Remember when climbing had a sense of humor?

Jesus H Christ, climbing media is a comedic wasteland these days. These days, climbing media seems to come in different shades of preachy or pretentious. It's no longer enough to see a climber crushing something in a beautiful corner of the world, there has to be some heavy handed message about overcoming adversity or (shudders) personal growth tacked on to the narrative. Is that really what climbers want? To me, this projected image of climbers as a whole seems to be at odds with climbers themselves. We are, generally, an irreverent bunch, not taking themselves too seriously and prone to cracking jokes at their own expense. Maybe I'm missing out on the whole deep spiritual quest side of the climbing equation, but there does seem to be a pretentiousness oozing into the edges of climbing culture. Take a stroll through Instagram and imagine explaining these (real!) hashtags to anyone over the age of 35:

#nature, #climbingismypassion, #climbingisbliss, #climbinglife, #livefree, #strongisbeautiful, #tradisrad, #sunsoutgunsout 

I could have gone another 50 but my spine was cringing out of my back. You get the point. We're all taking ourselves super seriously. At risk of coming over all Holden Caulfield, it just comes across as, well, phony.

One also can't help but feel the dead hand of corporatism behind this new trend in videos. Every time I come across a super earnest and serious video tackling a super serious issue, it's not hard to imagine managers and market researchers behind the scenes, murmuring about brand identity and projecting the right image. Undoubtedly the increasing availability of cutting edge tech has narrowed the gap between professional and amateur video content, but you can still tell how much money something has behind it. There's unreal gloss to everything. Too many close ups of shoes being put on, too many timelapses and this deadpan earnestness that I've never encountered in a real person. In some cases, you can see that the climbers themselves are clearly uncomfortable at being asked to pontificate in this faux-candid style.  

#notall I hear you cry! I probably should add some caveats and exceptions to my sweeping generalizations for you nitpickers out there. I was careful above to make the distinction between professional and amateur video. Broadly, amateur video still consists of some guy climbing with some sick beats in the background. Nothing wrong with that and a great way to check out an area before you go. More power to 'em!

But the current lack of humor wasn't always the case. Hop in the time machine, whack on the nostalgia googles and I'll take you on a tour of climbing's long lost sense of humor.
Remember Boogie till you Poop? That was mad popular back in that day. The kind of fecal humor that's universal in its appeal.
Even mainstream stuff like the Reel Rock series used to make jokes back in the day? Top Rope Tough Guys was great, and Roxx. Them's were the days.
Any of the old Dave Graham videos, such as Small Amazing Things or the classic Between The Trees. These two, especially the latter, were funny without even trying, and also managed to tell a story without ever slipping into pretentiousness.

Back in the present, climbing related lols are relatively thin on the ground, but they still exist in some dark corners of the internet. Go. Watch and subscribe. Stimulate the market for this type of stuff.

1. Anything with Honnold in it. The guy is surprisingly funny, talks a lot of shit and is clearly not being told what to say by anyone. The combination of really dangerous climbing with seeming irreverence which is a winning combination. Even in interviews when he's talking about stuff he cares about like the environment, he manages not to be insufferably preachy, which is no mean feat.
2. Rawk Tawk's Instagram account. Their meme game is so tight it's ridiculous. They're not afraid to take aim at anyone: pro-climbers, brands,and other sacred cows of the industry. They're also clearly massive climbing nerds, and produced what is possibly my favorite meme.
3. Shit Climbers Say by LT11. Bit old now, but still funny.
4. Rock Climbing Life. Once again it's old but it was a great example of Poe's law in effect. Go back and read those first few articles and you won't be sure if its a parody or not.
5. Punterwatch on twitter.

Just used a non-microwavable bowl in the microwave. Pretty devil-may-care. Will @fivetenuk sponsor me now? #brandofthebrave 

#brandoftheknob

Whats's my conclusion to all this? Well, climbing is getting bigger, the number of climbing walls in Madrid has doubled since I've been here, you've got Shauna Coxey being interviewed by the BBC and the Olympics guarantees a fuckton of exposure. Hell I've even got normies sharing climbing content on my newsfeed. It's a truism but mo' money tends to indicate mo' problems. You can definitely feel the urge by companies to broaden the appeal of our little niche sport. to make it nice and safe and friendly and positive and socially conscious and on and on and on... I guess my worry is that bland commercialism is going to edge out the unique personality of climbing culture. I guess Rawk Tawk's lampooning of things like Ashima's recent sponsorship deal with Coca Cola is the closest thing I've seen to a kickback so far.

Or maybe I'm just misanthropic, overly nostalgic and worried for no reason.Who knows?