Originally published: February 2024
As so-called “post-irony” ruptures further into the mainstream, “meme” pages like Realeaterforever's offer a new look into the trajectory of internet humor. Why? Because surfing Realeaterforever’s profile grid is like reading a diary—a diary with a cohesive, faded body, degrading from the imagined slew of screenshots that took place in one image.
It’s like a diary that closed too hard on an iPod touch. The device—which had a sticker on it—was smashed into the book’s pages, like one of those novelty books that secretly stash a liquor bottle. So, that when you open the diary (and it’s Realeaterforever’s diary) there’s a video on every page, a screenshot on every line, and—along with the writing, written in 2010s sans serif fonts—there’s the deadpan voice of a 20-something whose brain you’re seeing, narrating every, dumb quip that crosses his mind.
In this digital diary, Realeaterforever’s posts feel like impressions—rough sketches that are exotically half-baked. At the same time, they blend into the memetic signifiers of the current “irony” landscape. They blend into the rest of the slop that floods the Explore pages of unsuspecting users—Papyrus font, Rio de Janeiro, cropped and skewed screenshots. But Realeaterforever’s posts occupy their own world— their own niche— because, in them, Realeaterforever is forever present. He’s talking. He’s writing. He’s letting you know he’s there. You follow Realeaterforever because he’s Realeaterforever (is the vibe).
Read the full interview on the 65,000 Takes website.
