I was with you until I actually had to pause at this sentence which seemed to veer completely off the course I was expecting: "What it does make fun of is the kind of basic white girl humor that became larger than itself." As a Millennial I can tell you that the bulk of this humor was actually piloted by BOYS. Ermagerd, I Can Has Cheezburger, Dogespeak, all created by men. I get that you see white women doing this on tiktok now but it's still soooooo weird of this article to frame its argument around girlboss this and that when most of this annoying jargon came from 4chan, the most misogynistic place on the internet, or reddit, which is not all that better. The internet was always mean.
"While there is always an instinct for Younger People to make fun of Older People, that’s not really what this is."
It's a more than a bit of that, though, isn't it? Generational difference is a constant - one which every generation gets to discover anew. See Punk as to Hippy - same same but different.
This is interesting to me, because this cringe humour was a direct response to the prior "I don't care, everything sucks, everything is ironic, guilty pleasure" vibe immediately prior to it. People got tired of not being allowed to enjoy things if they wanted to be cool, so they actively decided to be as uncool as possible. And then it became comodified and performative when social media got involved.
Me either! But I’m French too, so maybe they’re US-based references? Still I was living in the US in 2012 and I don’t recall those memes at all. Hopefully it means I have better friends than the post describes.
Yeah hahaha. I’m from Italy so probably that’s that. I mean, I sure can recognise some things that were tipically Millennial (mostly music) but nothing of that stuff (maybe a couple 😅😅). Well, good for us I guess (?)
I like what you say about the fact that we as young women largely bought into girlboss feminism thinking it would smash those glass ceilings or whatever 2010s conceptions we had about future womanhood. For me, now 26, I feel like I was tricked into wanting to enter some kind of corporate girlbossified world when I just want to be comfortable in life.
If it helps, that was mostly just marketing and popularized by a small number of very privileged women. I think younger women now feel more of that pressure than we Millennial women actually did. We didn't have so much comparison staring at us in the face as you do now. We just lived our lives and that was fine. This isn't a Millennial thing, it's a social media thing.
Right?! Now, part of me is like “I wanna build my own company” and the other part just wants to cash a paycheck, go home and repaint a bedroom or make burgers from scratch. This world is exhausting.
I am a Millennial and I think the disconnect here is that we Millennials, on the whole, didn't spend nearly as much time online when we were young as people do now. The Internet wasn't our primary means of self-expression nor was it our primary means of socializing (except for a small group who lived in chats). It was rarely used for professional networking, except to send an email, nor for dating, nor for serious activism. That all came later, once we already had work schedules. It wasn't serious because, for most people, the serious parts of our lives took place offline, in person. It could be dark (see Kaleigh's accurate comment), but it was playful.
Personally, these memes are pretty unimportant to me, even though some of them did make me laugh (and some still do). I clicked on this because I was curious to know what "Millennial humor" was. Whatever it is, I have friends spanning multiple generations with whom I can laugh. I laugh often with my friend who is in her 80s and with my son who is a teenager. Seriousness and laughter are not opposites. They are often symbiotic. Is GenZ having trouble laughing with other generations? Millennials are now mostly just working people in their 30s, not some weird other species.
I might be too critical here, I’m new to the platform and I’m not sure what is the etiquette. First question is how is a 28 year old woman a millennial? At best, she’s at the cusp. Most examples you initially listed are people from the cusp. So maybe that is a nuance to explore. I absolutely agree with girlboss feminism take, don’t get me wrong. But I just feel like it’s a bit of a lukewarm take to call this era of internet optimistic when it was a dark place to grow up in. The dated quirky-girl-talk has dark roots in Boxxy and 4chans obsession with doxxing her. Not to mention other cultural moments like Lays or Mountain Dew campaigns for new flavors and similar which paint a different picture of the era.
I feel like it developed into this cringe quickly as it became bigger and I still miss early memes. Rage comics were fun at one point. As Kate said, comodified and performative. While the Internet was scary it also had a humour that became diluted and commercialised. It was weird watching it happen in real time. Maybe I'm just in between - not quite one or another generation. They labelled that didn't they? The void GenX - millennial/genY. Or are we all just millennials now. Can we be hobbits instead? Is there a term for the genY/, genZ cross over? My fatigue is sapping my brain's ability to function so I'll have to look it up tomorrow.
to be fair, any type of shallow, optimistic humor these days tend to come across as cringe and out of touch. some people have never moved on from slapstick gags, and it's not just millennials. i personally judge people by what they find funny regardless of age—it shows a lot about who they are and what they believe.
