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Carles, the blogger behind Hipster Runoff, is a wanted man. After innocently contemplating the eternal question, “Will I kill my BFFs if I text while I am driving?,” in a post last night, Carles was eventually greeted with the following comment: “i purchased your shirt just to burn it. Your site will crumble beneath you and your followers will wander away from your site.” The post was signed by ‘Carles is Burning,’ and with it, a link to a YouTube video and the words, “I’m watching you. Down with Carles. Down With Carles. Down with Carles . . .” and so on and so on.
The YouTube video takes us to a shirtless boy burning Carles’ infamous “I am Carles” T-shirt. The boy looks like he is the younger brother of the Pretenders. He looks like he is pissed. In fact, he is burning the shirt as an “act of defiance against everything Carles stands.” In other words, he is indirectly burning $30 of his own money to tsk-tsk a blogger. And when someone is willing to burn their own doh – especially when that someone’s YouTube user account is, ‘theHorribleSanity‘ – you know they mean business.
Unfortunately for theHorribleSanity, his act of defiance has only reaffirmed the success of the IamCarles brand. If you hate Carles, but you still need to buy his shirt in order to prove you hate him, well, that’s a win-win situation for Hipster Runoff. So what made a seemingly innocent blond boy go arsonist? “[Carles] is a serious racist, a serious sexist, a heterosexist, he likes to make fun of gays, black people, Asians; he likes to make fun of women who are abused.” Keep in mind that Carles has explicitly denounced everything from his own blog to ten piece chicken nuggets. ”So Carles, if you’re watching this: you are a bad person and you need to change.”
The YouTube video also illustrates one of the main components of Hipster Runoff — its duality. You are either in the pool of people who ‘get it’ or ‘don’t get it.’ The latter of which make YouTube videos. Carles often writes from the consumer perspective, what the masses are generally thinking or unconsciously feeling: An innate love for Am Appy to define their ‘alt’ personal brand, a bromance for Pashy Pit, a pressured appreciation of Animal Collective or the Dirty Projectors, the white man’s subconscious desire to ‘get with’ an Asian chick, and, more recently, the implications of killing one’s BFFs while driving and texting. Ultimately, theHorribleSanity has committed a confused and misdirected act of aggression against Carles. He meant to attack is his own culture — the one Carles willfully mirrors.
Let’s hope ‘theHorribleSanity,’ can’t afford the $3,000 personal shirt delivery by Carles himself. No man deserves to be burned alive in a YouTube video.
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24 Responses
well covered. this kid makes no sense & is spookin the hell out of me.
Whoops. 'Heterosexism' doesn't mean what you think it means.
wow! I totally thought that kid made it up – who knows what he's capable of.
I'm going to fix that, thanks.
uh, google 'heterosexism'. lost massive respect for this site.
@'i am carles' wow buddy, you can imitate HRO annnd you have a shitty music blog. keep it up. You are just like all the other goon commenters on his site.
ANYWAYS, what would really be funny is if that kid was actually carles (or Charles…as he put it). I bet he would do something like that, dangle his identity over our heads…
@sarah that kid has definitely been suspended for making a hit list
such a mindfuck. is this bro really so self-important, or is it all part of a bigger joke?
Ummm. Carles and HRO are SATIRE. SATIRE, people. Wow.
i'd like to party with this bro
Genius Troll or Idiot who doesn't get HRO/Life/Satire
fairly certain this bro is 'Carles'
first off, the video itself is clearly a joke in the same vein as many HRO posts. I don't get how people can claim to 'get' HRO but yet not see the insincerity in the video. it's pretty glaring.
secondly, as others put it, he does sound a bit like 'Carles' in the HRO podcasts (tone, manner of speaking). or its at least ONE of the Carleses. info leaked weeks ago via Tao Lin's blog that 'Carles' is actually a few people who write for HRO.
so yeah this is just a promotional gimmick/'fun joke' brought to you by iamcarles.com. this nakedtruth comment 'tell all' is also for promotion.
I wish this guy was wearing the shirt when he burned it. What a waste.
It would have been a better marketing gimmick for iamcarles.com if it had been a hot slut burning her tee. The dude in the current vid is too uncomfortable to watch to have it ever go viral.
"Viral marketing gimmick" FAIL!
"…the white man’s subconscious desire to ‘get with’ an Asian chick…"
No, it's quite conscious.
but it comes from the sub/pre-consciousness…the manifestation of that seems 2 b quite conscious. or sum thing…
he is obviously carles.
The official I am Carles tshirt deliery fund.
http://livingears.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-am-carle...
seems like a pretty chill bro.
No, it's called genetics. We like to stick our peens anywhere.
I think this guy is just really Christian.
that video is fake lol. it's not carles, but someone he hired or a friend of his. you guys are dumb. it's called attempted viral marketing.
suspended from what? commenting on HRO? who cares. if i were him i would burn the whole thing down. and by thing i mean all of it.
tru
"The YouTube video also illustrates one of the main components of Hipster Runoff — its duality. You are either in the pool of people who ‘get it’ or ‘don’t get it.’ "
Hi. Actually, I'm in the "I can't be bothered with any of that ridiculous tripe from 'carles' & / or Co. and could really give a damn who 'gets it' " pool. The 'get over yall selves' pool seemed kinda chill but it was starting to get too crowded. <3<3
I think American Apparel is behind this – some great new media/marketing whiz!