The Daily Hook

First of all, to Ryan who posted this comment, thank you for miraculously finding our blog and writing this well thought out comment! Without people like you, The Daily Hook would have absolutely nothing to write about! This is Ryan’s reaction to our previous post reviewing the Williamsburg short series, TheBurg.tv.

Thank you for your post and your appraisal of theburg.tv. However, I’m still a little confused. Could you please explain to me what exactly constitues a “hipster,” and why the producers behind theburg.tv don’t deserve the title? I’m from somewhere other than New York City (yes, there is life beyond the Hudson river), and I’m a little out of touch with contemporary social categories.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I always thought “hipster” was a term used to describe some financially-privileged, young, urbanite who is narcissistically obsessed with his/her own self image, pithy sarcastic interactions in social spaces, and the incessant denegration of other people, cultures, etc. through simple wit and humor. All this is done, moreover, with a complete disregard for any logical fallacies that may arise.

Another characteristic of the infamous “hipster,” as I understand it, is the artful, crafty way such personalities present their especially cynical brand of deconstructionism. Sometimes this common desire to define the self through clothing and the belittlement of others is so strong it leads to the publishing of “hipster” art, an injection of words and images (rather like a computer virus) into the public realm for all to suffer.

If this is a suitable enough articulation of “hipster,” how then can we not include theburg.tv and its production staff? Do they not meet the criteria established above?

For instance, in theburg.tv’s episode “X Marks the Spot,” which posted on April 24th of this year, we see a man named Xander, tongue firmly in cheek, talking about himself and his unusual art practice. Through the use of a now very popular “mockumentary” film style, the audience is led to believe that everything this character believes and does is utterly ridiculous, superficial, and not worth our attention. He is a fraud, and we, the internet audience, should actually enjoy dismissing him. In a sense, we are let in on a sort of global joke against such “hipsters,” whereby we gain a feeling of superiority through our collectively objectification of such absurd characterizations.

In my mind there is a clear intent on the part of the filmmaker(s) to mock, in simple terms, a very specific segment of American society, namely the dreaded “hipsters” of Williamsburg, New York, and to have fun in the process. They do so in such an elaborate manner, in fact, (multiple video tracks, greenscreening, extensive dialogue, etc–the clothing of film and video, if you will) that I can only conclude they are “hipsters” themselves–witty, simplistic, fashionable, and illogically critical.

At the very least, theburg.tv has no sense of irony (or maybe just a very small one). Someday, perhaps, after someone creates a videoblog about “hipster” videobloggers, the folks at theburg.tv will understand how funny their show really is! I laugh ever time I see an episode.

Despite your praise of the show, I have removed theburg.tv from my Democracy TV player. I’m not interested in watching other people be witty assholes. Thanks anyway, but I can get that experience at the local bar… and they serve beer.