Meme Gods

All right, I got a question for you, though,

while-- while-- while you're here.

-Yeah. -What-- what's it gonna take

to-- to keep the memes coming, though?

-Yeah. -Which-- which memes?

Just, you know,

keeping them coming.

All of them?

-Memes. -Memes.

-Memes? -Meme-machine.

Is this, like, the new meme?

And was forever immortalized as a meme.

"Who is the spiciest memelord?"

The good people of social media love a good meme.

I love memes!

- Is it called meme? - Meme.

-I always thought it was me-mes. -I thought it was memes!

Every election throws up something new,

and this one has thrown up something called a dank meme.

It's natural, like, the memes started happening.

The group first called the chat

"Harvard Memes for Horny Bourgeois Teens."

A dangerous health risk

spreading through social media memes.

Photos show laundry pods being used as pizza toppings.

What about all these other "meme trades"

that are lurking in the subreddits of Wall Street?

I mean, there's some good memes here.

What is a meme?

What is a meme? I don't know what that means.

It's a image or video, uh, with a comment

that kind of goes straight to something

that you identify with.

A meme is something that spreads online

and evolves as it is shared.

What's a meme? That's--

Ah, every-- it's-- everyone's definition is different.

I just get a smile when I think about it

because it's-- it's just a-- uh, a piece of art, really.

Before I go to bed, I love to read a good meme.

It's like, boom, you put the right meme out

and, you know, you can make or break somebody.

Oh, the M-E-M-E.

That's not a meme, it says "me-me."

It's almost like using the word Google.

Like, it's a verb now.

To be like, "Oh, are you gonna meme that?"

They build things that you don't actually

have to say it yourself.

You can post a meme and they go,

"I can't believe someone made this."

I think it's just another evolution

in comedic storytelling.

They're really-- the closest thing to me is,

like, the observational humor

of, like, Jerry Seinfeld or George Carlin.

It's-- it's all those things

MADtv and Saturday Night Live do

but just in a totally different format.

-He memed me. -I'm sorry. Memed you?

The late-night hosts, uh,

the-- the comic strip writers of The Sunday Times,

uh, the people that draw a cartoon in The New Yorker,

they're all being hacked.

It's truly the new way to get information.

I mean, I hate to say it but

it's almost like watching the news.

Like, I don't need to watch the news,

I can just read the memes

and get the funny version of what happened.

So embarrassing.

I got my news from a meme. Yeah.

You know it's true then.

It almost doesn't matter what the news is anymore,

it's just an excuse for people to make content

and share content about something.

The sayings, the slogans,

and the things that are happening

are absolutely turning in the punchline.

There's an event in society,

and within seconds, somebody has put a white border

and a funny statement against that issue.

I mean, that is just the world we live in.

You know, if on a Halloween,

you post a Halloween related meme,

it's gonna do well.

The debates. Or the Super Bowl.

Some of you go wild, so this is how you see me.

Okay, bitch.

Fuck you, and fuck your mother

for having you, you motherfucker.

You know, I just got a little bit

a different way of dealing with how I feel about it.

There was even, you know, a joke

that Donald Trump was "memed" into the presidency.

Mike Pence with the fly on the head, dude.

To the men and women who serve in law enforcement

and I want everyone to know who puts on the uniform...

If you posted anything fly on the head related,

automatic banger.

Over the course of 2021,

there was a-- a milestone in internet history

when the price of the stock for GameStop

started to rise quickly.

In less than a year, the company's stock has jumped

from less than $3 a share

to almost $350.

How and why that happened has caused rumbles on Wall Street

as small investors apparently joined forces

to beat the big traders at their own game.

Users on Reddit's wallstreetbets community

began to turn the stock into a meme.

Now the term "meme stock" exists because of this.

This is referring to a stock

that has gone viral on social media.

And its price has been affected significantly because of it.

AMC, Blackberry

and there's even cryptocurrencies

that have been affected by this as well.

-Heads up. -Huh?

Yes.

Memes were really big during COVID

because everybody was stuck at home.

Everybody was on their phones

and most of all, we all needed a laugh.

No, I'm horrified.

Almost everybody was going through

the same thing at the same time.

Everyone could relate to,

"We're never putting on pants again."

Memes are really, like, this magical thing or-- or form

of making everyone feel a part of something.

Tank Sinatra is a bona fide Instagram celebrity

with almost a million followers.

So why is he still working a day job?

I find the human condition hilarious.

The fact that we all think we're, like, so evolved,

yet we all get jammed up by the same things.

That's very funny to me. Humor is a skill.

It's a skill he's turned into a second career.

Fencing salesman by day,

Tank creates most of his memes in his car.

This is Tank Sinatra on Instagram.

- You have Instagram? - Yeah.

-You fo-- you have Instagram? -Yeah.

- You like memes? - name?

- Tank Sinatra. - Look him up right now.

-I'll look him up. -Yeah, look him up right here.

What do you-- what kind of meme accounts do you follow?

Uh--

- Yeah. - All kinds?

- Tank Sinatra. - Who do you follow?

- Uh, Dank Cum. - Dank Cum?

- Dank Cum? - Yeah.

Yeah, it's Tank, T-A-N-K, dot Sinatra.

Dude, 1.1 mil?

- Yeah, doggy. - Damn.

-That's crazy, bro. -All-- all-- all original.

I-- I just gave you-- I just gave you a follow.

-Nice. -Alex has 16.

- I got 16 subscribers. - You're on your way, dude.

- How old are you? - Uh, 18.

Oh, that's sick. I used to look like you.

-Yeah? -Young, thin, blonde hair.

Yeah. Now look at me.

-Yeah. -You're fucked.

So I wake up, obviously, I struggle for a little while.

Then I, uh-- I drink my coffee.

I check my a-- addiction websites,

the Facebook, the Reddit, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter.

You know, when he first got his itch

to start making these memes, I was like, "Oh,

another thing to be addicted with," you know?

But as I started to catch on to what was happening,

um, I just--

just let him just thrive in it.

I do have a job that feeds this other life.

A friend of mine started a company about ten years ago,

a fence company, which I knew nothing about.

I don't want to say I'm not passionate about it,

but how could you be passionate about fence?

Honestly, I'm passionate about feeding my family.

That makes me feel good.

I just want to see how far I can take this meme thing.

I hesitate to make the jump

because if I cut this source off,

I don't know if I'll have the money to make this work.

I got kids to feed. You know what I mean?

You want to see the baby's room?

This is for the new baby.

Baby Bennett coming in a few weeks.

This is his room. It was already painted blue.

We got lucky. This was DJ's playroom.

Oh. What the hell was that?

Damn, now there's about to be two of these in the house.

You really leaving?

Yeah, I gotta go. I'm gonna be late.

I love you.

Come on..

-Bye. -Bye, sweetie. Enjoy the day.