#The upper echelons of irony should always include measures of sincerity.

[premaritalhug]

Speaking of Dirk. My enjoyment of this is, of course, completely ironic.

[doctordragon]

I warned you about stairs, bro - a Homestuck mini essay

Homestuck often uses repeated phrases as callbacks and parallels, and oftentimes these are used to string together greater thematic elements. Some examples are “acrobatic fucking pirouette” and “It’s hard being a kid. It’s hard being a kid and no one understands.” 

However, I think the most iconic one is “I warned you about those stairs bro!!!” making its first appearance in the first SBAHJ comic. This comic depicts Sweet Bro about to “be a useless piece of shit and play all these games” as he walks towards a flight of stairs, but inevitably falls down them. Hella Jeff calls out to his friend with the iconic line and we are shown the same repeated image of Bro falling down the stairs, while Jeff watches helplessly, insisting that he warned Bro about those stairs. 

A character’s position in physical space is often used to represent that character’s state. More specifically, ascension and descension are used to represent character growth vs regression. Stairs are heavily utilized in this manner, as they are a physical symbol of ascension. One must exert themselves to climb stairs and make a conscious effort to climb them, representing the conscious effort of bettering yourself. 

Already, we can start to see some thematic connections between stairs and the SBHAJ comic. The opening line of the comic Bro states that he is going to “be a useless piece of shit” by wasting his time on video games. Bro acknowledges that his actions are detrimental and regressive, yet he is insistent on going through with them. The repeated falling down of the stairs shows this downward spiral Bro is on. Jeff can call out to Bro and warn him about those stairs as many times as he wants, but Bro will inevitably fall every time. 

Now if you think I’m crazy for overanalyzing SBAHJ, irony being used as a mask to cover sincere emotions is a central theme of Homestuck. Dirk said himself in something I consider to be somewhat of a thesis statement of Homestuck “The upper echelons of irony should always include measures of sincerity,” and I think this quote can and should be applied to SBAHJ, the highest echelon of irony. In addition, Homestuck contains characters like Rose who love to overanalyze seemingly meaningless shit, meaning Homestuck is begging to be overanalyzed itself.

“I warned you about those stairs, bro” is a tragic, yet funny statement. It represents watching someone you care about falling inevitably into a downward spiral. It’s something you know, but no matter how much you try to warn them about those stairs, they will still fall. Yet, this phrase is also deeply soaked in irony and humor, especially having originated in SBAHJ. It’s a self-aggrandizing mockery, as you demonstrate someone’s own stupidity towards them - they could not avoid the stairs, despite your repeated and correct warnings. Both Vriska and Bro Strider use this as a means to mock their abuse victims. 

I don’t really have a solid thesis - this is more of a ramble than an essay, but I really think “I warned you about those stairs bro” is a very thematically interesting line worthy of analysis. 

[dedicatedfollower467]

TT: On one level, I gave you a filthy tattered piece of shit, albeit of tremendous cultural significance, manhandled by some old B movie actors, now candy coated to function as a highly practical defender droid for your personal protection. TT: On another level, I needed to incorporate something passable as a real heirloom. TT: For sentimental reasons. GG: D'awwwww. GG: Wait, real sentiment, or ironic sentiment? GG: Or is there no difference?? Am I missing the point here? TT: No, it was genuine. TT: The upper echelons of irony should always include measures of sincerity. And if the satirical practice is executed faithfully it will achieve something bona fide in its own right regardless. TT: Through an intense commitment bordering on religious devotion to the absolutely inane, absurd, or plain fucking stupid, a very different kind of sincerity begins to materialize. One of reverence to the ridiculous. You begin to "mean it," but what exactly it is you mean is never quite what appears on the surface, and is utterly inaccessible to obtuse and literal minds. That you "mean it" then becomes inseparable from the joke, and additional rich strata of humor may be stripped aggressively from this irreconcilable truth. GG: This is fascinating, if a wee bit more dissertation than I bargained for this morning. GG: I have so much to learn. And I am not even saying that "ironically!" GG: Will you teach me your ways one day, sir? Perhaps an apprenticeship will open? TT: Oh god, I'd love that. TT: Consider the position yours for the taking any time. Feel free to approach and kneel before Cal. With my sword and his floppy mitten, you will receive my flashstep anointment shoulder to shoulder, and to shoulder again.

a translation of the above conversation from striderian/crockerian bullshit to plain english:

dirk, when talking to jane, flat-out: “naw, it was a genuinely sentimental gesture (cuz i love you a lot and you’re my best friend and i care about you.)”

dirk, immediately afterward: *covers up his raw honest emotional confession with obfuscating flowery analytical special interest infodump because shit, that was an actual raw honest emotion he just expressed and he doesn’t know if she’ll accept it and he’s bad at people, fuck fuck fuck*

jane, parting the bullshit like moses and the red fucking sea: “oh, that’s actually a fascinating perspective on humor and i’d love to spend a long time actually talking with you about that, partially because it’s intriguing in its own right and partially because i know irony is a special interest of yours, and i also love and care about you and want you to know that.”

dirk, to himself, practically gushing with excitement: SHE WANTS TO HEAR ME TALK ABOUT MY SPECIAL INTEREST SHE WANTS TO SPEND TIME WITH ME SHE LIKES HANGING OUT WITH ME AHHHHHH!!!!!!!

dirk, to jane, genuinely flat-out, right there in plain english for all to fucking see, “Oh god, I’d love that.”

do you see why i love this relationship?

