i don't have to make stuff anymore

January 15, 2021 7:14 AM

because normies are getting creative during the pandemic! (sl twitter)

so join me, freaks, and let's hop into finance

posted by miles per flower (22 comments total)

Every time Chris Fleming does something new it’s such a powerful mood but I haven’t been slapped in the face with a feeling of identification in oh, say, about ten months. Maybe I will get into corporate finance law!
posted by Mizu at 7:37 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Is there something going on with PT Cruisers at the moment? My RSS feedreader is suddenly full of PT stuff but I don't see anything connecting the references ...
posted by a complicated history at 8:00 AM on January 15, 2021

"PT Cruiser" is the "crying, sweater wearing, woman eating Hagen Dazs in front of the TV" to show she just got dumped, or "sad dude watching his wedding VHS tape" to show his wife was murdered, but when you want to describe boring people doing boring things.
posted by sideshow at 8:35 AM on January 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

Like Megami, I was wary at first but totally loved this. Amazeballs! [snerk]
posted by desuetude at 8:52 AM on January 15, 2021

I love this, in spite of my strong aversion to the “you can’t be well adjusted and creative at the same time” meme, because it’s a joke and a charming, well executed one :)
posted by thedaniel at 8:54 AM on January 15, 2021

I literally just had a big cry yesterday about how I can’t function in this world, so this was perfectly timed and I laughed out loud a couple of times (I’m only allowed in offices for an hour!) and I absolutely love the polka dot jumpsuit. Finance, here I come.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 9:07 AM on January 15, 2021

Reduce flouncing by about 30% and this would be exactly how I have always pictured loquacious.
posted by Ryvar at 9:14 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have absolutely no evidence to back this up, but I was scolded out of making fun of the PT Cruiser recently by a (white) friend who said it was a "black people" thing. Possibly not true at all! But damn if that isn't an efficient way to get me to stop making fun of something.
posted by The Minotaur at 9:35 AM on January 15, 2021

Just to be clear, I'm making fun of myself and my white friend here, and of course black people are not a monolith. Actually I think a great Chris Fleming video could be white liberals breathlessly telling one another that, well aaactually, this or that perennial punching bag or tired superlative (douche nozzle? awesome sauce?) is the domain of some ethnic group and therefore off limits to crit.
posted by The Minotaur at 9:40 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thank you for introducing me to Chris Fleming !
posted by travertina at 9:44 AM on January 15, 2021

Oh my goodness travertina please enjoy Fleming’s most well-known work: Gayle.
posted by Mizu at 9:56 AM on January 15, 2021 [7 favorites]

my strong aversion to the “you can’t be well adjusted and creative at the same time” meme

I think it's more "people who aren't creative are making things anyway" which is also not literally a great position but still legally distinct from that one.
posted by straight at 10:18 AM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

YouTube link to Normies are Getting Creative. [You okay, babe?]
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:48 AM on January 15, 2021

I was scolded out of making fun of the PT Cruiser recently by a (white) friend who said it was a "black people" thing. Possibly not true at all!

Don't worry it's not. The PTCrusier is hated by car people because it's potential was squandered. It was supposed to have a retro panel truck look and fell short. Throw in the Mom's mini-van performance, with Chrysler reliability there is a lot to hate on. For non-car people they just think it's weird and goofy like the Pontiac Aztec, so easy to crack on.
posted by remo at 10:49 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

I expected to hate this because of how much I hate the term "normies" but ended up finding it strangely deep and thought provoking in surprising directions. I'm going to have to spend some time with his stuff.
posted by ShakeyJake at 11:01 AM on January 15, 2021

the layers of millennial irony in this are honestly exhausting, I'd forgotten what the internet used to feel like before gen z took over
posted by Emily's Fist at 12:50 PM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

I think another reason that the PT Cruiser Hate has been recently re-hydrated was the video showing that the assholes who planned to kidnap Gov. Whitmer were training using one.
posted by lazaruslong at 1:35 PM on January 15, 2021

I think it's more "people who aren't creative are making things anyway" which is also not literally a great position but still legally distinct from that one.

It’s been a few days since I watched it but isn’t there literally a line about well adjusted and hot people right in the text?
posted by thedaniel at 1:41 PM on January 15, 2021

Hmm well but I think watching Big Bang Theory would be going too far.
posted by Coaticass at 3:44 PM on January 15, 2021

Isn't that the car that looks like it's from a futuristic reboot of the Al Capone story?
posted by acb at 4:39 PM on January 15, 2021

I expected to hate it because I'm tired of self-absorbed creatives who call people "normies." You can really tell they want to say "muggles", but you know, the way Slytherins say "muggles."

But I couldn't hate it because Fleming is great and also aware that it's a bullshit dichotomy.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 5:22 PM on January 15, 2021 [4 favorites]

> I was scolded out of making fun of the PT Cruiser recently by a (white) friend who said it was a "black people" thing. Possibly not true at all!

One million years ago I was on an e-mail group for fans of the Patrick O'Brian Jack and Stephen books, and the PT Cruiser was the unofficial car of our listserv (I did not have one). So, I think of them as more of a "people who are into nautical fiction" thing. I guess that's a "normie"?
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:26 PM on January 17, 2021 [1 favorite]