Keytar VHS nulla, accusamus locavore officia jean shorts ex fanny pack 8-bit etsy veniam sunt.

August 15, 2011 6:19 PM

Hipster Ipsum: Artisanal Filler Text
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn (89 comments total)

Hipster has lost all meaning. Oh man, man. Man.
posted by sweetkid at 6:36 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

no, it means all of those things.

all of those things.
posted by One Thousand and One at 6:38 PM on August 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: Next level art party blog, you probably haven't heard of them.
posted by Rhaomi at 6:39 PM on August 15, 2011

This is actually the list of tags on my next FPP post.
posted by joannemullen at 6:40 PM on August 15, 2011 [10 favorites]

LOL. Once I got really bored while trying to populate a database with fake names like John Doe and Jane Roe. So I thought I'd get creative and use Lorem Ipsum.

Lauren Ipsum
Dolores Sit
Ahmet Consectetur

That's as far as I got.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:41 PM on August 15, 2011 [12 favorites]

Q: How many hipsters does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It's a pretty obscure number, you probably haven't heard of it.

But seriously, yes...the term has been overloaded at this point to mean "generic other who represents what I don't like," just like passive aggressive has been overloaded to mean "generic behavior that I don't like." Personally, I blame Alanis Morissette for starting the whole trend of "I don't know what this word means, but I'm angry about it anyway."
posted by trackofalljades at 6:42 PM on August 15, 2011 [6 favorites]

Sit Amet
posted by The Whelk at 6:42 PM on August 15, 2011

But seriously, yes...the term has been overloaded at this point to mean "generic other who represents what I don't like,"

Nah, this site has a pretty good list of hipster signifiers. Which are also comment MeFi post topics, so its no wonder people get defensive.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 6:45 PM on August 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

Q: How many hipsters does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It's a pretty obscure number, you probably haven't heard of it.

And as much as I'd like to stop myself, I have to point out I got tired of that joke years ago.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 6:45 PM on August 15, 2011 [23 favorites]

Let's try it with a different set of words:

Trailer park Budweiser Kid Rock inbred NASCAR giant belt buckles megachurch Wal-mart mullet yee-haw huge truck country music Larry the Cable Guy hunting deep-fried racist.

I'm sure since everyone thinks "hipster doesn't mean anything", you got just as much of an impression of the word 'hipster' from that word salad as you did from the link. Right? No?
posted by 0xFCAF at 6:46 PM on August 15, 2011 [14 favorites]

My god, it's like talking to my ex.
posted by gracedissolved at 6:48 PM on August 15, 2011 [9 favorites]

When I first scanned it even though now I can't find where it was and me being knee-deep in martinis may perhaps have something to do with it but I thought I read Sofia Vergara and for the first time ever I thought I might be a hipster.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 6:52 PM on August 15, 2011

At this point, I'd prefer a steampunk pile-on over another hipster one.
posted by DU at 6:54 PM on August 15, 2011

So... who is the Jeff Foxworthy of the hipster movement?
posted by indubitable at 6:56 PM on August 15, 2011

And as much as I'd like to stop myself, I have to point out I got tired of that joke years ago.

Go home then.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:57 PM on August 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hipster is short hand for "people who consume things I don't like". It's the ultimate consumer slur, directed at people who are or aren't spending their money in ways you approve of.
posted by bradbane at 6:58 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

So people with Macbook Airs think people buying windows laptops are hipsters? Interesting.
posted by joannemullen at 7:02 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Miller high life bottle is prettier than anything you've ever made so fuck you.
posted by nathancaswell at 7:04 PM on August 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

Artisanal Filler Text ...heavy on the anal.
posted by me3dia at 7:05 PM on August 15, 2011

Hipster is short hand for "people who consume things I don't like". It's the ultimate consumer slur, directed at people who are or aren't spending their money in ways you approve of.

Its more of an in-joke/in-group 'slur'. Its 'people who like what I like in ways that I don't approve of'.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:05 PM on August 15, 2011 [8 favorites]

Ha! They name-checked Portland!

