August 10, 2022

"And if Dark Brandon transforms from parody imbued with implicit eye-rolling to enthusiastic exaggeration of the president’s capabilities..."

"... there’s no joke there at all anymore. So, the comedy has turned to tragedy, and if Dark Brandon isn’t dead yet, he probably will be soon. An additional hazard for the hipper, nihilistic early adopters of this trend, assuming everything ironic on the internet does really become genuine: If they’re not careful, maybe they’ll start liking Biden, too."

Writes Molly Roberts in "The Dark Brandon meme can’t escape death" (WaPo).

This news of the inevitable death of the "Dark Brandon" meme comes one day after I blogged "Meet Dark Brandon," which was based on an August 8th WaPo column "Brandon returns, darkly: Democrats turn an insult into a pro-Biden meme." 

That column was written by Matt Viser, whose newest column — "Biden, trying to tout his policies, faces a familiar intruder: Trump" — I just blogged in the previous post.  

Please don't get the impression I'm suddenly a Matt Viser fan. I blogged those columns to write criticism, not to praise them. 

I'm pleased if I contributed at all to the decline of the "Dark Brandon" meme. What I said — sarcastically riffing on something Viser said — was : "Sure, why not? Tap into the zeitgeist! The zeitgeist is fascism, right?"

Now, I'm seeing my quote in light of Roberts's line: "everything ironic on the internet does really become genuine." Should I infer Don't make fun, because it will come true? One more reason to say we're living in The Era of That's Not Funny.

21 comments:

JPS said...

"enthusiastic exaggeration of the president's capabilities..."

Stop trying to make "fetch" happen. It's not going to happen.

I actually feel a little bad for this president, because after he's safely out of office, and after there's no political price to be paid, we're going to see a slew of memoirs as to how tough it was to prop this man up day in and day out. Like Weekend at Bernie's, except with the added difficulty of keeping Biden from literally! wandering off.

Joe Smith said...

Biden can't even remember what he did ten seconds ago.

Witness yet another phantom handshake:

Yancey Ward said...

Two days after Dork Brandon (or whatever dork runs President Shit-for-Brains' twatter account) tweeted out his abhorrence over what just had to be a white supremecist hate crime against Muslims in Albuquerque turns out to likely have been a Muslim-on-Muslims killing of the ancient kind.

If you are going to do a meme like "Dark Brandon", at least pick someone who isn't as dumb as a fence post even when he didn't have Alzheimers'.

Beasts of England said...

Dork Brandon.

Geoff Matthews said...

Making fun of something is the first step to normalizing it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Puppet Brandon...invades and invites.
For you can cross the Rio Brandon... with abandon...

Gusty Winds said...

Here you can watch Biden struggle to get is sport coat on and fumble with his mask and glasses after stepping off Marine One

And here is Biden clearly forgetting he just shook Chuck Schumer’s hand five seconds earlier

He was installed on purpose in order to be fully controlled.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

They created a world where they can step on their own land mines any minute.

Temujin said...

I come not to praise Viser, but to bury him.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Hideously contrived and forced meme is forced. News at 11.

God of the Sea People said...

Dork Brandon. It is super cringey to see anyone try to make out this brain dead puppet as some sort of badass. He can’t make a coherent sentence, put on a jacket, or avoid falling off of a non-moving bicycle.

Big Mike said...

Autocorrect doesn’t recognize “dork.”

Ann Althouse said...

"I come not to praise Viser, but to bury him."

LOL. I meant to evoke that (but eschewed death imagery).

Michael K said...

"Never mention rope in the house of a man who has been hanged." FDR

What idiot of Biden's staff come up with "Intrude" metaphor the week after Brandon's handlers raided Trump's home?

Rollo said...

Trying to make the aviator sunglasses that were big in the 70s fashionable and cutting edge again was ridiculous. Turning doddering dotard Biden into a sexy killer is also ridiculous, but the sexy killer thing is problematic and troubling in itself. A competent president doesn't have to bother with this creepy, fascistic nonsense.

Narr said...

Dork Blandon.

n.n said...

Brandon at the twilight fringe.

Gospace said...

Heven't seen a Dark Brandon meme posted anywhere. On;y aware of Dark Brandon's existence due to blog posts here and elsewhere.

Hence, they're not working.

And more proof the left cannot meme.

tim in vermont said...

Dark Brandon would be OK if they could permanently hide the real article, who does things like forget he already shook somebody's hand quicker than Dory would have in Finding Nemo.

Lurker21 said...

I don't see how comedy or irony is "nihilist" or "nihilistic." Is SNL nihilist? If it is shouldn't we have been hearing about that for a while now. Was "Dark Brandon" a "nihilistic" meme in the beginning? Was it anti-Biden? I think it was just something some joker came up with trying to be funny, and it seems like Biden idolaters were the ones who spread the meme and made it widely known. And can we really say that the current pro-Biden "Dark Brandon" meme isn't nihilistic? Nihilistic first in its denial of reality, and second in its glorification of violence?

Danno said...

"Please don't get the impression I'm suddenly a Matt Viser fan. I blogged those columns to write criticism, not to praise them."

I make no conclusions on your position on issues unless you state them, unlike some other commenters. I see you as the (cruelly) neutral referee teeing up topics for informing us and then allowing discussion via the comments.