Everything is awesome when you’re part of a list: The flattening of distinction in post-ironic LEGO media

Abstract

In LEGO media, irony is all-pervasive. Irony, or the fluctuation of meaning between oppositional points, typically generates a rich multiplicity of meanings-but this is not the case in recent LEGO movies and videogames. For example, while LEGO films demonstrate an acute, Buzzfeed-like awareness of popular culture as they jump ironically from one reference to another, their ubiquitous use of irony leads to the flattening of meaning, rather than its multiplicity. By way of a close, formal engagement with LEGO films and videogames, in this chapter, author Ari Mattes examines how LEGO’s privileging of the list as an aesthetic form ultimately serves to negate irony’s potential as bearer of critical meaning.