Weird Memes

Will:

As I understand it, the goal of today is to get a little weird.

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

What prompted this?

Caroline:

Well, what prompted it is, there are a lot of weird memes on the Internet that are very, very good. When I stumble across them, they're usually the ones that make me laugh, because they're so unusual.

Will:

You're listening to Say My Meme, the podcast that describes the Internet's best memes for a blind audience. I'm your co-host, Will Butler, from Be My Eyes. And I'm joined by Caroline Desrosiers, from Scribely.

Will:

Yeah, to start, we've sort of leaned toward the pop cultural memes, the things that are relatable to, "Oh, everyone knows that feeling when, X, Y, Z," but we wouldn't be wouldn't be doing the meme world justice, unless we really started, kind of plunged the dark corners, and not even dark, just weird.

Caroline:

Yeah. So yeah, full disclosure. This may not be your humor. You may find this really strange.

Will:

Yeah.

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

Some of this might not make any sense at all, but to be clear, also, this is not our after dark episode.

Caroline:

No, no, we're still working up the courage for that one.

Will:

Yeah. So there's no parental advisory sticker on this, though it might take you down some existential pathways.

Caroline:

That's fair.

Will:

All right. Weird memes. Let's see how many of these we can get through.

Caroline:

Okay. This first one is about everyone's least favorite bird doing something despicable. It's a dumb-looking pigeon sitting on a pile of sticks, not protecting its egg that's just outside the nest on the ground.

Caroline:

So just picture this pigeon sitting there on a very loose left nest, and the caption is, "Whenever I mess up an experiment, I just think of what a pigeon considers a successful nest."

Will:

What?

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

So do pigeons have terrible nests?

Caroline:

They do, yeah.

Will:

Is that a thing?

Caroline:

This is ... Yes.

Will:

Really?

Caroline:

And you see these nests where you're like, "Really?" It's right in the middle of a sidewalk, or just in an awkward location. And they're not well-built at all. They're just, if you ...

Will:

Yeah, yeah.

Caroline:

Just picked up a pile of sticks with your hand and threw it on the ground, that would be a nest.

Will:

And this is also, randomly, also a science?

Caroline:

Yeah. I think it's, yeah, I guess you're in science class or something, and maybe not very good at experiments. This might be your weird little pep talk?

Will:

As seen on R/Science Memes.

Caroline:

Yeah. Yeah, but it's just a, yeah, it's like ...

Will:

Wow.

Caroline:

A commentary on pigeons.

Will:

I'm pulling up this meme here, and now that you found it, and it really is pathetic.

Caroline:

It's just careless. Yeah.

Will:

Yeah. I didn't know that about pigeons' nests. See, these are the types of things that as a blind person, this is what See My Meme is really for.

Caroline:

Yeah. It's for all the trivia, the weird random facts you learned along the way.

Will:

Yeah, amazing. Okay. What else have we got in the grab bag?

Caroline:

All right. So picture, you're studying Marine biology, and you're flipping through the textbook, or whatever. And there's a song about Italy that all of a sudden gets stuck in your head, right? Because of what you're looking at in this Marine biology book.

Caroline:

So the meme is a diagram that shows a skeletal drawing of what an eel's mouth looks like when it's closed' and when it's open. So when its jaw is open, an entirely separate jar comes forward, and it's terrifying, that's all I got to say.

Caroline:

But it also might be the inspiration for Alien or something, that's what I thought of. But the caption is, "When the jaws open wide, and there's more jaws inside, that's a moray."

Will:

A moray? A moray eel.

Caroline:

So the song, you hear it in every Italian restaurant, right?

Will:

(singing).

Caroline:

(singing).

Will:

That's amore, got it. And then, fricking frightening. It really does have a mouth. What is it? It's like a mouth in its mouth.

Caroline:

It's called, and it's labeled, right? What comes forward, that separate jaw that comes forward is called the pharyngeal jaw. I don't even know if I'm saying that right.

