EI've been scrolling X for twenty minutes and I still don't know what anyone is laughing about.
SThen you're doing it right. What did you find?
EDavid Scott posted, "LMAO Vice President Dumbledore. I can't stop laughing." That's it. No picture, no link, no context.
SSo the internet is now just posting inside jokes with the inside missing.
EThat's the beauty of it. Half the fun is not knowing why it's funny.
SNo, half the fun is being in on the joke. The other half is pretending you are.
EOkay, but Dumbledore as vice president? That's a ticket I'd watch.
SHe'd just give everyone vague wisdom and then disappear for months.
EThat's most vice presidents.
SFair. But what is the actual joke? Halloween? A deepfake? Someone dressed as Dumbledore at a rally?
EThat's exactly my point. We'll never know, and that's okay.
SIt's not okay. This is how misinformation starts. A thousand posts saying "can't stop laughing" and nobody knows what they're laughing at.
EOh, come on. It's a meme, not a Pentagon leak.
SBut there were four of them in a row, Eric. Four separate accounts all laughing at nothing.
EOne of them was just "lmao I can't stop laughing fr" and another was the same with more exclamation points.
SThat's not content. That's a digital seizure.
EYou say that like it's a bug. It's a feature of X on Halloween.
SHalloween is the only night people can post nonsense and call it a costume.
EI'd rather see nonsense than another AI-generated pumpkin.
SSo we're arguing that meaningless posts are good now?
EI'm arguing that shared confusion is a kind of community. You don't have to understand it to enjoy it.
SThe community of people laughing at an imaginary vice president. Strong pitch.
EBetter than the community of people arguing about whether he'd be worse than Fudge.
SWait, Fudge as in Cornelius Fudge? The Ministry guy?
ESee? You're in on it now.
SOkay, fine. Dumbledore for VP, Fudge for Secretary of Magic.
EAnd the internet remains undefeated.
SUntil tomorrow morning, when everyone pretends they never posted it.
EThat's the Halloween spirit.
SBut seriously, there's something weird about laughing at nothing. It's like a social cue with no signal.
EOr maybe the signal is the laughter itself. People want to feel connected, even if it's over a blank.
SConnected to what? A fake wizard in a suit?
EConnected to the fact that everyone else is just as confused as they are. That's oddly comforting.
SSo the internet is a support group for people who have no idea what's going on.
EAlways has been.
SThen I want out of this support group.
EToo late. You just made a Dumbledore cabinet joke. You're one of us now.
SI hate that you're right.
EAnd that's why the internet keeps laughing. It's not about the joke; it's about being in on something.
SEven when the something is nothing.
EEspecially then.
SYou know what? I'm going to post "LMAO Vice President Dumbledore" right now and see what happens.
EDon't. You'll get three replies from bots and one from someone asking if it's a spoiler.
SThat's exactly the content I deserve.
EAnd that's exactly the content we'll be talking about tomorrow.