Meme Report 5/10

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Twitter

The Good Doctor

ORIGINAL VIDEO MEME

We are so fucking back. Twitter is up to old numbers again with the teardown of The Good Doctor. For those unfamiliar the central question of the show is “What if a Doctor had autism? Could he still be good at his job?” While most people alreadt knew the answer was yes from the get go the show has run for six seasons and has been picked up for a 7th. I am very familiar with the show as it would come on after the Bachelorette when I watched it with my friends in college. We were bombarded with ads for it and would always say we were going to watch it but never made it past the first commercial break because it was too boring. Every now and then it’s good to check in with the Good Doctor himself to see what direction completely divorced from reality the show had gone in, except now we’re doing it all at once, together.

For those of you that need to be caught up to speed, Freddie Highmore, the kid from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and the tumblr favorite Bates Motel is giving the world's most uncomfortable autistic performance that would have won him an Oscar in 1998, before we all knew better. Now, everyone that knows better doesn’t watch network television and they’ve allowed to put the Good Doctor through all kinds of trials and tribulations, most recently against Dr. Han, played by Daniel Dae Kim.

For the past 24 hours, we the people of twitter have sifted through various ridiculous scenes to find the best network television has to offer us. The Good Doctor has been bubbling under culture for a while but it’s good the online people are having this reckoning with unfamiliar or forgotten network television. Just wait until you find out about Blue Bloods. The world needed to know about this and we all needed to reveal in making fun of this show together. I’m glad we still have a place to do it, for now. I’m happy to be analyzing the random ephemera of the world with all of you, for as long as we are able to. Maybe this is the last party of freshman year, when you all move out of the dorms and drink all the alcohol you’ve been hiding before you go home for the summer, but I refuse to read the writing on the wall and right now it feels like maybe we will be friends forever. 

Coronation

The coronation appeals to me as someone who is fascinated by both pomp and circumstance. Americans love a silly tradition but one that often requires little effort, or a gathering of townsfolk, rather than adornment in Jewels. We prefer our politicians to participate in outwardly silly rituals, like when we elect a dog mayor, rather than objectively silly rituals, like making a pinky promise with a statue. We’re a country of people who love to say “but what if we didn’t?” when it comes to things like sacred rituals in government. I do love that the British have more of an unquestioned “because we have to” vibe. That being said, it’s much more interesting at weddings and funerals than the event itself. There’s all sorts of fun facts about the pageantry of monarchy but the coronation feels like an “oops! all style” edition of one of those events. There’s no super structure for me to cling to. It’s nothing like an inauguration, certainly not like the last one, and I get bored very quickly with no familiar rituals. It’s not even the regular kind of mass (catholic)!

I can’t even bring myself to hate it. It always feels too showy when Americans hate the monarchy for obvious political reasons. We’ve literally already won that war. Any slight interest I have in the royals was dulled and the memes didn’t make it better. It was a moment I have quite often, where I realize I don’t actually care that much as soon as it’s clear how much other people care. I was always just dipping my toe and I’m actually happy to stay dry. 

TikTok

I Got Hoes

@aleahtarjickOooouuu we all invested now babe we need weekly sessions

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The only thing I dislike about this song is that it’s not longer. It is… so much fun. It’s as a great prophet once said something fun, something for the summertime, something for the girls to get ready and party to. It has reached the greatest achievement a TikTok song can have, playing in the background of anything to help boost views. While most people do this indiscriminately as a way to hack viewership, in this instance it also works as a vibe upper. It goes with all the “what I eat in a day”s and any random thing people want to put on the fyp. They’re better for it. As long I’m hearing this song, I’m in a good mood.

Sleepover With The Popular Girls

ballet 💞 <3 on TikTok

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These videos remind me of a youth spent on the internet, before we lost flash. They are reminiscent of the games on Barbie.com or American Girl.com or Stardoll. Though they also have an older mean streak to them that makes them feel more grown up. The cartoonish understanding of the adult helps place them comfortably in the world of children’s make believe. They take our current fascinations with quiet luxury and marrying up and meld them with long understood experience of a sleepover with popular girls. The up the stakes to what they felt like at the time. If you make the wrong choices enough times in a row the prettiest girl in school will stab you for being a loser. She will make fun of your pajamas and your sleeping bag, but choosing the sour patch kids over the skittles will send her over the edge. Every time one comes across my FYP I study each option and choose carefully, hoping to make it to the end of each scenario. I simply love the way the teenage mind creates and catastrophizes. 

Because I’m Not

@cherbcity @cherbcity ♬ original sound - Little fox

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It’s nice to see Philomena Cunk get her due. It’s rare that we’ve had a sound that is so versatile without being prescriptive. It’s a simple bait and switch but it can really be applied to so many different situations. There are many things it’s hard to believe but thank god they’re not even true. My favorite are the stress dreams because they present the information in the order you experience it in the dream. The in media res of “it’s hard to believe I have six tests tomorrow in a class I’ve never been to” is the first piece of information you have during the dream. Upon waking up you realize, because I don’t, I haven’t been to a physics class in years. The sweet relief of the second half of the video is the same as waking up. The format isn’t just limited to stress dreams but I would like to see more just because I would like to know what everyone else’s stress dreams are.