what crack is this guy on?

[dr4b]

i guess this is on memepool, but so what? this is the funniest description of the anime trend that *I* have ever read:

"It's one of those classic things where the coolest kid in a schoolyard likes something and other kids follow and eventually the programmers follow," he said. "But then it gets to the point where even the nerd gets into it, and then the cool kids have to move on to something else."

(from the NYTimes)

Comments

[madmadammim.livejournal.com]

Hahahahahaha--HAH!--what the fuck???

[techstep.livejournal.com]

So, on the one hand, it makes sense with most products -- cool kids like it, and it starts filtering down to others, and then the marketers get a hold of it, produce it for the mass audience, and it's no longer cool. This is the big paradox of marketing cool things -- they're no longer cool.

Anime, from what I understand, became popular stateside through geeks, generally not seen as cool people. But over te past couple of years, geeks (at least some media representations of them) have a certain (albeit volatile) cachet of coolness to them. When these geeks acquire certain positions of tastemaking, as the cool status will confer to some extent, others will follow.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but the statement doesn't seem that silly. Just poorly worded and unqualified.

[dr4b]

next thing you know, they'll be saying that all the hip cool kids in school were the ones using computers all the time and eventually those poor, poor nerds got into them because they wanted to be cool...

[cattchan.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen, it's quite the opposite. Usually the unpopular, uncool people are ahead of their time. They start something unique and it's considered uncool until a few years later when all the main streamers pick it up... then suddenly it's cool and super popular, and it gets over marketed. Only noone ever remembers that it was the dorky, un cool people who started it, cause by the time it is cool, they've moved onto something else, or they just get acciused of following trends.

[melichan.livejournal.com]

The cool kids were really into anime, and...

Eventually even the geeks get into it? WTF? Oh well. I'm sure they're telling it like it is. ;p

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, yeah.
This is sort of even reasonable, up until that last paragraph. :)