More like news throwing up

A few things about my Facebook news feed, which right now more than ever, for whatever reason, maybe b/c it's Christmas, seems like a really good reflection of everything that has gone sour. Evidence:

[Redacted] and [Redacted] joined the group Dick In A Box. 12:37am

For those who don't know, "Dick in a Box" was a short video played on SNL last week, in which Justin Timberlake and some other guy sing a boy-band-type song about how they're going to give their girlfriends their dicks for Christmas. It is pretty funny, I guess; the two of them put their dicks in boxes and Timberlake gives instructions: "Step one: cut a hole in the box / step two: put your junk in that box / step three: let her open the box." People loved it, and the NYT got all excited about it after NBC leaked an uncensored version of it onto the internet (an "end-run" around the censors and an innovative use of technology, etc). Not sure about the order of events since I only heard about "Dick" the other night, but at some point the video became what bloggers like to call a "cultural event." The link went over Harvard open lists, the video came up on "most viewed," everyone told their friends that they have to see this thing on YouTube, and some probably even thought it was funny enough to show their parents even though it would be kind of embarrassing. Gawker posted it and quipped, "here's the clip in case you just managed to push aside the giant boulder you've been trapped under."

This happens every once in a while - weirdly enough, it seems to happen pretty often with SNL shorts - but for all the half-cooked parodies and enthusiastic e-mail recs, I haven't seen anything come out of the hype that's quite as sad as this news feed entry, which indicates that the thing we do now when we like something is join a Facebook group about it. The group itself has 876 members. A few people have posted on the "discussion board": one of them gives a link to the video on YouTube (subject line: "The Video") and the other asks, "Who has tried this?" One boy responds (at an astonishing 9:41am!),

ive done this twice!

but only because im on welfare

and a girl adds (at a more appropriate but somehow more mediocre 1:07pm),

I'm going to try boobs in a box
I'll let you guys know how it plays out.

The group description predictably just quotes from the song. No other commentary, except for on the Wall (I am unclear on the distinction between this and the discussion board), where Kim writes:

haha i laughed soOoOoOoOoO hard!!!

...and Julianna writes:

just when i thought SNL had completely lost any hope of making me laugh again..the justin timberlake episode was really good--and this video was fucking hilarious

...and Savanna writes:

I saw that episode live! Front row! Justin and Andy spoke to me!

Anyway, 876 members.

Elsewhere on my news feed, one girl adds "NPR" to her interests, another adds "film." A third, in a moment of self-hatred I would have preferred not to see, updates her "status" to say, "[Redacted]is... disgusting. She is dipping left over turkey into a bowl of cranberry sauce."

Further down the list, somebody comes out, and somebody else joins the group "Enough with the Poking, Lets Just Have Sex."

:'(