There was a bit of a trend, in action shooter games, to express a grim, gritty, "realistic" aesthetic by washing out all colors to a uniform dusty brown. It was kind of silly, and the term "real is brown" developed to mock it. A few years later, you had people going "LOL, real is brown WTF" at basically any scene that took place in less than full sunlight, regardless of colors.
I feel like "clickbait" is turning into that. People have forgetten the difference between cynical Buzzfeed-ism and simple humor.