This was way more amusing to me than I thought it would be. They nailed it.

And aside: Yes, there is such a thing as a hipster. It's not just some pejorative people throw around.
posted by elwoodwiles at 7:08 PM on August 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

Ya know, I was going to start ranting about Brooklyn again, but then I got to thinking. Those Miller High Life bottles really are pretty. Maybe I just don't care anymore.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:09 PM on August 15, 2011

What does this "yr" mean? I've probably never heard of it, and it's not really googleable.
posted by phunniemee at 7:11 PM on August 15, 2011

I LOVED THIS! Thank you.
posted by fake at 7:11 PM on August 15, 2011

What does this "yr" mean? I've probably never heard of it, and it's not really googleable.

I'm not sure, but sometimes its how I write 'your'. I probably picked it up off some blog.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:13 PM on August 15, 2011

if people are going to abbreviate "your" then I prefer "yr" to "ur" , only because the former keeps the phonetic pronunciation, while the latter sound like like a grunt.
posted by hellojed at 7:16 PM on August 15, 2011

I gently teased a couple of lovely, artsy Craigslist customers tonight, saying that they obviously weren't hipsters because their bikes had derailleurs, but they were gentle and unoffended, and bought my bike anyway. Now I feel very, very guilty.
posted by maudlin at 7:16 PM on August 15, 2011

yr can mean year or your. Here is a comment to Tao Lin about his book demonstrating this.

really can't wait to see 60 yr-olds reading yr stuff in parks and other places where old people hang out and read books, smoking pipes and feeding birds with copies of 'shoplifting from american apparel' in their hands.

posted by Ad hominem at 7:17 PM on August 15, 2011

Urban Dictionary has a detailed definition of "hipster" from a pro-hipster standpoint.

Selected quotes:

- a subculture of men and women typically in their 20's and 30's
- ... that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter
- can be found living in the Williamsburg, Wicker Park, and Mission District neighborhoods of major cosmopolitan centers such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco respectively.
- are often be seen wearing vintage and thrift store inspired fashions, tight-fitting jeans, old-school sneakers, and sometimes thick rimmed glasses.
- similar androgynous hair styles that include combinations of messy shag cuts and asymmetric side-swept bangs.
- The... look of a hipster is exemplified in Urban Outfitters and American Apparel ads which cater towards the hipster demographic.
- often have liberal arts degrees, or degrees in maths and sciences

Obviously, you might rephrase these as "A bunch of left-wing 20 year old city-dwelling liberal arts students who think they're cool because they shop at thrift stores and try to 'fight main stream culture'". But I think the general ideas of "what a hipster looks/acts like" aren't actually up for dispute.
posted by BungaDunga at 7:19 PM on August 15, 2011 [5 favorites]

Who gives a shit about fighting mainstream culture? You'd probably call me and my friends hipsters. None of us give a fuck about fighting your culture. Get over yourselves.
posted by nathancaswell at 7:22 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

See also: MeFi's own resident hipster, Juliet Banana, defines keebler, a close relative of the hipster.
posted by phunniemee at 7:24 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wait, so that last bit is telling us hipsters aren't business majors? I'm afraid my entire worldview has just collapsed. (Let's just ignore the legions of undergrad hipsters and those without degrees for a minute.)
posted by hoyland at 7:25 PM on August 15, 2011

See also: MeFi's own resident hipster, Juliet Banana, defines keebler, a close relative of the hipster.

I know people who fit the second definition too. Good to have a word for them other than 'shudder'.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:25 PM on August 15, 2011

"Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
Submissive to everything, open, listening
Try never get drunk outside yr own house
Be in love with yr life"

50s Kerouac. my first sighting of "yr"
posted by Greener Backyards at 7:27 PM on August 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

So... who is the Jeff Foxworthy of the hipster movement?

