Here is the extra treat! A newsletter collab! I partnered with Lynn Yu who runs the incredible News Quiz Substack “Yu Oughta Know”. I highly recommend testing your skills and subscribing to her newsletter. We both have a taste for combining fun with the news, so we thought why not try to combine our newsletters for a week too?
I can’t recommend Yu Oughta Know enough! If you like to keep up with the news and culture, the same way you do with Memeforum, you will love Yu Oughta Know.
For our crossover event, I wrote a quiz about the memes from the past year. Here’s a five-question Meme Quiz I wrote in Lynn’s classic style.
Here are your Questions:
1. In August, “The Corn Kid” went viral after appearing in a recess therapy video where he talked about his love for corn. What is the Corn Kid’s real name?
2. An Irish Folk Song celebrating the Irish Ancestry of a former president went viral on niche TikTok this summer. Which president was the song about?
3. A clip from the most recent Kenneth Branaugh Hercule Poirot adaptation went viral on Twitter with a phrase said by Gal Gadot. What was that phrase?
4. What British children’s book series was the inspiration for memes made by 20-somethings about their bad habits and annoying behaviors?
5. What matriarch became the central figure in a rick-roll style meme named after her on Tik Tok this summer?
ANSWERS:
1. TARIQ is the Corn Kid.
A video from the TikTok page “recess therapy” went viral this fall after interviewing a kid at Smorgusberg in New York about Corn. The video was fun and viral on its own and became even more viral after autotune artist Schmoyoho made a song out of it.
“Every week on TikTok, we create a new addition to the rubric of when it’s ok to write a song about the current cultural moment. Wanting to be the next SNL cast member? No. Remixing a video of a little boy talking about corn? Yes! Everything else we have yet to means test so it’s luck of the draw. I can see the backlash coming for this one a mile away. It’s not cringe yet but it will be soon. Mostly because the song is by the same guy who did the Bed Intruder song all those years ago. Can he hold onto it a second time with Gen Z? Or will they too grow tired of his antics? Just as we did all those years ago, during Obama’s first term.
On another note, any time a vegetable trends it’s a good idea to think about how much power their lobbyists have. I know it’s corn season and that’s an easy explanation but could anyone remind me if the United States has any kind of existing relationship with corn subsidies? Do they have any vested interest in their citizens' continued consumption and production of corn? Is corn a politically neutral vegetable? Does anyone know? Perhaps I’m being paranoid.”
2. BARACK OBAMA (Barack O’Bamagh)
People really took to a folk song celebrating Barack Obama’s Irish roots. While the song itself is funny, people were more interested in how weird it was that the song was trending on tiktok. It is a common phenomenon on tiktok to revel in the weird videos/sounds that end up on one’s For You page. This trend was just the latest entry into “Esoteric TikTok.”
“There’s two wolves inside me. One who’s been on Barack O’Bamagh TikTok since about March and has enjoyed it thoroughly and one that hates the fake weird “OMG I’m on Barack O’Bamagh TikTok.” We’re about two weeks into all the videos just referencing the original videos. The amount of videos under the sound doubled and very few have added something new. Next time the algorithm blesses you with something weird, either contribute or keep it to yourself. The need to constantly announce how weird one is, has ruined the internet. All I ever wanted was to enjoy a fine jig about Moneygall’s favorite son and everyone ruined it. “
3. ENOUGH CHAMPAGNE TO FILL THE NILE
Gal Gadot is now somewhat famous on Twitter for her weird dialogue and bizarre acting choices. This clip was everywhere and really emphasized the clunky dialogue of the film and the poor performance from Gadot.
A movie with the most canceled cast to be released post-cancellation is coming out soon. Every other canceled cast member is too much to wade into but Gal Gadot is an ever present punching bag. Without getting into literally any other part of why she is problematique, we can just go with the classic, she’s a bad actress, which she is! The phrase itself is fun to say without the affectation but with the attempted accent that becomes even more mangled as people repeat it, it is perfect. Say it to yourself a couple times today. Have a little laugh. Have enough champagne… to fill the Nile!
Little Miss and Mister Men is a popular children’s book series that serves as a blank template for many young women to define themselves and create their own specialized version. Like Little Miss ADHD or Little Miss $8 latte.
“Little Miss is having her quadrennial moment! Every four years we remember these little ladies and try to give them a moment. They don’t really have a lot of staying power because the joke is always in the name, so there’s not much fodder but good for everyone for trying. I did not know my fellow Americans enjoyed these. I thought they were French Canadian because the version I grew up with was Madame Catastrophe. I am not french canadian, I don’t know how I ended up with her but because of that I have not attachment to the version anglaise. “
5. Kris Jenner.
Over the Summer it became popular to make videos that started with shocking or exciting news and ended with “Getting Krissed” meaning they ended with a video of Kris Jenner singing “Lady Marmalade.
“I fall for it every time. I love liars. Every single time I go “what?!” and then I see Kris Jenner singing along to Lady Marmalade and I laugh at having fallen for it. It’s the thrill of the lie and the release of being told it’s a lie immediately. We do these every so often but I think we should do them more. No one should ever let their guard down at being krissed. It should be the new Rick Roll. “
Thanks, Lynn for collaborating on this special issue! To keep yourself updated on the news in Trivia form (the best format IMHO), be sure to check out Yu Oughta Know!