Caroline:

But basically, it retracts from when the mouth is closed, and then it moves forward into the mouth when it's open.

Will:

Oh my God. Anything for a good song parody pun.

Caroline:

I was impressed, because the words, and that the syllables for those words mashed up exactly It's perfect. You might hear this play, playing in your head the next time that song comes at you.

Will:

Right, right, if Weird Al were a science guy.

Caroline:

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Will:

The song parody phenomenon is really interesting. I think there's something universal about humans wanting to make songs out of other songs.

Caroline:

Wow, what is that?

Will:

I don't know. One day we should do a whole episode dedicated to song parodies.

Caroline:

Yeah, we should.

Will:

Because it's so common. It's such a zeitgeist-y thing.

Caroline:

That takes a lot of work, it takes commitment, and you're never going to be bigger than the original song. The least you could achieve is impressing people, I guess, for how you did that, but ...

Will:

Right. And yet, people are very proud of themselves when they work the lyrics together into a new song. It's like, "This is my greatest work yet."

Caroline:

Yeah, to each their own.

Will:

All right, what else have we got here?

Caroline:

If you thought the first two were weird, you're in for a treat. Because this one is just really out of left field.

Caroline:

All right. I guess this is a meme for bird lovers, right, if you really liked birds. But I guess my question is, to kind of lead into this, have you ever woken up and been kind of confused about your surroundings?

Caroline:

Maybe this happened recently, because of the migraine. But has that happened to you?

Will:

Yeah. Or if you've been in a hotel, if you've been staying in a hotel, or something like that. And you wake up and you're like, "Where am I now?"

Caroline:

Yeah, yeah, exactly, like you forgot you were there. So this is a meme, it's a meme that kind of captures that moment, right?

Caroline:

So picture, and this is a real photo, of a white parakeet standing in a miniature kitchen. The perspective of the photo makes it look like you've just walked in, and this bird is actually cooking pasta for you over the stove.

Caroline:

Okay? The bird says, and this is the caption, "Ah, you're awake. I found you unconscious in the woods and brought you to my hut. Let me make you something to eat."

Will:

Oh, my God, this is so weird. Wait, but is this a Photoshop job, or is this parakeet huge, or is it a small kitchen? Or did someone just stick the bird in front of the camera?

Caroline:

Just because of the way the kitchen looks, and this little box of pasta. I think this is maybe a dollhouse kitchen.

Caroline:

It would be easy enough to put your parakeet in dollhouse kitchen, I guess, and then take this photo. So I don't think it's Photoshopped, actually.

Caroline:

Yeah, he's just leaning over, stirring this red pot, and there's a box of pasta next to him, and he says this super creepy thing.

Will:

Ah, I like.

Caroline:

"Ah, welcome." Yeah, so it's kind of terrifying, but also like, "Yeah, wow."

Will:

Can I ask you how you found this one?

Caroline:

I have no idea. I honestly have no idea. I don't even know what episode it was for.

Caroline:

I think it just hit me, and then I was, "Oh, I got to save that one." Because I actually, really, I was cackling when I found it.

Will:

And the box says Pasta on it?

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

Wow. Somebody just stuck their bird in there, and just thought it was the funniest thing ever, and they were, "This is going to happen."

Caroline:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Maybe this was during COVID, or something, and the person was really bored, so ...

Will:

Whew, all right.

Caroline:

All right. No,

Will:

What else is in our little strange bag of tricks here?

Caroline:

This next one's a fun one, because we all love to talk about the weather, I guess, because the weather is always happening, right? No matter what, there's always something going on.

Caroline:

It's like the famous small talk topic, but this meme is a great response the next time someone asks you, "How's the weather?"

Caroline:

Picture a red fox standing very stiff in the snow, bracing itself in the midst of this wild blizzard, and its eyes are squinting, his ears and fur are just blown back.

Caroline:

And it looks really uncomfortable. The caption says, "It fucken WIMDY," so ...

Will:

Wimdy?

