I’m sure most of you know that memes on the Internet have life cycles. Memes appear and disappear very quickly these days, and most memes don’t even last a month. However, I am one of those people who can’t seem to let memes die the way they’re supposed to: quickly, and with little-to-no nostalgic value within six months. I’ve found myself very recently resurfacing old memes in my head that have no reason to be there. What’s even worse is that I can’t stop using them.
The most obvious dead meme that I’ve latched onto is “That’s sad. Hey Alexa, play Despacito.” This meme has been dead since Despacito was released, but here I am, watching my sister complain about having to go pick up her wallet, and all I can do is giggle and say, “Wow, how tragic. Hey Alexa, play Despacito.” I know it has to be annoying; everyone works very hard all the time to ignore old meme references in fear of resurrecting them. And yet, I can’t stop.
Other memes I can’t let go of are the dab and the whip. Literally no one has talked about either of them for years (except Jackfilms on YouTube), but I whip constantly. It’s usually used in a sarcastically-excited context, but either way, it’s just a part of my body language now.
I always ask myself why I can’t seem to stop recycling old memes, but I really don’t know the answer. I know my brain holds on to useless information, so a lot of dead memes are buried in my subconscious anyway. And I do like old memes a lot because they make people laugh, so I probably have a reason. I’m not sure though, my brain does a lot of things without thinking about it. Everything’s very mysterious. Alexa, play Spooky Scary Skeletons.