These first two aren’t traditional meme formats I would cover but they did take the internet by storm and I think it would be personal journalistic malpractice to not cover them.
Suez Canal
When was the last time you thought about the Suez Canal? How good does it feel to think about it now but only in terms of this calamity. It’s like it’s 1914 all over again. It’s probably what being at a World’s fair felt like. Titans of industry laid out before you. We are so inundated with bad news and content and entertainment that our brains are overloaded. This has no political bearing, this has no sides to be drawn. We can all enjoy this: There was a boat, and it was big, and it was stuck. Days and days of digging and engineers and having our best people on it lead to countless memes and jokes. If it took geniuses that long to figure this out maybe some random idiot on twitter could figure it out. Stranger things have happened. One of the best weeks on twitter in a while. It was like the more fun version of the week long vote count in November.
White boy summer
Five days ago, Chet Hanks made an instagram post announcing that he just got this feeling that this summer, is about to be a white boy summer. In the following days he has dropped some rules and regs, and is doing his best to make it clear that he wants to include everyone in the white boy summer. We can all see where a phrase like White Boy summer could go and that the end result is not a good one. Chet Hanks is a dubious source with a bad track record of racism and insensitivity to be the creator of “White Boy Summer” But also people who are not white boys are having fun with the phrase. Chet himself is emphatically trying to stop the phrase from developing racist connotations, but intent doesn’t necessarily matter. I do think that right now we are talking about the potential of the phrase and what it will become rather than what it is, as it stands now. In a perfect world, White Boy Summer is just a silly thing people say. Just as anyone could have a hot girl summer, anyone could have a white boy summer. I think despite how we feel about the phrase, it is becoming very popular very quickly. It might burn out and we never talk about it again but more likely, it will stay popular and we are in for a long White Boy Summer.
Personally, I think that it’s fun shelf life on the internet is not long. We maybe have a month, if we are lucky, of the silly version of White Boy summer. People will say it so much that it will go from being used in an ironic way that is meant to make fun of the phrase to being used by people who really want to emphasize that they are indeed having a white boy summer. A meme that is best used over text, and in group chats. It works better as an inside joke without a large audience. For the love of god, Do Not Buy the Merch.
Knows what sex is/fucks
First of all this meme format was made by a virgin and all the ones I’ve seen I’ve hated. I think it could be fun with authors, or historical figures as one of my associates said. But our culture has devolved and we can only references tv shows and even then we barely understand them enough to make accurate or fun version of the meme.
Stop crying it’s just a movie
No one has ever said this and if they have Why are we arguing with someone who can’t grasp that media can sometimes make us cry. Why have we turned arguing with a four year old into a meme
Tiktok
Stop making Hamilton edits. Its Spring 2021. Move On.
Love it. I love the trade music. It’s otherworldly and sinister and adding the element of real life trades makes the music more fitting.
I keep seeing white girls with bad haircuts show how much they changed and now they just have a different bad haircut. It’s fun if you’ve actually changed a lot but people look mostly the same.
I Do This for My Squad, I Do This For My Gang
Really Funny. I love when people pretend they are making sacrifices but are really being selfish or self centered or not thoughtful. I love a good spin.
My Back is Aching My Bras Too Tight
Why is this sound popular again. Originally it was for “sorority check but reality edition” which who cares but this one is not much better. Also the first part where all the people are singing in unison is better and more upbeat than the first. I truly do not like this song and the meme it’s currently associated with isn’t that fun either. A stop trying to make fetch happen moment for me.
Women want me fish fear me has been played out for about two years now. Stop buying the hats, stop buying the shorts. It’s over and not funny. As a rule don’t buy clothing that references a meme. It will be out of date by the time it gets to your house and you will never wear it. The original women want me fish fear me lately in my life I’ve been trying not to develop a eating disorder sound was lightning in a bottle and trying to repurpose it and give it other meanings is a waste of time. None of them are as good or as funny. Leave it alone.
The Story Starts When It Was Hot And It Was Summer And
Love messy tiktok. If you want to air out your dirty laundry for likes on the internet, who am I to stop you. As long as there is gossip there will be an audience for messy tiktok. Is it wrong? Is it inappropriate? Should we keep some info to ourselves? Baby we are well past that.
I don’t really get this one. At the very base it’s that people are talking about you, and then it cuts to you and you dance. Sometimes it’s parents talking about their daughter, sometimes it’s people talking about themselves. Idk not really a fully formed idea. It seems to me people just like the song and want to use it. This one does have more of a cohesive meme than the “la di da di di la di da di da” song which is another ear worm that never really got a great meme. Sometimes a song is just fun and people want to use it and I’m fine with that. No harm, no foul, no coherent meme.
I’m only talking about this one because I hate it so much. There is a certain subculture of tumblr exiles that are obsessed with “Good boys”. They want their boys nice. They want them to have good politics. They want to be clean. They want them to be Uncancelable. Having a bi wife is another virtue for these nice boys to be venerated for. You can’t be homophobic if your wife is bi (yes you can but not the point) I’m not really interested in litigating the bi wife of it all because she doesn’t really matter. This is the internet boyfriend with a coating of manic panic. I’m not interested in celebrating these men for their proximity to queerness or whatever the fuck it is you people think you’re doing. Just say you like these boys cause they’re nice and inviting and don’t ever talk about bad things. No need to pretend it is anything else. No need for Bi Wife energy. No need for there to be another dimension to the love of nice boys simply for being nice. Also be careful. No one is uncancellable and death comes for us all. Having a bi wife simply will not save you.
Here are the most egregious examples I found, I had to look at these and now so do you.