Caroline:

I don't know why, this one just got me, but just changing the N in "windy" to an M, and making it "wimdy" was just enough. It was enough, but I love it. "It fucken WIMDY."

Will:

"WIMDY."

Caroline:

I've said it several times, since finding this.

Will:

Also, we should tell folks this looks like it was scrapped together so quickly with this thing that's apparently called foxpost-generator.

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

What is that? Is that an IG re-post of Fox posts that are generated?

Caroline:

Oh, my God, you know what? That is such a good question, and I had to just Google it. And the first thing that comes up is, "It fucken WIMDY," and I think it's just a Tumblr profile. It must be.

Will:

Oh, so somebody on Tumblr called Fox Post Generator ...

Caroline:

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Will:

Probably made this meme, got it. I didn't know if there was a whole universe of Fox posts.

Caroline:

It shouldn't be, oh my God.

Will:

But there could be no other caption for this, other than, "It fucken WIMDY."

Caroline:

Exactly. Oh my God, yeah, Try that one out. But pick out that ...

Will:

Yeah.

Caroline:

It's got to be when it's windy outside, and just commit to it.

Will:

Yeah. Amazing. Wow. Okay, what else have we got?

Caroline:

All right. So I feel like, this one's about how sometimes, a sculpture is so real looking, that you start to imagine it kind of talking to you, or having a personality.

Caroline:

I don't know. Will, do you have any friends like that, that tend to tend to do that with sculptures?

Will:

Oh my God. Yeah. You must be talking about my friend [Rafi 00:12:43], who we met the other night. His whole thing is public art. I think that maybe, I think maybe he's had a few really deep convos with some of the sculptures in the greater Los Angeles area.

Caroline:

He would have to. Yeah, I wonder if this is part of his process.

Will:

Yeah, yeah. You could see him out there, chatting them up, for sure. Or plants. Or plants and animals.

Caroline:

Oh yeah, nice.

Will:

Wow. Okay, so we've got a sculpture?

Caroline:

Yes. So picture a stone frog. Let's just say, he's giving unsolicited advice after overhearing your conversation, right? And there's text above, and the conversation is, "Ha ha, I only got four hours of sleep last night." And then someone responds, "I only got one."

Caroline:

Then there's a statement at the bottom, just below the frog. So you have to assume he said this in response, like unsolicited advice.

Caroline:

And he says, "The pride and superiority you feel from having an unhealthier lifestyle than others is a short term gratification that will lead to long term detriments."

Will:

Oh my God. Some deep knowledge being dropped by the frog sculpture. And you know what's funny is, my buddy Rafi, he's quite a fan of art.

Will:

He's big into the art, probably has had a few conversations with sculptures like this in the past. Just stayed up really late the other night, and were bragging about how little sleep we got, shortly before I got walloped by this meme.

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

So, the frog speaketh. "Being proud of your sleep deprivation is that pride cometh before [crosstalk 00:14:46]."

Caroline:

Exactly, yeah. And you should listen to this frog. He's absolutely right, yeah.

Will:

There's something about this frog. He looks very, very sort of sage.

Caroline:

He does. I would say, I don't know if it's just because of the caption, but his eyes on top of his head look wide and empty.

Caroline:

His head is jutting forward, his mouth is in a straight line, hands on hips. So it's kind of, "Hey, I got something to say."

Caroline:

And no, it's a stone frog. Obviously, it's empty, but the eyes look wide and dark, Yeah.

Will:

This is something I probably needed to hear when I was 24. "The pride and superiority you feel from having an unhealthier lifestyle than others is a short term gratification that will lead to long term detriments."

Caroline:

Well, it's not too late to warn others, maybe the next time you're in the office, and you overhear this. You can remind them.

Will:

Yeah. Just put the frog meme up on your monitor.

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

Wow, very weird. You promised me random and weird, and we have certainly gone down that path.

Caroline:

Yes.

Will:

What else have we got? What else is here?

Caroline:

Okay. This one is the one I told you, when we were at happy hour, just on the fly.

