pandering to thieves of joy: a (sort of) memepool

adventures in not getting the joke

i really do not care about the politics of this. what i care about is the hilarious loss of perspective and what it says about the world. you drift, little by little, carried on by the tide until you realize you’re halfway down the beach and have no idea where you left your towel. the referents are gone, landmarks no longer look familiar.

there was a time when humor could just be humor. clever juxtaposition, ironic gesture, bracing transgression, acting the fool.

it did not need to be more. it could just be funny.

once upon a time, there was A LOT more freedom and a more charitable approach to things meant in good natured jest.

and losing that is no path to any society you want to live in.

so, drop all the politics for a minute, all the cringe campaign cum culture clash, and just let’s dial it back from 11 to a kinder time, a gentler time, a time when laughter was (mostly) free of the intrusions of politics.

a time when a high school fella could take a funny picture and get a good guffaw free from the shrills and chasteners that seem so omnipotent today.

where my gen X at? remember high school? remember the stuff you did, the things you said?

remember stuff like this?

because it seems the younger generations need some reminding.

and playing to the gallery of millennial scolds is a tiresome enterprise.

this is not weird. it’s funny. hell, if JD were skinnier and with better hair, this could have been an 80’s album cover.

we just swap JD for david lee and voila! double platinum.

see?

lest you think i exaggerate:

see? it’s just a little harmless transgression and humor. it’s not political. it’s also not serious and it’s not being forced on anyone. these women are not really demanding to use the men’s room.

they are pretending to do a crazy things while mugging for a laugh.

that’s not “weird,” it’s “well adjusted.”

but also, as spinal tap teaches us with their timeless quote:

“it’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”

they are referring to why people found their album cover offensive but were OK with another album with similar art content but reversed roles (women dominating the singer).

and there’s the rub, no? it’s always a bit of a fine line. these same photos but of boys in the girls room would have been quite another impact. the power dynamic in female spaces is different. that’s just one of these societal salients that good humorists and good citizens alike simply need to know.

it’s not “weird” it’s culture. all culture can seem weird from outside. the question is “does it serve some purpose?” and “are the people in it happy and flourishing?”

and culture moves, it shifts. sometimes this is for the better, sometimes not.

but the politicization of everyhting is never a good move.

and the endless expansion and intensification of the lines which one may not cross into inescapable webs of gotchaball is worse than just exhausting.

it’s joyless, intrusive, and divisive. it makes everything into a drudge and a minefield.

does anyone really want to live like that?

how about we go back to laughing about differences without caring so much about them?

is “you took a silly photo when you were 18” really what we want politics to be about?

might there be some other topics of greater relevance getting lost in the shuffle?

because the 80’s and 90’s really were better in this regard.

and promises were made.

so lets stop focusing on irrelevancies long gone

and get back with the program.

the society we save may be our own.