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein?
posted by box at 7:32 PM on August 15, 2011 [7 favorites]

Whoa whoa, it isn't our culture. Just because I don't own a bike and don't wear jeans of the skinny variety I am not taking responsibility for mainstream culture. Come to think of it, who exactly is responsible for mainstream culture? Needs more Firefly.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:35 PM on August 15, 2011

Try never get drunk outside yr own house

Pegged me with that one.
posted by sweetkid at 7:37 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I floated a modest proposal a while ago: "I would really love it if every instance of the word 'hipster' resulted in the entire comment being placed inside a cartoon speech bubble, emanating from a rooster."

It didn't get much traction, but I think that was because I failed to provide an artist's rendition.
posted by danny the boy at 7:39 PM on August 15, 2011 [22 favorites]

Oh, come on. It should clearly be "Lorem Hipstum". Jesus, it's like no one's even trying anymore.
posted by adamdschneider at 7:39 PM on August 15, 2011 [16 favorites]

the term has been overloaded at this point to mean "generic other who represents what I don't like

No, it hasn't. The terms generated and their clustering together is specific to hipsters, and nobody else. Nobody else is knitting cosies for their banjoleles. Nobody.

None of us give a fuck about fighting your culture. Get over yourselves.

Yeah, the last bit kinda suggests you can't really be taken seriously about the first bit.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 7:43 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hipsters are so 2009
posted by naju at 7:43 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hipsters hate being called out, I gather.
posted by Flashman at 7:44 PM on August 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

Well as long as we can get every comment denying the existence of hipsters, or saying they are 'a generic other', displayed as a graphic with the comment text on the label of an obscure 7"
posted by Ad hominem at 7:46 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ooh - can it be a letterpress label?
posted by obiwanwasabi at 7:48 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

My friend likes to say, "Trend if you do, trend if you don't".
posted by Corduroy at 7:49 PM on August 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

I just don't know how it's possible for everybody on Metafilter to still think that everybody else on Metafilter hates hipsters when all these threads have been for YEARS is a bunch of people pointing out how "hipster" doesn't mean anything anyway and if you hate hipsters you probably are one and right on fun-loving creative young people. We get it: You like having kids on your lawn. WHO DOESN'T.
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 7:49 PM on August 15, 2011 [6 favorites]

This just reads like spambot text to me.
posted by NoraReed at 7:49 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Limited edition 180-gram colored vinyl.
posted by box at 7:49 PM on August 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

I mean, aren't you all just tired of the word itself? By now? Much less all the posts and comments, that go the same way every single time?
posted by danny the boy at 7:51 PM on August 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

Nope. Hipster hipster hipster. Tee hee!
posted by obiwanwasabi at 7:54 PM on August 15, 2011

If you can get past the female genitalia as insult thing I prefer the UK nomenclature of Shoreditch Twat myself.

Or Cunt obviously.
posted by fullerine at 7:54 PM on August 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

Nope. Hipster hipster hipster. Tee hee!

Haaa! This reminds me of my favorite line from the Toy Story franchise.
posted by phunniemee at 7:57 PM on August 15, 2011

this was funny. also, and i am not a person who gets irritated by words, but 'artisanal' is the most irritating fucking word ever created. i literally cringe and twitch when i hear it.
posted by facetious at 7:58 PM on August 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

There are no real hipsters left. They all travelled back in time to the opening of obscure Canadian bridges to keep it real, man.
posted by joannemullen at 8:00 PM on August 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm 'post-culture' now, myself. I just don't engage with anything on any level, ironically or genuinely. Post-culture will never have cliches, fashion victims, underground tastes or co-opted tastes. Post-culture has no list of things people like or hate. Post-culture is not a reaction to anything. Post-culture is neither a hipster thing nor an anti-hipster thing, and it might as well not exist at all. Post-culture doesn't go out to bars or shows, it drinks at home if at all and definitely doesn't tweet about how cool it is to drink at home. Post-culture is not social nor is it anti-social. It probably blends into the background at parties. Post-culture is not post-modernism, nor is it against it; in fact, it nonchalantly fails to consider post-modernism in any way. It might be post-modernism, it wouldn't know. Fuck post-culture. Post-culture: living the dream.
posted by naju at 8:06 PM on August 15, 2011 [10 favorites]

I had a funny joke about the FPP itself. But after reading the entire thread, I'm just all kind of like, fuck it.
posted by slogger at 8:15 PM on August 15, 2011

I laughed.

