How Are We Cutting It?

Description

"How are we cutting it?" is a collage based on a stock photo: a hairdresser cuts a client's long hair, and captions pose a question and answer it. The first caption reads "How are we cutting it?", and the second reads "So that guys will like it" or "So that everyone will like it."

The format is popular on the Russian-language internet as a short caption for an everyday photo. It works as a parody of typical salon conversations, where a question about a haircut quickly turns into general expectations.

Structure of the joke

The joke is built on contrast. In the foreground is an everyday salon scene; the second part is an ironic answer that shifts the conversation about the haircut into the realm of general expectations. What becomes funny is the gap between the practical question and an answer oriented toward other people.

This gap makes the meme understandable without context: it's enough to see the photo and the two captions to get the joke. That's why the collage was easily carried over into comments and suited different situations.

It seems the format turned out to be convenient precisely because of the universality of the haircut question — such an everyday situation is familiar to almost any reader, which let the joke work without additional context and fit easily into all sorts of discussions.

Caption variants

The catalog's description notes other variants as well. In them, the client's head in the second panel is replaced with a plate of dumplings, with a "Bond" figure holding a detonator button, or with any other things that, by the meme's logic, people like. These substitutions play on the same idea: the answer to the question is given by objects, not by the woman herself.

The variants with substitutions show that the collage was open to additions. Users could swap in their own objects while keeping the two-caption structure. No specific authors of these additions were found in open sources.

Image and caveat

The illustration attached to the article shows only one version: the caption "So that guys will like it" without the head replaced. This matches the description as far as captions go, but the versions with dumplings, "Bond," and other objects are not present in the image.

The article relies on the catalog's description for the other variants. The caveat concerns only what the illustration contains; it does not change the meaning of the meme itself.

Origin

The origin of this particular collage has not been established. It was not possible to find the first publication or author, so the dating relies on the "2017" tag in the catalog rather than on a verified source. A search of open materials turned up only general articles about haircuts and about memes that are unrelated to this collage.

Using stock photos with captions is a common technique on the Russian-language internet. That is precisely why the format can be found in various versions, and it is difficult to tie a specific version to one author.

Judging by how common such collages are, the stock photo itself may have been used in other, unrelated publications as well, which further complicates establishing the original author of the joke.