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Beware the Ides of March on Tumblr - you may see many, many memes. Cher and Lauren discuss the particular fervor of the holiday this year and wonder what kinds of weapons the senators used. Plus, Cher watches exclusively medical shows and Lauren puts on the clown makeup for 911.
Credits and transcript in our reblog. You can find transcripts for this, and every other episode, here.
I recently told a friend who is not on tumblr about the ides of March. And they asked how do we celebrate? Is there a chosen "Cesar" account we all "stab"? Does admin pick a blog randomly or something?
And I had to inform them they highly overestimate how organized tumblr is and underestimate how much fun is there in the chaos.
"Admin", pffft
i think the reason why the assassination of Julius Caesar is one of the funniest political assassinations is for this very simple reason:
1 guy stabs 1 guy: not funny. that's murder.
2 guys stab 1 guy: even less funny. that's two against one.
60 guys stab 1 guy: uproariously funny. why do you need so many guys.
The way that tumblr celebrates the Ides of March every year is so strange to me, because like.
The assassination of Julius Cesar is maybe one of the MOST controversial moments in western history. A thousand years later, Dante Alegari (who was Italian) when writing the Divine Comedy, reserves the deepest foulest pit of hell for Brutus, Casius and Judas, condemning them to be Satan’s eternal chew toys. Shakespeare devotes an entire play to how Julius Cesar is a complicated figure neither saint nor monster, and to how the assassin’s motives ranged from virtuous to petty and spiteful. To this DAY scholars and historians still argue about the actions of the assassins, spilling oceans of ink.
And yet all of tumblr seems to accept three things as undisputed fact:
Every March 15th, this site throws a party and stubbornly insists that an event, a real historical event that unleashed untold chaos and death on the world, was actually just really cool and funny you guys: Caesar was a bad guy and his assassins where super cool, and that’s that.
And I get the memes are choice. But I think, we may collectively, be missing the point of this particular lesson of history.
This is a fair analysis, but also consider: I don’t think this celebration ever thought that much about the political implications. It started as a meme of a knife in a bottle of Caesar dressing. I know that’s probably frustrating for historians and classical literature fans, and maybe we should take it a bit more seriously.
That being said, you are possibly the first person to think that deeply about Tumblr’s view of this holiday. You made some claims about how Tumblr users view the historic event, and maybe it’s just because we’re in different circles, but I don’t usually see much thought. No one really talks about what Caesar conquered or how Brutus and the senate handled the aftermath, and no one really picks sides.
It’s more “beware the ides,” Caesar should’ve listened to his wife and stayed home, he ran into my knife 23 times even though there were supposed to be 60, “et tu Bruté,” Pizza Pizza with dressing and a side of salad.
The closest I’ve seen it get to serious is “Hey, any current senators want to be hilarious?” Which, fair, in that regard we maybe should think more about what the aftermath was and what a coup like that today would mean.
But also that gets drowned out in puns, edits of classic art, Mean Girls gifs, eyes of Marge, and the occasional acknowledgement of it also being a bad day across fictional history with Mr. Crocker losing his happiness, Marty McFly’s dad dying in the bad timeline, and even more if you get into some if the less universal fandoms (seriously, a few years ago I did a post trying to list them all, and I feel like every year a new one gets added).
Anyway, this was way too long of a comment where I said a whole lot of nothing, but also, that’s kinda what the Ides of March is: a lot of hype with little to no thought at all.
why does this have 32k notes? it’s just a picture of a knife in a ranch bottle, is there some unspoken joke that 32 thousand people share? what is going on here, i dont get it. it’s just a fucking picture of a knife in a ranch bottle. is there some spiritual connection people have to this picture? is there some ominous and mystical reasoning that this has 32 thousand notes? do people reblog this because it makes them look like some indie blogger? or is there just something funny to this? someone please explain
no one tell him
Woke up in the middle of the night to make Thomas the Hank Engine
How the fuck is this post five years old and only has 14 notes?
OP I just laughed until I almost vomited. It’s been a shitty health day and this was a fantastic balm.
So happy I could brighten your day!
Here’s Natalie Porthole in case you need her.
Beware the Ides of March on Tumblr - you may see many, many memes. Cher and Lauren discuss the particular fervor of the holiday this year and wonder what kinds of weapons the senators used. Plus, Cher watches exclusively medical shows and Lauren puts on the clown makeup for 911.
Credits and transcript in our reblog. You can find transcripts for this, and every other episode, here.
Dashboard Diaries is a production of Atypical Artists, hosted by Lauren Shippen (@thelaurenshippen) and Cher McAnelly (@overchers). Our theme was composed by Lauren Shippen and mixed by Brandon Grugle. Art by Shae McMullin. Transcription by Laudable.
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