george santos, the diva you are
hey you sussy rumblers!
Ever since expelled Republican Congressman, famed racketeer and notorious liar George Santos joined the celebrity video service Cameo, every morning I have softly repeated one of his quotes in the mirror like a whispered affirmation: there is no such thing as diva down, it’s always diva up.
Gen Z has taken to George Santos and made him an internet icon. Across social media, people have made memes of his photos, joked about what his next antic should be, and likened him to a similar genre of public figures with famously unhinged personas. On the day of Santos’ expulsion, “DIVA DOWN” began trending on Twitter, and fanmade eulogy-style videos began cropping up as fans wished him farewell.
“Why does he have the cvntiest photos ever taken like it’s actually so sickening,” one said on expulsion day. “my all time fave George Santos quote was ‘sue me for having a life’ like LMFAOOO he knew he ate that,” said another.
Expulsion day was like Christmas among my friends. In the group chats, we repeated the same phrases in increasingly excited iterations, expressing our sheer glee at the way the situation unfolded — “sashay away,” “stunt queen,” “expelled the house boots,” “cuntquake just rocked the White House,” we typed to each other. When Santos’ Cameo account was confirmed to be his, we anticipated the video releases and were rewarded with a whole new genre of Santos content, in which people asked him to sing Taylor Swift, repeat strings of slang, and even acknowledge his past lies.
I made the mistake of sharing the Cameo news to many of the more offline, older millennials I know. People responded in confusion and disdain, not understanding why I was so excited about it, looking at me with expressions like I’d said something offensive aloud. A lone “…” was all I got from one chat. And they’re not the only ones who aren’t getting the hype around him. “A man who is facing possible prison time for theft and who got thrown out of Congress is now being given cash, hand over fist, to be that ex-congressional, money-stealing grifter on camera,” as Vox put it.
The divide in reaction was stark, and rather rattling to realize the difference particularly with people who were less online than I thought. But my millennial acquaintances are simply wrong for trying to silence me! George Santos’ expulsion is deeply funny, and people shouldn’t feel bad for making jokes about it.
This current era of online humor is predicated on dark irony. From the Panera Charged Lemonade being linked to two deaths to the Pinterest “outfit inspiration” memes inspired by violent American historical events, much of the funniest jokes now make light of both the seemingly hopeless crisis of our current state today as well as the bloody history that brought us here. The darker, the funnier. I don’t think this is inherently a millennial thing, to not understand this deeply nihilistic satire. It feels like more of a chronically online thing. But I do think each wave of young people are often the ones to shape a period of humor online, as the users with the most time to post incessantly — the way millennials were the most active in creating YouTube humor, zillennials influencing Vine, and Gen Z defining TikTok.
George Santos is ripe grounds for dark irony. His time in Congress was short but iconic, from his plethora of lies about his life to the eventual ethics committee hearing in which we learned he spent campaign funds on everything from OnlyFans to Botox. The sheer absurdity, combined with its brevity and implosive end, makes it perfect for memes. And you know what? If I were running as a Republican candidate I’d probably want to spend conservative white people’s money on Ferragamo shoes, too.
More specifically, the alternative of being deeply sarcastic is to be swallowed by existential hopelessness about it. Many of the public figures that progressive people put their faith into — Bernie Sanders, John Fetterman, Katie Porter — have deeply let us down in recent weeks, as they have not only refused to join calls for a ceasefire in Palestine, but actively refused to address the humanitarian crisis happening in Gaza. These are figures who have boasted about their funding and platform being by the people, for the people, and built much of their fanbase primarily through online fandom. Democracy, and the promise of the people exercising their voice through a vote, has never felt more like a joke. So if all of Congress ignores our voices and actively allowed the murder of people anyway, including the ones we put our faith in, why not at least get a kick out of the funny ones? If the bills introduced in Congress aren’t really ever protecting the people, can we at least agree that it’s funny Santos named his the Nicki Minaj Act?
I understand the concerns of less online people, who voice the dangers of not taking these things seriously all the time. But we need to get realistic about what means to be online. To watch, in real time, as mass media collapses in on itself after larger shadowy companies buy and control them, tech companies put their sticky paws on everything from international geopolitics to our own brains, and the very foundations of a shared, basic societal truth be corrupted by corporate greed, which we see in the increasingly fragmented ways we absorb information on a daily basis (For You Pages, customized homepages) and the way which people are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the workforce.
What’s more, I don’t think stanning George Santos means that people aren’t going to mobilize for what they believe in. Online communities have been hugely involved in political movements for years, from K-pop stans shutting down police protestor watch apps, to the way Swifties caused an antitrust hearing in the US Senate. Protests for Palestinian liberation have swept cities across the world, largely in part due to the journalists who have been able to use social media to share factual first-hand accounts of the situation in Gaza. Apathy has never been the modus operandi of the internet, as much as it may seem that way.
So go forth, you cuntresses, and let George Santos be proof of a sacred truth: there is no such thing as diva down, it’s always diva up. And if you like to lie and shop, don’t go into politics! Become a daytime television host or a reality television personality. We need someone to fill the power vacuum that Wendy Williams left behind.
More like this: