Senate Twink
God Bless America! A story that came with so much meat we’re still sucking on the bones for scraps. I’m not really interested in the quality of this one, as much as the experience we all lived through together. It turned us all into detectives, searching through information trying to get our hands on what happened, who did it, and where exactly it happened. People often describe things as a roller coaster, meaning something has ups and downs. This story did have ups and downs but it was also a thrill ride in that it was over almost as soon as it started. Like a romp in the senate chambers, it was over almost as soon as it started and more fun in theory than in practice.
I Like Them Both
A man like this was invented the day they wrote the code for the internet. He is the Adam of our wretched realm. Every amateur with a microphone, his misbegotten son. The wayward youth of what once was pure. Rarely do the people who make their living because of the evil beast of the internet come face to face with those who lived here when it was paradise. They are forced to reckon with the benevolent nerd who made this house a home. When the internet required a special skill set and interest before it was a get-rich-quick scheme for the most evil and talentless among us.
Looking Guy
When I look at this meme, I feel the same way I did about Megan Thee Stallion in 2019. This is a star, the faster we can elevate her to icon status, the better. There is something new about him. We have a lot of memes of people looking shocked or surprised. This genre is not new and neither is the sentiment conveyed but he really brings something new and fresh to the table. There is a gentle anger about him. He is surprised and you are wrong. What happens next is anyone's guess but this meme captures the moment where he takes in the information and cannot hide just how much it shocks him. A meme for the quiet anger of service workers.
2024 predictions
Everyone doing these is trying really hard to be Azalea banks and they are all failing miserably. It reveals to me how everyone else conceives of the world and how little they know about what’s going on. It’s hard to watch this many people try to be funny, irreverent, topical, and random in equal turn and fail so miserably. At least with the In/Out lists, the girls are trying. Some people are earnest and some people are funny which amounts to about half of each group creating something worthwhile. I have not been able to get through a whole list of predictions because nothing is tethering them to any kind of reality or structure or stakes. None of you watch the culture closely enough to make good ones. It’s just baseless shock and awe.
TikTok
Trolls 3
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I have been beating the drum of TikTok and real life needing to interact for months and this is exactly what I’m talking about. I love when a trend has features that are not explicitly necessary to the meme. It is not central to the premise that this dance is done in the library during finals week, in the practice room before the winter concert, or with one's siblings when they all return home for Christmas. That just happens to be the best part. A four-person dance in some kind of comfortable setting is a rich text for deciphering the complex dynamics at work. Most trends lack the setting and story that every single one of these videos carries with them. The trend itself is just ironic enough for everyone to take it seriously. We’re all too old for trolls, which is how you know this comes from a place of serious enjoyment. We’ve had TikTok long enough to know that laughing through a video like this isn’t worth it. The commitment is worth it. We’ve all agreed that giving it your best shot, straight-faced and serious is the only way to truly perform these days. Anyone can dance badly ironically. It takes a real star to put on a show.
Coquette
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You know they’re joking, right? The girls putting ribbons around their Taco Bell orders? They’re being funny. I’m seeing a lot of hand-wringing about coquette aesthetics and that’s not something that interests me but I think a lot of people are misreading what’s happening here. It reminds me of the old days, on a little website called Tumblr dot com. In 2013/2014 there was a vaporwave revival which was quickly democratized into something called aesthetic blogging. Because it was a vaporwave derivative. it involved a lot of water imagery and putting things underwater. To make fun of these people, people would take shitty iPhone pictures of stuff they found and put it underwater and would tag it #aesthetic. This is that all over again. They’re being silly. Anyone who takes the time to put a bow on an elote is funny in my book.
What’s going on here? Why is it Marge Simpson and why is she British? I’ll say it, I think it’s a point in the pro AI column. I don’t think it offsets the environmental tole but if we’re talking about the merits I think this is one. It’s not enough to largely sway my opinion one way or the other but I do find it charming. It’s more than a lot of other people are throwing together on TikTok these days.