You were lookin' in the mirror and you wish you had some pot?

August 15, 2009 6:52 PM

Potbellies: the fashion must-have hipster accoutrement for the summer, according to the NYTimes. Rebuttal from Flavorwire. via reddit
posted by rottytooth (70 comments total)

woot!
posted by felix betachat at 6:55 PM on August 15, 2009

Dear New York Times,

C'mon, just stop it already. It's embarrassing.

Love,
Mister_A

PS Things were better before you started with the color pictures.
posted by Mister_A at 6:57 PM on August 15, 2009 [9 favorites]

Once again, I'm way ahead of the trends
posted by drezdn at 6:58 PM on August 15, 2009 [9 favorites]

In this year: unselfconsciousness.
posted by hermitosis at 7:01 PM on August 15, 2009 [3 favorites]

Whoa I've been hip for years
posted by nola at 7:01 PM on August 15, 2009

Real hipsters already have their angioplasties.
posted by mattdidthat at 7:03 PM on August 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

Hah, just as I commit to losing mine I hear that it is becoming trendy. My serial avoidance of all that is cool continues.
posted by knapah at 7:04 PM on August 15, 2009 [4 favorites]

I'm pretty sure the PBR did this.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:04 PM on August 15, 2009 [8 favorites]

In next year: emphysema, cardiopulmonary disease, and cirrhosis! All the hipsters are getting it.
posted by mattdidthat at 7:04 PM on August 15, 2009

A lot of calories in a PBR?

Get a fixed gear exorcise bike!
posted by cazoo at 7:05 PM on August 15, 2009 [7 favorites]

Yah know, they are overlooking the most obvious reason for this and it has nothing to do with fashion. Stress can make you put on belly fat. Of course, it's probably a fake trend anyway, but if it's real, the economic stress is a lot better explanation than fashion or wanting to be an anti-Obama.
posted by Maias at 7:06 PM on August 15, 2009

*looks around for spare towels to clean up the obviously impending shitfest.*
posted by hippybear at 7:08 PM on August 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

Pot-belly boys you make that rockin world go round
posted by humannaire at 7:13 PM on August 15, 2009 [5 favorites]

Get a fixed gear exorcise bike!

Will it ride on the ceiling, or require me to pedal it with my spinning head?
posted by The World Famous at 7:16 PM on August 15, 2009 [9 favorites]

Oh fuck a duck.

I'm a hipster now?
posted by Samizdata at 7:17 PM on August 15, 2009

Ha ha. Williamsburg hipsters are now poor and fat, like the rest of us.
posted by oinopaponton at 7:23 PM on August 15, 2009

who

cares
posted by synaesthetichaze at 7:27 PM on August 15, 2009 [4 favorites]

They stole my indie rock, they stole my PBR, they stole my thrift store clothes… Fuck 'em. After a year or two, the gut won't be cool anymore but I'll still have it and my The World Is Lousy With Ideas comps.
posted by klangklangston at 7:27 PM on August 15, 2009

Ha ha. Williamsburg hipsters are now poor and fat, like the rest of us.

Whoa, he claims he makes $15/ hour panhandling; more than 2x minimum wage.
posted by rottytooth at 7:29 PM on August 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh, you mean all those personals on Craigslist for SWF are actually 'single white fatty?' No WONDER.
posted by infinitefloatingbrains at 7:29 PM on August 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

Whoa, he claims he makes $15/ hour panhandling; more than 2x minimum wage.

He also lives in a waterfront condo with direct views of Manhattan.
posted by oinopaponton at 7:30 PM on August 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

A potbelly would distract from the ostentatious display of tools on my belt.
posted by Tube at 7:35 PM on August 15, 2009

As a Brooklynite, I've always been fascinated to notice how many of the pudgier, more muffin-topped hipsters are also vegan. I assume this comes from focusing on the origin of what they're eating and ignoring the actual nutritional information -- many sloppy and youthful vegan diets include tons of starchy, fatty processed foods that are assumed to be healthy just because they're organic.

Also, everyone out here drinks as if there's gold at the bottom of their glass.
posted by hermitosis at 7:37 PM on August 15, 2009 [8 favorites]

I know a girl who made about $10 per hour panhandling, $15 doesn't really sound ridiculous especially if he has a good sign and is slightly pushy.
posted by Suparnova at 7:42 PM on August 15, 2009

Quit trying to make "Ralph Kramden" happen.
posted by macadamiaranch at 7:43 PM on August 15, 2009 [5 favorites]

It's unfortunate what we find pleasing to the touch and pleasing to the eye is seldom the same.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 7:44 PM on August 15, 2009 [8 favorites]

When the potbellied hipster goes to McDonald's now, they ask him what he doesn't want.
posted by netbros at 7:45 PM on August 15, 2009

according to Dan Peres, the editor of Details

Done.
posted by drjimmy11 at 7:48 PM on August 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

I wonder if the people who write shit like this are proud of themselves.
posted by ND¢ at 7:55 PM on August 15, 2009 [8 favorites]

Well I'm glad they're back in style, I've always wanted one.
posted by applemeat at 8:18 PM on August 15, 2009

Doh! Damn you spell check!
posted by cazoo at 8:21 PM on August 15, 2009

When I saw the title I thought the article was going to be about these.

