It is the nineteenth of April, the rule of law is collapsing in America, and all I can think about is the Shoebody Bop.

If you haven’t seen it, the Shoebody Bop is an animated sequence on YouTube featuring a group of blue-clad cultists on a riverbank as one man, presumably their leader, repeated bops his head against the foreheads of his followers while a chorus chants the eponymous song “Shoebody Boo Bop Shoebody Bop.” This escalates to a frenzy when the cultists summon a Satanic creature which gives itself over to the man to bop as well. Ultimately, he does, and from the wound on the beast’s head, a dark gas emerges and fills the man. The animation ends with him floating into the sky in a state of ecstasy.

Likely, there are more important things to think about, but the Shoebody Bop is still pretty important. For some reason, this combination of ecstatic dancing and human chanting has resonated with people across the internet and become a new of meme. Originally published in 2022, the music video was taken down from the band’s Youtube channel and reposted by the animator on his own channel. People are cutting characters out of the video and putting them on their own content, usually in the form of “Me trying to fix the government,” or “Me summoning my Social Security payout before Trump cuts it altogether.” The madness, then, is part of the moment.

What stands out to me about the Shoebody Bop is how happy it sounds. Although I am not sure whether this is a benign or malevolent organization (they do summon a Satanic creature, after all) I want to be there with them, throwing myself around, making something beautiful happen. It makes me think of the Flannery O’Connor story “The River,” wherein a young boy is taken by his grandmother to see a man baptize people in the river. The young boy is so taken over with spirit at this sight that he eventually tries to baptize himself, and drowns. But it is that sudden captivation that fascinates me.

How does one write a world that other people want to inhabit?

One thing that the Shoebody Bop does not align with is the concept of emotional realism. Emotional realism, much like magical realism and regular old boring realism, tries to capture the psychology of being a human. In this case, regardless of the circumstances, the characters respond with realistic emotions. A good pair of examples of emotional realism are the superhero subversion shows Invincible and The Boys, both of which try to present superheroes in an emotionally realistic way, and have other characters respond to them in emotionally realistic manners. While neither of these shows would be magical realism or just realism, they do have that element of realism in them. What makes Shoebody Bop so fun is that it doesn’t even try to be emotionally realistic.

Instead, everyone is having fun. Despite the fact that it is a strange and disturbing situation, the cultists are happy. They are happy to get bopped in the head, happy to be released into the river, and happy to be bopping! The summoned creature too is happy, and there is an aspect of humor in the way that his horned cow’s head is presented for bopping. The ecstasy of the moment is supernatural. And it rubs off on us. We the viewers are joyful and happy not because we understand (we don’t) but we see the characters are.

Describing emotions alone is hard. But describing actions in an emotional way is much easier to do. The detective wiggling his shoulders while he dusts for fingerprints is having a good time. The teacher sashaying around her classroom while she hands back tests is having a good time. The two girls laughing hysterically in the corner of a coffee shop are having a good time. And right now, it feels like what we want from a story is to have a good time.