Will:

Oh, no.

Caroline:

It had us just rolling in laughter. But I described it, in a way, in a different way than we usually do. I think I'm just going to roll with that.

Caroline:

Because it's an image with a lot of text, and a lot of captions, and you need to experience them in the right order. So I'm just going to tell you a story right now.

Caroline:

All right. A few simple captioned illustrations that tell a story about a random act of kindness.

Caroline:

The first illustration shows a postal worker standing at a front door, reaching his hand through a letter box to drop a piece of mail. A man inside, crouching on the other side of the door, I guess maybe waiting to receive the mail, is there, definitely in the illustration.

Caroline:

The mailman smiles, and says, "Hee hee. Is it a puppy?" Then the first caption reads, "Random act of kindness. Softly kiss the postman's fingers, when he puts them through your door, to let him know that you are thankful for his gifts."

Caroline:

The next illustration shows a cutout of the man, crouching on the other side of the door, puckering his lips to kiss the mailman's fingers that are reaching through the slot.

Caroline:

And an arrow is pointing to this, with a second caption that reads, "Why not have a bit of suck on a finger of your choice, for an extra slice of kindness?" And there are plenty to choose from, because the mailman, for some reason, has six fingers.

Will:

This one is like the Oscar, the Academy Award-winning, really weird meme.

Caroline:

It really is.

Will:

For so many different reasons.

Caroline:

Yeah, I feel like ...

Will:

Not the least of which is the six fingers coming through the mail slot, at this point.

Caroline:

Yeah. Well, we have to track this person down, that created this, and just find a way to shake their hand virtually, it doesn't matter. But it's a good theme, and it's really fricking weird.

Will:

Yeah. Also, what sort of creepo mailman sticks his hand through, all the way through the mail slot?

Caroline:

Right, you don't need to do that. Oh yeah, you're totally right on that one. It's kind of dangerous.

Will:

Well, actually, I think I might have a lead on who this is. Because I showed this to my girlfriend and she immediately recognized that the style, and she said, "Oh, that's a Lorde birthday."

Caroline:

What's that?

Will:

I don't know. So we're going to have to circle back on the Lorde birthday memes, at a later date, and figure out if there's more of this gold out there, some of this strange, weird gold.

Caroline:

I'm believing. I'm so excited for that.

Will:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So finally, I can bring something to the table, and [inaudible 00:19:37] that's not even my own.

Caroline:

Awesome.

Will:

Wow, amazing. Really, really very strange. Are there more?

Caroline:

Got quite a few more. Yeah, okay.

Will:

Wow, [crosstalk 00:19:51].

Caroline:

Okay. Coming down from that one, maybe this one is a little, I don't know. It's just great, because it's kind of an observation. Octopuses are thought by many to be very mysterious and clever creatures, because there's so much we don't know about them.

Caroline:

But basically this meme is, "What would they say if they could talk?" The quick description of this one is an octopus staring at you through the slits of its eyes, and holding up an arm.

Caroline:

The caption is, "Scientists have discovered that on occasion, an octopus will punch a fish for no reason other than spite." And the octopus in the photo says in quotes, "Fuck them fish."

Will:

Is that actually true?

Caroline:

I mean, I think it is, yeah. I've heard that about them.

Will:

He'll just reach out, and whack a fish?

Caroline:

Yeah, they're not trying to attack, but just trying to punch it.

Will:

"Fuck them fish."

Caroline:

[inaudible 00:21:10].

Will:

Did you ever see my octopus T-shirt?

Caroline:

Oh yeah. I loved it.

Will:

Is it good?

Caroline:

It was really good, yeah. Yeah. I had no idea, yeah, really, anything about octopuses, until I watched that.

Caroline:

Yeah, I mean, it leaves you with a tear in your eye, for sure. It's a very special documentary, so ... Yeah.

Will:

I feel like a lot of these random memes are more quotable than other memes.

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

Because they're just so random.

