Brian Michael

I don’t know if I should be writing about “hawk tuah” on my university-provided blog, but here we are.

The viral sensation known as “hawk tuah” has been circling around the internet for the past couple of weeks. I refuse to give any more background than that.

Hawk tuah is not funny. Never has been, never will. However (I tentatively write), part of me fears for the future. But to talk about what’s to come, we must first look back. I am referring to years ago, when “bruh moment” was all the rage.

Bruh moment. I remember hearing those words. I remember not laughing, not smiling. Maybe there was some confusion. Why? What caused this unity of words? Well, I guess “bruh” isn’t technically a word. Regardless, I thought it was stupid.

I wanted to make fun of bruh moment. Try to salvage what wasn’t funny and make it worth something. I began to say it.

“Bruh moment.”

Because of how unfunny it was, it caused some laughs. I repeated myself.

“Bruh moment.”

More laughs. Eventually, bruh moment would be incorporated into my everyday vernacular. However, there was a side effect. I began to utter the word “bruh” at misfortune.

The irony was no longer ironic.

My buddy Gavin and I have this bad hobby of sharing unfunny memes. “Skibiddi.” “Fanum tax.” Stuff like that. Oh, and recently: hawk tuah.

We’re being ironic, of course. But once again, I fear this irony will turn into truth. A part of us, whether we like it or not. So, I must extinguish the flames before they grow untamable.

I have a bit of a call-to-action. We, as a society, need to do better. Produce jokes that are funny, not “skibidi Biden.” If you see hawk tuah-related content, ignore it. Instead, why not talk about something funny like, I don’t know, Trap?