties themes of bad taste and greed-is-good morality, the Red Monster of the "Flaming Hot" variety apparently weighs in at 120 stone).

Dominic Smith, Monster Munch's brand manager, says: "The Eighties trend is causing a stir because consumers appreciate things that remind them of the old times, especially of their childhoods. They hold on to these memories, and when a brand or a product reminds them of these times, it becomes popular."

Wispa, the crumbly textured chocolate bar sometimes described as a "poor man's Aero", is another Eighties revival. In 2007, four years after the product had been discontinued, hard-core Wispa "enthusiasts" – apparently acting independently of Cadbury, its manufacturer – stormed the stage at Glastonbury during Iggy Pop's slot, waving a banner that read "Bring back the Wispa". Keen to capitalise on this outburst, Cadbury used YouTube to spread Wispa's cult 1980s TV ads virally. A Wispa Facebook page attracted more than 40,000 friends. After a trial period, last month it was announced that this unremarkable bar would return permanently next month.

We're consuming Eighties television, too – albeit updated and repackaged, as in Strictly's celebrity-and-reality spin on the original Come Dancing. But few returns can be quite as thrilling as that of The Krypton Factor, the Monday night assault-course-cum-quiz, coming back on ITV. The new show will retain the original "Physical Ability" section, while other segments are to be "updated with state-of-the-art technology".

It will certainly be interesting to see whether ITV can improve on the original opening credits of the show (inert grey capsules majestically igniting into a radioactive green glow). There'll be no Gordon Burns, sadly (may I suggest quintessential Eighties presenter Pat Sharp as a replacement?), but Krypton redux does promise to be "bigger" and the competition "harder". Phew!

Perhaps it's the neverending stream of A-Team, Quincy and Columbo repeats available through digital set-top boxes that have convinced viewers that TV really was better back then. Now, after a stream of cult Eighties TV shows found their way on to the big screen as feature films (Miami Vice, Starsky & Hutch, with Dallas set to join the list next year), America is bracing itself for the return of Knight Rider.

The new film features a relatively unknown US actor, Justin Bruening, as Mike Traceur, the estranged son of David Hasselhoff's character Michael Knight. But fanatics may be saddened to learn that where once there was a Pontiac Trans Am in the role of Kit, a Ford Mustang now parks in its place.

Is this simply a trend driven by a generation of twenty- and thirtysomethings retreating back to their childhoods? Even now, as I sit at my desk, my colleague fiddles with a Rubik's Cube (set to be the big hit at toyshops this Christmas, and updated with five rows), while tapping his feet to Queen's "Under Pressure".

But even today's teenagers, who don't remember the original, un-ironic Eighties, are doing their bid to transport us back to the 1988 Smash Hits awards by thronging the high streets with neon colours, stonewashed jeans and leopard-print leggings. Levi's is bringing back the original cut of the 501 jeans, and the biggest style hits of the summer have been those archetypal Eighties sunglasses, Ray-Ban Wayfarers. New Kids on the Block have a new album out, and Madonna is still on tour.

I'm surrounded by compelling evidence that, un-Darwinian as it sounds, many of us yearn not for evolution, but for regression. Whenever we can, we turn off our BlackBerrys, leaf through Slash's autobiography and gobble another pickled onion Monster Munch – and to hell with the breath.