Meme Report 8/21 + 8/22

I had to wait until the retrograde was over

I never do 2 double issues in a row but sometimes you have to sit in the dark and stare at a wall.

Twitter

Demure

Some of you don't get what the internet culture critic game is all about. That's why your commentary is lazy and uninspired. This is a dynamic landscape that is not as simple as trend: good or bad? You have to go to the source. You have to consider where this came from. For many of us on TikTok, we heard the voice of Jools Lebron going viral and knew what to do. We were mindful of what we were participating in. Jools is a well-known and beloved member of the TikTok community. People forget that goodwill can compound a viral moment. When someone we all recognize as funny has an opportunity to go viral easily, the rest of us are not only in on the joke but recognize the potential a simple joke like this has. The Twitter crowd who see trends from TikTok like an insidious foreign attack on the body were quick to start discourse. They quickly went to the faux intellectual well of “rooted in white supremacy” to prove they don’t understand helping a girl out. The glimmer in the eye of all the girls on TikTok saying demure knew what they were doing. Demure changed Jools’s life, as we knew it could. As we wanted it to. Demure was not just a joke. It was a helping hand and a knowing glance. If you can’t see that from the start, maybe you’re not cut out for this fun thing we’re doing.  

The One Friend That’s Too Woke

Sometimes an idea is so played out that we won’t even subject you to discourse. We will feed you to the stans and let them make album covers of your image. We don't care enough about you to tell you're wrong. “The one friend that’s too woke.” is not a unique premise in the year 2024. Instead of making fun of the author, or fighting with them directly, we’ve made them an abstract meme. Twitter’s version of a physical manifestation of mental anguish. This meme is the end of the conversation. If you spend intellectual energy seriously engaging with “the one friend that’s too woke.” you are on the other side of something. You are no longer current. 

Hawk Tuah Resurgence

Haliey Welch seems like a nice enough girl. If she were more off-putting (or republican) she would be cast out but instead, she’s been allowed to hang around. That’s why we’re doing Hawk Tuah again. One to make fun of people who are still laughing at Hawk Tuah and because bringing it up doesn’t leave a bad taste in our mouths (yet). Haliey’s got about 5 seconds left in her summer of fame but until then she’s allowed to be here. She’s not necessarily welcome with open arms but she doesn’t have to leave. Like a kid whose parents forgot to pick them up from school. Wait in the office but don’t make yourself at home and don’t make too much noise.  

Nobody Will Remember

A necessary meme to fend off the growing presence of LinkedIn losers who now walk among us on Twitter. Much like the city of San Fransisco, what was once a cool place for those on the social fringes to discuss ideas and share art has now been overrun by cultureless tech nerds who think the air of coolness still applies once they’ve encroached on the territory. Repeating the phrase nobody will remember your salary over and over again as a revival meme felt like reminding the data-maxers that we don’t respect them. 

Harper Industry

Industry Hive!!!! I have been on the ground since day 1. I love these bankers and their escapades where they yell at each other, do drugs and then make million-dollar deals. It’s the best show on television and I’m so glad people are finally joining me on my crusade. The memes are part of what I’m hoping will be a meteoric rise to Emmy’s darling. Part of what I love about Industry is pretending to understand the finance aspect of it and thinking “just like Harper” any time I make a business decision or am in an office with glass walls. This recent crop of memes shows me that these new vocal fans are on the same wavelength. 

Guess We Doin Circles

I would like to say this is like seeing Lebron play like he did at his peak but it feels more like those monthly updates that Jimmy Carter is still alive. It’s impressive that it’s still happening but it is by no means the top of anyone's game. It’s impressive that a hand-drawn image can get traction in today's economy. It’s even more amazing that it’s somewhat of a new idea. I didn’t know we could still do those. 

Do You Believe You’re Capable Of Love Even If You

The main reason I got a BFA was to tell people not to get a BFA. So I could revel in how un-special I thought it was after the fact, how I know better now, how my name-drop-worthy college was not worth it because the administration was evil and they were gentrifying the neighborhood. As if that wasn’t part of the deal when we all signed up. It’s as annoying to be so over the college/major city/modern culturally forward lifestyle of your choosing as people who are earnestly still excited about it. You like it, and you have too much shame to brag about it so you mock yourself and others who made the same choices. We all like to pretend it doesn’t matter but if it didn’t matter, we wouldn’t be here. 

