Marginal Christianity

  Illustration by Jerod Clark Branson Parler 04/01/15 News broke earlier this week that Trevor Noah will be taking over The Daily Show when Jon Stewart steps down later this year. Although Stewart is stepping out of the limelight, numerous Daily Show personalities are stepping into it: Samantha Bee is developing a show for TBS; Larry Wilmore’s The Nightly Show has taken over Stephen Colbert’s time slot; John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight is a hit; and, of course, Colbert will resume his late-night career , this time as the real Stephen Colbert on CBS’ The Late Show. Admittedly, I’m a huge fan of Stewart, Colbert and their colleagues. As TC has noted in the past, the tradition of using humor, satire and irony to call leaders to account goes back to the Hebrew prophets, as well as Socrates and Plato. But I wonder: well over a decade into this new normal of comedy/news/satire/entertainment, are we getting too much of a good thing? I’m cynical abou...

By CHRISTY WAMPOLE If irony is the ethos of our age — and it is — then the hipster is our archetype of ironic living. The hipster haunts every city street and university town. Manifesting a nostalgia for times he never lived himself, this contemporary urban harlequin appropriates outmoded fashions (the mustache, the tiny shorts), mechanisms (fixed-gear bicycles, portable record players) and hobbies (home brewing, playing trombone). He harvests awkwardness and self-consciousness. Before he makes any choice, he has proceeded through several stages of self-scrutiny. The hipster is a scholar of social forms, a student of cool. He studies relentlessly, foraging for what has yet to be found by the mainstream. He is a walking citation; his clothes refer to much more than themselves. He tries to negotiate the age-old problem of individuality, not with concepts, but with material things. He is an easy target for mockery. However, scoffing at the hipster is only a diluted form of hi...