Look at This Fucking Hipster

2009single-topic blogclassic

Published September 5, 2026

Look at This Fucking Hipster is a single-topic Tumblr blog launched by comedian Joe Mande in April 2009 that curated candid photos of people in stereotypical hipster fashion1. The blog rode the peak of the late-2000s anti-hipster backlash into a book deal within months and set the template for the 'Look at This Fucking X' snowclone that spread across Tumblr for years after2.

Overview

Look at This Fucking Hipster is a curated photo blog with a simple format: submitted or found snapshots of people wearing the visual shorthand of the late-2000s hipster, think ironic mustaches, thick-rimmed glasses, cutoff denim, PBR tallboys, and skinny jeans, posted without much commentary beyond the title's blanket judgment1. The joke works because the pictures do the talking, and the title reframes any candid street shot as evidence for the prosecution.

The format sits inside a slightly older strain of fashion-mockery writing, most directly VICE's long-running 'DOs & DON'Ts' column, which was collected as a book in September 2004 and used the same one-photo-plus-caption structure to skewer street style3. Where VICE tried to be arbiter of cool, Mande's blog was blunter and funnier, treating 'hipster' itself as the punchline rather than any individual outfit choice2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Tumblr
Creator
Joe Mande
Date
2009

Look at This Fucking Hipster was created in April 2009 by New York City stand-up comedian and writer Joe Mande3. Mande has told the story that the site started as a way to explain the hipster concept to his father, who had asked 'is that a hipster?' during a visit to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the neighborhood most associated with the scene at the time3. He briefly considered calling the project IsThatAHipster.com before settling on the more direct Tumblr URL3.

Mande gave an interview about the site to Gawker on May 8, 2009, which New York Magazine's Daily Intel picked up the same week in a post about the blurry line between ironic and sincere hipster taste1. That coverage arrived while the blog was only about a month old.

How It Spread

Through April and May 2009 the blog was picked up by New York-focused outlets like FREEWilliamsburg and Gothamist, music sites NME and Absolute Punk, and general internet-culture hubs including BuzzFeed and Laughing Squid3. New York Magazine used the site as a jumping-off point for a piece on 'post-irony' among Brooklyn hipsters in May 2009, quoting Mande's Gawker interview at length1.

In June 2009 Mande announced the blog had sold to St. Martin's Press, and after roughly a year of clearing image rights, the book version was released on March 30, 20103. The Tumblr also spawned a wave of snowclone spin-offs built on the 'Look at This Fucking X' template, including Look at This Fucking Juggalo4, Look at This Fucking Teabagger5, and Look at This Fucking Bro6, each pointing the same joke at a different subculture.

In October 2012, New York creative-agency worker Jules Laplace launched Styleblaster, a webcam mounted in his Williamsburg apartment that auto-uploaded motion-triggered photos of pedestrians to a voting site, essentially automating the LATFH premise3.

How to Use This Meme

The blog format is a template anyone can copy: take a candid street photo of someone whose outfit reads as a subculture cliche, post it with no caption beyond the site's blanket title, and let the framing do the work. The 'Look at This Fucking X' snowclone typically swaps in another group perceived as annoying, juggalos, bros, teabaggers, and applies the same one-photo-per-post rhythm.

Frequently Asked Questions