Hipsters need a better name. It’s just a generic and not very descriptive title. It’s no Chav.
posted by bongo_x at 8:26 PM on August 15, 2011

At this point, I'd prefer a steampunk pile-on over another hipster one.

Goggles over tophats zeppelins "I say, chap" smashing velocipede Guv'nor Abney Park pocket watch difference engine Capital Proposition ether sprocket steamjack monocle brass monkey Arcanum corset vacuum tubes gears that don't do anything sky pirate Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello walking cane gun mad scientist vaudevillian circus extravaganza
posted by bl1nk at 8:33 PM on August 15, 2011 [7 favorites]

Hipster should go back to meaning people like Dean from Iron Giant.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 8:37 PM on August 15, 2011

"Who gives a shit about fighting mainstream culture? You'd probably call me and my friends hipsters. None of us give a fuck about fighting your culture. Get over yourselves."

We don't give fuck that you don't give a fuck. Get over yourself. Hipster. And now you say that you don't give a fuck that I don't give a fuck that you don't give a fuck, and then I respond.
posted by MikeMc at 8:39 PM on August 15, 2011

It didn't get much traction, but I think that was because I failed to provide an artist's rendition.

something something put a bird on it!

no but seriously this is the best thing I've ever seen and please someone who can userscript userscript this.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:41 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

"This just reads like spambot text to me."

You have to view the text through a '70s vintage View-Master with "The Scooby-Doo Movies - Don Knotts" disc 2 in it in order to understand it.
posted by MikeMc at 8:45 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Portlandification of Brooklyn: Brooklyn wants to be Portland. Should we be proud—or embarrassed?
posted by gottabefunky at 8:49 PM on August 15, 2011

As the Devil, I am able to tell you this:

When the hipster goes to Hell, his payment is to forever be in the company of those who enjoy Thundercats unironically and unashamedly.
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 8:56 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

See also: MeFi's own resident hipster, Juliet Banana, defines keebler, a close relative of the hipster.

Oh gosh, I don't think that word survived. No one (as a real life cohort of J Banana & Co.) has used it in at least a year? It was always rather tongue in cheek.
posted by Windigo at 9:13 PM on August 15, 2011

Last time I saw her at a meetup (which seems like a kazillion years ago) she was imploring folks to upvote her definition to get rid of the unfortunate midget fellatio definition. Doing my part!
posted by phunniemee at 9:16 PM on August 15, 2011

How did the hipster burn himself?
He changed a light bulb before it was cool.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:22 PM on August 15, 2011 [10 favorites]

I hope to someday meet the esteemed J Banana. All signs point to smart, self-aware, and superfun to be around. YO.

Also, keebler lol.
posted by fake at 9:23 PM on August 15, 2011

50s Kerouac. my first sighting of "yr"

And all this time I thought it was a Sonic Youth thing - the more you know!
posted by naoko at 9:25 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Portlandification of Brooklyn: Brooklyn wants to be Portland. Should we be proud—or embarrassed?

Ahh there were go, that brought it all back. Took me 15 minutes to calm back down after reading that.
posted by Ad hominem at 9:29 PM on August 15, 2011

ENOUGH WITH THE COSBY SWEATER ALREADY!
posted by clavdivs at 9:44 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hipster hate is pretty boring, but I thought this site was funny. The thing I don't understand, is that there seems be a mushing together of the grimy, four loko drinking, cigarette smoking type of hipster and the stuck up farm-to-table latte macbook hipster. Aren't these two separate cultures? Or is the idea that hipsters borrow equally from the high and the low?
posted by scose at 10:48 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fun fact: the set of "Hipster Ipsum" is coextensive with the set of "LCD Soundsystem lyrics." In fact this is mathematically provable; unfortunately the proof I've come up with is too long to fit here in the margin...
posted by rkent at 11:15 PM on August 15, 2011

Also:
i am not a person who gets irritated by words, but 'artisanal' is the most irritating fucking word ever created.

