twitter memes

The world is a scary place. And it just got a whole lot scarier thanks to a Twitter thread from @ZiziFothSi. Apparently, some doctors discourage MRIs while pregnant. The claim comes from the belief that the contrast agents used in the procedure could be dangerous.@ZiziFothSi's thread, however, challenges this explanation. Instead, she suggests that the real reasons doctors warn against MRIs is because the world would be clued in to how absolutely horrifying fetuses look in the resulting images. 

The photos used to support her theory are undoubtedly disturbing. Ultrasounds are very generous in their ability to obscure the nightmarish nature of these so-called babies growing inside a woman's womb. As Twitter users pointed out in the responses, they look more like the aliens from Mars Attacks! or a Klingon than a future human being. While the images are revulsion-worthy, they're also pretty fascinating. Judging by the thread's wealth of funny and shocked replies, we're not the only ones who think so. 

It's almost June, and most cities are gearing up for what is bound to be a raucous post-Covid celebration around the world. At this point, we know what to expect: lots of rainbows, free condoms, happy dancing, and a whole lot of brands making shallow attempts to market to queer people. The annual and obvious pandering is so blatant that it's inspired its own set of memes regarding how quickly corporations seem to remember (and then forget) the LGBT community. This year, the first brand-mocking callouts hail from Twitter, and are coming in much earlier than usual.  

Brands marketing My gay
to gays: friends: pic.twitter.com/nl0PujFl3y

— kewlshrek (@kewlshrek) May 16, 2021

Instead of focusing merely on cringey brands, the Twitter meme (the brainchild of @kewlshrek) contrasts how marketers portray gay people with how gay people - and gay friends - actually look and behave. Where adverts tell you that gay people are flamboyant, loud, and decked our in rainbows, these Twitter users want the world to know that their friends are generally represented by people who are just a bit more complex. In some of the memes, that means goths and vampires. In others? Ethereal elves and even characters from Recess. We appreciate that the memes and funny and ring true. But it's also just good to see reductive depictions get the meme treatment - while also giving people who don't fit into those stereotypes a little more representation. 

Funny tweets are kind of like memes for people who like their jokes in text form. Anything can become a meme if it's shared enough, including tweets that get taken out of their original context (Twitter) and spread elsewhere across the internet. We like to think we're elevating tweets to meme-status whenever we offer one of these entertaining collections of the best recent stuff from the bird app. If you feel the same way, then you'll probably have a good time scrolling through this curated batch of Twitter gems.

In the age of online dating, sliding into DMs, and social distancing, romantic pursuit is looking more like a casual 'wyd' text and less like the elaborate, tenacious courtships we grew up marveling at in Hollywood movies. Not that there's anything wrong with a more straightforward, no-bullshit approach to flirting—the concept of dating lots of different people throughout one's adulthood is much more socially accepted now than it used to be. And as the social conditions change over time, it's only natural that our behavior should change accordingly. The problem is, we're complicated, overthinking humans. We still have to reconcile the realities of modern dating with desire, fantasy, and unrealistic expectations. In 1960, French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan said of love and desire, 'imagine you see in front of you a beautiful flower, or a ripe fruit. You reach out your hand to grab it. But at the moment you do, the flower, or the fruit, bursts into flames. In its place you see another hand appear, reaching back towards your own.' Lacan believed that desire is produced in the margin between one's appetite for satisfaction and the demand for love. He theorized that desire isn't exactly innate—desire is actually mediated by the desire of the 'Other.' And what does this big Other desire? Well if we knew that, then our desire burst into flame like Lacan's beautiful flower. Because it's the very recognition of the object of desire that we lack and therefore seek. Our desire is like an empty vessel that constantly gets filled with the desire of the Other, always changing as the socio-cultural context changes. And so it makes sense then that millennials are unsatisfied with certain normalized social behaviors that have been shaped by new social conditions. Reality is at odds with what we are made to desire—an idealized version of reality that fiction routinely implants into us.

