Meme Report 1/26

Only One Meme This Week Would Kill A Pilgrim

This week has been a lot but mostly more of the same. The internet seems to be wall to wall the same three things which we’ve been over before but just a review. We have Worlde, the game of the moment, which I covered two weeks ago. We have Euphoria, the show of the moment, which I covered last week in a special edition. And finally we had West Elm Caleb, who was our meme of the moment, which I covered in the sunday edition. He stole focus from everything else on the internet so the landscape right now isn’t great but we had to have our first big meme controversy of the year. We all did our best to participate but I wouldn’t say it was a particularly fun or lighthearted meme. We can do better though. We’ll get ‘em next time. 

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Twitter

They Would Only Get 4 Free Tests

More covid means more covid memes. This one is fun and felt good to participate in. We were criticizing our government and their ridiculous policies but also the meme didn’t get too dark or smug. It becomes a problem when we try to enact too much change with a meme. It’s simply not possible and we’re not capable of it. We can try and a meme can certainly aid and abet but it can’t do everything. It’s also not a genre we do often. We love “look at this place” but not necessarily “look at this big family”. It’s good to flex our basic referential muscles in different ways. We do places and characters actors a lot, let’s mix it up. 

Green M&M Redesign

Here’s what I want to remember about the green M&M: her place in culture has always been bizarre. Her whole character is an allusion to the urban legend that Green M&Ms make you horny. We’ve been through this before and these “woke” redesigns are always obvious publicity ploys to the point that they’ve stopped being fun. This one I think would have been more fun if we had a coherent singular meme. I’ve long said we are better when we have boundaries to work within. We’re also better when we all work together. Instead everyone is trying to figure out the best angle to attack this from and come off the most creative and clever all on their own. If we want to effectively lampoon major corporations the best way is collectivism. It’s not about being the best, it’s about doing the most.  

The Gilded Age

When I was scrolling through the TL last night I would not have said the show on everyone’s minds was going to be The GIlded Age. I should have known that a Julian Fellowes show plastered with our finest character actresses would do well with gay cultural writer twitter but I really thought it would be a slept on one that would give someone who works at Vulture the ability to pull an i told you so in the coming weeks. Not The case!! This show had almost as much buzz as And Just Like That. We should all be watching if we want to keep up I guess.

TikTok

POV Your The First Pilgrim I See

The first person to make this joke was really funny. They were at the top of their game in 2018. However it’s been four years and it’s just not funny anymore. It’s also not true. We can’t say anything modern would kill any child from history. What would kill a pilgrim and what would kill a Victorian child aren’t the same thing. What would kill a medieval peasant and what would kill a victorian child aren’t the same thing. We have to remember that in the past everyone was doing Legal cocaine and eating hardtack and also various other period appropriate horrors. The medieval peasant, the pilgrim, and the sickly victorian child would laugh us out of the outhouse for being weak.  The America’s Next Top Model scene you want to scandalize them with will have no affect, whereas their daily tasks would make you want to give yourself an icepick lobotomy. When was the last time you read the Bible for four hours? Try doing that and then tell me how you’re gonna shock the pilgrims. 

Before I Knew It, Yodel Boy

He is the nation’s pizza rat. He is the person we hang on to for reasons that don’t make sense. He is brought up every so often and people respond as if his origin video was posted for the first time yesterday. We love yodel boy and want him to do well but not too well. For the first time we seem to be aware of our ability to corrupt someone. To catapult them too high too quickly. We get to praise yodel boy once a year and then we’re done. I hope he rides this wave for as long as he can and we put him back on the shelf until he is ready for a full fledged country career. We do not want him to be just another viral moment. As much as I love him I worry that this time he will fly too close to the sun. This whole “working at subway” business seems fishy. I don’t trust it but I don’t blame yodel boy. Modern Country music is based a faux working class aesthetic and I don’t blame anyone born after 9/11 for trying to emulate that. 

Euphoria Is So Unrealistic (with a twist)

Finally a Euphoria meme that feels fun to engage with. No one who participates in this meme will be raked over the coals for having ever seen an episode or have to interact with the idiotic fan base. It is simply recounting the plot of another high school based show. This meme elegantly raises the point that a show simply does not have to be realistic. Nor does the argument that something happening or not happening at ones high school makes the show good or bad. This meme is one of a kind, only because it's about Euphoria and does not make me criminally upset. I would rather read these than fan theories that do not hold up to inspection.

Men with Podcasts

It is important to recognize something I can never understand. Some experiences will never make sense to me, and have to be lived through to be understood. My heart goes out to straight women whose boyfriends listen to fucking stupid podcasts. I did not realize how large of a genre “men talking about how a woman should act in order to get a husband” was but Thank God for these women and their refusal to let these men live. Fight the good fight ladies. Patron Saint Drew Afualo watches over you. I can never truly know your struggle but I support you.