Hipster culture is akin to the Emperor’s New Clothes, except substituting “intentionally ironic coolness” for intelligence.
On the subject of your comic, I want to ask why your art style and sense of humour have changed so much over the years. The hunched look and depressingly cynical dialogue of the characters conveys a very different feeling than what originally drew me to your webcomic. The actions and situations were more surreal and seemingly non-sequiter, but the way everything tied together in the last panels was much more interesting then this direct, seething angst.
A better example of this would be cannibals. Back in the age of exploration, rival groups of indigenous peoples would often describe each other as man-eaters. “Oh, no, we don’t eat people. But those guys over there totally do. They’re bad and we’re good.”
To rephrase some of the dialogue slightly… a hipster is a nobody. We hate them because they are a nobody who thinks they are a somebody. We are confident enough that we are a somebody that we don’t need to force those around us to be aware of it. We don’t need to belong to cliques of mutual appreciation. We aren’t afraid of the larger social context of the world we live in… of being able to see ourselves in perspective. We understand that blending into a crowd, to be nondescript, is NOT a failure of personality.
We also hate hipsters because when we look down on them, we know that all we’re doing is sinking to their level… if we weren’t there already.
For the record, I really like what this comic is now. I just discovered it recently. The very early strips aren’t bad, but the current ones are better. It’s one of the few intelligent comics out there (along with Dinosaur Comics, POPsickleSTICK, xkcd, sometimes Sinfestand, more-or-less This Modern World).
People change. Their interests and point of view also change. Often in directions away from what you liked best. Life is dynamic.
Maybe that is why I can’t hold a relationship together for more than 5 years. Also, I am afraid of the larger social context. That is why I try to bland in. (It isn’t working.)
I heard? That if you go to the steepest hill in Portland? On a full moon? At midnight? You can see a hipster ghost pushing his fixie up the hill again and again and again.
look fellas. mocking bike lanes and healthy food and other reasonable and intelligent things that are enjoyed by hipsters (who are, as it turns out, generally reasonable and intelligent people) *just because they are enjoyed by hipsters* makes you nothing more than a post-hipster, trying to cultivate your cooler-than-thou, or at best an anti-hipster. but you’re still a -ster. so don’t be silly. escape the ster.
I hipster is someone who says denying being a hipster makes you a hipster. And those people who wear tight pants with big glasses and trucker hats too.
I enjoy everything Dorothy creates. I am also very, very unhip, go figure. I thought I was hip once, but just couldn’t keep up. The hippest device I own is a blackberry storm, it is definitely hip, but I’m not.
I wouldn’t know hip if it was passing out $100.00 bills on the street. Did you hear about the 23 year old who just won a really big 200 million lottery? Now that’s so unhip, I can’t stand it.
reposted this strip on facebook and got the following comment:
“…and on the handle of the car…WAS A BLOODY HOOK, much like the one I have right here…except I got mine, like, 5 years ago…before hooks were big. Now every douchebag has a hook. I’ve been thinking of putting my hook on craigslist cause it is one of the originals.”
“Hipsters (who are, as it turns out, generally reasonable and intelligent people)…”
I’ve been trying to find an argument against this… I can’t. Anyone who can quote Nietzsche when I’m trying to hire a DVD must be intelligent. Anyone who lets me return the DVD late because I won’t be able to return it on time must be reasonable.
But when this reasonable and intelligent person is trying so hard to impress me, a complete stranger, with how ‘different’ they are… how their affected personality impediments are so much more refined than anyone else’s…
Oh God. He must have thought I was a hipster as well.
This comment chain is becoming so meta I can’t wrap my brain around it. Being from Portland, being a vegetarian and then a recent carnivore convert (as meat is the new vegan), loving bicycle culture, adhering to the “it’s better on vinyl” mantra, and owning a pair of skinny jeans, I can laugh at this. Because it’s universal and hilarious, both in truth and caricature of truth. I believe you could plug the word “yuppie”, “hippie”, or “punk” into any of these comments and come up with the same thing…
Thanks for the strip – my favorite part is all the eyeballs in the dark!
