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друг in the Abyss You’ve ruined student grants, affordable housing and politics, why must you desecrate our humour? By Honor Rose Cooper-Hedges Out of Your Friends: Which one are you? reads the title of a polyptych reminiscent of a ‘Choose your Fighter’ screen we’ve all seen at the start of any mid 2000’s first person shooter game. The choices include three different stereotypes associated with white men from the American South, Truck Freak, Crazy ass and The Fighter; the fourth is a nightmarish creature with oversized Freddy Kruger-esque claws skulking in the doorway of a shack, named друг. The image that started it all, originally posted by @Korolevcross in April 2018. Which one are you? The image, originally posted on in the dark crevices of the Reddit board r/cursedimages; was brought into the mainstream on April 2nd, 2018, by Twitter user @korolevcross, where it gained over 1’000 retweets within two weeks; eventually being reposted by Instagram user @4ironblocksonepumpkinhead, which is where I found it. If you haven’t already guessed, a nightmarish creature named друг is not a American deep south archetype. друг is in fact a Death-claw from the video game series Fallout, who has been lovingly renamed after the Russian word for friend, which is pronounced droog; which instantly reminds me of the Russian influenced Nadsat vernacular in Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, where droog carries the same definition. I still to this day cannot explain why I find друг so funny, yet I still find myself just innately understanding the meme described above along with the countless other reincarnations of друг which have since been spat out by the internet. To quote Mary Beard’s Laughter in Ancient Rome, ‘No one ever quite knows why anyone else is laughing – or maybe not even why they themselves are laughing.’ My sentiment exactly. Is the inclusion of a friendly yet frightening Russian creature amongst three pinnacles of the masculine American identity an outlandish comment on political relationships in a post-Cold War time, an outlandish display of modern absurdism; or is it all just an amalgamation of meaningless nonsense? In her Washington Post article, Why is millennial humour so weird?, published 11th April 2017; Elizabeth Bruenig, presents memes as a product of nihilism; a social quirk and nuance amongst millennials. Bruenig described the millennial humour with an incredibly complex allegory of an auto-cannibalistic index which repeatedly turns back on it’s self until nothing but a void is left behind. Similar to a black hole but in the place of obliterated ships there are racist Star Wars characters and a Hentai obsessed Scooby Doo. The article it’s self, in a twisted life imitates art moment, 52
even made it’s rounds online as a meme, a screen shot of the title and stand first with the most obscure meme the maker could find. One of my personal favourites being a 3D Ned Flanders from the Simpsons with his arms outstretched in a T shape and the text ‘DEAR LIBERALS Despacito neighbourino south text’ haphazardly spaced next to the twisted cartoon character. Simultaneously mocking the article yet demonstrating it’s ethos. But if, as Bruenig put it, ‘For millennials, memes form the backdrop of life’ is true, then why should a part of our lives which possesses such a high level of familiarity; be analysed and deconstructed like a piece of theory. Strip back the dark absurdity and it’s still just banal enjoyment. ‘When I saw that article I just sort of rolled my eyes. We don’t need to quantify everything. Some stuff is just funny.’ Says 23 year old Alex from Pennsylvania, who goes by the instagram handle @Acrylic_cinnamon and has 15.8K followers. Alex posts memes I’m unable to describe through words, but I can imagine anyone over the age of 26 describing as ‘zany’ or ‘out there’, if that helps at all. Alex’s posts include a Super Sonic the Hedgehog pointing outwards with the caption ‘fellas, u better learn how to use microsoft excel’ and a cartoon of a man kneeling in a badly drawn desert with a thought bubble reading ‘Can u kill me?’ with a cartoon of a bearded man beneath in a chair which reads ‘GOD’ overlaid with text saying ‘AHAHAHAH LMFAOHAHAHA’. ‘Humanity in general has rejected religious principles, instead we see ourselves as a cluster of scattered cells, that’s a pretty big deal.’ Indeed, moral structures, or ‘traditional sources of meaning’ (as the Washington Post put it) like religion are not as relevant to us Millennials as they were to our parents - but what does that mean in the bigger picture of millennial life? ‘It means there are no rules anymore. It’s sort of anarchic,’ Alex states, ‘You can’t define anarchy. I wish they’d stop trying.’ ‘If there’s one thing on this planet that had essentially existed without being discussed it’s the meme. What they should really be writing about and studying is how the internet has changed the world.’ Millennial humour is in danger of being repackaged and sold as a nice commodity, like rainbow bagels or rose gold stationary. ‘It was the bomb. The nuclear bomb,’ says the Instagram Meme maker - or Memer, known only as @helpimtrappedinsideofaTV who has 13K followers. ‘I think our humour is a reaction to actually knowing , not theorising, that the world could end.’ Something which our parents can also relate to, being raised with a fear of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War, ‘The consumerism and absurdity which exist today came from our past fear of total annihilation. The nuclear bomb killed the presence of God in the world and left a “God hole.’’ Not forgetting, the Nuclear Panic inspired music, art and undoubtedly birthed the mainstream Sci-Fi film and book genre - are Memes our contemporary equivalent? “It was the bomb. The nuclear bomb,” ‘This is similar to the Nuclear Panic, but this is definitely a long simmering thing. I think the world is currently suffering from Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is basically Post Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting from a repetitive period of trauma sustained over a long amount of time.’ Our appliance imprisoned friend continues, ‘The looming threat of destruction is a rather horrible thing to live with, but in many ways it’s been a catalyst for us to grow together. I think a lot of what is considered “absurd” about millennials is actually the growth of our personal symbolism.’ Humour as an inward exploration of horrific truths in a way we can easily digest, understand and somewhat enjoy, it makes sense; and fleshes out the millennial stereotype of being serial distractionists when it comes to serious issues. ‘The baby-boomers focused on external fulfilment through having families and buying houses, but clearly that didn’t work,’ he states, referring to the notoriously fertile generation born in the years following the second world war. ‘Then generation X tried to rebel against this, but really they were just doing the same thing.’ Generation X supposedly being the people born between the mid 1960s to late 1980s, although there are no set dates; the generational timeline becomes far more fluid post-boomer.
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