Tag: internet culture

Facebook is rebranding as Meta and everyone made the same, obvious sports joke

Meta … World Peace?

Facebook is Facebook no more.

Meta is the new name, as announced by chief exec Mark Zukerberg on Thursday, a rebrand that comes at time with the company is under fire after, as USA TODAY reported, “Facebook is embroiled in crisis over a cache of documents leaked by former product manager Frances Haugen and provided to Congress.”

But that led to so many Twitter jokes on Thursday, and the one that I saw SO much of had to do with a certain ex-NBA star formerly known as Ron Artest.

That’s right: Here’s a roundup of Meta — er Metta World Peace jokes:

The emotional Steve from ‘Blue’s Clues’ video has now inevitably become a meme

You knew this was going to happen.

Steve Burns had us all feeling a lot of feelings this week when the former Blue’s Clues host came back in a Twitter video and talked about leaving the show to go to college.

He talked a lot about how things are hard these days and how we all helped him get through some of those things and it’s very difficult to write about that video without tearing up (I’ll throw it in below so you can watch it again).

But because Twitter is Twitter, people have started using Steve as a meme, and it’s quite delightful. There were a bunch of examples from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ win over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday:

Bonus: Here’s one after The Matrix Resurrections trailer dropped:

And here’s the original video:

BRB getting a tissue.

[mm-video type=video id=01ff8cnmq2hrf34qqhh0 playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01ff8cnmq2hrf34qqhh0/01ff8cnmq2hrf34qqhh0-9ec2d84d99e81ab368051e39307c34b2.jpg]

[listicle id=1089923]

A Starbucks barista shared the wildest order from ‘Edward’ and everyone’s sharing other ridiculous coffee orders

Some wild orders ahead.

Alright, so we’ll start this off as we do with any viral social media post: we don’t know if it’s truly real.

But we do know that there are people who have very, very, VERY specific orders at Starbucks. And on Monday, we learned from a barista whose Twitter name is @ProjectJosiee about “Edward,” (that name was trending most of Monday) a customer whose order is super-duper long and complicated, basically a barista’s nightmare.

But it led to many responses from fellow baristas about similarly long and complex orders, which we’ll share below the tweet that got a ton of responses:

Wild!

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f2kzxmt04yf1v3ev player_id=none image=https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

A TV station’s weird tweet about Idaho anchor Mark Johnson became an instant Twitter meme

Mark Johnson? Mark Johnson.

If you’re wondering why “Mark Johnson” was trending on Twitter Wednesday morning, we have an answer for you.

Mark Johnson is an anchor for KTVB in Boise, Idaho. But when KVTB’s Twitter sent out a tweet that simply said “Mark Johnson” and linked to Johnson’s bio, users on Twitter turned it into a whole thing.

By the way, you should read Johnson’s bio, which includes gems like, “National Edward R. Murrow and Emmy award winner Mark Johnson returned to Idaho’s NewsChannel 7 in April of 1996… and who could blame him?!” It also turns out he’s a Green Bay Packers fan!

Here’s the tweet and Johnson’s reaction (he blames his daughters?):

And here are the memes:

We leave the last word to Mark Johnson:

[listicle id=1015921]

 

Why everyone is furious at a Burger King UK tweet on International Women’s Day

Not great tweeting right here.

Welcome to FTW Explains: a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. 

You may have seen some tweets about Burger King, specifically their brand in the UK, and something about International Women’s Day and a whole lot of anger. If you’re confused and want to keep track of what’s going on, that’s what we’re here to do.

Basically: this is a case of a brand tweeting a really awful thing to get everyone’s attention, by then following it up by revealing that it was part of a a big new project Burger King UK was working on. The lesson here? Brands: don’t do that.

OK, what the heck happened here?

This is a tweet from Burger King UK that just so happened to go out on March 8, which is International Women’s Day.

WHAT?! HOW DARE THEY?!

Right? Except that wasn’t the message, which continued as part of the thread revealing BK UK will be launching a scholarship program to “help female Burger King employees pursue their culinary dreams!”

Did they apologize?

Not really. There was a lot of doubling down:

What was some of the other reaction?

A lot of tweets that look like this:

Was this a good idea?

No. No it was not.

[jwplayer n1MDNzLa-q2aasYxh]

[vertical-gallery id=1000517]

Everything you need to know about Paramount Plus, from cost to content

Find out everything you need to know.

