If the above phrase is familiar to you, but you still don’t have any idea what it means, come listen to a story that exemplifies the internet in all its splendor.
Yesterday, reasoning that a large portion of Reddit was at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Keep Fear Alive, a user proposed that the online members of the community start a new and inexplicable meme to confuse those who were away from their computers.
Lets make up a pointless meme while the hardcore redditors are away… Like when someone says Waffles in their post, someone else can reply “Waffles? Don’t you mean carrots? HAHAHAHA”
It has since become incredibly effective and incredibly ineffective.
Ineffective, because, as pointed out in the original thread, many Redditors were, in fact, able to keep up on waffle/carrot related news via mobile devices or free wifi connections. Effective, because it looks like the meme is here to stay.
Aside from having a page on Know Your Meme (where it is simply up for confirmation; not yet an established meme), “waffles” shot up to the sixth hottest Google search for October 30th, 2010, with related searches including, yes, carrots.
A day later there are still a couple of posts utilizing the meme on the top page and in a certain meme sensitive subreddit.
We all know it’s not a real meme until people make original posts about how much they hate it, only serving to reinforce the use of the meme by those who like it. That dark process has already begun.
Published: Oct 31, 2010 02:29 pm