June 5, 2009
Abercrombie sells tight dark jeans and plaid dress shirts in abundance now. Goodbye hipsters, tell disco and big hair we say hello.
June 5, 2009
Hipster culture is akin to the Emperor’s New Clothes, except substituting “intentionally ironic coolness” for intelligence.
On the subject of your comic, I want to ask why your art style and sense of humour have changed so much over the years. The hunched look and depressingly cynical dialogue of the characters conveys a very different feeling than what originally drew me to your webcomic. The actions and situations were more surreal and seemingly non-sequiter, but the way everything tied together in the last panels was much more interesting then this direct, seething angst.
June 5, 2009
Excellent strip Dorothy, indeed I did laugh!
June 5, 2009
“I’ve seen their bike lanes!” is the funniest thing I’ve read all day. A Portlander thanks you.
June 5, 2009
A better example of this would be cannibals. Back in the age of exploration, rival groups of indigenous peoples would often describe each other as man-eaters. “Oh, no, we don’t eat people. But those guys over there totally do. They’re bad and we’re good.”
June 5, 2009
Wait, aren’t you living in Brooklyn again? Are we in Portland really more hipster-intensive?
June 5, 2009
Also @ nostaljack – life happens to people sometimes.
June 5, 2009
To rephrase some of the dialogue slightly… a hipster is a nobody. We hate them because they are a nobody who thinks they are a somebody. We are confident enough that we are a somebody that we don’t need to force those around us to be aware of it. We don’t need to belong to cliques of mutual appreciation. We aren’t afraid of the larger social context of the world we live in… of being able to see ourselves in perspective. We understand that blending into a crowd, to be nondescript, is NOT a failure of personality.
We also hate hipsters because when we look down on them, we know that all we’re doing is sinking to their level… if we weren’t there already.
June 5, 2009
For the record, I really like what this comic is now. I just discovered it recently. The very early strips aren’t bad, but the current ones are better. It’s one of the few intelligent comics out there (along with Dinosaur Comics, POPsickleSTICK, xkcd, sometimes Sinfestand, more-or-less This Modern World).
June 5, 2009
Hating Hipsters is the sort of hipsterish though.
We become what we hate.
We hate what we’ve become.
Comics and hipsterdom go hand in hand.
Regardless, you’re my new hero.
June 5, 2009
I’ve heard “a hipster is someone who says they aren’t a hipster”.
June 5, 2009
I LOVE YOU. Please let’s get married?
“I’ve seen their bike lanes” may now have supplanted “Do you want to go to a state college?” as my favorite line of anything, ever.
June 5, 2009
This is excellent! I just moved back to Portland after more than three years in Southern California, and the profusion of hipsters makes me giggle.
June 5, 2009
A visually stunning masterpiece.
June 5, 2009
Nostaljack,
People change. Their interests and point of view also change. Often in directions away from what you liked best. Life is dynamic.
Maybe that is why I can’t hold a relationship together for more than 5 years. Also, I am afraid of the larger social context. That is why I try to bland in. (It isn’t working.)
Esn,
Thanks for POPsickleSTICK.
June 5, 2009
a hipster is just an 18-35-year-old with a disposable income who will buy anything if you tell them it will make them different.
June 5, 2009
This one really made me chuckle, is what I meant to say. Are they the everyman because they are the noman, or the noman because they are the everyman?
June 5, 2009
There’s a little Hipster in all of us.
June 5, 2009
If it weren’t for hipsters losing things in the bike lane, I wouldn’t have a pair of sunglasses :)
Too bad it always rains in Portland…
June 5, 2009
I heard? That if you go to the steepest hill in Portland? On a full moon? At midnight? You can see a hipster ghost pushing his fixie up the hill again and again and again.
