From Mockery to Adoption
I remember the first days of the Beastie Boys. Three white boys joked around and made ridiculous raps about girls, White Castle and getting drunk. They flaunted the most comical clothing of hip-hop at the time. It was like they were in costumes with their weird hats, gold chains and oversized Adidas. The suburbs liked it because it funny. It was funny and then it wasn’t. I don’t mean that it became unfunny or tired like Andrew Dice Clay. Instead, it became normal.
Years later, friends of mine mocked rockers who wore studded clothing and referred to guitars and “axes”. They also joked about their outlandish “tats” containing girls, skulls and other tasteless items. My friends adopted the language, the clothing and the ink ironically. Then, it all seemed very natural.
It seems a very odd transition to go from mocking to liking. I know people that have done it with professional wrestling and monster truck rallies. I know girls that have done it with boy bands and the Simpson sisters. Some watched 90210 (and later the OC) at first for the camp and then it was for the drama.
This phenomenon is puzzling and perhaps I am guilty of it with something. It scares me as well. The Blue Collar Comedy Tour and their TV show made the American south the butt of the joke. Somehow poverty and ignorance were satirized. Then, it seemed they were glorified. The audience was not rich, educated people laughing condescendingly at how backward people could be; it was the South laughing at itself. They laughed proudly at themselves with cheers and calls.
Ironic satire to proud assimilation. Why do people do this? Why do Republicans become bigger and bigger pricks with time and have even more outrageous pundits speaking for them? Why is alcoholism on the rise in Ireland? Why do gay people become flaming? How can MTV keep putting on those Real World shows?
I think back to Sisyphus and his eternal fight with the boulder. He tries and tries to push that boulder up, but fails. If only his chore were to push it down. That would be a lot easier. Well, Sisyphus wasn’t delusional enough to define up as down, but we non-underworld dwellers seem to switch good and bad all the time for our own convenience. If you can’t beat them, join them.
People know certain music is crap and yet its infectious so they embrace it. Rednecks can’t rise from their puddle of shit so they roll in it merrily. Republicans are sick of complicated problems and the pain of caring for others so they only think of themselves. Stupid people can’t think so they hate intellectuals. Perhaps all of that initial mocking was an attempt to convince themselves of something. They failed so they embraced it ten-fold.
Years later, friends of mine mocked rockers who wore studded clothing and referred to guitars and “axes”. They also joked about their outlandish “tats” containing girls, skulls and other tasteless items. My friends adopted the language, the clothing and the ink ironically. Then, it all seemed very natural.
It seems a very odd transition to go from mocking to liking. I know people that have done it with professional wrestling and monster truck rallies. I know girls that have done it with boy bands and the Simpson sisters. Some watched 90210 (and later the OC) at first for the camp and then it was for the drama.
This phenomenon is puzzling and perhaps I am guilty of it with something. It scares me as well. The Blue Collar Comedy Tour and their TV show made the American south the butt of the joke. Somehow poverty and ignorance were satirized. Then, it seemed they were glorified. The audience was not rich, educated people laughing condescendingly at how backward people could be; it was the South laughing at itself. They laughed proudly at themselves with cheers and calls.
Ironic satire to proud assimilation. Why do people do this? Why do Republicans become bigger and bigger pricks with time and have even more outrageous pundits speaking for them? Why is alcoholism on the rise in Ireland? Why do gay people become flaming? How can MTV keep putting on those Real World shows?
I think back to Sisyphus and his eternal fight with the boulder. He tries and tries to push that boulder up, but fails. If only his chore were to push it down. That would be a lot easier. Well, Sisyphus wasn’t delusional enough to define up as down, but we non-underworld dwellers seem to switch good and bad all the time for our own convenience. If you can’t beat them, join them.
People know certain music is crap and yet its infectious so they embrace it. Rednecks can’t rise from their puddle of shit so they roll in it merrily. Republicans are sick of complicated problems and the pain of caring for others so they only think of themselves. Stupid people can’t think so they hate intellectuals. Perhaps all of that initial mocking was an attempt to convince themselves of something. They failed so they embraced it ten-fold.
posted by American Dilettante at
5:49 PM
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