We're featuring a viral Twitter meme that very succinctly illustrates this age-old problem of expectation vs. reality. The meme cleverly takes that familiar 'wyd' text (which is comically concise and yet loaded with implications) and juxtaposes it with absurdly theatrical shows of concern from well-known romcom scenes, television dialogue, and corny song lyrics. It's always 'wyd' and never 'but, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?' It's always 'wyd' and never 'you had me at hello.' It's always 'wyd' and never 'you're like my own personal brand of heroin.' Get it?

Perhaps the best thing about this meme is the level of self-awareness it reveals about the poster. Those tweeting the meme are simultaneously admitting their desire for a vague, idealized version of romance and making fun of themselves for it, which becomes evident in the more absurd tweets. One of the funniest examples of this meme is perhaps the one that uses Anakin Skywalker's infamous line in Star Wars: Episode II—"It's always 'wyd' and never 'I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth.'" The notoriously cringey scene was supposed to represent a romantic, intimate turning point in the characters' relationship. Instead it feels more like a terribly awkward Tinder date that would have had a real-life Padme running in the other direction. The decision to insert this line into the meme turns it into a hilarious mockery of its original sentiment. We've collected some of the funniest examples of the trending Twitter meme for your amusement.

The best and worst thing about Twitter is the massive aggregation of bite-sized information. Twitter is like a brain on a million drugs, and sometimes that can be a bit overwhelming to scroll through. Don't you wish you could sometimes bypass all the petty beef, politics and depressing news and just skip to the modest jokes? Lucky for you, we've attempted to curate that experience by selecting some of our favorite funny, recent tweets. It's Twitter for anyone who doesn't feel like opening the app. 

If you're reading this description, we're willing to bet that you can read well enough to indulge in this frivolous selection of tweets and Tumblr posts that made us crack a smile. Memes are so visually oriented these days. We're not mad at taking a wee break from having everything spelled out with a picture.

There she is: the average pleb. She leaves the office at 5 p.m. on the dot. As she makes her way down the beaten path, she imagines turning on an educational podcast while cooking a nutritious dinner. Maybe she'll even read a book before bed. 'Yes...' she thinks to herself, 'tonight is the night I do that self-care thing everyone's been talking about.' Halfway through her 45-minute commute on a particularly crowded train, fast food starts to feel pretty appealing. When she finally gets home, she plops down on the couch and tears open the Taco Bell wrappers. Avengers: Endgame is already queued up.

As the credits roll, she knows what she must do. It's time to sleep. 'It's bedtime' she tries to convince herself as her hand reaches for the phone. 'Just one meme' she tells herself. Soon one meme becomes fifty. She chuckles lightly, her gleeful face lit up by the glow of the screen. 'This is the life' she says. 

Mysterious Twitter user @elpablogrande tweeted 'Enjoying the chungus among us' a decade ago and Twitter is freaking out over the supposed internet time traveler. According to @elpablogrande's profile, they joined Twitter in 2009 and have been 'Riding the Wave of Awesome since 1982!' Okay, very sus indeed! Who is this time-traversing imposter? What do they want? Who do they serve?

Since the tweet resurfaced, many have been expressing their dismay through memes and jokes. Others have their own theories that explain away the 'chungus among us' phenomenon. We've collected some of the best replies, takes and Twitter memes about the puzzling tweet from a decade ago.

Twitter is mocking the hell out of the New York Post for their recent tweet claiming that Leonardo DiCaprio looks 'unrecognizable' in the first released photos from Scorsese's new film. In the photo in question, Leo sits beside costar Lily Gladstone looking conspicuously like himself. Everyone loves a good Leo meme and it didn't take long for Twitter to do its thing and roast the crap out of NY Post in hilarious meme fashion. Keep scrolling for some of our favorite reactions to NY Post's dubious tweet. 

Say what you will, in our opinion, life is pain. Thank goodness sometimes we're masochists. The other times we try to fill the hours, days, and weeks, with quickly consumable humor from the pits of the internet. These memes will do the trick for almost anyone who is dealing with the same bleak feelings. There are memes here for weary parents, relatable and self-deprecating tweets, and, of course, a whole lot of stupidity. Beats lamenting reality, don't it