It’s been some time now since “LOL,” as deployed by mortals not named Kim Kardashian West, has meant by default what it originally did: “laughing out loud.” (Online chats I’ve had with colleagues who are sitting within earshot confirm that their typed-out “LOL”s are very rarely evidence of the real thing since that suggests the failing either of “LOL” or of me, full disclosure, I have kind of a vested interest in LOL’s fundamental unfunniness.) And, indeed: As early as 2001, the linguist David Crystal-the same man who is now trying to bring more LOLs to Shakespeare- was wondering, “How many people are actually ‘laughing out loud’ when they send LOL?” The linguist Gretchen McCulloch wrote, in 2013, “I’d argue that LOL (commonly without caps) barely indicates an internal, silent chuckle, never mind an uproarious, audible guffaw.” Her LOL functions as, essentially, a punctuation mark. Her LOL is a wink, rendered as an acronym. Her LOL suggests the many threads of irony required to weave an outfit of black-rectangled censors. There is pretty much nobody in the world who is less likely to find herself with “nothing to wear” than Kim Kardashian West her LOL acknowledges that. Kim’s “LOL” offers, instead of laughter, an ironic aaaaaand scene to the humblebrag she’s typed into her Instagram caption field. Kim is a person who takes her body very seriously, not just in the way most of us do, but also in a way that acknowledges its status as a Boorstinian media event and a means of capitalistic production.
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