Things are getting surreal in fashionable tradition this week. There’s a bizarre blue smurf/cat chimera that all of a sudden appeared all over the place all of sudden, a vastly fashionable TikToker who’s entire factor is ensuring taps work accurately, and a newly found common trait amongst males: thinking in regards to the Roman Empire.
What is Smurf Cat and why is it all of a sudden all over the place?
The undisputed CEO of the Zoomer web this week is Smurf Cat. The picture you see above has captured the favored creativeness of very-online individuals everywhere in the world to the purpose that its gone from non-existent to actually all over the place in a pair weeks.
Smurf Cat is sort of cute I assume, with its mushroom hat and snail-on-a-stick, but it surely’s arduous to grasp why it’s sticky sufficient to encourage a TikTook hashtag with over 800 million views, three unfunny “response memes” (Strawberry Elephant, Pineapple Owl, and Blueberry Cat) and a kind of sub-meme the place the joke is “I see that damn Smurf Cat everywhere.”
I can’t clarify it, so I’ll simply provide the information: the Smurf Cat picture was created in 2014 by artist Nate Hallinan. It sat on his web site for practically a decade, till the top of August when web denizens started remixing and sharing the picture and making TikToks about it, normally that includes a part of the track “The Spectre” by Alan Walker. Smurf Cat is often known as Шайлушай, Blue Mushroom Cat, and Shailushai, though its creator named the unique picture “Smurf Sighting.” Now you work it out.
Why is TikTook obsessive about the man who checks taps?
Speaking of inexplicable-but-adorable web celebrities, TikTook is loopy about Travis Stock, aka Spooky Sivart. Stock is understood for his quick movies the place he checks to see if public taps work. If they do, he proclaims, “yeah dog! This one works!” and sings a bit track. He has 1.2 million followers and his movies have earned greater than 37.6 million likes. Over 20 million individuals have watched this one. Like everybody, I really like faucet man as a result of he’s humorous and honest, and I want I may very well be as enthusiastic about something as he’s about taps.
On a extra meta degree, it’s fascinating that there are armies of clever media professionals, advertising managers, and content material specialists diligently toiling each day to determine what individuals need to watch and share on the web, but it surely seems what they need to see is a man getting excited as a result of a faucet works.
Question meme of the week: How typically do you concentrate on the Roman Empire?
Last month, Gaius Flavius, a Roman reenactor from Sweden, posted an Instagram video exhorting ladies to ask their boyfriends or husbands how typically they consider the Roman Empire. Some ladies took them up on the supply, and it seems males take into consideration the Roman Empire each day. Check out this Twitter thread for affirmation. More proof: I had actually simply been desirous about the Roman Empire. Right earlier than I ran throughout this meme, I used to be listening to Songs for Pierre Chuvin, a whole album about the Roman Empire by The Mountain Goats, who take into consideration the Roman Empire a lot they wrote a whole idea album about their oppression of the Pagans. Conclusion: All males take into consideration The Roman Empire on a regular basis. I imply, the aqueducts! Those straight roads! Chariot Races! There’s only a lot to consider, man.
What is a “Love Surge,” and why is everybody cringing at it?
Unlike the tap man, Smurf Cat, and desirous about the Roman Empire, the “Love Surge” meme going viral makes good sense. According to Lilianna Wilde, the girl who coined the phrase on TikTook, a love surge is when you’ve gotten “so much love in your limbs that you can’t contain it, and you feel like you’re going to explode.”
In the video that made her TikTook well-known, Wilde exhibits off her associate Sean “shaking with the electricity of love,” till Wilde catches it too, they usually each begin shaking till they “explode with the electricity of love!”
Wilde’s viewers come to really feel that bizarre, embarrassed-for-someone-else feeling that you simply solely get from 100%, uncut web cringe, in all probability from remembering your individual secret love-impressed lapses in decorum. As her commenters put it, “this video made me consider breaking up with my bf just to make sure I never risk experiencing a love surge” and “I need a love surge protector” and “It’s ok to have secrets…”
To be honest to Wilde, she does begin her video by saying a love surge is “the most cringy, couple-y thing ever,” so there’s a content material warning at the least. Good-natured jokes are one factor, however she doesn’t deserve the hate she’s getting in any respect.
Viral video of the week: Cardi B – Bongos feat. Megan Thee Stallion (Official VMA Performance)
This week’s MTV Video Music Awards made it clear that ladies are accountable for music in 2023. If Taylor Swift successful 9 awards—together with video of the yr, artist of the yr, and track of the yr—doesn’t persuade you, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s stay efficiency of “Bongos” ought to take away all doubt. Another spotlight from the present, particularly for older cats: a medley from hip hop legends Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh, Nicki Minaj, LL Cool J, Lil Wayne & Darryl “DMC” McDaniels to rejoice the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop. I imply, LL singing “Mama Said Knock You Out?” Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh’s “The Show?’ Come on! Some of those artists is likely to be eligible for social safety, however they’ll nonetheless rock a crowd, even when you’ll fear about them breaking a hip.
