Slapheronface -

There is also an ethical spine to the phenomenon. Faces are proxies for identity and personhood; when we scramble and commodify them for the sake of a laugh or a like, we train ourselves toward dissociation. The laughter that greets Slapheronface can be a release from cognitive dissonance, or it can be a defense against recognizing how easily human features can be caricatured and monetized. An image that delights millions is also a test of our empathy: do we humanize the grotesque, or do we strip it down to novelty value?