They'd be so cute trotting around Williamsburg with you, wearing matching ironic legwarmers.
posted by casarkos at 8:27 PM on August 15, 2009 [2 favorites]

I thought this was going to be about stoves
posted by zinfandel at 8:41 PM on August 15, 2009

This is great news! I've just invested heavily in potbelly futures.

What? Pork? Oh, shit.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:44 PM on August 15, 2009

Coke shortage, huh?
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:02 PM on August 15, 2009 [8 favorites]

"..what my colleague Mike Albo refers to as the “coolios” of now"

wat?
posted by drowsy at 9:10 PM on August 15, 2009 [2 favorites]

One NYT editorial (with a quote from the author's personal trainer) does not a trend make.
posted by leftcoastbob at 9:19 PM on August 15, 2009

PBR only has 150 calories and 5% ABV. Your average microbrew will be around 200-240 for 12oz. I guess the kids are overdoing it -- sure, it's a lighter, cheaper beer than, say, Sierra Nevada, but you can't routinely put away PBR's 900-calorie 6 packs and avoid a paunchy belly.

Just now losing mine in fact, and it's awesome.
posted by porn in the woods at 9:41 PM on August 15, 2009

dear nyt. please stop trying to give some kind of validation to this madness. (also, its just beer gut, not really fashion)

thank you,
a concerned citizen.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 10:06 PM on August 15, 2009

Well, I just spent all day working on my Kramden, as a matter of fact. Glad to see it was time well spent.
posted by spilon at 10:10 PM on August 15, 2009

Scorn. Scorn, scorn, scorn.
posted by nosila at 10:21 PM on August 15, 2009

Further: if you had a pot, I would punch it.
posted by nosila at 10:24 PM on August 15, 2009 [2 favorites]

FAKE TREND ALERT! -- Thank you, Slate.

I fucking love it when "journalists" talk out of their asses with not facts or statistics or even decent anecdotes to back up their claims.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Seriously, how do people get paid for this shit? I'm not even a writer, and I can do better than that.

WHITE GUYS WITH AFROS ON THE RISE

Increasing numbers of white guys are sporting afros, especially in neighborhoods you may not have heard of, but definitely don't live in.

More and more men every day are opting to "let it grow." There is definitely a gender angle here that we can work into this, but I haven't yet thought of how. Nonetheless, one thing is clear - more and more white men with curly hair are choosing to grow out their hair in an "afro" style, in what is referred to as an "afro blanco."

"Everybody's doing it," says an anonymous hipster you have never heard of. We will call him a hipster because a "hipster," by definition is something nobody likes and is okay to make fun of. "I see them all the time. Short hair is definitely out of style for curly-haired white people. I don't know anybody who's getting it cut short these days.

Increasing numbers of people are noticing this trend, which promises to become an even bigger trend. This is a fact so obvious that we do not need to prove it; it proves itself. "Why would a white guy with curly hair want to do anything other than show it off?" says another source that you've never heard of. "This obviously has something to do with a gender thing that you're guaranteed to have an opinion about. How can you not? It's incredibly relevant."

When asked, another obvious expert offered this -- "I don't think that white people with curly hair ever got it cut short. I think it's always been this way."

Holy shit, somebody give me a column.
posted by Afroblanco at 10:57 PM on August 15, 2009 [19 favorites]

My pot-bellied pig did what?
posted by dirigibleman at 11:01 PM on August 15, 2009

WHITE GUYS WITH AFROS ON THE RISE

Oh, Seth, please! You have a tiny penis!
posted by dirigibleman at 11:03 PM on August 15, 2009 [2 favorites]

My reaction upon reading this earlier was - this guy can get this pointless crap published in the NYT and I can't? (I have pitched them.) This is lacking substance to an equal degree or worse than the recent piece talking about people's weights (and little else).

Quit trying to make "Ralph Kramden" happen.

There is a Jackie Gleason bus depot in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
posted by cmgonzalez at 11:50 PM on August 15, 2009

Afroblanco— You need to pad that article out with Art Garfunkel, Gene Wilder, and that guy who was all "Vigo, Vigo" in Ghostbusters 2.
posted by klangklangston at 12:03 AM on August 16, 2009 [3 favorites]

Nonetheless, one thing is clear - more and more white men with curly hair are choosing to grow out their hair in an "afro" style, in what is referred to as an "afro blanco."

That's just ignorant. The word is "Jewfro".
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:46 AM on August 16, 2009 [1 favorite]

Maybe they're all on starvation diets and their stomachs are horribly, horribly distended.

In honor of this intrepid NYT reporter, I shall call it: The Gasbag.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:42 AM on August 16, 2009

Since 'knickers' in British English means you know, panties, the "a pair of shorts cut at knickers length" in the NYT article made me giggle.

