What Are Thooose…memes in movies?

We all know what a meme is, and they are literally everywhere. For those who don’t know, it’s either an image, video, a sound clip or a text etc. with comedic purposes that change from person to person. Sometimes people don’t even know where it originated from… and almost nobody knows that what they have created, is going to be universally known. Memes are spread so quickly, in a matter of days everyone knows about it. They are built to amuse us, but after a point they are just boring and annoying. As an example? Black Panther.

Memes travel in YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, vine, websites such as 9gag, and so on. They don’t have a long lifespan, as after a while it becomes old, outdated, and ‘cringe worthy’. Maybe because they spread so widely and quickly, that’s the same reason why they end so soon as well. New memes come out every day, and they just bury the previous ones. In other words, they just die. For instance, a meme is dead when your parents mention it, or see the person who started the meme talking on the Ellen show or even worse? When it’s being referred to in a movie… oh dear lord.

I don’t know if it’s just the scriptwriters trying to appeal to the teenage audiences but that is not the way to do it! In my opinion memes and movies do NOT work together. Except if there is a meme about a movie then that’s alright. Actually, many memes originate from films but not the other way around.

The latest movie that I have seen, using a meme as a line, was Black Panther. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great film…funny, original, well made and very bad-ass. BUT when Shuri refers to a meme, that’s just not right! What happened was when she was showing T’Challa some gadgets in her lab, he was wearing some god-awful sandals, and he asked her about some of the devices ‘What are these?’ and her response was… ‘Question is, WHAT ARE THOOOSE?! Why have you got your toes out in my lab?’

*Sigh*

Why couldn’t it just have been the second line without the meme line?

The original ‘What are those’ was from an Instagram video where a guy films a police officer and screaming the line and zooming on his black work shoes. The vine exploded in the internet, and new videos were created with this line for ‘unkempt’ footwear, basically becoming a meme. This was in 2015. Let me repeat myself… twenty-fifteen. Black Panther came out this year! We’ve got 2018! Way past the birth of the meme, some people may have even forgotten this vine ever existed.

Black Panther was indeed a great film, funny but that one meme in my opinion just ruined the mood. They fixed it afterwards with other great lines…but still.

Bottom line is, memes should not – under ANY circumstances – be included in any kind of film. Ever. Because people watching the movie after its time, as soon as the meme is mentioned, all they’ll want to do is a facepalm.

Do it for the people.

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