I will often choose video thumbnails for their entertainment value. How many extra views do I get from my hilarious close-ups of NBA players making dopey faces? It’s hard to say, but I’d say it’s in the tens per day channel-wide. That alone makes the extra effort worth it.
But rarely do I choose a thumbnail image that is as dripping with pure irony as this one of Nikola Jokic. If you are a simpleton, you might be struggling to see where the irony is, so I’ll give you a minute for the slowly-firing synapses of your sub-intelligent brain to attempt to synthesize an abstract thought. Meanwhile, I’ll heat up a package of Pop Tarts.
Okay, minute’s up. I already ate one of my Pop Tarts. The irony in the thumbnail image is that it looks like Jokic just got in a fight and lost. He looks punch-drunk. But we all know that Jokic, if he were to get into a physical fight with fists, would never lose. It just wouldn’t happen. That’s the irony. It’s a juxtaposition of what we expect (Jokic always winning fights) and what we see (Jokic appearing to have lost a fight).
The only time I could even entertain the thought of the flabby, indestructible, powerful Jokic losing a fight is if both his brothers came at him at once. His brothers are no joke. They might be more indestructible than Jokic himself is. Since they are his older brothers, they get to beat him up whenever they want. Or give him wedgies. Or steal his coca-cola. Or swear at him in Serbian while tweaking his moobies.