I was with you until I actually had to pause at this sentence which seemed to veer completely off the course I was expecting: "What it does make fun of is the kind of basic white girl humor that became larger than itself." As a Millennial I can tell you that the bulk of this humor was actually piloted by BOYS. Ermagerd, I Can Has Cheezburger, Dogespeak, all created by men. I get that you see white women doing this on tiktok now but it's still soooooo weird of this article to frame its argument around girlboss this and that when most of this annoying jargon came from 4chan, the most misogynistic place on the internet, or reddit, which is not all that better. The internet was always mean.
"While there is always an instinct for Younger People to make fun of Older People, that’s not really what this is."
It's a more than a bit of that, though, isn't it? Generational difference is a constant - one which every generation gets to discover anew. See Punk as to Hippy - same same but different.
This is interesting to me, because this cringe humour was a direct response to the prior "I don't care, everything sucks, everything is ironic, guilty pleasure" vibe immediately prior to it. People got tired of not being allowed to enjoy things if they wanted to be cool, so they actively decided to be as uncool as possible. And then it became comodified and performative when social media got involved.
I’m a Millennial but know nothing about the stuff you mention 🙈 Jeeez, I’m a fake Millennial 😂
Me either! But I’m French too, so maybe they’re US-based references? Still I was living in the US in 2012 and I don’t recall those memes at all. Hopefully it means I have better friends than the post describes.
Yeah hahaha. I’m from Italy so probably that’s that. I mean, I sure can recognise some things that were tipically Millennial (mostly music) but nothing of that stuff (maybe a couple 😅😅). Well, good for us I guess (?)
I like what you say about the fact that we as young women largely bought into girlboss feminism thinking it would smash those glass ceilings or whatever 2010s conceptions we had about future womanhood. For me, now 26, I feel like I was tricked into wanting to enter some kind of corporate girlbossified world when I just want to be comfortable in life.
If it helps, that was mostly just marketing and popularized by a small number of very privileged women. I think younger women now feel more of that pressure than we Millennial women actually did. We didn't have so much comparison staring at us in the face as you do now. We just lived our lives and that was fine. This isn't a Millennial thing, it's a social media thing.
Right?! Now, part of me is like “I wanna build my own company” and the other part just wants to cash a paycheck, go home and repaint a bedroom or make burgers from scratch. This world is exhausting.
I am a Millennial and I think the disconnect here is that we Millennials, on the whole, didn't spend nearly as much time online when we were young as people do now. The Internet wasn't our primary means of self-expression nor was it our primary means of socializing (except for a small group who lived in chats). It was rarely used for professional networking, except to send an email, nor for dating, nor for serious activism. That all came later, once we already had work schedules. It wasn't serious because, for most people, the serious parts of our lives took place offline, in person. It could be dark (see Kaleigh's accurate comment), but it was playful.
Personally, these memes are pretty unimportant to me, even though some of them did make me laugh (and some still do). I clicked on this because I was curious to know what "Millennial humor" was. Whatever it is, I have friends spanning multiple generations with whom I can laugh. I laugh often with my friend who is in her 80s and with my son who is a teenager. Seriousness and laughter are not opposites. They are often symbiotic. Is GenZ having trouble laughing with other generations? Millennials are now mostly just working people in their 30s, not some weird other species.
Steffi u got it. Never thought about the apathy that ermagerd was covering. Thanks!!
I might be too critical here, I’m new to the platform and I’m not sure what is the etiquette. First question is how is a 28 year old woman a millennial? At best, she’s at the cusp. Most examples you initially listed are people from the cusp. So maybe that is a nuance to explore. I absolutely agree with girlboss feminism take, don’t get me wrong. But I just feel like it’s a bit of a lukewarm take to call this era of internet optimistic when it was a dark place to grow up in. The dated quirky-girl-talk has dark roots in Boxxy and 4chans obsession with doxxing her. Not to mention other cultural moments like Lays or Mountain Dew campaigns for new flavors and similar which paint a different picture of the era.
Isn't Steffi a white valley girl name? Not teasing! Well maybe...
okay but the goat version of IKYWT is still fuckin hilarious and i will die on this hill
Subscribed. Love your writing. I’m ready to read your take on Gen X. Rip into us, we can take it.
I feel like it developed into this cringe quickly as it became bigger and I still miss early memes. Rage comics were fun at one point. As Kate said, comodified and performative. While the Internet was scary it also had a humour that became diluted and commercialised. It was weird watching it happen in real time. Maybe I'm just in between - not quite one or another generation. They labelled that didn't they? The void GenX - millennial/genY. Or are we all just millennials now. Can we be hobbits instead? Is there a term for the genY/, genZ cross over? My fatigue is sapping my brain's ability to function so I'll have to look it up tomorrow.
to be fair, any type of shallow, optimistic humor these days tend to come across as cringe and out of touch. some people have never moved on from slapstick gags, and it's not just millennials. i personally judge people by what they find funny regardless of age—it shows a lot about who they are and what they believe.