I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the world is kind of bleak right now. A few highlights of American life in 2025 so far:
A national educational system under threat
A growing list of fundamental human rights abuses on an almost daily basis targeting immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, neurodivergent children, and more
It’s a lot. It is maybe, in fact, too much for a human to read and process while still carrying on each day.
Much of the cultural reaction to global hardships in the 1940s included political propaganda, which is a bit of a problem. However, it did have something going for it that we lack: a hopeful tone.
By contrast, the cultural landscape of 2025 is dark. Some of the most popular TV shows are Severance, White Lotus, and Adolescence. There’s nary a sitcom to be consumed. Some of the most popular podcasts are about the news or the various concerns of the manosphere.
What we actually need is silliness and distraction. I mean really dumb and goofy fun.
"being silly is all we have left" - @vanhaley_yt via @betches
When I think about some of the most joyful moments in pop culture over the past several months, here are a few examples that come to mind:
Brat summer
The Super Bowl (I know, I’m shocked to see me listing this here, too)
Studio Ghibli memes made with ChatGPT 4o
For each of these there are detractors, of course. Brat summer is “just pop music.” The Super Bowl is “just sports.” Studio Ghibli memes are “just slop.” I disagree.
Brat summer was a celebration of the queer community, a fresh new aesthetic, inspiration for memes, and overdue recognition for my personal favorite musician, Charli XCX.
The Super Bowl was also a real-time monoculture moment, an opportunity to engage in capitalist critique via ads, and host of a fantastic half-time performance by Kendrick Lamar that subtly wove in political commentary.
Studio Ghibli memes celebrated a beloved filmmaker, introduced AI image generation to those who weren’t deep in it already, let people share flattering images of themselves and their families, and opened up folks’ creative side.
But, this is even more important: even if those initial statements were true, would it be so bad?
What if we let people have nice things? What if right now, especially, non-serious stuff like this is exactly what everyone wants and needs?
If I had any control over language usage, I’d reserve “slop” for the shrimp Jesuses of the world and other intentionally spammy content. Things that individuals make to bring a tiny amount of delight to their otherwise gloomy day for about five seconds? Let them have that. It’s not slop, it’s a glimpse of sanity.
This brings us to America’s Funniest Home Videos, now called AFV…
I know what you’re thinking: THAT STILL EXISTS? Apparently, yes. I know this because of my six-year-old, who is obsessed with the goofy boys in her class, who are in turn obsessed with AFV. So, of course, we must watch it. Not only does it still exist, but it is in the same format as it was in the 90s. The content is also pretty much the same: kids saying funny or precocious things, people falling down, people trying and failing spectacularly, people getting hit in the balls.
This stuff is silly. This stuff is dumb. It also happens to be the most consistent way to get my special needs daughter and I together on the couch to get cozy, forget about the hardships of our lives, and genuinely laugh out loud in unison for a little bit.
I was born in the early 80s and am old enough to remember the original AFV. Once upon a time, in a very different world, I lived in a townhouse on a cul-de-sac. The older neighborhood kids had an idea for an elaborate video to submit to America’s Funniest Home Videos. Either they recruited everyone on our block to join in or we as the younger kids were just annoying and tagged along (probably the latter). I couldn’t tell you what the idea was now, but it involved running around with a bunch of kids and laughing and yelling something in unison at the end. That’s all I need to remember, really, because aren’t those things kind of all that matters in life?
I would guess that the show is still going after more than 30 years because it represents an embodiment of the core, unifying goofiness of human nature that never changes and never gets old. We need more AFVs in our culture.
(By the way, it’s available on Disney+ if any of this is making you want to watch it.
I’ve been working for startups for about 15 years. Some of them you have heard of and some of them you have not. I’m not a programmer and I’m not a product manager, but I’ve learned a lot over that time about what makes a product successful. If I had to pick a top three, they might be:
Transparency
User-driven product development
Moments of delight within the product
That third one might seem trivial and optional, but I bet when you think about your favorite apps or products, you will also be thinking of a delightful moment it offers that keeps you engaged.
One of my own personal favorites right now is Websim.ai. It’s chaotic and a little opaque, admittedly. It also has a nice dose of nostalgic early internet vibes for old-timers like me who can remember when the web was a bunch of “under construction” gifs and HTML-powered weirdness. I used it to bring back that Geocities energy in the form of a one-page site about the media I’m consuming each month. It’s ugly, it’s useless, but it was also fun to create and share with friends.
My very first startup job was at Automattic / WordPress. One of my personal favorite silly features there at the time was the option to turn on a falling snow effect on top of your blog in the winter months. Did it also slow down browser performance for many people? OK, yes. But it was delightful and brought users joy during a time of year that can be complicated for many.
Digital snow, specifically, is not the answer to the woes of our current moment, but I’d love to see more products taking risks and experimenting with joy and delight as core concepts.
Right now, I’m lucky to work at Glif.app, which is centered around creative, innovative uses of AI workflows—with fun chatbot building tools coming soon!
So, what can we do to give ourselves the healthy dose of silliness that we sorely need? Here’s a few ideas:
Stop shaming folks for “slop” that they create for the purpose of their own happiness
Take breaks and find your own moments of joy
When you find that joy, share it with another person if you can!
Integrate delight into the things you create
If you know a TV exec, tell them to greenlight a new sitcom for the love of god
This post is a rare instance of me actually being able to retroactively expand on and connect some of my own past tweets / skeets / whatever. If you want to hear more things like this, follow me on Bluesky or X.
