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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Ironic America


Partner and I take turns in the bathroom getting ready for work every morning.  If anything scandalous happens on TV while I’m in the bathroom, Partner says “OH MY GOD!” in a loud voice, and I come running out to see what it is.

Yesterday morning it was the new series of All-American Chia Pets.  Washington, the Statue of Liberty, Lincoln – hmm – Obama.

“I notice they didn’t do a George W. Bush,” Partner said snappily.

“I think George W. Bush already has stuff growing out of his head,” I said, quick as a flash.

The wit fairly flies around here.

I pondered this new product all day.  On the one hand, I bet President Obama might think this is pretty funny.  It goes without saying that he has the perfect head for a Chia Pet; only Elmer Fudd has a more symmetrical cranium.  Obama might take it as sort of an ironic tribute.

Or someone could buy one as a mean gag gift for the entrenched Republican on his gift list.

Either way, whether you buy the thing ironically or sincerely, the company makes out like a bandit.

We are drowning in irony these days.  One of the NBC junior executives on “30 Rock” referenced his “ironic kickball league” last week.  New York Magazine wrote an article on the death of hipster culture, which brought out lots of bitter (and deeply ironic) commentary from both pro-hipster and anti-hipster partisans.  New York Magazine also keeps track of trends with the “Undulating Curve of Shifting Expectations,” charting “pre-buzz” trends, “saturation-point” trends, “backlash” trends, and – here we go – “backlash to the backlash” trends.   Apparently these last are things that are so tired, so ridiculous, so overplayed, that they’re worthwhile again.  


Or maybe they really were worthwhile in the first place, and we just got tired of them because we hipsters are so jaded.


Real-life examples:
  • Designers are sending handbags to Jersey Shore's Snooki. Not their own handbags, though. They want Snooki to be seen with their competitors' handbags, since Snooki is Ms. Bad Taste. Snooki is probably completely unaware of this; she only knows that she gets a lot of free handbags. (What do you suppose she likes best about a handbag? Separate pockets for pickles, lip gloss, and bronzer?)
  • And one last local example of unconscious irony: the night before Halloween, I heard a student talking on her cellphone.  “MU-thaw!” she bellowed.  (I’m trying to give you an impression of how completely unbearable her voice was.)  “I’m GOING? To a PARTY?  And I need something – like, some Seventies dress – something REALLY AW-ful and UGLY – you know, like you probably still HAVE, like in your CLO-set?”

Imagine you're that girl’s mother.  What would you have said to her?


And keep it unironic, please.




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