Children’s Culture Guide for Adults: What Is Cheugy?
A culture war is raging on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, and I’m not talking about the urban and rural political swamp that is destroying our nation. I’m talking about something important: Gen Z and millennials are fighting over skinny jeans.
Generation Battles This Week: Gen Z vs. Millennials
Lately, there has been a simmering war between millennials and Gen Z in pop culture. The main battleground is skinny jeans and sides, minor hassles over Harry Potter fans, saying “grown-ups” and BuzzFeed quizzes.
According to Gen Z, all these millennials are not cool, canceled, or stupid (see below). Millennials, clearly wounded that they are no longer the coolest kids at the party, retaliate with volleys of their own, vowing that you’ll have to rip their skinny jeans and extra whip, half-cafe latte from their cold dead fingers and point out that you shouldn’t heed the fashion advice of people who light up LED lights in their bedrooms and eat TidePods.
Personally, I think millennials have to give up: you can’t win the war to be cool with teens. But as a member of Generation X, I don’t get involved in this. I’m happy to shrug my shoulders and say “whatever”, grimly satisfied that none of this matters and we will die alone anyway. For a deeper dive, check outMina Le , a fashion YouTube video that reveals it all and even delves into the history of skinny jeans.
Definition of the week: “Cheugy”
“Cheugy” is an adjective used to describe someone or something banal but struggling not to be. It doesn’t quite mean “basic”; he does not describe general. It’s more aimed at people who are trying too hard but still fall short. In other words, this is an insult made specifically for Gen Z to throw at aging millennials.
The word seems to have gained traction on TikTok and is used to describe things like saying “I did a thing” when posting a photo of what you did, or that you really get into Disney as an adult. The trick to avoiding stupidity is to live long enough for the cultural conventions that you think are “cool” become commonplace and then cool again. (See Mom’s Jeans and Linda Linda below.)
Party Gone Wrong This Week: Adrian’s Rollback
Los Angeles teenager Adrian Lopez experienced the joy and bitterness of internet celebrities in just a few days. The saga began on Monday when Adrian posted a simple video on TikTok inviting kids from his school to a Saturday night prom in Huntington Beach near Los Angeles. Something about the invitation caught people’s attention, and it soon went viral: teens shared it, the almighty TikTok algorithm strengthened it, and influencers like 24kGoldn and Noah Beck influenced it.
By Friday, videos tagged with #adrianskickback had nearly 280 million views, and people vowed to come from all over to attend the “party of the century.”
Only there was no party. There was only a vision of Adrian Lopez of several classmates from school, hanging out by the fire on the beach. With the help of a promoter, Adrian tried to find a meeting place and collect something, but the dude didn’t have time. By Saturday night of the party everything fell apart.
Thousands of children, who had been locked inside for a year, descended on Huntington Beach. As you might expect, there was a riot: fireworks were fired, walls were tagged, police were thrown with bottles, rubber bullets were fired at party-goers, arrests were made and lessons learned. Another week on the Internet.
Punk Band of the Week: Linda Lindas
A few weeks ago I wrote about the sad fake female punk rock band Tramp Stamps . For comparison, check out The Linda Lindas, mainly Anti-Tramp brands. Dressed in bandage shirts and plaid skirts, these four Asian and Hispanic girls between the ages of 11 and 16 recently snatched a killer set of Ramones-worthy bullies from the Los Angeles Public Library. (What kind of punk rock is blowing up the doors of the damn library ?)
Linda Linda sings about the sadness of not being able to dine with her grandmother during a pandemic, about a racist boy who was rude to them, and about another subject that sparks a passionate interest in teenage girls. Be that as it may, thevideowent viral , labels got interested, and rock and roll has been saved for the 11 millionth time since 1957.
Viral Video of the Week: McDonald’s BTS Food
K-Pop boy band BTS has teamed up with McDonald’s to release BTS’s McDonald’s Dinner, and in confirmation of BTS’s continued popularity, the commercial hasbecome one of the most watched videos on YouTube this week.
The platter consists of 10 pieces of Chicken McNuggets, cola, medium fries and (according to the advertisement) two “exclusive sauces chosen by BTS: sweet chili and cajun sauce.”
I’m not sure why these dishes are synonymous with BTS. I’m not sure why BTS is still around. I’m not sure why anyone would care, but the fact is, Korean pop stars promoting food from multinationals is what kids want to watch on YouTube. We just need to figure it out. This is a strange world. I’m going to shoot into space to escape.