Are You Having a Laugh? + Phetasy Digest
Trump vs. the Pope, How Is That Not Funny? | Shoutout to the Normies | Cult Behavior Online | Bridget's CBS News Spot | The Boys Are All Right | So Are the Ladies | Have Some Comedy for Your Weekend
Politics makes everything too serious. The worst kind of serious, too, where people suppress a laugh or a joke because they don’t want to stop frowning like a walrus. Humor is one of the greatest coping mechanisms for the condition known as life. People who can’t laugh are weird and alarming. Sure, it may seem like there’s not much to laugh about lately, but that’s exactly when comedy is needed the most. Even orangutans laugh.
It’s not my place to say that people should laugh at Trump’s Jesus meme and “The Pope is WEAK on crime” post. Anyone who was genuinely offended by it, like anyone who considered it unfunny or distasteful—that’s each person’s right. But holy outrage and invocations of the anti-Christ are harmfully serious, and, when voiced by commentators and politicians, presumably fake. All of this is harmfully serious. I say this as a devout Catholic. Especially as a devout Catholic. I take it seriously, but also Christianity is supposed to be the patient, loving, merciful, reasonably nonviolent religion. The only one of its kind. The truth of its message is so deep and strong that offensive depictions of the Lord are no big deal (unlike a certain other religion that hates music, bacon, and women, and flips out at the sight of Charlie Hebdo), Christianity is serious enough at the right time, in the right places, and genuine and stable enough to take a joke at its expense.
The NASCAR-graphic-style meme wasn’t even a particularly disparaging depiction of Christ; there are far worse ways he could have (and has) been portrayed. The offensive part, obviously, was that the guy who posted an AI-generated video of him as a fighter pilot bombing the No Kings protests with diarrhea was depicted as Jesus. He likely didn’t even see the meme before it was posted. Don’t activate BATTLE MODE over a metaphor.
I don’t mean this in a condescending “hey lighten up” kind of way. We can’t go around laughing at everything. That would be insane. And ironic and disturbingly serious. But it is worth our time, as a society, to remain eager for a comedic moment. This is how you transform the profane into the sacred.
DUMPSTER FIRE - EPISODE #306
Why Is Everyone So Mad? The End of Fun
Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ on Truth Social — on Orthodox Easter — and the right wing lost its mind. Then he attacked the new Pope, called him “weak on crime,” and the memes wrote themselves. Bridget Phetasy breaks down the MAGA meltdown, the elite-tier internet reactions, and why this is just the Right’s version of virtue signaling.
WALK-INS WELCOME - EPISODE #386
Why Everyone Online Is in a Cult
Bridget sits down with Andrew Gold, host of the Heretics podcast and author of The Psychology of Secrets, for a conversation about cult dynamics, Islamism in Europe, purity spirals, and what happens when your online tribe starts demanding you sell your soul to keep them. Andrew breaks down how YouTube channels, political movements, and entire cultures operate on the same psychological mechanics as Scientology and Heaven’s Gate — just at different points on the spectrum.
DUMPSTER FIRE - EPISODE #307
Normies Are Holding America Together
Bridget reads her viral essay — a love letter to the sane, normal women quietly holding it all down while the culture loses its mind. Not a trad wife, not a girl boss, not a Karen, not a pick-me — just the millions of women juggling kids, aging parents, marriages, and careers while being told their sanity is the problem.
CBS NEWS
Should older generations care if Gen Z likes them?
DUMPSTER FIRE - EPISODE #304
Leave Me Behind
Mar 29
I caught clips of Tucker Carlson interviewing Nick Fuentes, and the thing that struck me was the body language. Here was a man who had the biggest show on cable news, who once commanded an audience of 5 million adults, sitting across from a twenty-something New-Age shock-jock with the energy of a guy trying to impress his son’s friends.
A Love Letter to the Sane Women Holding It Down
Mar 22
I’ve been wanting to write this for a while because, more often than not, I find myself doomscrolling, screaming “NOT ALL WOMEN!” It seems like most of the women represented in media are, for lack of a better word, insane. I blame the algorithms for elevating the craziest of us. So this is for you—the woman reading this who has been quietly holding it t…
THE DAILY WIRE
America Tried To ‘Fix’ Men For Two Decades. Here’s What It Got Instead.
America spent two decades trying to “fix” masculinity. It nearly broke the country — and the guys who complained the loudest about it turned out to be the ones with the least ability to fix it. America needs manly men — not men who are afraid of their masculinity, and not men who only talk about it.
THE SPECTATOR
Meet the male Kardashians
What happens when the Internet’s Groypers gather in Miami Beach for a night of “slay gurl” partying? Reality TV, the likes of which have never been seen.
