Snickers “Dick Vein” Cancel Culture Satire Became All Too Believable

Professional meme-Lady Juniper, who caused a ruckus during February’s “Goblin mode” meme, is back again. This time, she doctored an image to make it seem like TimeOut (the hospitality magazine) news editor Anna Rahmanan wrote that the “dick vein” would be removed from Snickers bars. Juniper told Rolling Stone’s Don’t Let This Flop podcast hosts that this was a riff on Tucker Carlson’s infamous meltdown over the Green M&M’s new white sneakers. Juniper noted that many of her followers understood (especially after Goblin Mode) that she was joking, but it kept going viral and appeared on other social media sites.

Juniper took the image off an over-10-year-old subreddit sharing weird images and didn’t expect it to get as big as it did. Some of the replies (mostly of snickers, not penises) are blocked unless you’re signed into Twitter, so enjoy more from Juniper.

This went so viral that Snickers maker Mars had to come out and make a statement about it. What’s funny about this whole situation is that while the initial meme was about censorship, Snickers must keep its PR hat on and omit the word “dick” or “penis.” We all know it’s fake at this point, and they effectively communicated their message, but it’s still always worth thinking about what sex-related language is and isn’t deemed polite in public space.

As the dust was settling, Fox Business hacked together an article detailing what transpired. The comments contain some zingers, but most of them are racist, homophobic (and transphobic) old people shouting at the sky and saying something along the lines of “back in my day” or (verbatim) bringing up the word “generations.”

Part two: A Wildin’ Chyron From the Swanson Dynasty

The next chapter of this story involved some (including Juniper) sharing an image of Tucker Perpetually-Confused-About-Everything-But-White-Supremacist-Talking-Points Carlson looking like he had railed against vein-less Snickers on his show, to millions of people. Politifact debunked this image by noting that it was edited and likely projected to a TV to look real.

Until a thorough review, I was bamboozled, too. After all (and like everyone on the aforementioned podcast segment noted), this situation was eerily similar to Tucker Carlson being upset that he no longer finds the green M&M attractive. For one, they’re both popular chocolate candy. Also, transphobia and homophobia are the headliners of the current Moral Panic Tour of the right wing (think LGBTQ+ teachers doxxed by LibsofTikTok, anti-Trans legislation, and the Don’t Say Gay bill). It seemed plausible, which is what makes the joke so great.

Conclusion: Can shitposting about fake outrage go too far?

Near the end of the podcast segment, the hosts asked Juniper if she thought about how others saw her as a malicious perpetrator of disinformation. Juniper defended her actions by saying she takes a satirical approach. However, Juniper also admitted that this could still be considered lying.

“At the end of the day, deceiving a lot of people in this way can be harmful, I’ll be honest. […] And in a way that is pretty bad. But my intention with the posts is to mock those right-wingers and point out how stupid this [panic over] woke mobs is; how stupid these cancel culture freakouts are. But I guess when you do deep irony and sarcasm, it doesn’t translate when it gets that big.”

It’s a weird blurry line when the internet strips all context (including sarcasm) and something we should evaluate internally. Not everyone breaks the fourth wall in this performance by posting the bluemoji meme in the thread. There are pros and cons to every situation, and seeing how this Snickers meme has taken off and become a meme within a meme is another aspect to consider. We don’t know the intentions of this Carlson post, let alone if it will matter in the end.

(via Rolling Stone, image: Warner Bros, Reddit, and Alyssa Shotwell)

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Alyssa Shotwell

(she/her) Award-winning artist and writer with professional experience and education in graphic design, art history, and museum studies. She began her career in journalism in October 2017 when she joined her student newspaper as the Online Editor. This resident of the yeeHaw land spends most of her time drawing, reading and playing the same handful of video games—even as the playtime on Steam reaches the quadruple digits. Currently playing: Baldur's Gate 3 & Oxygen Not Included.

twitter Link to alyssashotwell.myportfolio.com