Meme Report 4/21
Pop Stars, Dual Lipa with DaBaby
The Sections of a Joint
A good weed meme for 420. It provides a little nuance instead of dividing weed into the two camps of “it’s awesome all the time and I never feel bad” and “it makes me paranoid and anxious.” It can be both! I like a good weed joke as much as the next girl and it can be fun to talk about in a non annoying way every once in a while. The one that is a meatball sub that says “Mama” and “Mia” made me laugh. I like the variations in this instance because it feels like people are applying new ways of thinking to other things. This meme applied to a milkshake makes sense. A beautiful milkshake looks good and you love drinking the first half but the second half makes you feel like you’re going to shit your pants. This meme lets us all finally discuss that. We have until today to think it’s funny. After that the bit is expired and the nerds will take it over and make it about fictional characters.
Adults on Twitter love to make fun of adults on Tiktok. Any fodder they can get further proving their belief that not having Tiktok means they have PhD in maturity. Every app has morons. I think holding grudges against Tiktok in its nascent phase for being an app for children and idiots is unfair. You’re on Twitter, the app for 16 year old Kpop stans where at least once a week a serious journalist is cancelled for saying the dumbest thing you can imagine. We all have crosses to bare given to us by social media platforms. All the apps but Twitter can’t be for stupid people.
Tiktok
Basic but not in abad way. I think everyone’s really giving their all with the facial expressions and timing. We’re on our best behavior. Clean, easy, simple. Making a meme of a popular song, as the Gods intended. I think we really needed this boost after the past couple weeks. The creativity as far as memes was really lacking and I think we needed a simple meme with easy execution to get us back in fighting shape.
I Got a Couple Dents In My Fender
This song has only 5000 videos under it but I see a video about it once a day. I do not know what anyone is talking about under it. I’ve never heard it before but I am obsessed with religion so I do see a lot of Tiktoks from Mormons, Orthodox Jews, and Protestants of all kinds. I love to learn about religious experiences that are different from mine so this meme gives me a lot of foder, especially because I don’t understand youth group culture at all. I did a deep dive on the singers Instagram and she posted about God getting us through this dark chapter when Biden was elected. All that is to say.... Song of summer.
Even though the shape shifting filter did me dirty I still love it. It wasn’t available in the US for a while and that only built the anticipation further. It’s so funny when it gets it wrong but also really funny when it gets it right. I hate to say it but some of you do look like Ronny from Jersey Shore. You have the same bone structure!
So SZA, Why Is It Is So Hard to Accept the Party is Over
Sometimes you need someone to say “get your ass in the car” when you can’t accept the party is over.
A common trend on Tiktok is that people will make low effort videos either making fun of influencers or talking about the sounds that are in your head 24/7 if you spend a significant amount of time on the app. This is one of those. It’s good to know other people are as crazy as you are and to get out the urge to just say “RIP that pussay ayy” and do the stupid dance. A couple thousand views to go with it doesn’t hurt either.
No one can get the timing right. Every time I watch one of these the girls seem very unfunny and this is them trying so hard. Not everyone needs to be funny. Not everyone needs to even try. Every time someone makes one of these they should make use of the Friends Only button so strangers don’t have to see them.
A weird corporate resurgence of a meme a year after it was popular. The original was about how BET movies end and I would guess most of the people doing it now have not seen any BET movies. If white people want to do this meme about not doing spreadsheets over the weekend they should use the music from the end of Legally Blonde. That’s what our reference point for movie epilogues is anyway.
Always bad for a sound that’s not that good anyway to sound like a better sound. In this case it’s “women are stupid and I don’t respect them”
There are people who ruin memes because they can only hold one idea in their head at the same time. Every single thing becomes Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss and they say it all the time. It’s all they say and therefore all we hear. Some memes are best enjoyed like a fine wine. Slowly over time. Savored. These people also use this meme as an excuse to be mean, which is fine. It just seems that these people don’t know that is what they are doing. Gaslight, Gatekeep Girlboss is mean. It feels good to say because it feels good to be bad. This allows you to be mean without owning up to it. “It’s a meme” you can say as an excuse and you’d be right because someone else said it originally. You didn't come up with it, you're just repeating it. It allows you to be mean spirited without actually committing the crime. Your hands are clean. Denying yourself a mean streak because you think you do not have one will do you no good, especially if you do. Become interesting and become evil. You’ll be better for it. By all means continue to Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss but say it with feeling. Give it some teeth. Don’t repeat it mindlessly
A Note about The Tramp Stamps
We can just hate things because they’re lame. No one on tiktok understands what an industry plant is and why it’s not necessarily morally repugnant to be that. I think the readings of their lyrics have been unfair and in bad faith. There’s not some grand mystery here as to why they’re bad or no morally correct reason for hating them. They’re just trying so hard and so desperate to be cool and it’s not working. You hate them because they’re so obviously fake and because they're trying to capitalize on a trend that’s out of style. Someone else said that if this song we’re on 2015 tumblr you all would have been listening to it and they’re right. I think they’re corny and their music is bad. Their attempt to redeem themselves has been fun to watch but I’m a bitch and I love drama. I don't have to justify finding joy in their demise by telling myself it's the morally correct thing to do. I know you guys want to take down the cult again but that’s really a once every six months phenomenon.