Usually I think of motivational quotes on colorful backgrounds as being the province of Pinterest, but let’s face it — they’re everywhere. Luckily, there’s a new kid in town geared specifically towards cutting through the sickening sweetness of overly optimistic images: The @Unspirational Instagram account. Basically it’s the Grumpy Cat of inspirational quotes, and it’s kind of the best. Or maybe I’m just a curmudgeonly killjoy. Either/or.
OK, so technically it’s not new new; @Unspirational first hit the Instagram scene at the end of June, so if you’re just now hearing about it (like yours truly), you’ve got three months’ worth of hilarity to catch up on. Miles Klee at the Daily Dot likens it to the Demotivational Posters of yore, and he’s not wrong — I like to think of @Unspirational as Demotivational Posters: The Next Generation, with a strange and bitter version of Captain Picard at the helm and a crew consisting entirely of Wesley Crusher clones at its back. Most of us may adore Wil Wheaton now, but it’s true: Pretentious boy geniuses are the worst.
Speaking of Demotivational Posters, did you know they’ve been around since 1998? Here, Despair, Inc. — I’ve got an @Unspirational image just for you:
Other bite-sized doses of @Unspirational's hard and unforgiving truths include this:
This:
This:
And this:
You guys. It’s like this Instagram account was made for me — which might just be the most “unspirational” thing about it.
Admittedly, I am not actually this negative in real life. The world has enough negativity in it that it doesn’t usually need an extra dose of the stuff. But if you’ve got a dark sense of humor (and I’m fairly certain that most of us have at least a smidgen of shadow in there somewhere), there’s something inherently true about all of these things, which is exactly what makes them funny. One of the best ways to cope with tough stuff is to laugh about it, so if we’re all going to hell in the proverbial hand basket anyway, we may as well throw a party on our way down, right?
Check out more words of not-wisdom over at @Unspirational’s Instagram page. And may you always be able to find the comedy in the absurdity of life.
Images: Unspirational/Instagram (6)
