Help! We're Being Killed by Cuteness

This is what happened to Japan after WWII, and it's terrible

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 14, 2009 6:17 AM CST

(Newser) – There is an epidemic of cuteness in the country, Jim Windolf writes, symptomatic of our national desire to be loved and taken care of after 8 years of George W. Bush and a much-diminished standing in the world. The signs are everywhere: giggling babies, LOLcats, cupcakes, “cutegasms,” the Mini-Cooper. It started in post-war Japan—still the "cute capital of the world"—but America is catching up. So fast, Windolf writes, that the surfeit of cuteness is “almost enough to make you nostalgic for Dick Cheney.”

“For generations, kids couldn’t wait until they reached adulthood,” Windolf writes in Vanity Fair. “They could smoke, drink,” maybe even join up and “legally kill other human beings. Now we would rather log on and tune out, preferably in the womb-like comfort of a Snuggie.” Sure, there are complex social and political causes, but Windolf is really tired of the cuteness. So he’s glad that South Park has an appropriate response to one of the most popular YouTube videos ever, “Hahaha,” of a laughing baby. It’s “shut your fucking mouth, laughing baby.”

[Images (2)]

[Videos (1)]

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The cover of "I Can Has Cheezburger?: A LOLcat Colleckshun" is shown. (AP Photo)

Hello Kitty. (AP Photo)

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The "Hahaha" video. (TheWayneedwards)

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Popular cuteness came about ...as a way for us to convince ourselves and our friends that we’re not as bad as our recent national actions have made us seem. Cuteness got its start as a cowardly form of resistance, a velvet rebellion led by smiley-face emoticons. - Jim Windolf

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Help! We're Being Killed by Cuteness