(i had forgotten about so much of this, i love re-reading this and rediscovering why i love them)

page: 4258

[radwolf76]

FLASHBack: Week 58 - Irrational Exuberance (YATTA!)

This week on FLASHBack, I’m going to surprise every one by talking about an Animutation. Loyal readers may recall from FLASHBack’s entry on the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny that Animutations were invented by Neil Cicierega, and I wasn’t sure how I could possibly describe them. Well, it turns out that there’s an Animutation Flash from 26 November 2001, by verylowsodium (aka Veloso), called Irrational Exuberence, that actually takes the time to sum up the genre at one point:   Once upon a time, some guy took a copy of an overpriced animation utility and animated a bunch of strange pop- culture images set to even stranger Japanese music. Like moths to a flame, a dozen copycats completely ripped off the idea, starting a freaky movement.

  The Flash’s title comes from a phrase used by U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan in a 1996 speech, describing the inflated stock price bubble of the Dot-Com boom. The soundtrack for the flash comes from a skit on the Japanese Television sketch comedy show Adventures of a Laughing Dog (aka “Happy Go Lucky” in the West). The skit centered around a fictional Japanese Boy Band, Green Leaves, singing a song called Yatta!. At the time of Yatta!’s release, Japan was under a severe economic depression with a high unemployment and suicide rate. The Japanese government had tried to admonish its citizens’ reaction to the bleak fiscal prospects of the country by telling them they just needed a better attitude. The comedians on the sketch comedy show decided to do the song as an ironic parody of this low-empathy advice, by making a song about how even if you have nothing in your life but a leaf to wear for modesty, by living your life firmly you can still achieve greatness.   However, their attempt to be ironic backfired. A Scholar of Irony once said:

“The upper echelons of irony should always include measures of sincerity. And if the satirical practice is executed faithfully it will achieve something bona fide in its own right regardless. Through an intense commitment bordering on religious devotion to the absolutely inane, absurd, or plain fucking stupid, a very different kind of sincerity begins to materialize. One of reverence to the ridiculous. You begin to ‘mean it,’ but what exactly it is you mean is never quite what appears on the surface, and is utterly inaccessible to obtuse and literal minds. That you 'mean it’ then becomes inseparable from the joke, and additional rich strata of humor may be stripped aggressively from this irreconcilable truth.”

And so, the song and comedy sketch they produced became deeply motivational to the Japanese people. When the song was released as a single, it went triple platinum and charted as high as #6 on the Oricon charts. Some accounts even report that the suicide rate in Japan dropped after the song’s release.   There are some who believed that Veloso was trying to translate this unintentional positivity of the Yatta! song into a form that U.S. Audiences would understand – naked consumerism, by including opening messages of “Buy”, “Spend”, “Shop”, “Acquire”, “Collect”, “Purchase” and so on, as well as numerous product images throughout the Flash. However, I think the product imagery stems from the same thing that drove the All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme, the inexplicable urge of the early internet to take a Weird Japanese Thing and photoshop it onto as many things as possible. Products that were “Yatta!”-fied in this Flash include: Pepto-Bismol, Windows 2000 Professional, Elmer’s glue, Gillette Mach 3 razor, Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, Colgate Total toothpaste, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Heinz ketchup, Game Boy Advance, Band-Aids, Head & Shoulders shampoo, Trojan condoms, Sun-Maid raisins, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!, The Price Is Right, MTV Music Television, Dramamine, Taco Bell, Ford trucks, Sweet 'n Low, Maxwell House coffee, Whataburger, Super Mario Brothers, Duracell batteries, Irish Spring soap, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Frosted Alpha-Bits cereal, and Coca-Cola.   As is common with Animutations, the Flash also attempts to transcribe the lyrics of the song, badly. This would later evolve into the “Misheard Lyrics” genre of YouTube videos. Some of the Flash’s imagery is also patterned after gameshows, its opening taking the format of the Price is Right’s iconic “Come On Down!” camera shot, and by giving several contestant bios throughout, including Rotten Apple Joe (a parody of Apple Computer’s “Rainbow” Logo that the company had from 1974 through 1998), Applegrape Joe (a parody of the Fruit of the Loom logo), Banana Joe (a parody of Bananna Republic), Dave Thomas (the actor from SCTV and Grace Under Fire), Dave Thomas (the founder of Wendys), Chocolate Dipped Strawberry (an excuse to make a buttplug joke), Hemorrhie Grapes (an excuse to make hemorrhoid jokes), and Richard Simmons (the punchline to all the “Fruit” contestants).   Aside from the game show imagery of a string of Yatta! prizes, and contestants competing for them, the Flash also shows images of Alan Greenspan, but ultimately decides he’s not frumpy enough and suggests that Ed Asner would make a better Chairman of the Fed, or better yet, Dave Thomas. At one point a chessboard is shown, playing out a four-move game in a scenario known as Scholar’s Mate, accompanied by the memetic quote “A Winner Is You!” – a phrase taken from the 1986 NES game Pro Wrestling. The researchers at Know Your Meme note that this meme didn’t start trending on Google until 2004 so Irrational Exuberance was years ahead of the curve on this one, as well as showing that Homestar Runner wasn’t the only Flash to lift something from a NES wrestling game only for it to turn out to be pretty popular. The Flash also features some staples of the animutation genre such as Jay Jay the Jet Plane, and of course Colin Mochrie, who in this instance is a record being played backwards.   Finally, in keeping with the ultraconsumerist themes of this Flash, there are some references to the Space Ghost: Coast to Coast episode Chambraigne: an image of Al Roker floats by with captions “Shampoo for your hair!”, “… and your brain!” and then at the end of the Flash the end card has “Continued use may result in limb loss” across the bottom.   So, you may be asking how I can follow up an animutation? Obviously, next week, things are just going to have to stay Weird.