That’s right, folks! It’s yet another streaming service that’s being rolled out!

It’s Paramount Plus, a subscription service that stemmed from the ViacomCBS merger and which will replace CBS All Access (more on that in a minute).

On Thursday, the service launched officially, so it’s time to go over all the specifics, from cost to content and more. So we broke it all down for you below, and maybe you’ll add it to your ever-growing roster of streaming services that might include Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and more. Which reminds me: check out some of our lists with that content:

The sports world has now gotten in on the Bernie Sanders inauguration meme, and it’s amazing

Still going!

Wednesday was a huge day of history and pageantry as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were sworn in and began their terms.

But all anyone on Twitter could do was post Bernie Sanders Inauguration memes.

Seriously! The sight of the bundled-up senator sitting in a chair at the ceremony was all the talk that day, and on Thursday, my entire timeline is filled with Photoshopped Bernie into everything from movie scenes to sports moments.

We’ll focus on the latter here and give you some examples from the sports world that we’ve seen on Thursday. And yes, this is still funny.

TikTok has been taken over by everyone singing sea shanties

It’s the best trend of 2021.

Need a break from all the horrible things going on in the world right now? How about watching a bunch of videos of people … singing sea shanties?

That’s right, the latest trend on TikTok — which has brought us such delights as the Fleetwood Mac Dreams skateboarder, the Wipe it Down challenge and Trevor Lawrence doppelgangers — is people singing along to sea shanty songs from way back when.

Why is this is such a trend? I have no idea, but as a former college a cappella singer, my guess is people can’t resist beautiful harmonies and coming together to make music (especially, I’d add, right now).

This appears to be the original TikTok that started it all, a song called Wellerman:

And people have been building harmonies and such on top of it, and #ShantyTok became a thing:

And yes, there are remixes too:

It’s also going in exactly the direction you hoped it would, like this amazing TikTok:

Thanks, ShantyTok.

[vertical-gallery id=979554]

The 9 best memes of 2020, from ‘Last Dance’ GIFs to ‘nature is healing’

A look back at the year of memes.

Yes, we know 2020 was mostly awful.

But we did have some really good memes that kept us amused and gave us laughs when we needed them.

We’ll include some of our favorite sports memes, which is funny because last decade, we got Crying Jordan, the GOAT that kept us amused for years … and of course, when The Last Dance was released, the GIFs and memes poured out, to the point where we’re back to using Michael Jordan images on social media. Everything that’s old is somehow new again.

So in no particular order, here are the best memes we saw in 2020.

Here’s what Twitter’s new ‘Fleets’ feature is all about

Fleets!

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world.

Twitter announced on Tuesday that it was rolling out a new feature known as “Fleets,” which sound really familiar if you use other social media platforms. And they should sound familiar! They’re REALLY similar.

The reaction was basically that, along with lots of people wondering, “do we really need these?”

If you’re wondering what the heck this is all about, that’s what we’re here for. Let’s break down what Fleets are and how you can use them on Twitter going forward.

What’s this now?

Fleets!

I thought you said this was an explainer.

I just like saying it out loud.

What the heck is a Fleet?

Fleeting tweets = fleets. They’re basically little photos, videos and texts you can post on Twitter BUT they’re not actual tweets. Fleets live for 24 hours and disappear.

So they’re basically like Instagram Stories?

… Yep.

Or Snapchat Stories?

Mhm.

Or Facebook Stories?

Uhhh … yeah.

What’s the point here?

According to Twitter’s blog, it’s to get more conversation going on the site. Users might not want to tweet more “casual thoughts,” so maybe they’ll Fleet them:

Those new to Twitter found Fleets to be an easier way to share what’s on their mind. Because they disappear from view after a day, Fleets helped people feel more comfortable sharing personal and casual thoughts, opinions, and feelings. These are early findings from our tests and we’re excited to learn more about how Fleets are used by you.

How do I do it?

Fast Company has the answer:

1. Tap the “Share” icon at the bottom on a tweet.

2. Select “Share in Fleet.”

3. Add whatever you want—text, photos, videos, emojis, etc. (Currently, live broadcasting and stickers aren’t available for Fleets, but the company says they’re coming.)

4. If you choose to, customize your background and text.

What about an edit button on tweets?

We’re still waiting for it.

[jwplayer eEK764KO-q2aasYxh]