Tag: irony

Our Ethos Is Sincerity

~ Chris Cocca ~ 1 Comment

“All across the pop culture spectrum, the emphasis on sincerity and authenticity that has arisen has made it un-ironically cool to care about spirituality, family, neighbors, the environment, and the country. And pollsters find this same trend in the up-and-coming generation from which Wampole culls her hipsters, Millennials. A recent Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll survey found that among Millennials, six out of 10 prioritized being close to God and having a good family life above anything else. For those in Generation X, family was still important, but the second priority was not spirituality—it was making a lot of money. Clearly, a change has been underway.”

My friend Jonathan Fitzgerald has been doing a lot of work on the New Sincerity lately.  Above is an excerpt from this piece at The Atlantic.

Did The AP Swipe a Line About World B. Free from Wikipedia and Violate the CC License?

~ Chris Cocca ~ Leave a comment

Ooopsy-daisy, AP. That line about where World got his nickname maybe should have been attributed, shared, and shared alike, don’t you think? (Click on image to embiggen.)

There are only so many ways to phrase how and why World got his nickname. And who knows, maybe the AP writer is the same Wikipedia editor who updated this page on the 19th before writing the AP piece yesterday. With that said, I should also attribute the CC image in the background of the graphic below right back at you, CC. Same for you, Wiki. AP, since you don’t do the CC deal, I’ll tread the fair use water with you and Shepard Fairey.

 

Conan O’Brien and The First (Finally!) Post-Ironic Hipster

~ Chris Cocca ~ Leave a comment
Tattoo on Mike's left shoulder. And he seemed sincere about it. Ironic hipsters are a drag. Post-ironic hipsters, it turns out, are really, really funny.

Douglas Alden Warshaw on some of the things we’ve been talking about here: Generation X, Generation Y, curation, Twitter, how people in their mid-30s and younger engage online et cetera, all through the lens of Conan O’Brien’s comeback.  I can’t tell if this is on the CNN, Fortune, or Tech blog, but whatevs.

Here’s a little ditty I did on Huffington last April about Conan O’Brien and “the new sincerity,” specifically, Conan’s pleas against cynicism during his ouster and his continuing faith in a sort of golden rule.

I know I’m a little late on this, but the Conan segment from Monday with the fan correspondent known to the internet only as Mustache Mike (Mike/Michael Sag?) was, perhaps, the funniest 15 minutes of late night television I’ve seen in a long time.  Think a 2011 Manny The Hippie with natural presence, constant Superman stance, and a really funny sense of humor in all the places Manny kept his pot.  Line of the night: “He’s a knight. He deserves our respect.”

Conan O’Brien and The Post-Ironic Hipsters is totally going to be the name of the alt.country band I form with Conan once I meet him.

It’s Still Too Soon for the Ironic Use of “Not” on the Front Page of a(ny) Newspaper

~ Chris Cocca ~ 6 Comments

When I was in college, I believed my life’s work to consist of two major projects: 1) fundamentally questioning the epistemological prejudices of the 17th-century philosphes (pompous jerks) and 2) bringing back the ’80s.  By the time I graduated, I’d seen the US beat Russia in hockey and Hulk Hogan regain the WWF championship. Goal #2 totally nailed. Goal #1 turns out to be a longer deal.

Almost ten years later, the ’90s revival is in full swing like clockwork.  I like to think I play a part in this, however small (watching The Fresh Prince on TVLand totally counts).  I know I can be a bit of a nostalgia snob, but without nostalgia snobbery, how will the world know it’s not too soon to dust off Hypercolor?  That was a trick question, friends.  It’s never too soon for Hypercolor.  See what I mean?

It is too soon, Morning Call, for this:

Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea behind the headline.  There’s definitely a MySpace joke in the mix here somewhere.  Can you come up with a better headline sticking to these central elements: nostalgia for 2005, MySpace’s current woes, nostalgia for 1991, and something funny about a municipality throwing away everybody’s snow chairs?  Do so in the comments.  Hint from a nostalgia snob: the (NOT) construction is very, very tricky.  As the root of everything snarky and ironically detached about our society, can it ever actually be satirized?  Herein lies the problem with this headline.  It’s much too late to use (NOT) in a sort of topical way, but as the original of the ironic species, (NOT) also seems somehow immune to further satirization. I’d say it’s the Chuck Norris beard of snarky catchphrases, but not even a roundhouse kick from the Chuck Norris of snark (Jay and Eric, I want you to wrestle for that title) can touch it its lovely whiskers.  (NOT) is an untouchable, the great Source Wall of everything we wink about.  You leave MC Hammer out of this.

Having Fun with Shepard in the Creative Commons

~ Chris Cocca ~ 2 Comments

I’ve blogged a lot about how Shepard Fairey is either the most subversive or the least ironic person on the planet. I’m happy to say he’s at it again.

For $75, you can have a t-shirt with his new Creative Commons design. Rather than write that sentence again, I’ll just encourage you to re-read it.

ccsf

I support the Creative Commons. I use it. I love it. And I even think it’s worth giving money to. But come on. This should be like a pay-what-you-want Radiohead kind of thing. My contribution (I’ll claim fair use…irony!) is below:

cccc

Feel free to put that on a t-shirt. No charge.

Original story here.