A term used in the current metamodernistic/
internet era. Shitposting was originally "posting something bad." Literally a shitty post. Then, people started doing it ironically then, people started doing ironic shitposting ironically, and that's where things start to get weird. You're making
fun of something that's making
fun of something else, so it gradually became more and more absurd. The idea is it gets more absurd the more "ironic" you get, because if X makes
fun of Y in an absurd way, you need to be even more absurd to make fun of X. Hence, tiers.
Reddit User: What's a good example of higher layers of irony?
Reddit Expert: For a good example of "higher levels" of irony. Above the "
ironic shitposting level", there's the level where
people will mock the concept of "ironic shitposting" as a childish waste of time by being more absurd or sort of "anti-circlejerking". Above this level, it begins to wrap around to mirror legitimate
spam and shitposting, but framed in a way that is intentionally obvious and absurd.
Reddit Expert 2: The humour here comes from the absurdity of taking a post about decorating cakes, for example, and turning it into a post railing against white privilege. There can also be a lot of humour from the reactions of
people who aren't in on the joke. Beyond this level, you have posts like the image from the
OP. Posts which acknowledge the absurdity of everything I've just written by referencing the concept of irony and becoming totally non-nonsensical themselves, attempting to "out-absurd" even the most ironic forms of humour.
