Self-deprecation isn’t a new concept. People have used the attitude for both bad and good purposes – think of the «fool» of the courts of yore. Hating on themselves was literally their vocation. Comics have embraced this mode for years. But the advent of memes has allowed for self-deprecation to shine more palpably than it ever has before. All across the internet, depressed jokesters make themselves the punchline of jokes that are seen by millions of people just like them. While we don’t condone the darkest kinds of these jokes, there’s something about making fun of oneself that can be a little freeing, as long as you don’t run too far with the insecurities or mockery. I may poke fun at my inability to sing or my paranoia that my friends don’t actually enjoy my company, but if I went too hard with the latter, I might actually start to fully believe the unhelpful notion. Instead, it’s better to enjoy the low stakes types of this humor. Like the memes we’re servin’ up right here.