Normie…. That was the guy that sat next to Cliff in Cheers, right?

Or is it a Cockney pronunciation of Normandy?

Or are you referring to the grandson of the original Green Goblin?

Or, more likely, are you attempting to dismiss any criticism by applying a derisive label to anyone who doesn’t agree with you?

If one needs “credentials to assess this meme”, then it’s not a meme; it’s an obscure in-joke (at best).

Which prompts me to ask… what are your “credentials”? By what standards and in what artistic, literary, and/or historical contexts should these “post-ironic memes” be judged? From whence do they derive their impetus and “collective understanding” (an integral aspect of a meme)?

Would you say that they owe their ancestry to Duchamp’s dadaism? Or are they more of a progression of Becket’s absurdist aesthetic?
The “post-ironic” appellation suggests an element of satire (though none is readily apparent in the examples shown). If that’s the case: Is the intent to emulate the classical scathing satire of Swift and Voltaire, or the modern comedic approach of Breathed and Radner?
Oh… or is the fact that these unintelligible visual cacophonies are presented as memes actually a twist on the abstract surrealism of the likes of Cage? That would actually be cool.

If you’re going to insist that your “art” or “movement” has validity, you need to be able to step up and actually defend it. “You’re too ‘normal’ to understand” is the biggest cop-out of the wannabe. To paraphrase Einstein: If you can not explain it, you don’t understand it”.

So… explain this “post-ironic meme” thing.

Let’s start with the name: What does it mean to be “post-ironic”?

What is the irony that this meme transcends?


Then let’s move to the heart of it: What is its history? Its ancestry? What are its goals? Its motivations?


And then to the iconography: Visual memes rely heavily upon readily recognizable and identifiable iconography–usually taken from pop culture. What are the images in the examples you showed supposed to mean? How are viewers supposed to recognize them, understand them, and identify with them?


Can you step up and have an intelligent and informed conversation on this topic? Or are passive-aggressive (attempts at) insults the only weapon in your arsenal?