Had to Put Him On Straight Out The Womb

I’m increasingly perturbed by fandom memes that are simply about declaring yourself a fan of a show. Is there nothing else to talk about? We all like television, but what is the point of just saying “I like 30 Rock!” or having a conversation that is thousands of people just saying what shows they like? Do we really need to do that? I like industry but there’s more to it than that. I’m a missionary. Have you heard the good news? Yasmin Kara Hanani is back on our tv screens! Everyone else is just talking to talk. 

TikTok

10 Drunk Cigarettes

@redfoxatlI cant stop listening to it

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I get it. I really do. I understand the impulse to love this song. It’s fun. It’s funny. Sometimes AI isn’t all bad. Obviously, a human wrote it so there is an actual creative contribution in there somewhere. However, sometimes people have too much fun. The casual mention of cocaine and cigarettes makes too many people too excited. I want more from this song. I want it to be funnier. I want each thing on the list to make me laugh harder than the one before it to earn the reaction it’s having. It’s Kidz Bop Ayesha Erotica which would be novel if we hadn’t already had Ayesha Erotica on heavy rotation. 

The End

Anti-intellectual. Anti-story. Anti-life being an accumulation of experiences both positive and negative, all of which lead you to become the person you are today. “If this had happened-” but it didn’t. We’re not in that world. We’re in this one where things happen and we make do. This is not making do. 

Diet Pepsi

@00ieva @00ieva ♬ Diet Pepsi - Addison Rae

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I enjoy the way TikTok continues to ride for Addison Rae. She graduated from Cousin to Golden Child. Who better to soundtrack every brand video than the girl who helped put TikTok on the map? Diet Pepsi under everything in service of our princess in absentia. It helps that the song sounds like I’ve known it all my life. It’s the platonic ideal of 2020s pop music, which I’m happy to hear from her. I don’t care if it’s honest or real anymore. We have had enough of that. Her music should feel as familiar and yet off-putting as Diet Pepsi. 

Coffee Coffee

I’m not sure what to name this trend or even what we’re doing here but I understand it deeply. Two people have let us in on their secret language. We see videos of them apart and together, teaching us how to see the world through their eyes. They give us a new vocabulary and thus new ways to live in the world. I don’t know where I would be at this moment in my life without them. They guide me each day and inspire me with their perspective and friendship. 

Linkedin Lyrics 

@linkedin.lyricsWe found love!

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I was not on board originally but then I spent 30 minutes watching all of these videos. LinkedIn is a cesspool of our worst instincts with no reward. At least on other social media platforms, people aren’t solely motivated by money and a craven desire to succeed. Every LinkedIn profile radiates desperation, including my own. These videos take every single one of us down a peg. They cut through the professional facade and reduce us to just a name that could be misconstrued. The next video could feature your name filling in for the garbled nouns of a pop song. Suddenly your professional headshot is the punchline and isn't that a relief? That all of this is silly and could be just one big joke. 

30 Minutes 

@hannahlizzy_Learned this the hard way basics are the best.

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Ugh Finally! New York is back with another banger. There are a lot of people on TikTok who do a lot of work to end up being half as entertaining as one episode of “I Love New York”, an early 2000s Vh1 reality dating show about Tiffany “New York” Pollard, who had previously been a contestant on Flavor of Love, an early 2000s Vh1 reality dating show about Flavor Flav. You will recognize Tiffany “New York” Pollard as an icon of the reaction gif era. We’ve gone back to the hours and hours of footage we have of her and found something new to repeat ad infinitum. I knew there was more and I’m glad it isn’t just a cheap attempt to make her relevant again but an actual meme that had many different uses. Pollard’s unique delivery and condescending tone offer us an opportunity to talk about all the ways both literally and figuratively that we only have 30 minutes left.

I forgot about Clairo Shade… which is a kind of Clairo shade…