Editing 1220: Hipsters

{{comic
| number    = 1220
| date      = June 3, 2013
| title     = Hipsters
| image     = hipsters.png
| titletext = You may point out that this very retreat into ironic detachment while still clearly participating in the thing in question is the very definition of contemporary hipsterdom. But on the other hand, wait, you're in an empty room. Who are you talking to?
}}

==Explanation==
The word {{w|Hipster_(1940s_subculture)|"hipster"}} originally referred to counter-cultural youth and jazz aficionados in the 1940s and 1950s before the {{w|Hippie}} culture developed in the mid '60s. Recently, however, {{w|Hipster_(contemporary_subculture)|"hipster"}} has come to refer to, in Wikipedia's terms, "a subculture of young, urban middle class adults and older teenagers that appeared in the 1990s. The subculture is associated with independent music, a varied non-mainstream fashion sensibility, progressive or independent political views, alternative spirituality or atheism/agnosticism, and alternative lifestyles."

Following the hipster resurgence, it became popular in many circles to hold hipsters in contempt, citing their conformity to a subculture by rejecting "mainstream" culture and deliberate (i.e. ironic) indulgence in obnoxious things like moustaches and bad movies. Randall continues the arguably hypocritical meta-complaining by showing more s-curves that represent subsequent, smaller backlashes, self-referentially including his own comic in that meta-complaining.

There is a possible double meaning in the phrase "tedious navel-gazing by insecure people": {{w|Low-rise (fashion)|the word "hipster"}} also refers to low-rise leg wear that sits at or below the hips, often in conjunction with revealing shirts, thereby exposing one's bellybutton.

The title text reveals [[Randall]]'s awareness that he's only perpetuating the meta-complaining he's complaining about, but he bats away this criticism by pointing out the facts of the situation: the reader is not communicating with Randall but rather most likely in an empty room while browsing the Internet. That is, the criticising reader is experiencing a retreat into ironic detachment while still clearly participating in the thing in question, i. e. the graph.

The title text may be a reference to a previous comic, [[525| 525: "I Know You're Listening"]].

==Transcript==
:The layout is a chart with a series of plots reaching a stable equilibrium one after another, with the shape characteristic of a predator-prey model. In order, the labels are.
:How often I see... Hipsters
:--> Complaints about hipsters
:--> Complaints about the constant use and discussion of the word "hipster"
:--> Complaints that every level of meta-opinion on hipsters represents the same tedious navel-gazing by insecure people
:--> graphs making it all worse
:--> Now
:[The horizontal axis is labeled time. Where the final curve rises is marked 'now'.]

==Trivia==
This comic has been featured on [http://cheezburger.com/7534206464 Cheezburger.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]