June 5, 2009
Graffiti outside a vegan bakery in Washington DC: GO HOME HIPSTER BIKES
June 5, 2009
look fellas. mocking bike lanes and healthy food and other reasonable and intelligent things that are enjoyed by hipsters (who are, as it turns out, generally reasonable and intelligent people) *just because they are enjoyed by hipsters* makes you nothing more than a post-hipster, trying to cultivate your cooler-than-thou, or at best an anti-hipster. but you’re still a -ster. so don’t be silly. escape the ster.
June 5, 2009
I hipster is someone who says denying being a hipster makes you a hipster. And those people who wear tight pants with big glasses and trucker hats too.
June 5, 2009
Shorter Nostaljack: I like your old stuff better than your new stuff.
Which is a hipsterish thing to say. :P
June 6, 2009
I enjoy everything Dorothy creates. I am also very, very unhip, go figure. I thought I was hip once, but just couldn’t keep up. The hippest device I own is a blackberry storm, it is definitely hip, but I’m not.
I wouldn’t know hip if it was passing out $100.00 bills on the street. Did you hear about the 23 year old who just won a really big 200 million lottery? Now that’s so unhip, I can’t stand it.
June 6, 2009
I liked this comic better before it had comments.
June 6, 2009
reposted this strip on facebook and got the following comment:
“…and on the handle of the car…WAS A BLOODY HOOK, much like the one I have right here…except I got mine, like, 5 years ago…before hooks were big. Now every douchebag has a hook. I’ve been thinking of putting my hook on craigslist cause it is one of the originals.”
June 6, 2009
Brandon, i agree. But by agreeing i am adding to your troubles. We were made to be together, but at the same time, we never can be.
June 6, 2009
I see we’ve all got our hipster Halloween costumes on.
June 7, 2009
ARGH! I have never wanted less to read an online discussion of hipsters than I do right now!
June 7, 2009
“Hipsters (who are, as it turns out, generally reasonable and intelligent people)…”
I’ve been trying to find an argument against this… I can’t. Anyone who can quote Nietzsche when I’m trying to hire a DVD must be intelligent. Anyone who lets me return the DVD late because I won’t be able to return it on time must be reasonable.
But when this reasonable and intelligent person is trying so hard to impress me, a complete stranger, with how ‘different’ they are… how their affected personality impediments are so much more refined than anyone else’s…
Oh God. He must have thought I was a hipster as well.
June 7, 2009
after having lived in Portland myself, I think this may be one of my favorite comics of all time. ::nods in approval::
June 8, 2009
Hipsters are younger and better looking than you, and are sleeping with younger, better looking people than you are.
June 8, 2009
Claire, you just blew my mind. Can I buy you a Pabst + shot?
June 8, 2009
Only YOU can prevent hipster-on-hipster violence.
June 8, 2009
Yes, yes you can Brandon.
Look at all of these comments we’re making.
we’re filthy hypocrites.
June 8, 2009
Brilliant.
June 11, 2009
This comment chain is becoming so meta I can’t wrap my brain around it. Being from Portland, being a vegetarian and then a recent carnivore convert (as meat is the new vegan), loving bicycle culture, adhering to the “it’s better on vinyl” mantra, and owning a pair of skinny jeans, I can laugh at this. Because it’s universal and hilarious, both in truth and caricature of truth. I believe you could plug the word “yuppie”, “hippie”, or “punk” into any of these comments and come up with the same thing…
Thanks for the strip – my favorite part is all the eyeballs in the dark!
June 11, 2009
Rachel – I’m suprised we can see their eyeballs through the non-perscription spectacles.
June 15, 2009
Yeah, shouldn’t that be Williamsburg rather than Portland? ;)
June 15, 2009
I can honestly say outside of the university here, I am the hippest guy in Dayton … and I’m wearing a golf shirt and khakis right now.
October 16, 2009
Hipsters aren’t real. Camper-eating monster swarms, on the other hand…