Then I envisioned "knickers" below hairy potbellies, and stopped giggling.
posted by thread_makimaki at 2:27 AM on August 16, 2009 [1 favorite]

While I'm loath to analyze this too much (it might be the ultimate ridic NYT trend-piece), isn't this just the inevitable aging of a scene? The kids who established the Brooklyn scene at the start of the decade now have lower metabolisms, and haven't adjusted yet. The way the slamdancers of the 1980s became the goatee'd dudes in flamey shirts of the 1990s. Or the David Crosby of the Byrds became the David Crosby we picture in our heads now.
posted by bendybendy at 5:15 AM on August 16, 2009 [1 favorite]

Quit trying to make "Ralph Kramden" happen.

And "coolster."
posted by msbrauer at 6:34 AM on August 16, 2009

DUDE I AM SO AHEAD OF THE TIMES IT IS NOT EVEN FUNNY.
posted by The Whelk at 6:57 AM on August 16, 2009

When I saw the title I thought the article was going to be about these.

Oh, they have those in Williamsburg too!
posted by rottytooth at 7:29 AM on August 16, 2009

While I'm loath to analyze this too much (it might be the ultimate ridic NYT trend-piece), isn't this just the inevitable aging of a scene? The kids who established the Brooklyn scene at the start of the decade now have lower metabolisms, and haven't adjusted yet


I have a personal theory that the explosion and mainstreaming of the "Bear" gay-sub-culture was due to the fact that you had an entire generation of out-n-proud boys who didn't get massarced by a horrible disease and hit 40, hard, and got tired of waxing their chests and decided that middle-age was the new black and we should buy these things now.
posted by The Whelk at 7:36 AM on August 16, 2009 [3 favorites]

There are some seriously badly dressed people in that rebuttal slideshow.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:39 AM on August 16, 2009

Williamsburg is a the wrong place to look for them. They are all over Bushwick though.
posted by melissam at 7:46 AM on August 16, 2009 [1 favorite]

Williamsburg is a the wrong place to look for them. They are all over Bushwick though.

New Gilded Age Counterpoint.

Friend somehow got passes to a swany media event in Central Park. When asked where she lived, the woman blinked and went

"Whats a Bushwick?"
posted by The Whelk at 7:52 AM on August 16, 2009

Potbellies: not in.

Major news outlet embarrassment suffered when trying to appear hip: old story.

Precious self-adulation and douchey hipster getups: eternal.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 7:53 AM on August 16, 2009

For everything else, there's MasterCard.
posted by gman at 7:54 AM on August 16, 2009

Pot bellies on girls are kinda hot.
posted by orme at 8:09 AM on August 16, 2009

In next year: Kids and mortgages.
In 5 years: Baldness and bickering.

It's gonna be sooo hot!
posted by DU at 9:12 AM on August 16, 2009

Add a leather cuff bracelet if the coolster is gay.

Leather cuffs are gay? I never knew! Shit, I may have a difficult phone call to make to my parents...
posted by solipsophistocracy at 10:26 AM on August 16, 2009

Look at this fucking hipster, a kind of Satorialist for the the Williamsburg set, seems to confirm it with this picture.
posted by Frank Grimes at 11:14 AM on August 16, 2009

""Whats a Bushwick?""

An evil midget.
posted by klangklangston at 3:41 PM on August 16, 2009

Wake me up when it's hip to be a fat girl.
posted by tits mcgee at 6:02 PM on August 16, 2009 [2 favorites]

This makes me laugh in the same way I had to chortle when our favorite tedious pillock, Andrew Sullivan, wrote his ludicrous belated piece about gay beardom—a hysterical work of medialectual overanalysis for the ages.

O tell us more, great and wonderful maven of tastes.

As a husky homo who's bear-adjacent, I find it amusing and vexing that the whole incredulous, shocked…shocked tone that many people take at the thought that the "obese" might actually be okay with being "obese" works so perfectly to feed one more dumbass "coolhunter" with a byline to fill (or is that a "cooliohunter?").

Of course, being fat is gross, so it's therefore cool, because it's cool to be the opposite of what's good, like when all those black people started sayin' "that's baaad, man," when they really meant "that's good," and…

Oy.

Of course, maybe I'm not cynical enough, because I just keep thinking that maybe people are just sick of aspiring to a weirdly hypertrophied set of ab muscles that don't exist in any culture that's not drowning in marketing propaganda. How gross, wait, I mean coooool, I mean hipsters are soooo stupid, I mean…umm, what?
posted by sonascope at 7:00 PM on August 16, 2009

All of this was covered in "The Butch Manual" in 1982 and everything else is just a constant slow fapping for deadlines because, remember this, everything that exists exists to get you to spend money.
posted by The Whelk at 9:18 PM on August 16, 2009

Guy Trebay is a dipshit.
posted by jason's_planet at 12:01 AM on August 17, 2009

ridic

No.
posted by limeonaire at 7:23 PM on August 17, 2009