A sense of humor differs from person to person. Some like cringe humor, others enjoy sarcastic wit, and some are quite old-school in their taste, chuckling at the jokes from the funnies section. And then, there are those who have darker tastes. They find humor in things that others would deem unacceptable and inappropriate.
It's the dark humor-loving folks. And, oftentimes, these are folks from a certain subculture. Like the creators of this meme page, possibly, at least judging from the title they decided to choose. Truly, who else if not metalheads would be inspired by a metal band and name their meme page "I See My Demons Staring At Memes?"
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For those who are not that well-acquainted with metal bands, the title alludes to a song from American band Chelsea Grin, "Hostage." The creators of the FB page borrowed the first line of the song, which goes: "I see my demons staring at me now."
I'll admit, Pandas, I'm no expert on being a metalhead, goth, or even an emo kid. The closest I got to belonging to a subculture was listening to Papa Roach and wearing knock-off Chuck Taylors in eighth grade. So, to know more about the "scary" subcultures, I reached out to an expert on the heavy metal culture, Keith Kahn-Harris.
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There's still a stereotype that persists to some degree that metalheads, goths, punks, and other similar alternative subcultures are all angry, scary individuals. They're either always serious or only like humor that's related to grim and sinister things.
But sociologist, music critic, and writer Keith Kahn-Harris says it's quite the opposite. As an academic who's spent his career exploring music scenes and heavy metal music, he's aware of the stereotypes people often put on certain subcultures. "Metal is often understood by its detractors to be humourless," he points out.
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"In reality, while excessive seriousness isn't unknown, one of metal's best-kept secrets is that humour is an important part of metal culture," he tells Bored Panda. "It kind of counter-balances the darkness of metal and helps metal scenes maintain equilibrium. Even when metal artists and fans might seem to be po-faced, they are often highly aware of the ludicrous aspects of metal aesthetics and embrace them nonetheless."
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Kahn-Harris tells us that humor has a very special function in the metal community — just as in any other, in fact. "Humour is usually a key part of maintaining communities and scenes," he says. "It helps to bond people together, particularly when 'outsiders' don't see the 'joke.' As I say, humour is one of metal's best-kept secrets, and sharing in the secret can be a powerful thing."
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Also, who says metal music can't be funny? I have to tell y'all, I ended up falling into quite a rabbit hole when Kahn-Harris mentioned pirate metal. Bands like Alestorm and Rumahoy prove that metal bands don't take themselves too seriously but are still professionals at their craft. I can almost see the crew of the Black Pearl headbanging to "Give all your beer and your rum to me."
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Other metal genres, even if not so overtly humorous, can be funny too. Kahn-Harris gives us one particular example. "Power metal, while it might seem overly serious, is often highly knowing in its use of the ridiculous." There are even some insider discussions, with some claiming that "All power metal is dumb" and purists claiming that it can be still well-crafted and doesn't need to veer into stupidity.
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Music blogger Charles in San Francisco writes how old-school power metal has always been kind of ridiculous. "Deep Purple doing songs about driving fast? Yes, they were seriously shredding, but their songs were even sillier than the old surf-band songs about fast cars — and they knew it!"
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"Tell me that Judas Priest, KISS, or Slipknot aren't secretly having a good chuckle over their exaggerated schtick," the music blogger went on. "And Rammstein? They give over-the-top a whole new meaning." Not to mention that some bands, like Iron Maiden, had some seriously dorky lyrics with imagery almost straight out of Dungeons and Dragons.
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You want more examples of ridiculous metal band concepts? What about Nekrogoblikon, an American metal band that writes songs about and from the point of view of goblins. The band formed in L.A. in 2006 and is still going strong today. "How you make the joke last this long is a good question," Charles points out in his article.
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And what about other subcultures? The goths, for example, do they only laugh at things that are related to the underworld and the afterlife? The very aptly named What Is Goth? clarifies that goths have a sense of humor and love to laugh. "Goths love to laugh but their humour is more of the black comedy sort. They aren't sad because they like dark things -- dark things make them happy and inspire them."
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