Ironically, I just don't get it.
February 23, 2010 12:01 PM Subscribe
Please, please, what is an ironic mustache? A mustache looking insufferably smug? Really, I don't get it. That and the ironic t-shirt thing; someone please explain.
An ironic mustache usually looks like a caterpillar crawled onto the wearer's upper lip and died there. Ironic mustaches are usually found on tall, skinny, spotty men with potbellies wearing too-small t-shirts and smoking American Spirits. As best I can gather, an ironic mustache is ironic because no-one, not even the mustachioed gentleman, thinks it looks good.
posted by coppermoss at 12:05 PM on February 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by coppermoss at 12:05 PM on February 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
I bought this particular pair of glasses because I like them and think they look nice on me.
Someone grows an ironic mustache as a silly thing to do, not because he thinks it looks good. (Now, maybe he secretly thinks it looks good, but he would not admit to that!)
posted by teragram at 12:09 PM on February 23, 2010 [2 favorites]
Someone grows an ironic mustache as a silly thing to do, not because he thinks it looks good. (Now, maybe he secretly thinks it looks good, but he would not admit to that!)
posted by teragram at 12:09 PM on February 23, 2010 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thank you. It's slightly less incomprehensible now. An aesthetic built on ugly. Again, thanks to everyone.
posted by Allee Katze at 12:15 PM on February 23, 2010
posted by Allee Katze at 12:15 PM on February 23, 2010
Not chatfilter -- I didn't understand this whole "ironic" hipster thing until recently. I kind of wish I had stayed ignorant forever, my blood pressure would have thanked me.
posted by tastybrains at 12:23 PM on February 23, 2010
posted by tastybrains at 12:23 PM on February 23, 2010
An ironic t-shirt is generally found in thrift stores. I saw generally because often corporate clothing stores latch onto the trend, hence the Crystal Pepsi shirt my boyfriend just bought me from Urban Outfitters. Amazing and ironic, but not as "authentic" as if it were found in a Salvation Army shop.
To be ironic, whatever's on the shirt doesn't have to be uncool per se, but it does have to be a little out there. I once had an awesome shirt from a Northern Arctic research station, complete with giant bizarre logo. I don't think Arctic research is uncool in any way, but it is a bit oddball to find on someone's chest.
Sometimes a shirt is ironic because of a misspelling, I have one with a giant smiling sun on it, and underneath is written in giant Comic Sans: "SONSHINE KIDZ"
Oftentimes the shirt will have been a giveaway at some public event. An old laundry day standby was "Law Enforcement Special Olympics Torch Run," which featured a crude drawing of a police officer receiving a torch from a jubilant special Olympian. This ties into another category: shirts that I would never had the guts to actually wear.
A side story, if I may be so bold.
I went to Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin when I was a kid. Every year, they'd bus us out for the day to Wisconsin Dells, a town that, for all I could tell, consisted of nothing but waterparks. The biggest and best was Noah's Ark, which we always thought would be the perfect destination, being biblically themed and all.
No, I guess it was too expensive, as we were always dropped off across the street at Family Land, which was as lame as it sounds.
Years later, I'm at a bar at home in Toronto, and I notice our waitress is wearing a Family Land t-shirt! I get all excited about it and ask her if she'd ever been there, and got the most vacant stare I have ever received in my life.
Do not look for human connection in ironic t-shirts.
posted by yellowbinder at 12:31 PM on February 23, 2010 [6 favorites]
To be ironic, whatever's on the shirt doesn't have to be uncool per se, but it does have to be a little out there. I once had an awesome shirt from a Northern Arctic research station, complete with giant bizarre logo. I don't think Arctic research is uncool in any way, but it is a bit oddball to find on someone's chest.
Sometimes a shirt is ironic because of a misspelling, I have one with a giant smiling sun on it, and underneath is written in giant Comic Sans: "SONSHINE KIDZ"
Oftentimes the shirt will have been a giveaway at some public event. An old laundry day standby was "Law Enforcement Special Olympics Torch Run," which featured a crude drawing of a police officer receiving a torch from a jubilant special Olympian. This ties into another category: shirts that I would never had the guts to actually wear.
A side story, if I may be so bold.
I went to Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin when I was a kid. Every year, they'd bus us out for the day to Wisconsin Dells, a town that, for all I could tell, consisted of nothing but waterparks. The biggest and best was Noah's Ark, which we always thought would be the perfect destination, being biblically themed and all.
No, I guess it was too expensive, as we were always dropped off across the street at Family Land, which was as lame as it sounds.
Years later, I'm at a bar at home in Toronto, and I notice our waitress is wearing a Family Land t-shirt! I get all excited about it and ask her if she'd ever been there, and got the most vacant stare I have ever received in my life.
Do not look for human connection in ironic t-shirts.
posted by yellowbinder at 12:31 PM on February 23, 2010 [6 favorites]
An aesthetic built on ugly
Out-of-date or out-of-place, yes -- hence, the irony. It's kitsch, but not ugly. Who would wear something they thought was ugly?
posted by whiskeyspider at 12:37 PM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Out-of-date or out-of-place, yes -- hence, the irony. It's kitsch, but not ugly. Who would wear something they thought was ugly?
posted by whiskeyspider at 12:37 PM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Do not look for human connection in ironic t-shirts.
