This Week in Irony: Sh*t Girls Say

A month after its launch, the now-viral video “Sh*t Girls Say” has taken the Internet by storm, spawning a veritable trove of spin-offs. The meme includes videos poking fun at almost every possible category of people, with titles such as: “Sh*t New Yorkers Say,” “Sh*t Spanish Girls Say,” “Sh*t Nobody Says,” “Sh*t Asian Dads Say,” “Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls,” “Sh*t Gay Guys Say” and even “Sh*t Cats Say,” to name just a small sampling.

As indicated by their view counts on YouTube, these videos have struck a chord amongst viewers. It’s less clear, though, what kind of appeal has made this raging popularity possible. Although I’ve laughed at a good number of these videos, I'm not entirely sure why I find them so entertaining. Sure, stereotypes and funny outfits usually make for funny videos, but this meme seems to be humorous on a whole other level; it takes observations that are rooted in truth and distorts them in a highly ironic way.

The “Sh*t-people-say” videos are at once wildly offensive and socially sensitive.

On one hand, these videos perpetuate stereotypes in the worst kind of way: they are overly-simplistic, exaggerated and dehumanizing. They lump people into groups and blatantly caricature them, implying that all people in that category have the same ridiculous mannerisms. They slap labels on entire segments of people (often minorities) with a sort of unabashed glee that reeks of playground bullies.

Yet, if this were all that these videos did, they certainly would not have garnered such a large following. After all, most people are uncomfortable laughing at videos that heartlessly mock their subjects. This meme, however, has managed to imbue its parodies with powerful meta-mockery. These videos don’t simply make fun of Spanish girls or Asian Dads—they also poke fun at the people who mock these groups.

In a way, these videos can also be seen as empowering to the subjects they portray. The main character from “Sh*t Girls Say” is so obviously male that it’s clear the video is not designed to be taken seriously. The videos also cut from scene to scene with a characteristic rapidity that makes it obvious that the quotes have been taken out of context. These videos don’t pretend to be accurate portrayals—if anything, the goofy outfits make the featured stereotypes seem utterly shallow and false. They make us question the validity of grouping people into such clichéd labels.

Although overanalyzing humor is usually the best way to kill a joke, thinking about the irony of this meme has made me appreciate it all the more. These videos are funny because people see in them truthful reminders of real people. Yet what allows them to be truly entertaining, in my opinion, is the way they are both parodies and parodies-of-parodies.