[missfinefeather]

TT: He's just being instinctive. In the wild, he would gut a carcass and sleep inside for warmth, as well as to secure tactical advantage for ambushing would-be scavengers.

...why would a robot need to hunt? Does he eat meat?

GG: I will name him right now! GG: How about Lil' Sebastian? TT: Fuck if that isn't the best name a thing could get.

Is that a reference to something? Eh!

TT: Yes, but it's not that simple. There were many layers involved. TT: Some of them are literal layers, of metal and plush. GG: Huh? TT: There's a real stuffed rabbit beneath its exoskeleton. 

Oh! A completion of the bunny line?

Wait... why would it end with the Dave expy?

TT: It's this whole "priceless" collection of stupid shit from movies, defended like Fort Knox. Ironically of course. GG: So it's from a movie? TT: Ever hear of Con Air? 

Oh! Damn! So it does exist in this universe!

Wait. I’m confused... So where did the line start and where did it end? It feels like it started with Dave, but the other bunnies weren’t made of metal...

TT: The upper echelons of irony should always include measures of sincerity. And if the satirical practice is executed faithfully it will achieve something bona fide in its own right regardless.

Geeze, this is getting pretty wise! And it makes sense! In fact... now I think about it, kind of feels like the mindset behind Homestuck in general! The comic is very very silly, but it’s so genuine it’s captured hearts!

So Basically Alpha Dave is Problem Sleuth while Strider is Homestuck...

TT: Through an intense commitment bordering on religious devotion to the absolutely inane, absurd, or plain fucking stupid, a very different kind of sincerity begins to materialize. One of reverence to the ridiculous. You begin to "mean it," but what exactly it is you mean is never quite what appears on the surface, and is utterly inaccessible to obtuse and literal minds. That you "mean it" then becomes inseparable from the joke, and additional rich strata of humor may be stripped aggressively from this irreconcilable truth. 

God, it’s just... wow. I’m kind of reminded of my younger self. I thought of me as funny, random, weird, but there was no meaning behind it. It was just meant to be funny, random, and weird! I honestly thought that’s all you needed!

But I’ve grown so much... Now-a-days, I wouldn’t dare write a comedy without the heart, or even a drama without personality. It’s a balancing act of emotions that create a classic!

Wow, I’m starting to see why people like this guy! He’s actually quite legit!

GG: Will you teach me your ways one day, sir? Perhaps an apprenticeship will open? TT: Oh god, I'd love that. TT: Consider the position yours for the taking any time. Feel free to approach and kneel before Cal. With my sword and his floppy mitten, you will receive my flashstep anointment shoulder to shoulder, and to shoulder again.

I’m a little horrified Cal exists in this world...

[squabies]

“The upper echelons of irony should always include measures of sincerity. And if the satirical practice is executed faithfully it will achieve something bona fide in its own right regardless. Through an intense commitment bordering on religious devotion to the absolutely inane, absurd, or plain fucking stupid, a very different kind of sincerity begins to materialize. One of reverence to the ridiculous. You begin to ‘mean it,’ but what exactly it is you mean is never quite what appears on the surface, and is utterly inaccessible to obtuse and literal minds. That you ‘mean it’ then becomes inseparable from the joke, and additional rich strata of humor may be stripped aggressively from this irreconcilable truth.”

—DS

[somewhere-in-the-medium]

TT: The upper echelons of irony should always include measures of sincerity. And if the satirical practice is executed faithfully it will achieve something bona fide in its own right regardless.

Dude if you and your bro put half as much effort into winning this game that you do into your irony, you’d have won the troll game before your universe was even created.