I blew the mind of the cashier at a restaurant when I told him that I got my 1998 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals shirt as a team member. Not that I was wearing it for irony, I just hadn't done laundry for a while.
And it's not just t-shirts and facial hair. People drink Schlitz and PBR for the exact same reason. Which pisses me off, because it makes cheap beer trendy, and hence more expensive.
posted by hwyengr at 12:46 PM on February 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
I blew the mind of the cashier at a restaurant when I told him that I got my 1998 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals shirt as a team member. Not that I was wearing it for irony, I just hadn't done laundry for a while.
And it's not just t-shirts and facial hair. People drink Schlitz and PBR for the exact same reason. Which pisses me off, because it makes cheap beer trendy, and hence more expensive.
posted by hwyengr at 12:46 PM on February 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
I am 25 years old, I am a hip dude although I don't usually self-identify as a "hipster" (who does?), and I have worn moustaches at various points in the past several years (example from 2006). These pat explanations really only give you part of the story. To me, this kind of fashion is best understood in the larger context of post-modernism. It's partly about appropriating elements of another time, place, or aesthetic system, and re-contextualizing it. Many folks in 2010 who would get labeled as "hipsters" wearing "ironic moustaches" would've looked like "normal bros" in e.g. 1976, or any number of different times throughout history when this kind of thing was considered fashionable. But it's not just that they're trying to look like someone from the 70's -- they may only be borrowing a small part of that image and combining it with other elements from disparate styles. You can find aesthetic parallels with this sort of thing in many different types of contemporary art.
It's not just about trying to be cool by looking ugly. When I wore a moustache I didn't think it looked ugly at all. I did have an awareness, though, of the effect my moustachioed appearance could have on other people, in that many of them did think it looked ugly or otherwise inappropriate for my age/appearance/background, and there is an element of pride there at being able to openly appreciate an aesthetic that many people dismiss. That sort of pride can be found in aspects of many niche cultures, past and present.
posted by ludwig_van at 12:48 PM on February 23, 2010 [7 favorites]
It's not just about trying to be cool by looking ugly. When I wore a moustache I didn't think it looked ugly at all. I did have an awareness, though, of the effect my moustachioed appearance could have on other people, in that many of them did think it looked ugly or otherwise inappropriate for my age/appearance/background, and there is an element of pride there at being able to openly appreciate an aesthetic that many people dismiss. That sort of pride can be found in aspects of many niche cultures, past and present.
posted by ludwig_van at 12:48 PM on February 23, 2010 [7 favorites]
It's a silent form of aggression. Kind of like punk originally, but without any well-thought-out cause for the hostility. It's like saying "Fuck you" to everyone you see without having to open your mouth.
posted by stuck on an island at 12:52 PM on February 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by stuck on an island at 12:52 PM on February 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
yellowbinder: Sometimes a shirt is ironic because of a misspelling, I have one with a giant smiling sun on it, and underneath is written in giant Comic Sans: "SONSHINE KIDZ"
I think that SONSHINE spelling is intentional --- I've seen lots of Christian summer camps and the like use that spelling, as Jesus is the SON and he SHINES, get it? Probably KIDZ is misspelled on purpose too --- for some reason people think misspellings are cute (I blame Toys Я Us).
posted by headnsouth at 1:20 PM on February 23, 2010 [2 favorites]
I think that SONSHINE spelling is intentional --- I've seen lots of Christian summer camps and the like use that spelling, as Jesus is the SON and he SHINES, get it? Probably KIDZ is misspelled on purpose too --- for some reason people think misspellings are cute (I blame Toys Я Us).
posted by headnsouth at 1:20 PM on February 23, 2010 [2 favorites]
My favorite comment/post on hipsters/irony (and written by a MeFite to boot!), explaining some of the finer nuances of the motivations driving the stylistic choices of this community (and those who adorn themselves similarly; ie. ironic t-shirts, trucker hats, and the mustache of which you speak).
posted by iamkimiam at 1:30 PM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by iamkimiam at 1:30 PM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
"French half-pipe snowboarder Mathieu Crepel sported the world's most ironic mustache last night. Let us count the levels of irony:
(1.) Beginner's irony: It is a fake, black-ink mustache on an adult.
(2.) Advanced-placement irony: It is drawn on top of his real mustache.
(3.) Nationalist irony: A teensy, curling mustache on a Frenchman, at an competition that emphasizes one's citizenship."
posted by iviken at 1:35 PM on February 23, 2010 [5 favorites]
(1.) Beginner's irony: It is a fake, black-ink mustache on an adult.
(2.) Advanced-placement irony: It is drawn on top of his real mustache.
