There is a community on Reddit called I'm 14 and this is deep. It is dedicated to mocking things that look intelligent, but if you have gone through puberty, you probably realise that your radical ideas about capitalism as social control have already occurred to others.
Banksy and his works could fill that community.
In the incredibly prescient 2005 comedy Nathan Barley there is a bit where two characters are discussing a immaturely rude version of rock paper scissors called Cock Muff Bumhole. In their words, "it's not good because it's rude, it's good because it looks like it's good because it's rude."
This also explains Banksy.
Banksy, who is from Bristol, and whose real name is Robin Gunningham, is not a great artist. He does not speak truth to power. He speaks sophomoric sixth form common room platitudes to a servile, panting media class who like his pseudointellectual shite because it allows them to feel like they're big revolutionaries when they are, in fact, artisan sourdough munching chin-strokers (and dick-strokers, let's be honest) from Hampstead. Yes! Yes! Rampant mass consumerism is like, totally evil. Hey, can I have a sip of that frappucino? That's them that is. That's exactly the sort of people Banksy caters to. And the man himself is a fat fifty-something who has been making vast sums on this for decades. But, like with almost all modern art, there's too many snouts in the trough to ever admit that the Emperor is naked, because too many careers (and too many signed prints inserted into nameless locked warehouses as a form of money laundering) depend on people pretending that he's actually the fucking Messiah. Which he is not.
He's not even a very naughty boy. As soon as something teenage-profound is sprayed onto a wall somewhere, the powers that be all gather round and wank themselves blind over it, because it might be a Banksy, and thus worth fucking millions. He therefore has the cover of the entire establishment for his pretend revolutionary artwork. He's in reality about as street as Kier Starmer.
Oh, but his "art." Yeah, it's shit and stupid. Oh look, it's a rioter... but he's throwing a bunch of flowers! Oh look, he's made the same point repeated a thousand time about how Israel baaaaaaaaaaaad. Oh, how astonishingly deep. Oh look, it's two police officers snogging. That will surely bring down The Man. Oh look, it's a chimp with a sandwich board with a pithy slogan on it. Isn't this naughty. Oh look, there's the clown from IT, but it's Ronald McDonald! Because corporations bad, you know! A copper giving the finger. Oh, how profound. Oh look, it's two characters from Pulp Fiction, but they're brandishing BANANAS! Isn't that subversive! You know. It's not good because it's rude, it's good because it LOOKS like it's good because it's rude. Come on. Use your loaf. None of this is worth a single solitary fuck because it's basically a political cartoon but done with spray paint. In fact, I could probably get a generative AI to produce something in Banksy's style that is just better than anything he did. In fact, I did, and here it is.
(Actually, one of those items I put in that list above of things Banksy has "painted" isn't actually a real Banksy. Without googling, I bet you won't be able to guess which one.)
Banksy also became later known for larger installation type artwork. Such as in 2015 his "parody" amusement park Dismaland, which was basically themed around insulting normies for liking popular things. Can you see why the blob love him yet? And of course, they all know who he is really, but once again, because his success (and the value of his works) depends on the unwashed masses that like normal things and have to work for a living kayfabe not knowing who he is, theirs is an unspoken agreement not to disclose that he is Robin Gunningham from Bristol and that he was born painfully middle class, continues to be painfully middle class, and will die painfully middle class, and that he will never have anything original or worthwhile to say.
(IN24/8)