While shopping for groceries today, I again received a compliment on my Spam shirt. This is easily my most popular article of clothing. I receive more compliments on it than on the entire rest of my wardrobe combined. (My fedora comes in a close second, with nothing else receiving much attention at all.)
WHY?!?
I mean, there’s nothing much to it. It’s a pale, white-ish t-shirt. With a picture of a can of Spam on it. None of the finery of more expensive clothing. None of the wit one can see on other t-shirts. Nothing that makes a fashion statement, apart from “I’m not going to the effort of making a fashion statement; I just threw this on because it was clean and I’m going grocery shopping.â€
So what’s the big deal? Is it the humor value of the very word “Spam,†as captured by Monty Python and Weird Al Yankovic? Is it nostalgia for the food of an impoverished youth? (A nostalgia I don’t share, but Eileene could be said to Filipinos love them some Spam.) Is it some subtle post-modern ironic comment on the modern zeitgeist? Or is it just that a lot more people like Spam than anyone realizes?
Post a Comment