Cool. Cool cool cool.

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX: The Pauper Gets David Caruso-Style Cool

Everybody wants to be cool.  Why not?  Even if you turn to gothic or punk rebellion, don't you do it to fit a new definition of the idea?  Nobody wants to reject the norm simply to have the ab-norm reject them.

But what is cool?  Obviously, there is no answer to this.  It's however you choose to perceive it.  But when information is limitlessly at your fingertips, eye sockets, and ear and nose holes, "what is cool" is constantly being blasted at you.

Take for instance the recent rise of The Ice Bucket Challenge.  It began as an idea to raise awareness for a disease that receives very little funding.  It gains speed on social media.  Begins popping up in your numerous feeds.  "Oh hey, what is that?  That's kind of interesting."

A once inoffensive idea in moderation, The Ice Bucket Challenge blew up astronomically.  My eye, ear, nose, and butt holes could hardly accomplish a thing without being inundated with a new video or article about The Challenge.

Suddenly, the meteoric rise to superstardom turned The Ice Bucket Challenge into something to rebel against.  It garnered too much popularity.  Regardless of the cause, it became a fad.  And fads - like the name Merv - aren't cool.

Enter backlash.  Too many people like something, which means I must dislike it.  It's a guttural instinct for many.  It's - admittedly - a guttural instinct for this author.  Like Katy Perry, velour tracksuits, Twitter, the "cinematic canon of Sir Michael Bay"; I choose to reject what's popular.

But where does backlash come from?  Why do we feel compelled to hate so many things simply because they are popular?  I once dated a guy who told me he started to dislike Arrested Development when it found its resurgence on DVD.  Because it wasn't "his own" and it was now popular.  The show didn't change (this is pre-Netflix era resurgence.)  But the show's constituents did.  Although the quality remains, the sheer fact that it becomes socially acceptable makes something revolting.

But the truth is, Katy Perry songs are catchy, velour tracksuits are comfy, Twitter can hone your wit like nothing else, and Michael Bay movies are...

Okay, so I can't defend everything.  I'm only one woman.

As for The Ice Bucket Challenge?  Its merits are obvious.  And after the backlash, the inevitable backlash to the backlash rears its face.  And suddenly (take a deep, satisfying breath of relief), it's cool to like The Ice Bucket Challenge again.  And we all start to remember why the whole thing started.

And now, just a few short weeks after its zenith, there are no more pictures.  No more videos.  No more backlash.  The fervor has settled, and the memory of it will fade.  Until Chad shows up at the Halloween party next month dressed in an ice bucket that he didn't fully think through.  But when you spot Chad across the room, cracking a joke about pumpkin spice lattes, what will you think? Is Chad's costume cool?  Or is it lame?