It’s Okay To Laugh

I’ve been blogging for about 2.5 years but have never had anything truly go viral, until now.  My infographic post from April 3rd, titled “Relative Importance in 2020, So Far”, has made it’s way around the world in ways I could never have imagined and I’m grateful but also a bit freaked out.

The tagline for my blog at the top on my header image is “Financial Independence, Early Retirement, Outdoor Adventure, Satire”.  That’s a lot to cover and I’ve been trying my best.  I purposely used the word “satire” and not “humor” for a reason. 

One definition of satire:

the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s behaviors or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Well, regular readers know that Accidental FIRE is a no-politics zone, but everything else is game.  And I strongly believe everything can be poked fun at.  My TurnipFIRE posts poke fun at things related to money and blogging, in the style of a famous satirical website.

In general my satirical posts are not as popular as my financial independence content.  But my April 3rd infographic hit paydirt, in a big way.  I’m getting email requests to use it in books, on profiles, and even at a mental health facility!  

It’s been retweeted and re-Instagrammed hundreds of times and put all over every platform out there.  I got more hits from LinkedIn in one day that I had gotten from the entire 2.5 year history of my blog.  And I still can’t find who put it up there. 

My friend Angela even came to my defense on one person’s Instagram post who used it with no credit back to me.  I stopped caring after a while.  Whatever, it’s not like it’s the Mona Lisa.

It’s all over meme websites, and I even got an email from someone in Indianapolis saying their local news showed it on TV!  

I’m a big fan of Peter Attia’s podcast, and he put an altered version of it on his Instagram.  He has 143,000 followers. 

My blog traffic has been off the charts and I’m picking up followers on all platforms at an alarming rate.   Well, alarming for me at least.  And no I still don’t feel like Tim Ferriss or Gary Vaynerchuk.

I guess this is my 15 minutes…  I should put some pants on.

 

We Need Humor

I’m surprised and relieved that I haven’t had any push back on the humorous nature of the graphic.  I’ve seen others get berated for being funny or making light of anything related to the current crisis we find ourselves in. 

I obviously think that’s counterproductive, and the wrong way to approach life.   Of course there’s a right way and wrong way to try humor in a situation like this.  And not everyone will agree on where that line is.  

But it’s not wrong to laugh when things are tough.  Humor puts people at ease.  If done well and in good taste for the situation, it serves as medicine in hard times.  It restores normalcy, and gives hope.

The ability to laugh despite experiencing grief and sadness is a blessing, and healing.  Studies show it can strengthen the immune system, reduce pain, and lower levels of psychological distress.

“A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder

This mental health business posted my graphic with the hashtags #findthehumor and #laughterismedicine.  They get it.

 

Keep At It

There’s also a lesson here for content creators – just keep putting stuff out.  Much of it will be mediocre or even suck, but you might eventually hit a home run.  Or as I wrote in a post about my successful graphic arts side hustle:

Show up, do the work.  Show up every day.  Keep creating bad shit until you start creating some okay shit.  Then keep creating okay shit until you start creating some good shit.

Whether my viral infographic qualifies as “good shit” or not is up to you, but it did strike a chord and apparently made some folks laugh.  That was my intention, nothing more.

 

Mashups & Reach

Once it went viral people immediately started adding to it and doing their own versions.  Many are hilarious, and I love it.  Let’s be honest, some folks out there have time on their hands.  And I love the sloppiness 🙂

“Bra” was a popular to add:

 

Then there’s the drugs, alcohol, and mind-altering crowd… with some toilet paper and bras thrown in too.

 

We can’t forget toilet breaks, pets, and bunkers…

 

Regular readers know that I’m a cycling freak, and some folks at a bike club in Brisbane Australia added the bike for me, which was a glaring oversight on my part…

It got around the world… if you’re not familiar Sina Weibo is basically the Chinese version of Facebook and enormous, and it made it there too…

 

Someone in Bulgaria decided to translate it (<– warning, Bulgarian website!) and add a line which might be the “bra” line, I have no clue. If any of my readers speak Bulgarian I’d appreciate the help…

 

It was very popular with coffee lovers and posted on hundreds of coffee shop social media accounts. This was from a coffee shop in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and they also took the time to translate it.  I tried figuring out what “rasurarse” and “puama” mean but they must be slang.  Any help on those would be great.

Someone in Russia gets my humor and posted it here. (<–Russian site!) 

If anything this shows that the world is really going through the same thing, and apparently coffee and sweatpants are things that all nations can rally around. 

Someone tell the UN.

 

Inspired Versions

I’ve inspired a few folks to start their own blog in the past, which has always flattered me.  But I never thought I’d inspire anyone to imitate my silliness.  Yet some thought it good enough to make their own versions.

A dietitian student made a “Celiac Disease Edition” for those who eat gluten free:

 

 

Someone from Texas on Twitter made this version, they don’t like folks from Oklahoma I guess:

 

This guy made a version for healthcare workers.

  

I obviously get a kick out of how far and wide this simple little joke has managed to travel, and that it connected with so many around the world. 

I’ve been using the World Wide Web since it’s inception in the early 1990’s and I honestly never thought I’d create something that would be shared to this extent. 

I kind of feel like I won the internet, and that I should just hang it up now.  I’m actually waiting to get an email from the internet police informing me that my 15 minutes is up.  But as of this morning it’s still going on, and the darn thing keeps getting around.

So to all those who got a laugh out of my post and shared it, thank you!  Viral content is better than a virus any day 🙂 

And even though these are sad and stressful times, try to find some time to laugh every day.  It’ll do you good.