Caroline:

Yeah, exactly, yeah. And if someone knew the meme you're talking about, they would just laugh like crazy, because yeah, you just reflected on that weird pop culture. Yeah.

Will:

Yeah. Wow, okay.

Caroline:

All right.

Will:

Let's keep working that.

Caroline:

I got one more for you, and it's a GIF meme.

Will:

Okay.

Caroline:

All right. So, just to set it up, you know that moment when you've experienced a little too much art for one day? And you start to have some weird thoughts about the art, maybe because your mind is just wandering, but ...

Will:

Okay.

Caroline:

Someone created a GIF out of an art piece, inspired by one of those thoughts that you have. Picture a classical painting of two awkward Italian clergymen with a backdrop of a Tuscan hillside town, right? It kind of, to me, looks like a postcard.

Caroline:

But the older man looks perturbed at the other man, who is nonchalantly sliding a whole hot dog into his mouth, over and over again, just pressing the hot dog in slowly, with two fingers.

Caroline:

The caption, and it's a blinking caption, it says, "[Italian language 00:23:06]." Which translates to basically, "Good morning and good breakfast." Weird.

Will:

Oh my God. Very weird.

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

Is the hot dog, is it sort of erotic, like he's feeding the other person?

Caroline:

No. So the younger guy is-

Will:

Or is it mechanical?

Caroline:

... Eating himself, the hot dog, and ...

Will:

Oh.

Caroline:

The other man is just kind of reacting to it, and blinking his eyes. They've made the painting move, right? All you see with the movement is one man blinking, "Whoa, what are you doing?"

Caroline:

Then the other guy, just dead eyes, is pushing this hot dog in, into his mouth, over and over again.

Will:

Completely facing this hot dog?

Caroline:

Yes.

Will:

Wonderful.

Caroline:

"[Italian language 00:24:05]." And yeah.

Will:

You got pretty good Italian chops there. Did you practice that?

Caroline:

Well, yeah. I mean, I speak a little Italian, yeah.

Will:

Well, I'm not going to deal on it.

Caroline:

I'm on it, but yeah, so when I saw this, maybe I just loved that I could understand it, the punchline. But yeah, I mean, "A hot dog is a good breakfast," it says.

Will:

What? Yeah, I actually have been made fun of a little bit recently for my love of hot dogs.

Caroline:

Oh yeah? Nothing wrong with that.

Will:

Right, yeah. I guess, nothing wrong with having enjoying a hot dog once in awhile, but I have been known to [crosstalk 00:24:51].

Caroline:

Yeah. Oh, no.

Will:

But that's not, that's neither here nor there. It's mostly, those, they're pre-cooked, they're entirely cooked. It's like eating salami.

Caroline:

What is it, a lazy thing? You don't want to heat it up, or it's like, do you actually prefer it that way?

Will:

It's just a snack, just a quick snack. It's refreshing, a cold, refreshing meat snack, a little meat popsicle.

Caroline:

I mean, and it's just like, I like ...

Will:

Anyway, I don't know what the best part is.

Caroline:

It's just a ... Yeah, is it?

Will:

Lest I [inaudible 00:25:25]?

Caroline:

I would say it's, you're arguably just a hop, skip away from sharkutery, so ...

Will:

Yeah.

Caroline:

Yeah.

Will:

Thank you, thank you. I'm going to share this around to the people who have been burdened with. I won't be a victim of hot dog persecution.

Will:

Anyway, this was weird, Caroline, as promised. And we're going to put a big old, weird trigger warning on here, that if you you can't handle the random, then get out of the meme house, as it were.

Caroline:

I like that, yeah. On the fly, and everything. That was great.

Will:

All right. Well, I feel delirious, but this was beautiful, and tune in next week, folks, for some, maybe slightly more themed memes, next week.

Caroline:

Sounds good. Later.

Will:

Do you want to describe your favorite memes for our community? Send a voice memo to hello@saymymeme.com. That's hello@saymymeme.com.

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