My favorite in this genre is by the Gawker legend Caity Weaver.

My 14-hour search for the end of TGI Friday’s endless appetizers: https://www.gawkerarchives.com/my-14-hour-search-for-the-end...

I miss Caity's writing so much. She brought so much joy to me back in those days, and even a lot of her work at NYT was great as well. Thanks for the inspiration to try to find what she's up to now.

I'm trying to decide if that would be worth 5 days off or not. The "not read a book" criteria is especially cruel.

that was an absolute joy of a read, thanks for sharing!

It's taking vapid pop lyrics literally for humourous effect.

You could call it bathos.

that's not really what bathos is though. bathos is an attempt at pathos that turns into something else less meaningful through cliche or lack of believability or other

I also read it fully, which i don't usually do.

I'm just left guessing if there's some cryptpic yet important geo-political statement hidden in a funny post about some celebrity i had never heard of until now

It’s a satire on how deeply some fandoms read into lyrics or “hidden messages” from artists and works of art in general

to me it reads as a well done parody on conspiracy theories.

right! that's it, its like this nonsense numbers conspiracy theories that seem ramblings of some mentally ill person, but written in a more coherent, interestnig way that any of these (they usually are harder/cryptic to read due to its nonsense) so it ends up being an easier read as a parody than an actual conspiracy theory

Not everything needs to have a purpose. The most likely explanation to me is just that inspiration happened to strike the author as he heard the song.

That sounds like a purpose.

I think this is one of those things that either has intrinsic purpose for you, or it doesn't. As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about this analysis of Shawn Mendes' cryptic lyric.

I'd consider it a satisfying little exercise in deductive reasoning / OSINT – if reasoning is worthwhile and exercises are worthwhile, then this must be as well

By the way, if you liked this post, this taking-silly-things-way-to-seriously is the comedic wheelhouse of Nathan Fielder.

It’s the brain ticking itself.