If some of the preening tossers I’ve seen wearing laddzzz t-shirts are being ironic then they’re operating at a level of subtlety beyond normal human perception.

Positive thinking! Maybe they’re emulating this guy. Although whether that would do anything to mitigate their cuntitude, I don’t know.

I love that you thought you were being ironic. That’s really endearing.

Irony is a tricky business (as is ironing).

If some of the preening tossers I’ve seen wearing laddzzz t-shirts are being ironic then they’re operating at a level of subtlety beyond normal human perception. To look at them you’d just think they were wankers.

I too lived in London during the height (depth?) of New Lad-ism. I commiserate with you.

But let’s be fair. We should be thanking Top Man et al. They are providing these social imponderables with the fashion equivalent of high-vis jackets; easy for the rest of us to spot and avoid.

In the US, they’re called douchebags.

I’m not sure how committed to the cause many of these (cun)t-shirt wearers actually are. Obviously you have your hard-core wankers. But the majority are probably just lazily performing a script handed to them by the zeitgeist.

Or, y’know, maybe they are just complete fucknuts.

Doubtful,

I dunno who’s (ultimately) to blame, but fingers can clearly be pointed at the meeja/advertisers. They created a fictional (quiche-eating) “New Man” in the 90s. Then turned on him and charted the rise of his equally fictional nemesis the “New Lad”. The fact that neither were actually real (in the packaged way they were presented) didn’t matter a jot.

Living in the UK in the late 90s was an eye-opener. I was amazed at how all-pervasive and indulged this nu-laddism had become. It was everywhere. Like a toxic cloud of leery smugness.

Of course when I moved back in 2001 the cloud had wafted (Sellafield-like) o’er the Irish sea. I remember walking (innocently) into one of these new Topmans/Topmen (to buy a pair of jeans) and being boxed in the face by a t-shirt screaming “The Guvnor!”. Next to it was one with a bulldog and a Union Jack. No shit! Topman obviously realised the need for a “horses for courses” approach, and ditched the bulldog stuff, but they still won in the end.

Lately I have seen not one but two of these guys wearing shirts that say “Dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians”.

I think they’re missing the point slightly.

For lads like these (those who’re truly committed to cuntitude) then “lesbians” are always blonde porn star twins whose lesbianness is designed entirely to give lads the horn. They kiss, cuddle and smear themselves in oil while chaps toss off in the corner. They, the “lesbians”, aren’t getting anything out of it. They exist merely to fuel lad wank fantasies.