(3.) Nationalist irony: A teensy, curling mustache on a Frenchman, at an competition that emphasizes one's citizenship."
posted by iviken at 1:35 PM on February 23, 2010 [5 favorites]
It's not just about trying to be cool by looking ugly. When I wore a moustache I didn't think it looked ugly at all. I did have an awareness, though, of the effect my moustachioed appearance could have on other people, in that many of them did think it looked ugly or otherwise inappropriate for my age/appearance/background, and there is an element of pride there at being able to openly appreciate an aesthetic that many people dismiss. That sort of pride can be found in aspects of many niche cultures, past and present.
posted by ludwig_van
My fiance is currently sporting a set of entirely non-ironic, pointy, Regency-style sideburns. They aren't bushy, but they're distinct. He grew them because (nerd alert) we're huge Jane Austen nuts, so it's sort of like wearing a band t-shirt or gang tattoo for a literary gent. I think they're just deadly sexy, so it's sometimes hard to know that some people must see them and they "Pffft. Stupid ironic hipster facial hair." I like to think his otherwise conservative personal style helps mitigate that reaction, but really, who knows?
posted by mostlymartha at 2:05 PM on February 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by ludwig_van
My fiance is currently sporting a set of entirely non-ironic, pointy, Regency-style sideburns. They aren't bushy, but they're distinct. He grew them because (nerd alert) we're huge Jane Austen nuts, so it's sort of like wearing a band t-shirt or gang tattoo for a literary gent. I think they're just deadly sexy, so it's sometimes hard to know that some people must see them and they "Pffft. Stupid ironic hipster facial hair." I like to think his otherwise conservative personal style helps mitigate that reaction, but really, who knows?
posted by mostlymartha at 2:05 PM on February 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Checking back it appears I've been needlessly offensive calling it an "aesthetic built on ugly". My apologies. I wasn't trying to be unpleasant, that was just my knee jerk interpretation. It seems that to some there's more to it than readily meets the eye.
posted by Allee Katze at 2:34 PM on February 23, 2010
posted by Allee Katze at 2:34 PM on February 23, 2010
From Parks & Rec: “Why does everything we do have to be cloaked in like 15 layers of irony?"
As a lovely example of irony begetting irony, I have been to a mustache party-- where the entire premise is for all attendees to sport an ironic mustaches while drinking beer. The best mustache gets a prize. The facial hair-challenged draw or stick them on (women included).
posted by dino might at 6:09 PM on February 23, 2010
As a lovely example of irony begetting irony, I have been to a mustache party-- where the entire premise is for all attendees to sport an ironic mustaches while drinking beer. The best mustache gets a prize. The facial hair-challenged draw or stick them on (women included).
posted by dino might at 6:09 PM on February 23, 2010
Looking at LATFH, a perhaps more pressing question strikes me. How do you know if someone's a Fucking Hipster and not a huge nerd?
posted by cmoj at 6:22 PM on February 23, 2010
posted by cmoj at 6:22 PM on February 23, 2010
Last spring, a whole crowd of guys I know celebrated Mustache May. Their mustaches were ironic.
posted by salvia at 7:31 PM on February 23, 2010
posted by salvia at 7:31 PM on February 23, 2010
Another reason: men sport moustaches because they can. I wore one at 21, in 2001. I knew it was out of style, and it made me look like my father at 21. Ostensibly, it was a stupid bet (I won the naming rights to the loser's firstborn); it was mostly part of my "crazy guy" persona.
From my experience, these moustaches are most likely the result of a party where people came to the conclusion that X should "totally" sport a 70s moustache.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:39 PM on February 23, 2010
From my experience, these moustaches are most likely the result of a party where people came to the conclusion that X should "totally" sport a 70s moustache.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:39 PM on February 23, 2010
It's not just that the thing is ugly. It's that it either used to be in fashion and now isn't (like bad 70s porn-staches) or that it is fashionable but only by people that you might call proles for lack of a better word (for example trucker hats or Three Wolf Moon t-shirts.) It's sort of like there is license to wear stuff that's unfashionable as long as you wink-wink acknowledge that you're not actually claiming that it's fashionable. If you were to wear a Three Wolf Moon t-shirt because you really liked wolves and thought the moons were pretty and weren't aware that it was kind of a meme, then that would be non-ironic.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:22 AM on February 24, 2010
posted by Rhomboid at 2:22 AM on February 24, 2010
There's facial hair and there's facial hair. My best friend at work sports a lightly waxed mustache and full beard I've inwardly dubbed the Bismarck. Looking at him in his facial hair makes me happy because it is neat, well-tended and obviously part of an overall look he embraces non-ironically (he also wears made-to-measure tweed Norfolk suits and patterned waistcoats). He makes an effort with his appearance. Making an effort is a profound courtesy to others. However, like any sincere creative performance, it also leaves you vulnerable to criticism.
Perhaps the choice to wear ironic facial hair is a blind employed by men too scared to attempt simply looking good. It's like, "Hey, I'm ugly, but I'm trying to look ugly! Technical winz!"
posted by stuck on an island at 4:04 AM on February 24, 2010
Perhaps the choice to wear ironic facial hair is a blind employed by men too scared to attempt simply looking good. It's like, "Hey, I'm ugly, but I'm trying to look ugly! Technical winz!"
posted by stuck on an island at 4:04 AM on February 24, 2010
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