I run marketing for a barbershop, and this format is basically what happens in the chair every single day--clients sit down projecting one vibe, then 10 minutes in they're telling their barber about their divorce or career anxiety. The meme just moved that dynamic online with the safety of humor as the entry point. What's interesting from a brand perspective is that we've built our entire community around creating that permission structure in real life. When someone walks into Bootlegged, the music, the banter between barbers, the lack of corporate polish--it all signals "you can be real here." The meme does the same work digitally: the Game of Thrones setup gives you the armor to admit something vulnerable. I think this connects to why neighborhood businesses are having a moment right now. People are exhausted from performing online and want spaces--physical or digital--where the gap between "how I look" and "how I feel" doesn't have to be so massive. The format works because it acknowledges that gap exists for everyone, which is weirdly reassuring.
The disposition transforms stoicism into farce, because the former was a cheeky, that kind of non-attachment is that of a display of strength, but TikTok has converted it into the reverse of values, and the non-attachment acquired is emptied and turned into hyper specific self-consciousness. The comedy succeeds as it depicts the ignorance of all people in the world. It assumes the meme form of saying too cowardly to say much of what we are. The fact that in an experience whereon to feel is a peril therefore gives people a chance to say themselves without the wish to feel, this meme provides. It is a copy of the older more relatable memes, except that the me at two a.m. having existential crisis but with it has the words of the strong. Not confession, it is armor exhibition. It is manly in its opposition: it is alpha and it tells the silent thing. Social media plays off such disguised exhibitionism. The forms increase to become a survival unit as expression be become increasingly coded.