Tostitos Artisan Recipe chips are an Actual Thing that Exists in the World. I think the word is pretty much dead, at this point.
posted by rkent at 11:19 PM on August 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow. There is a lot of "salvia" in there. Is that hip now or something? I would like to say for the record that I don't think my name refers to the same species or varietal or whatever.
posted by salvia at 11:40 PM on August 15, 2011

rkent, were you by any chance thinking of this track? ("I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know. But have you seen my records?")
posted by yoHighness at 4:10 AM on August 16, 2011

Every single person in this thread is a hipster, including myself.
posted by shakespeherian at 4:44 AM on August 16, 2011

MeFi's own resident hipster, Juliet Banana

How many people, do you think, read that and were like 'Goddammit, I'm MeFi's resident hipster!'? And how many people, do you think, read that and were like 'Whew, I totally thought she was going to call me out there'?
posted by box at 4:51 AM on August 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

That was a list of quite cool stuff, with the exception of Terry Richardson and his mustache, obviously. I am very happy that shag-cuts and thick-rimmed glasses are having a fashion moment, because after twenty years of contact lenses, poking myself in the eye twice a day was getting pretty old, and I never could do much with my hair. So I would use Hipster Ipsum for the next layout design, except that text is like, so 2009, and we are all about infographics nowadays.
posted by Elizabeth the Thirteenth at 5:03 AM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

50s Kerouac. my first sighting of "yr"

And all this time I thought it was a Sonic Youth thing - the more you know!

Lifted wholesale from Kerouac by Lee Renaldo which, as it happens, is about as impeccable a hipster lineage as you could imagine.
posted by anagrama at 6:04 AM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

d'o, Ranaldo.
posted by anagrama at 6:04 AM on August 16, 2011

Best Use of Artisanal in a Post Description.
posted by theora55 at 6:25 AM on August 16, 2011

A couple years ago I decided that a hipster is someone doing the things you wish you could do and having the taste in things that you wish you could have because they have a wealth of time, not money. It's been a convenient definition so far. No hipster hate here. I just hate assholes.
posted by hanoixan at 6:38 AM on August 16, 2011

So, is the "I am [not] a hipster" the next "one of us is lying, one of us is telling the truth" type paradox for this generation?
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 7:34 AM on August 16, 2011

What does this "yr" mean?
Here is a comment to Tao Lin about his book. . .
50s Kerouac. . .
I thought it was a Sonic Youth thing. . .
Lifted wholesale from Kerouac by Lee Renaldo. . .

Geez you kids are so unhep!*

"Yr" is obviously a reference to both the Norwegian weather site and the early self-released LP by Steve Tibbets.

You probably haven't heard of them.


*I was hep when it was hip to be hep.
 
posted by Herodios at 7:36 AM on August 16, 2011

"The Obscure Canadian Bridges" would be a great name for a hipster band. Banjolele solo!
posted by Zozo at 8:32 AM on August 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

I don't have a dog in the hipster/anti-hipster fight, but can I just point out this is not very good Lorem Ipsum? It's supposed to be a featureles block of text, this just looks like a bunch of nouns strung together. There's a reason they use made-up words - to make your brain think it's looking at actual sentences.This needs more Markov.
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:47 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Dreamcatcher?
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:56 PM on August 16, 2011

Look, some people aren't getting what a hipster really is. It isn't the "what" that defines a hipster, so much as the "why". The hipster is someone who consumes for show. Plus irony.

Hipsters are Preppies, in different uniforms. The specifics of the uniform change from year to year, but the constant is that it is all about fitting into a clique.

Why the hipster hate? Because it is absolutely maddening to see people consumed with fitting in, yet so un-self-aware that they don't even know they are doing it. At least Preppies would admit to wanting to fit in with the crowd.

And there is a certain meanness to some of the hipster "irony". They take things that others genuinely enjoy, and do those things or consume those things because it's "ironic". Really? That's just making fun of people where I come from.
posted by gjc at 6:20 AM on August 17, 2011 [2 favorites]