
According to the Chinese zodiac calendar, 2019 is the Year of the Pig (also somehow fitting) however on Twitter and more of the depths of the internet, 2019 is officially the year of the Clown.
Clowns are by no means some new cultural phenomenon and culturally, we’ve hit “Peak Clown” in 2019 with two of the biggest movies of the year (Joker and IT 2) having a clown as a predominant character.
However, if you’ve spent anytime in the Twitter comment sections (and had to deal with all the brain damage that comes with it) you’ve seen there’s been a new, dominant reply to bad sports takes, ghoulish politicians, useless NY Times Opinion authors and just general foolishness…clown.

This was the first one I had seen (probably as a reply to Bret Stephens) and thought it was hysterical, unaware that I would see it approximately 20 million more times.
If you had the hilarious misfortune of following the Antonio Brown saga, you saw the internet (but mostly himself) turn from being one of the best receivers we’ve seen in the NFL to a circus act. Each and every day, more clownery than the next, leading to more and more memes/edits.

In today’s 24/7 news cycle, coupled with our doomed political landscape, the clown shoes get passed around seemingly minute by minute - one minute they go on a diva wide receiver and the next minute they change sizes to fit perfectly on some other worthless commenter with too large of a platform (looking at you Meghan McCain!).
The best thing about the frequent use of clown is any person of any shape, size or background can be one - especially online.
Since everything is divided and polarized and awful, on one side you have people on the internet who frequently find themselves offended at X Y and Z and *somehow* even more annoyingly than that, you have the other side, quick to strike and malign everything they don’t like to see change as overtly “politically correct” and also actually use phrases like “Twitter Mob” and “Cancel Culture” unironically.
To bring a little #unity to the TL, we need to stop the back-and-forth between these sides and call it all what it really is: Clown Culture.
Clown Culture doesn’t hinge particularly on what you believe or what side you see yourself on, but rather you are a part of it by simply contributing to it.
Clown Culture has been accentuated by the release of Joker and particularly director Todd Phillip’s blubbering about “woke culture” in the latest (and wonderful) Vanity Fair profile on Joaquin Phoenix. You also have cautious critics and boring blue-checkmark Twitter users who act like this is the first film that could possibly have a negative effect on viewers, Joker serves as the perfect nexus for clown culture in 2019.
I was able to see the much anticipated Joker movie on Thursday. I was greeted by an armed guard who looked around suspiciously, reminding myself that maybe this wasn’t the movie to Juul during and that in fact, we do live in a society.
I don’t have many thoughts to share on the actual movie itself *yet* - I enjoyed it but it didn’t really live up to the hype. If people are calling this the movie of the year, well I hope we get a lot better movies. And for that, I’ll lace up my clown shoes.
Now, for some quick housekeeping and other things to touch on that normally I would have a lot more refined and broken up into another piece but the reality is I’m at Austin City Limits this weekend and need to start drinking and stop writing.
Articles Worth Your Time
Woman quits job to spend 57 days searching for lost border collie, and finds her
At one point, I will definitely be quitting a job for the benefit of a dog.
Journey of a tainted vape cartridge: from China’s labs to your lungs
It’s incredibly how wrong everyone is on the sudden-vape-death epidemic and this long piece from Leafy really brings light to it. Also dying from vaping, couldn’t be me!
This Guy Truly Has No Idea What He's Talking About
In a world of truly exhausted Trump-Takes, there is nobody quite like David Roth who brings more of a unique and at least way better at dissecting our wet, lumpy, brain-dead president.
NFL Games Worth Wasting Your Sunday On
Cowboys-Packers 3:25 CST
That’s about it! LOL-NFL for scheduling only one other afternoon game to focus the nation’s attention and boost ratings on the only marquee matchup of the day. You aren’t slick Goodell.
Things Worth Getting in the Kitchen For
Cooking is a pain in the ass but nothing is more of a pain in the ass than looking up a recipe to see somebody’s life story. I won’t be doing that!
Friends, I am happy to announce it is officially #MeatballSZN also #MarinaraSZN and #MozzarellaSZN. Summer is over so carb the fuck up a little by tossing some meatballs on a bed of pasta, between a sub or added to a frozen pizza (if you can find a good one that is).
Italian cooking is great because you can do it low-and-slow and it fills the house with fragrant garlicky scents. Also if something is cooking for hours, you can brag more about it on Instragram. It’s a perfect excuse to take down half a bottle of red wine and fire off some humble-brags on a Sunday evening.
I referenced this meatball recipe as there is a ton of them and regardless which you find, try to find one where you let the bread soak in some milk/water vs. using dry breadcrumbs. There are also tons of recipes for Sunday Sauce and this helpful little roundup from bon appetit helps you avoid some common mistakes. If you have the time to make it, you should never buy salsa or Italian red sauce in a jar ever again.
Enjoy the weekend friends.